JPH08152566A - Endoscope device and color adjusting method for endoscope device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily adjust the colors of the whole of an endscoope device at its delivery destination by adjusting an encoder and a display means according to an image pickup result so that the lightness, white balance, and color balance of an image displayed on an element means have specific values. CONSTITUTION: A CCD 4 mounted on the tip part of a scope 1 picks up an image of a chart having reference colors and the image picked-up video signal is processed by a camera control unit(CCU) 12 into an image, and the CCU 12 and a light source 8 are so controlled that the image-processed signal has specific lightness, white balance, and color balance. Then, image data on the reference colors which are previously stored in chart storage part 15 are displayed on an observation monitor 16, an image of this display screen is picked up by the CCD 4, and the colors of the encoder 9 and observation monitor 16 are adjusted by using the image pickup result. At this time, since the color adjustments from the CCD 4 to the CCU 12 have been completed, the color adjustments of the series of systems can be done only if color adjustments of the encoder 9 and observation monitor 16 are carried out.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscopic device for inserting a scope into a body cavity of a subject and imaging the subject for diagnosis, and particularly, to adjust the color displayed on the screen to be suitable. Color adjustment method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, endoscope devices have been widely used as medical diagnostic devices have been developed. The endoscopic device is
A scope having an image pickup device such as a CCD and a lens for illumination mounted on the tip is inserted into the body cavity of the subject, the subject is imaged, and color-displayed on the screen for diagnostic purposes. In such an endoscope apparatus, it is desired that the subject be displayed on the screen in a color as close to the actual color as possible. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the color of the image displayed on the screen. Normally, color adjustment may be performed at the time of shipment from the factory, but in reality, a scope, a processor for image-processing the captured video signal, and a display monitor for displaying the image on the screen are separately delivered to the local ( Often connected at a hospital, etc. to assemble an endoscopic device. Therefore, although the color adjustment for each component can be performed at the time of factory shipment, the final color adjustment after assembly must be performed on site.

A conventional color adjusting method will be described below. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional endoscope apparatus. As shown in the figure, this endoscope apparatus is roughly divided into a scope 1, a processor 2, and a TV monitor 3. , And these are connected to form an endoscope apparatus. A CCD 4 as an image pickup means is mounted on the tip of the scope 1, and a video signal imaged by the CCD 4 is subjected to correlated double sampling / noise reduction processing by a CDS circuit 5 and then output to a processor 2. It Further, the scope 1 has a scope correction section 6, and normally, the scope correction section 6 is adjusted by using a processor and a TV monitor which are standard at the time of factory shipment, color adjustment is performed, and the correction value is stored. ing.

The processor 2 includes a camera signal processing unit 7 and
It has a light source 8, an encoder 9 and an adjusting section 10, and a video signal from the scope 1 is converted into an image by the camera signal processing section 7, and this is converted into a predetermined TV signal (RGB, Y / C, UBS, etc.) and then output to the TV monitor 3. It also has a light source 8 and supplies illumination light to the tip of the scope 2 via a light guide 11 for illumination. Then, the color adjustment of the camera signal processing unit 7 is performed using a reference scope at the time of factory shipment, and this correction value is stored.

Further, the encoder 9 outputs the adjustment chart generated by the adjustment section 10, and the output signal is subjected to color adjustment using a vector scope, a waveform monitor, an oscilloscope, etc., and the TV camera 3 performs the adjustment. Display the usage chart on the screen and perform color adjustment using the TV camera analyzer. This color adjustment is done on site after the factory shipment.

[0006]

As described above, in the conventional endoscope apparatus, although the scope 1 and the camera signal processing unit 7 are color-adjusted at the time of factory shipment, the scope 1 and the processor 2 are actually different from each other. Since they are separate, color adjustment must be performed again when these are combined. After all, when the endoscope device is delivered, the color adjustment of the scope, the camera signal processing unit 7, the encoder 9 and the TV monitor must be individually performed on site.

