Methods and devices for endoscopic imaging

A method for imaging an organ system cavity comprising:

• positioning a first part of an imaging system within the organ system cavity;
• acquiring a plurality of images using the imaging system, the imaging system utilizing at least one electrical transducer to produce one or more images of a portion of the organ system cavity, where the imaging system carries out imaging at angles up to and including 360 decrees around an axis of the first part of the imaging system;
• removing distortion from the images by producing image segments from ring-like portions of each of the acquired images using a combination of clipping and dewarping processes that remove distortions introduced by imaging at angles up to and including 360 degrees around an axis of the first part of the imaging system;
• determining any motion of the first part of the imaging system relative to the organ system cavity;
• and
• combining at least a portion of two or more image segments into a map of at least a portion of the interior surface of the organ system cavity.

An imaging system comprising:

• an endoscope configured to image at angles up to and including 360 degrees around an axis of the endoscope;
• at least one image creating sensor configured to capture images from the endoscope;
• at least one data processing system;
• and
• at least one motion tracking system to determine motion between two or more images;
• wherein the at least one data processing system is configured to remove distortion from the images captured from the endoscope by producing image segments from ring-like portions of each of the acquired images using a combination of clipping and dewarping processes that remove distortions introduced by imaging at angles up to and including 360 degrees around an axis of the endoscope;
• and
• wherein the at least one data processing system is adapted to combine at least a portion of two or more image segments together into a map of at least a portion of an organ system cavity.