JPH0752937B2 - Medical image information processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a medical image information processing apparatus for recording after removing unnecessary image information from medical image information obtained from an endoscope device or the like. It is about.

[Prior art]

For example, when diagnosing a patient using an endoscope apparatus using a solid-state image sensor or the like, an observation image signal (video signal) obtained from this image sensor is displayed on a TV monitor. In this case, the contour of the image guide part of the endoscope device is directly displayed on the screen of the TV monitor,
The following inconveniences occur. That is, when a circular contour is projected on a screen surface having a generally rectangular shape, a corner portion of the rectangle, that is, a circular outer portion does not provide any medical image information.

Therefore, various problems have arisen in recording such unnecessary information for diagnosis as image data. For example, there is a drawback that extra recording capacity is required.

〔Purpose〕

An object of the present invention is to record image data of only a portion conforming to the contour of an image and to perform image processing such as deletion of the other portion in order to save recording capacity. Is to provide.

〔Overview〕

An optical system that transmits a subject image as an optical image, an imaging device that captures at least the optical image transmitted by this optical system, and outputs an analog image signal containing effective image data corresponding to this optical image, and an optical image A standardized data generation circuit that generates standardized data indicating the relative position of the corresponding valid image data with respect to the analog image signal, and A / D that converts the valid image data in the analog image signal into a digital image signal according to the standardized data. D conversion circuit, relative position data giving means for giving relative position data so as to be paired with the digital image signal based on standardized data indicating relative position with respect to effective image data, relative position data and digital image signal forming a pair A recording circuit for recording the data on a recording medium, a reading circuit for reading the relative position data recorded on the recording medium, and And a reproduction processing circuit for reproducing the digital image signal recorded on the recording medium in correspondence with the relative position data by forming a pair with the relative position data read by the capturing circuit. A device is provided.

〔Example〕

 The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

According to the principle of the present invention, the obtained image signal is sampled in a necessary portion, and the sampled image signal is A / D
It is converted and recorded on the recording member. In this case, the information representing the size of the deleted unnecessary portion is recorded simultaneously with this signal.

FIG. 1 shows the entire system of an embodiment of the present invention, which is an example in the case of being combined with an endoscope apparatus.

In the figure, the endoscope apparatus 10 is introduced as an input signal source of the image information processing apparatus 100 of the present invention, and a TV monitor 200 for displaying an observation image is further connected.

First, the configuration of the endoscope device 10 will be briefly described.

The endoscope device 10 includes an image guide unit 12 and an operation unit 14
And a light guide unit 16, a light source device 18, and a camera unit 20. To explain the internal function of the light source device 18, at the time of normal diagnosis, the mirror (not shown) is tilted toward the examination lamp (not shown) and operated from one end of the light guide portion 16 made of glass fiber, for example. The examination light is emitted from the tip portion 17 to the outside through a light guide optical path provided inside the portion 14 and the image guide portion 12. On the other hand, when the image guide portion 12 is inserted into the body cavity of the patient (not shown) from the distal end portion 17 of the image guide portion 12, an optical path different from the fiber optical path of the light guide portion 16 is formed. An observation image of the inside of the body cavity irradiated with the examination light through the optical path of the image guide section 12 is introduced from the tip section 17 into the camera section 20. Here, this observation image is converted into an electric signal by a solid-state imaging device or the like (not shown) and supplied to the image information processing apparatus 100 of the present invention described later. The output signal of the processing device 100 is displayed on the TV monitor 200.

Next, the processing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to the embodiment circuit of FIG.

First, the endoscopic image of the screen image of the TV monitor 200 of FIG. 1 will be described. The endoscopic image is circular and the TV monitor is generally rectangular shaped by the aspect ratio (3: 4). The standardization of this circular dimension is based on the endoscopic device 10
The magnification of the camera unit 20 can be selected to be a predetermined size. That is, a: b: c ... Selection is made to satisfy a certain condition. This enables the same ratio to be displayed on the screen in any endoscope device.

This standardized data is stored in the ROM 51 in advance. A / D analog video signal (image signal) from the camera unit 20
The signal is supplied to the converter 52 and the sync signal separation circuit 53. Here, sync signals (horizontal and vertical sync signals) are separated from the video signal and supplied to the sampling controller 54. A standardized data signal is supplied from the ROM 51 to the sampling controller 54. Sampling is controlled by this data signal as described later. One of the output terminals of the sampling controller 54 is connected to the control input terminal of the A / D converter 52. As a result, in synchronization with the separated horizontal and vertical sync signals described above, the analog video signal input only for a predetermined period is A / D converted by the A / D converter 52,
You are getting a digital video signal.

On the other hand, a control signal is supplied from the other output terminal of the sampling controller 54 to the header signal generator 55 in synchronization with the above-mentioned synchronization signal. That is, a header signal indicating which part of the signal component of the video signal is sampled is generated from the standardization information.

In detail, the input analog video signal is
An unnecessary signal component, that is, a signal part outside the contour is also included, and this video signal is sampled by the sampling controller.
A / D conversion under control of 54. As a result, the sampling controller 54 controls the A / D converter 52 based on the standardized data written in the ROM so that unnecessary signal components in the video signal are not A / D converted.

