Sharpness adjustment method and program and electronic endoscope apparatus

A computer readable recording medium having stored therein a program that causes a computer to execute a method for adjusting the sharpness of an image obtained by an endoscope, the program comprising the procedures for:

• determining a sharpness enhancement amount for each pixel of the image based on the value of each pixel which forms a luminance distribution image representing the distribution of luminance of the image;
• determining a portion contributing to brightness, which represents a portion of the sharpness enhancement amount, which contributes to adjustment of brightness, and a portion contributing to saturation, which represents a portion of the sharpness enhancement amount, which contributes to adjustment of saturation, for each pixel of the image so that the sum of the portion contributing to brightness and the portion contributing to saturation is equal to the sharpness enhancement amount;
• and
• adding an adjustment value of saturation, which is obtained by weighting the value of each pixel of the image based on the portion contributing to saturation, and an adjustment value of brightness, which is obtained by weighting the value of each pixel of the luminance distribution image, which corresponds to each pixel of the image, based on the portion contributing to brightness, to the value of each pixel which forms the image.

An electronic endoscope apparatus comprising:

• a luminance distribution image production means for producing a luminance distribution image representing the distribution of luminance of an image obtained by an endoscope;
• and
• a sharpness adjustment means for adjusting the sharpness of the image by using the luminance distribution image produced by the luminance distribution image production means,
• wherein the sharpness adjustment means performs processing for determining a sharpness enhancement amount for each pixel of the image based on the value of each pixel which forms the luminance distribution image representing the distribution of luminance of the image, processing for determining a portion contributing to brightness, which represents a portion of the sharpness enhancement amount, which contributes to adjustment of brightness, and a portion contributing to saturation, which represents a port ion of the sharpness enhancement amount, which contributes to adjustment of saturation, for each pixel of the image so that the sum of the portion contributing to brightness and the portion contributing to saturation is equal to the sharpness enhancement amount, and processing for adding an adjustment value of saturation, which is obtained by weighting the value of each pixel of the image based on the portion contributing to saturation, and an adjustment value of brightness, which is obtained by weighting the value of each pixel of the luminance distribution image, which corresponds to each pixel of the image, based on the portion contributing to brightness, to the value of each pixel which forms the image.

An electronic endoscope apparatus comprising:

• a luminance distribution image production means for producing a luminance distribution image which represents the distribution of luminance of an image obtained by an endoscope;
• and
• a sharpness adjustment means for adjusting the sharpness of the image by using the luminance distribution image produced by the luminance distribution image production means,
• wherein the sharpness adjustment means performs processing for determining a sharpness enhancement amount for each pixel of the image based on the value of each pixel which forms the luminance distribution image representing the distribution of luminance of the image and processing for adding a value obtained by multiplying the sharpness enhancement amount by a ratio between the value of each pixel of the image and the value of each pixel of the luminance distribution image, which corresponds to each pixel of the image, to the value of each pixel which forms the image.