Augmented visualization for a surgical robot using a captured visible image combined with a fluorescence image and a captured visible image

A surgical system comprising:

• an endoscope held and positioned by the surgical system, the endoscope comprising:
• an optical channel for transporting light from tissue;
• a capture unit coupled to the optical channel, the capture unit being configured to capture:
• (1) at a first time, a first frame from the light, the first frame including a first visible image, the first visible image comprising a first plurality of visible color components;
• and
• (2) at a second time different from the first time, a second frame from the light, the second frame including a combination image, the combination image being a combination of a second visible image and a first fluorescence image, the combination image comprising a second plurality of color components, wherein one color component of the second plurality of color component includes one color component that is captured as a combination of the first fluorescence image and a visible color component, image and other color components of the second plurality of color components are captured as visible color components different from the visible color component of the one color component;
• an image processing system coupled to said capture unit, the image processing system comprising:
• a fluorescence image with artifacts generator coupled to receive the first and second frames, the fluorescence image with artifacts generator being configured to create a second fluorescence image including artifacts from the first frame and the second frame;
• and
• a fluorescence image extractor coupled to the fluorescence image with artifacts generator, the fluorescence image extractor being configured to create a third fluorescence image based on the second fluorescence image including artifacts;
• and
• a display system coupled to the image processing system, the display system being configured to output an image including an artificial fluorescence image, the artificial fluorescence image being based on the third fluorescence image.