Endoscope Autofocus Stabilization via Cumulative Motion Thresholding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing endoscope apparatuses face challenges in maintaining a deep depth of field, leading to unstable autofocus operations during procedures due to shallow depth of field issues and incorrect focus operations triggered by changes in contrast or motion sensor outputs, resulting in impaired usability.
Innovation Solution
An endoscope apparatus with a processor that calculates relative motion amounts between the imaging section and an object, accumulates these over multiple frames to determine a cumulative motion amount, and performs focus operations only when the cumulative amount exceeds a threshold, thereby distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary focus adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If autofocus control is performed using contrast change or motion sensor output, then focus operation is triggered, but unnecessary focus operations occur leading to unstable autofocus
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors cumulative motion amounts over multiple frames and uses this feedback to determine whether focus operations are necessary. By comparing cumulative motion amounts against thresholds, the system adjusts focus operations based on actual motion patterns, preventing unnecessary operations and improving autofocus stability during endoscopic procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calculations of cumulative motion amounts over N frames (where N≥3) before triggering focus operations. This preliminary assessment allows the system to distinguish between significant motion requiring focus adjustment and minor motion that does not, thereby preventing premature or unnecessary focus operations.
2Ease of operation
If depth of field is made deep, then diagnosis and treatment are easier, but image sensor performance degrades with large pixel count
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the depth of field based on detected motion patterns. When cumulative motion amounts indicate significant movement, the system modifies focus operations to maintain appropriate depth of field, allowing the imaging section to adapt between deep and shallow depth of field states as needed during procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
An endoscope apparatus comprises a processor comprising hardware. The processor is configured to implement a motion amount calculation process and a focus control process. The processor implements the motion amount calculation process that calculates a plurality of local motion amounts, calculates a correlation between each of the plurality of local motion amounts and a peripheral local motion amount, and calculates the relative motion amount based on a local motion amount among the plurality of local motion amounts that has the correlation higher than a given correlation. And the processor implements the focus control process that calculates a cumulative motion amount by accumulating the relative motion amount over N frames (wherein N is a natural number equal to or larger than 3), and causes the imaging section to perform a focus operation when it has been determined that the cumulative motion amount is larger than the first threshold value.