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US 6,638,215 B2Granted
Video endoscope system
AssigneePENTAX Corporation
InventorHiroyuki Kobayashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
White light emitted from a first light source is sequentially converted into green light, blue light, and red light by a first wheel. Excitation light emitted from a second light source passes through a second wheel. The green light, the blue light and the red light, and the excitation light are switched by shutters to enter a prism. The optical path of the green light, the blue light and the red light transmitted through the prism coincides with the optical path of the excitation light reflected by the prism. As a result, the green light, the blue light, the red light and the excitation light sequentially and repeatedly enter a light guide.
Claims6
A video endoscope system comprising:
- a visible-light source for emitting visible light;
- an excitation light source for emitting excitation light that excites living tissue to cause autofluorescence, the excitation light source being arranged so that the emitted excitation light crosses, at a predetermined intersecting point, to an optical path of the visible light emitted from said visible-light source;
- a light guide for guiding the light to irradiate an object;
- an optical member disposed at said intersecting point to guide said visible light and said excitation light to said light guide along same optical path;
- a switching mechanism for switching between the visible light and the excitation light to introduce them into said optical member;
- an objective optical system for converging those components of light from a surface of the object irradiated with said light guide other than the excitation light to form an image of the surface of the object;
- an imaging device for picking up the image to convert it into an image signal;
- and
- a processor for controlling said switching mechanism to alternately and repeatedly introduce said visible light and said excitation light into the said light guide, generating normal-image data on the basis of a portion of the image signal corresponding to a period during which the visible light is introduced into said light guide, while generating fluorescence image data on the basis of a portion of the image signal corresponding to a period during which the excitation light is introduced into said light guide, obtaining reference image data from said normal-image data, extracting a diseased portion on the basis of the reference image data and said fluorescence image data, and superimposing the diseased portion on said normal-image data to generate diagnostic image data to be displayed as a moving picture.
6 more elements
A video endoscope system comprising:
- a light source for emitting light containing components of spectrum of the visible light and components of a spectrum of excitation light that excites living tissue to cause autofluorescence;
- a light guide for guiding the light to illuminate an object;
- a separation device for separating the light emitted from the light source into the visible light and the excitation light;
- a light-guiding optical system for separately guiding the visible light and the excitation light obtained by said separation device so that they cross each other at a predetermined intersecting point;
- an optical member disposed at said intersecting point to guide the visible light and the excitation light to said light guide;
- a switching mechanism for switching between the visible light and the excitation light to introduce them into said optical member;
- an objective optical system for converging those components of light from a surface of the object irradiated with said light guide other than the excitation light to form an image of the surface of the object;
- an imaging device for picking up the image to convert it into an image signal;
- and
- a processor for controlling said switching mechanism to alternately and repeatedly introduce said visible light and said excitation light into said light guide, generating normal-image data on the basis of a portion of the image signal corresponding to a period during which the visible light is introduced into said light guide, while generating fluorescence image data on the basis of a portion of the image signal corresponding to a period during which the excitation light is introduced into said light guide, obtaining reference image data from said normal-image data, extracting a diseased portion on the basis of the reference image data and said fluorescence image data, and superimposing the diseased portion on said normal-image data to generate diagnostic image data to be displayed as a moving picture.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.