Endoscopic image processing system capable of estimating absolute shape of object entity

An endoscopic image processing system, comprising:

• an endoscope having an insertion unit provided with a distal part and a bending portion capable of being angled;
• an objective located in the distal part of the insertion unit;
• an imaging unit which obtains an image of a subject through the objective;
• an image memory which stores a plurality of endoscopic images produced by the imaging unit;
• a relative shape estimator which estimates relative shapes depicted by the plurality of endoscopic images according to image signals representing the plurality of endoscopic images stored in the image memory;
• a first coil located in the distal part of the insertion unit;
• a position information detector, having a second coil disposed at a predetermined position, which detects the positions of the first coil by utilizing magnetic fields;
• a position information acquiring unit which obtains position information of the positions detected by the position information detector in association with the respective endoscopic images stored in the image information memory;
• and
• a subject shape estimator which estimates the shape of the subject according to the relative shape information of the relative shapes estimated by the relative shape estimator and the position information acquired by the position information acquiring unit.

A shape estimating method, comprising the steps of:

• producing subject images through an objective using an imaging unit;
• storing a plurality of subject images produced by the imaging unit;
• estimating relative shapes depicted by the plurality of subject images according to image signals representing the plurality of stored subject images;
• detecting the positions of a first coil located near the objective using magnetic fields by way of a position information detector having a second coil disposed at a predetermined position;
• acquiring position information of the detected positions in association with the respective stored subject images;
• and
• estimating the shape of the subject according to the relative shape information of the estimated relative shapes and the acquired position information.

An endoscopic image processing system, comprising:

• an endoscope having an imaging device which images an object entity at different positions;
• a relative shape estimator which estimates relative shapes of the object entity using a plurality of images produced by the imaging device;
• a position detector which detects positions in a three-dimensional space of a distal part of the endoscope by utilizing a coil;
• and
• an estimator which estimates an absolute shape of the object entity according to the relative shapes of the estimated object entity and the output of the position detector.