Endoscope for recording and displaying time-serial image

An image recording apparatus for an endoscope comprising:

• a time-serial image recording means for recording time-serial images of an object;
• and
• an outputting means for outputting image information data of at least a part of said time-serial images which is used as a standard image information data for observing variations in said time-serial images of the object which occur with lapse of time;
• means for recording said standard image information data as a standard image, said standard image being one still image among a plurality of time-serial images of an object specified in a series of examinations, and another still image also among said time-serial images of said object, said another still image being recorded at a time interval determined by the differences in averages of successive image frames in comparison with said standard image;
• and
• wherein said standard image information data is an image information which is a standard of a position of said object within said time-serial images.

An image recording apparatus for an endoscope comprising:

• a time-serial image recording means for recording time-serial images of an object;
• means for recording said standard image information data as a standard image, said standard image being one still image among a plurality of time-serial images of an object specified in a series of examinations, and another still image also among said time-serial images of said object, said another still image being recorded at a time interval determined by the differences in averages of successive image frames in comparison with said standard image;
• and
• an outputting means for outputting image information data of at least a part of said time-serial images for recording by said time-serial image recording means which is used as said standard image for observing variations in the time-serial images of the object which occur with lapse of time;
• wherein said outputting means further includes a means for correcting luminance for data of said corresponding portion among respective ones of said time-serial images in order to eliminate influence of brightness among said respective ones of said time-serial images.

An image recording apparatus for an endoscope comprising:

• a time-serial image recording means for recording time-serial images of an object;
• and
• an outputting means for outputting image information data of at least a part of said time-serial images for recording by said time-serial image recording means which is used as a standard image information data for observing variations in the time-serial images of the object which occur with lapse of time;
• means for recording said standard image information data as a standard image, said standard image being one still image among a plurality of time-serial images of an object specified in a series of examinations, and another still image also among said time-serial images of said object, said another still image being recorded at a time interval determined by the differences in averages of successive image frames in comparison with said standard image;
• and
• wherein said outputting means includes (a) a selecting means for selecting as said image information at least one image from among said time-serial images recorded in said time-serial image recording means, and (b) a displaying means for simultaneously displaying said at least one image and other ones of said time-serial images recorded in said time-serial image recording means.

An image recording apparatus for an endoscope, comprising:

• a time-serial image recording means for recording time-serial images of an object;
• means for recording standard image information data as a standard image, said standard image being one still image among a plurality of said time-serial images of an object specified in a series of examinations, and for recording another still image also among said time-serial images of said object, said another still image being recorded at a time interval determined by the differences in averages of successive image frames in comparison with said standard image;
• an outputting means for outputting image information data of at least a part of said time-serial images for recording by said time-serial image recording means which is used as said standard image for observing variations in the time-serial images of the object which occur with lapse of time;
• and
• a still image recording means for recording the still image of said object;
• wherein said outputting means includes a controlling means for controlling said time-serial image recording means and said still image recording means so that said still image for recording by said still image recording means serves as said image information.

An image recording apparatus for an endoscope, comprising:

• a time-serial image recording means for recording time-serial images of an object;
• and
• an outputting means for outputting image information data of at least a part of said time-serial images for recording by said time-serial image recording means which is used as a standard image information data for observing variations in said time-serial images of the object which occur with lapse of time;
• means for recording said standard image information data as a standard image, said standard image being one still image among a plurality of time-serial images of an object specified in a series of examinations, and another still image also among said time-serial images of said object, said another still image being recorded at a time interval determined by the differences in averages of successive image frames in comparison with said standard image;
• wherein said time-serial image recording means also records a still image of said object to be said standard image information data, and wherein said outputting means includes a controlling means for causing said time-serial image recording means to record said time-serial images and said still image, wherein said still image is related to said variations in the time-serial images of the object.

An image recording apparatus for an endoscope, comprising:

• a time-serial image recording means for recording time-serial images of an object;
• means for recording said standard image information data as a standard image, said standard image being one still image among a plurality of time-serial images of an object specified in a series of examinations, and another still image also among said time-serial images of said object, said another still image being recorded at a time interval determined by the differences in averages of successive image frames in comparison with said standard image;
• and
• an outputting means for outputting image information data of at least a part of said time-serial images for recording by said time-serial image recording means which is used as said standard image for observing variations in the time-serial images of the object which occur with lapse of time;
• wherein said outputting means includes (a) a designating means for designating as a time index a respective specific time of each of the series of time-serial images recorded by said time-serial image recording means, (b) a means for selecting a specific image among said series of time-serial images to correspond to said specific time designated by said designating means, and (c) a reproducing means for reproducing from said time-serial image recording means said specific image.

An endoscope observing apparatus for an endoscope comprising:

• an endoscope body having an elongate insertable part including an illuminating window and an observing window in a tip portion of said elongate insertable part and an image forming optical system receiving an incident light from said observing window to form an image;
• an illuminating means for radiating an illuminating light to an object from said illuminating window;
• an imaging means for imaging said image of said object formed by said image forming optical system;
• a signal processing means for outputting as time-serial images the image of said object imaged by said imaging means;
• an extracting means for extracting as selected image information to be a standard of a position a feature of at least one chosen image among said time-serial images output from said signal processing means;
• and
• a composing means for outputting said selected image information of the feature extracted by said extracting means and said time-serial images output from said image processing means.

An endoscope observing apparatus for an endoscope comprising:

• an endoscope body having an elongate insertable part, said insertable part having a tip portion, including an illuminating window and observing window in said tip portion, and an image forming optical system receiving an incident light from said observing window to form an image;
• an illuminating means for radiating an illuminating light to an object from said illuminating window;
• an imaging means for imaging said image of said object formed by said image forming optical system;
• a signal processing means for outputting as time-serial images the image of said object imaged by said imaging means;
• a recognizing means for selecting one image among said time-serial images output from said signal processing means as a standard of a position and recognizing a selected part between said one image and a corresponding part of other images among said time-serial images;
• and
• a data outputting means for outputting the data of said selected part of said one image recognized by said recognizing means.

An endoscope observing apparatus for an endoscope, comprising:

• an endoscope body having an elongate insertable part, said insertable part having a tip portion, including an illuminating window and observing window in said tip portion, and an image forming optical system receiving an incident light from said observing window and forming an image;
• an illuminating means for radiating an illuminating light to an object from said illuminating window;
• an imaging means for imaging said image of said object formed by said image forming optical system;
• a signal processing means for outputting as time-serial images the image of said object imaged by said imaging means;
• a recognizing means for selecting one image among said time-serial images output from said signal processing means as a standard of a position and recognizing a selected part between said one image and a corresponding part of the other images among said time-serial images;
• and
• a data outputting means for outputting the data of said selected part of said one image recognized by said recognizing means;
• wherein said data outputting means includes a means for correcting luminance for data of said selected part in order to eliminate influence of variations in brightness between said respective time-serial images.

An endoscope observing apparatus for an endoscope comprising:

• an endoscope body having an elongate insertable part, said insertable part having a tip portion, said tip portion of said endoscope body having an illuminating window and observing window;
• an image forming optical system receiving an incident light from said observing window to form an image;
• an illuminating means for radiating an illuminating light to an object from said illuminating window;
• an imaging means for imaging the image of said object formed by said image forming optical system;
• a signal processing means for outputting as time-serial images the image of said object imaged by said imaging means;
• a recognizing means for designating one image among said time-serial images output from said signal processing means as a standard of a position and for recognizing a selected part between said one image and corresponding respective parts of other images among said time-serial images;
• variation calculating means for calculating a variation amount of image data between said one image and ones of said other time-serial images;
• and
• image processing means for correcting a position of each of said other time-serial images by said variation amount.

An image recording apparatus for an endoscope in combination with an image input apparatus for fluorescent observation, comprising:

• a time-serial image recording means for recording time-serial images of an object;
• and
• an outputting means for outputting image information data of at least a part of said time-serial images for recording by said time-serial image recording means which is used as a standard image information data for observing variations in the time-serial images of the object which occur with lapse of time, said image information data including an R image, a G image, and a B image;
• means for recording said standard image information data as a standard image, said standard image being one still image among a plurality of time-serial images of an object specified in a series of examinations;
• comparator means using only said B image, for determining a mean value of image data in consecutive selected ones of the time-serial images and for comparing respective mean values of the image data in the consecutive selected ones of the time-serial images;
• said comparator means including set data corresponding to a first recording interval and a second recording interval;
• the consecutive selected ones of the time-serial images being selected by said comparator means at one of said first recording interval and said second recording interval, such that when said comparator means determines that said respective mean values are increasing such that a difference between successive ones of said respective mean values reaches a prescribed magnitude then said image information data is recorded using said second recording interval, and when said comparator means determines that said respective mean values are decreasing such that a difference between successive ones of said respective mean values reaches a prescribed magnitude then said image information data is recorded using said first recording interval;
• said time-serial images being recorded by said means for recording being conducted with the first recording interval when a difference in the mean values of the image data in consecutive selected ones of the time-serial images is not greater than said set data, and the recording being conducted with the second recording interval when the difference in the mean values of the image data in consecutive selected ones of the time-serial images is greater than said set data.