Therefore, the operation is troublesome, and the vector scope, the waveform monitor, the oscilloscope, the TV camera analyzer and the like used for color adjustment are usually not installed in the hospital or the like to which the products are delivered.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a conventional problem, and an object thereof is to provide an endoscope apparatus capable of easily performing color adjustment of the entire apparatus at a delivery destination, Another object of the present invention is to provide a color adjustment method for an endoscope device.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the device of the present invention is such that an illumination light from a light source is inserted into a body cavity of a subject by inserting a scope having an image pickup means and an illumination lens at the tip thereof. Is radiated to a subject through the illumination lens, the subject is imaged by the image pickup means, this video signal is imaged by the camera control unit, and this is converted into a TV signal by the encoder, and then displayed on the display means. In the endoscopic device to be displayed and used for diagnosis, the chart having the reference color is imaged by the scope, and the brightness of the image, the white balance, and the color balance are set within a predetermined value or range from the imaged result. First control means for controlling the light source and the camera control unit, reference color storage means for storing image data of a reference color in advance, and the reference color for the display means. Represented thereby, the display screen is captured by the imaging means of the scope, brightness, white balance of the image displayed on the display means from the imaging result,
And a second control unit for adjusting the encoder and the display unit so that the color balance is within a predetermined value or range.

In the method of the present invention, the tip end is provided with an imaging means,
The scope equipped with the illumination lens is inserted into the body cavity of the subject, the illumination light from the light source is applied to the subject through the illumination lens, the subject is imaged by the imaging means, and the image signal is obtained. In the color adjustment method of forming an image by the camera control unit, converting the image into a TV signal by an encoder, and then displaying the image on the display unit to adjust the display color of the endoscope apparatus, the scope is provided with black and white. A first step of capturing an image of the reference chart, and controlling the brightness and white balance of the image formed by the camera control unit so as to be within a predetermined value or range based on the captured image; A second step of capturing an image of a color chart and adjusting the color balance of the camera control unit based on the image capturing result, and storing in advance in the display means. Black-and-white chart image to display,
An image of this is picked up by the scope, and a third step of controlling the brightness and white balance of the encoder and the display means so as to be within a predetermined value or range based on the picked-up result, and previously stored in the display means. Display the color chart image, and take an image of it with the scope,
A fourth step of controlling the color balance of the encoder and the display means to be within a predetermined value or range based on the image pickup result.

[0011]

According to the present invention constructed as described above, the chart having the reference color is imaged by the image pickup means mounted on the distal end of the scope, and the imaged image signal is imaged by the camera control unit. To do. Then, the camera control unit and the light source are controlled so that the imaged signals have predetermined brightness, white balance, and color balance. This completes the color adjustment from the image pickup means to the camera control unit. Then, the image data of the reference color previously stored in the reference color storage means is displayed on the display means, the display screen is imaged by the image pickup means, and the color adjustment of the encoder and the display means is performed using the image pickup result. . At this time, since the color adjustment from the image pickup means to the camera control unit is completed, if the color adjustment of the encoder and the display means is performed using this system, the color adjustment for the series of systems from the image pickup means to the display means is performed. You can

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the endoscope apparatus includes a scope 1 that is inserted into a body cavity of a subject to capture an image of a subject, a processor 2 that processes an image of the captured signal to create a TV signal, and It comprises an observation monitor 16 for displaying a TV signal on the screen, a photographing unit 17, and a display monitor 18.

A CCD 4 as an image pickup means is mounted on the tip of the scope 1, and a video signal picked up by the CCD 4 is subjected to double sampling / noise reduction processing by a CDS circuit 5 and then a processor. It is supplied to the second camera control unit (CCU) 12. Also,
The scope 1 has a light guide 11 that guides the illumination light from the light source 8 of the processor 2, and illuminates the subject with the illumination light.

The CCU 12 processes a video signal to form an image, and the generated image signal is temporarily stored in the frame memory 13 and supplied to the encoder 9. The encoder 9 is for converting an image signal into a TV signal, and the TV signal is supplied to the observation monitor 16 and the photographing unit 1.
7, output to the display monitor 18. In addition, CCU12,
The frame memory 13 and the light source 8 are controlled by the first control unit 14, and the encoder 9, the observation monitor 16, the photographing unit 17, and the display monitor 18 are controlled by the second control unit 19 as a whole. Further, the processor 2 has a chart storage unit 15 in which a chart having reference color data is stored as image data. Further, an alarm circuit 29 that outputs an alarm when an abnormality occurs in color adjustment in the first control unit 14 and the first control unit 19 is provided.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. First, FIG.
A white chart as indicated by reference numeral 19 is placed in front of the scope 1, the light source 8 is turned on, and the white chart 19 is
The image is taken on the CD 4 (step ST1). The white chart 19 is made of paper or the like having a constant reflectance, and is placed in a closed chart box 16 as shown in FIG. 3A so that light does not enter from the outside. Then, as shown in FIG. 2B, the scope 1 is inserted through the hole 22 and the white chart 19 is imaged. At this time, the white chart 19 may be entirely white, or a gray scale chart in which white papers having different reflectances are pasted together may be used.

