JPS6379631A - Endoscope imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an endoscopic imaging device that captures an image inside a body cavity using an endoscope.

[Conventional technology]

As an example of such a device, an endoscope imaging device is described in Japanese Patent Application No. 74295/1985, which takes images of the inside of a body cavity by attaching a television camera to the eyepiece of an endoscope. Generally, the color balance of a television camera is adjusted with white as the standard. That is, white and colors close to white are faithfully photographed, but colors far from white, such as orange and red, are not faithfully photographed.

However, the inside of the body cavity that is the target of endoscopic imaging is pink, orange-pink, reddish orange, or reddish orange, as typified by the inner wall of the digestive tract and the inner wall of the bronchi. Therefore, what is required when photographing inside a body cavity is that orange colors look like oranges, that is, stomach walls look like stomach walls, and it is rarely necessary that whites look white. . Therefore, conventional television cameras do not faithfully capture the colors inside body cavities. Furthermore, this standard color (orange) differs slightly depending on the target area and the photographer, but conventionally, it had to be adjusted each time.
It was a hassle.

Further, color adjustment of conventional imaging devices is performed using a white chart or a color stripe chart. However, since doctors who use endoscopic imaging devices are not professional television technicians, it is best to use a white chart or color stripe chart to adjust the color characteristics to your liking. , it was difficult.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

This invention was made to deal with the above-mentioned circumstances,
The purpose is to provide an endoscopic imaging device that can easily perform color adjustment under various conditions and has color reproducibility suitable for endoscopic images.

[Means for solving problems]

This purpose is achieved by using multiple color balance setting means 34.36.
．． 38 and which adjusts the color balance using any one of the color balance setting means.

[For production]

According to this invention, since color balances under various conditions are stored in a plurality of color balance setting means, color balances can be easily switched.

〔Example〕

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an endoscopic imaging device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, it consists of an endoscope body 10, a light guide 12, an objective lens 14, and a solid-state image sensor 16, and the light guide 12 is connected to a light source unit 18.
The illumination light from the light source unit 18 is guided into the body cavity. The objective lens 14 and the solid-state image sensor 16 are provided at the objective end of the endoscope body 10. The solid-state image sensor 16 outputs an example image signal. A video processor 20 is connected to the endoscope main body 10, and an output image signal from the solid-state image sensor 16 is input to a pre-stage signal processing circuit 22 within the video processor 20. The output of the video processor 20 is sent to the monitor device 2.
4 is displayed. The video processor 20 also includes a frame memory 26 in which a standard image of a normal region inside the body cavity in a standard color is stored, and this standard image is also displayed on the monitor device 24. Here, the frame memory 26 stores an esophageal image, an anterior image, a duodenal image, and a large intestine image.
It is stored for each component signal of the three primary colors G and B. The keyboard 2 selects which image to read from the frame memory 26.
It is determined by the control signal from 8. Output R, G, and B image signals from the front-stage signal processing circuit 22 and the frame memory 26 are supplied to the line switching circuit 30. Line switching circuit 3
0 selects one of the image signals according to a control signal from the keyboard 28 and supplies it to the gain controllers 32-1, 32-2, and 32-3 for each color component.

The gain controller 32-1.32-2.32-3 consists of an amplifier, and its gain, ie, amplification factor, is controlled by data in the reference gain memory 34 or manual gain memory 36. The output data of the reference gain memory 34 and manual gain memory 36 is sent to the gain controller 32- via the reference/manual changeover switch 38.
1.32-2.32-3. Data representing gains for each of the R, G, and B color components is input to the reference gain memory 34 and manual gain memory 36 from the keyboard 28. Switching of the reference/manual changeover switch 38 is also performed by a control signal from the keyboard 28. The output of the gain controller 32-1.32-2.32-3 is supplied to the matrix circuit 40, and the output of the matrix circuit 40 is supplied to the monitor device 24. The endoscope body 1 is connected to the connection point between the endoscope body lO and the video pro holder 20.
An attachment/detachment detection switch 42 is provided to detect attachment/detachment of the video processor 20 and the video processor 20, and an output signal of the attachment/detachment detection switch 42 is supplied to the keyboard 28.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. Normally, before the product is shipped, the video processor 20 undergoes the following reference gain adjustment and color balance adjustment. First, a control signal from the keyboard 28 prohibits continuous output of image signals from the frame memory 26. Line switching circuit 3
0 controls the output of the previous stage signal processing circuit 22 by the control signal from the keyboard 28 to the gain controller 32-1.32.
-2.32-3. Further, the reference/manual changeover switch 38 supplies the data stored in the reference gain memory 34 to the gain controller 32-1.32-2.32-3 in response to a control signal from the keyboard 28. In this state, place an orange (or red) paper in front of the objective lens 14 and take an image of it.
Cover half of the monitor device 240 with the same orange paper. Then, by operating the keyboard 28, the reference gain memory 3
RlG, B are adjusted so that the color of the image displayed on half of the monitor device 24 is the same as the color (orange) of the paper covering half of the monitor device 24.
The gain of each color component signal, that is, the gain of the gain controller 32-1.32-2.32-3 is adjusted. In this way, as the standard for color balance, we use orange, which is close to the color inside the body cavity, rather than white as in the past, so that the orange color looks orange, that is,
The stomach wall is imaged as if it were a stomach wall, and the color reproducibility of the image inside the body cavity is good. At this time, the determined gain is defined as a reference gain in the sense that the color of the image inside the body cavity is faithfully reproduced, and is stored in the reference gain memory 34.