In this way, the digital
The header signal mentioned above can be added to the video signal by the adder 56 to obtain the digital video signal 58 as shown in FIG. The video signal 58 is recorded on the recording member 30 such as an optical disc or a magnetic disc having a large recording capacity through the recording / reproducing head 40. The digital video signal 58 has a period of one horizontal scanning period, and one vertical synchronizing signal is added to each field and one horizontal synchronizing signal is added to each frame at the leading edge portion of the signal.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, the case of reproducing the digital video signal 58 will be described. That is, the header signal (H) added to the leading edge of each video signal 58 is read by the reader 62 via the recording / reproducing head 40, and the position of the image data in the frame is decoded by this.

This decoding is executed by the CPU 64, and the resulting image data is stored in a predetermined storage location of the frame memory 66. At this time, black level information of a portion other than the image data in the frame, that is, an unnecessary portion is generated by a generator (not shown) and added. The digital video signal (including the signal component of the unnecessary portion) obtained in this way is used by the D / A converter 68.
D / A converted by and displayed on the screen of the TV monitor 200. Since unnecessary information is added to this monitor image based on already standardized information, as shown in FIG.
It is easy to understand that it becomes a normal endoscopic image.

The second embodiment will be described. First, consider a case where the image is not standardized as described above, but edge information (for example, a signal component in which only this portion has high brightness due to edging) is present in the image. In this case, this edge information is used as the above-mentioned standardization information and is written in the ROM 51 in advance. In the following, the recording and reproducing process similar to that of the first embodiment can be executed.

According to this example, since the circular image can be recorded as the valid data only in the round portion, the capacity of the recording member 30 can be saved. In other words, it is particularly effective for an image file that records a large amount of image information.

Next, a third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

For example, assume that the contour information is present only at two or four points on the diagonal line of the image of the endoscope. In this case, this image information is scanned once and read including this contour information as well, and the analog video signal A-VDS is obtained from the camera section 20.
Next, from the video signal A-VDS, the sync signal is similarly separated by the sync signal separation circuit 53, and the contour information detection circuit 82 calculates the diameter of the circular portion including the effective image data by the CPU 84. Ask. Based on the processing result, the analog video signal A-VDS is A / D converted by performing the same processing as the above-mentioned standardized information. The header signal is added to the converted signal by the adder 56 to obtain the digital video signal 88 as shown in FIG. 4, which is recorded on the recording member 30 via the head 40.

When reproducing the above-mentioned digital video signal 88, since it can be reproduced by the same processing means as in the first embodiment, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and it is easy for those skilled in the art to make various changes.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the image data is obtained from the endoscope device, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to obtain it by taking a micrograph or an astronomical photograph.

Further, it is obvious that the present invention can be implemented not only in the shape of effective image information but also in the shape of circle.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, unnecessary image information in the image data is deleted and recorded in advance, and when the reproduced image is reproduced and displayed, the unnecessary image information is added. Since the image can be displayed, there is an advantage that the recording capacity of the image data recording member can be saved and the shape of the image is not limited by the shape of the projected screen.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of an embodiment in which the medical image information processing apparatus of the present invention is combined with an endoscope apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a specific circuit of a recording circuit of the processing apparatus of FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a concrete circuit of the reproducing circuit, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a concrete circuit of the recording circuit of the third embodiment. 53 …… Synchronous signal separation circuit, 54 …… Sampling controller, 55 …… Header signal generator, 30 …… Recording member, 10
0 …… Image information processing device, 200 …… TV monitor.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Isao Hirosawa 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. Judgment Chairman Judge Murai Seiji Murai Keiji Hashimoto Judge Takashi Nagashima ( 56) References JP 58-3058 (JP, A) JP 58-159731 (JP, A)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Optical means for transmitting a subject image as an optical image, and image pickup means for capturing at least the optical image transmitted by the optical means and outputting an analog image signal containing effective image data corresponding to the optical image. A sync signal separating means for separating a sync signal from an analog image signal output from the image pickup means, and standardized data for generating standardized data indicating a relative position with respect to the effective image data corresponding to the optical image with respect to the analog image signal. Generating means, and a sampling controller for outputting a control signal for extracting effective image data in the analog image signal based on the synchronization signal separated by the synchronization signal separating means and the standardized data generated by the standardized data generating means. Of the imaging means based on the control signal output from the sampling controller A / D conversion means for converting an analog image signal to be applied to a digital image signal, and relative position data for giving relative position data based on the standardized data to the digital image signal output by the A / D conversion means. Adding means, recording means for recording the digital image signal to which the relative position data is added on a recording medium, reading means for reading the relative position data recorded on the recording medium, and recording on the recording medium, And a reproduction circuit which reproduces the digital image signal to which the relative position data read by the reading means is added in correspondence with the relative position data. 2. The medical image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording means is a magnetic disk device. 3. The medical image information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording means is an optical disk device.