Next, the amount of light emitted from the light source 8 or the electronic shutter value of the CCD 4 is controlled so that the output signal from the CCD 4 becomes a predetermined value, and the brightness during image pickup is set (step ST2). This method can be performed by the system controller 14 reading the brightness data in the CCU 12 or the frame memory 13 and controlling the light source 8 or the electronic shutter pulse so that the brightness has a predetermined value. As another method, CCU1
2 or the brightness data of the frame memory 13 may be read by the first controller 14 and displayed as a graph on the observation monitor 16 to manually set the light amount.

Next, the white balance is adjusted by imaging the white chart (step ST3). Here, the color difference data for one screen on the frame memory 13 (RY, B-
Each of the Y signals) is integrated, and the R gain and B gain in the CCU 12 are adjusted so that the value becomes 0 ± α (α is an allowable error). The above operation is automatically performed by the first control unit 14 by pressing a white balance adjustment start switch (not shown), and the operator is notified of the completion of the adjustment by displaying a message or a beep.

Next, the white chart 19 used in step ST1 is replaced with a color chart to perform imaging (step ST4). This color chart shows white, yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red, blue, (R
-Y) etc. In addition, white is arranged on the left, right, top and bottom of the chart, and the state of shading (the degree of uneven brightness) at the time of image capturing can be known. Therefore, the brightness is adjusted using this (step ST5). ). Here, the brightness values of white at four places are 90% ± 5% of the brightness standard output.
Adjust the orientation of the scope 1 by operating the angle so that In other words, the chart should be evenly illuminated and imaged. At this time, the chart is tilted with respect to the scope 1 so that there is no direct reflection from the chart.

When the brightness is adjusted in this way, the color balance is then adjusted (step ST6). Since the red color is mainly present in the body cavity and it is important that the difference in red is faithfully reproduced, the color adjustment is performed by paying attention to the colors of R, Ye, Mg, and RY. The color chart used is manufactured and controlled under a certain color control. Therefore, the target adjustment value (color difference signal data value in the CCU 12) when this color chart is imaged is determined to be a certain value, and the color difference gain and the color difference gain for the color actually captured are within a certain allowable value. The hue adjustment unit is automatically adjusted. If the color difference values or vectors of the four colors are displayed on the monitor, the adjustment can be performed manually.

As described above, the scope 1 including the light source information (there is an infrared cut filter that affects color reproduction in the light source)
The color adjustment up to CCU12 is completed. Further, the color difference data value after the main color adjustment is stored in the memory for the adjustment described later.

Next, the encoder 9 to the monitors 16 and 17,
Adjust up to 18. First, the black and white chart stored in the chart storage unit 15 is displayed on the observation monitor 16 (step ST7). For this black-and-white chart, for example, white with 20% or 75% is used.

Then, the black and white chart portion on the monitor is imaged by the scope (step ST8). At this time, the light source 8 is turned off, and the bowl-shaped TV monitor imaging jig 16 is used so that external light does not enter as shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b). At this time, since the adjustment from the scope 1 to the CCU 12 has already been completed in steps ST1 to ST6, the brightness / white balance of the observation monitor is adjusted using this system (step ST9). That is, the RGB bias adjustment and the RGB gain adjustment of the monitor 16 are performed so that the target brightness / color difference value when the image of the built-in monochrome chart is obtained. The main adjustment can also be performed by displaying the luminance / color difference data value captured by the scope 1 outside the image capturing unit of the TV monitor.

Next, the encoder 9 remaining in the system from the scope 1 to the observation monitor 16 is adjusted (steps ST10 and ST11). First, the color chart imaging data stored in step ST6 is displayed on the observation monitor 16. Thereafter, the displayed portion is imaged by the scope 1. Then, if the stored imaging data is D _memory , the conversion function of the encoder is f _enc , and the conversion function of the _monitor is f _monitor, the data imaged by the scope becomes f _monitor * f _enc * D _memory and can be calculated by calculation. The difference between the calculated estimated value and the actual image of the monitor 16 captured by the scope 1 can be considered as the adjustment error of the encoder 9. Therefore, the RGB gain of the encoder 9 is adjusted so that this difference falls within the allowable range.

As described above, adjustment through the system from the CCD 4 to the observation monitor 16 is possible. In this way, in this embodiment, color adjustment from the scope 1 to the CCU 12 is performed, the reference chart stored in the chart storage unit 15 is displayed on the observation monitor 16, and the displayed reference chart is displayed in the scope 1. Is used to perform color adjustment. Therefore, color adjustment becomes significantly easier than before,
Moreover, it is not necessary to use special equipment such as a vectorscope and a waveform monitor.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
At the site where the endoscopic device was delivered, CC from the scope
Color adjustment up to U is performed, then a reference chart is displayed on the observation monitor, the chart is imaged, and color adjustment from the CCU to the observation monitor is performed. Therefore, it is possible to perform color adjustment from the CCD to the monitor with a simple operation. Therefore, it is possible to significantly reduce the time and effort required for the adjustment at the time of factory shipment, and it is possible to perform the uniform color adjustment among the users.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a chart box in which a reference chart is arranged.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an arrangement of a color chart.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a reference chart displayed on an observation monitor is imaged by a scope.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional endoscope apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Scope 2 Processor 3 TV Monitor 4 CCD 6 Scope Corrector 8 Light Source 9
Encoder 12 CCU 13 Frame memory 14 First control unit 15 Chart storage unit 16 Observation monitor 17
Imaging unit 18 Monitor 19 Reference chart 20 Second control section 21 Chart box 29 Alarm circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A scope having an imaging means and an illuminating lens mounted on a distal end thereof is inserted into a body cavity of a subject, and illumination light from a light source is applied to the photographic subject through the illuminating lens to illuminate the subject. In the endoscopic device for picking up the image by the image pickup means, converting this video signal into an image by the camera control unit, converting this into a TV signal by the encoder, and displaying it on the display means for diagnosis, in the scope. First control means for capturing an image of a chart having a reference color, and controlling the light source and the camera control unit so that the image brightness, white balance, and color balance are within predetermined values or ranges based on the captured result. A reference color storage means for storing image data of the reference color in advance, the reference color is displayed on the display means, and the display screen is captured by the imaging means of the scope. And second control means for adjusting the encoder and the display means so that the brightness, white balance, and color balance of the image displayed on the display means are within a predetermined value or range based on the imaging result. An endoscopic device having: 2. An alarm means for outputting an alarm when an abnormality occurs in the adjustment of brightness, white balance and color balance by the first control means and the second control means. The endoscope apparatus according to Item 1. 3. A scope having an imaging means and an illuminating lens mounted at its tip is inserted into a body cavity of a subject, and illumination light from a light source is applied to the photographic subject through the illuminating lens to illuminate the subject. The image signal is picked up by the image pickup means, the video signal is made into an image by the camera control unit, and this is converted into a TV signal by the encoder, and then displayed on the display means to adjust the display color of the endoscope apparatus used for diagnosis. In the color adjustment method, a black-and-white reference chart is imaged by the scope, and the brightness and white balance of the image formed by the camera control unit are controlled based on the image pickup result so that the white balance is within a predetermined value or range. And a second step of adjusting the color balance of the camera control unit based on the imaged result of imaging the color chart with the scope. And a black-and-white chart image stored in advance on the display unit is displayed, and this is imaged by the scope, and the brightness and white balance of the encoder and the display unit are set to a predetermined value or range based on the imaged result. A third step of controlling the color chart image stored in advance in the display means, and image the color chart image with the scope, and from the image pickup result, the color balance of the encoder and the display means. And a fourth step of controlling so that is within a predetermined value or range, and a color adjusting method for an endoscope apparatus.