Next, during actual photography, the photographer can adjust the color balance using either the standard gain or the manual gain by switching the standard/manual changeover switch 38. Adjustment using the reference gain is performed by switching the reference/manual changeover switch 38 to the reference gain memory 34 side and supplying the reference gain in the reference gain memory 34 to the gain controller 32-1.32-2.32-3. be done. In other words, when selecting the reference gain,
As described above, the color balance is adjusted using orange as a reference.

When the reference/manual changeover switch 38 is switched to the manual gain memory 36 side, manual gain adjustment is performed. At this time, the photographer was using keyboard 28.
to switch the line switching circuit 30 to the frame memory 26.
side, and the standard image stored in the frame memory 26 (for example,
image of the esophagus). This standard image is gain-adjusted by the gain controller 32-1.32-2532-3 based on the data in the manual gain memory 36 and displayed on the monitor device 24. Here, operate the keyboard 28 to adjust the data in the manual gain memory 36,
The gain of each of the R, G, and B components is adjusted so that the image of the esophagus displayed on the monitor device 24 has the color that the user believes a normal esophagus should have. Thereby, the imaging color characteristics can be adjusted to the color characteristics desired by each doctor. Since the gain determined in this way is determined for each doctor, it is defined as a manual gain and is stored in the manual gain memory 36.

Thereafter, when the line switching circuit 30 is switched to the front-stage signal processing circuit 22 side, the image inside the body cavity captured by the solid-state image sensor 16 is displayed in a form with manual gain applied, that is, with color characteristics according to the doctor's preference. is displayed. In this way, since the standard image of the normal region as a reference for color adjustment is stored in the frame memory 26, color adjustment can be easily performed.

Furthermore, by selecting the output of the frame memory 26 with the line switching circuit 30 and switching the reference/manual changeover switch 38 to the manual gain memory 36 side, it is also possible to display a standard image with manual gain applied. When the endoscope main body 10 and the video processor 20 are not connected, one standard image is read from the frame memory 26 in accordance with the detection output of the attachment/detachment detection switch 42.
The reference gain is applied and displayed on the monitor device 24.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified in various ways. For example, the solid-state image sensor 16 may not be built into the distal end of the endoscope, but may be attached to the eyepiece. Further, the video processor 20 may be built into the light source unit 18.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, since a plurality of gain memories are provided as color balance setting means, colors under various conditions such as the reference color balance and the photographer's favorite color balance can be adjusted. Balance can be easily changed.

Also, since the color balance (gain controller gain) set on -1 is stored in memory, the color balance can be switched from the first color balance to the second color balance, or from the second color balance to the first color balance. In this case, all you have to do is flip a switch, and the inspection can be completed in a short time. If there is only one color balance setting means, it is necessary to manually adjust the color balance each time the color balance is changed, which takes time and makes it difficult to reproduce the same color balance. Furthermore, in the electronic endoscope device, the color balance can be set arbitrarily, so diagnosis can be made easier by setting a specific color balance for a specific disease.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an endoscope imaging device according to the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Endoscope body, 18... Light source unit 24... Monitor device, 26... Frame memory 28... Keyboard, 30... Line switching circuit 32-1.23-2.32 -3...Gain controller 34...Reference gain memory 36...Manual gain memory 38...Reference/manual changeover switch 40...Matrix circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An endoscopic imaging device that captures images inside a body cavity and displays them on a monitor, which includes a plurality of color balance setting means. (2) The plurality of color balance setting means includes a plurality of color balance storage means and means for selecting any one color balance storage means, and the color balance is adjusted according to the data of the selected storage means. An endoscopic imaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that: