Endoscope Image Processor for Signal-Adaptive Concave Enhancement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic endoscope devices struggle to effectively enhance concave portions of surface irregularities in living tissues, often over-enhancing non-concave areas like blood vessels or highlights, which can obscure the visibility of lesions.
Innovation Solution
A processor for an electronic endoscope that includes a region detection unit to identify enhancement processing target regions based on signal level differences and a enhancement processing unit to perform processing that weakens enhancement as signal level differences increase and strengthens enhancement as luminance increases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If enhancement processing is performed based on signal level difference between pixels, then concave portions are enhanced, but non-concave areas with large signal level differences (blood vessels, highlights) are also greatly enhanced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating the enhancement processing based on the specific characteristics of each pixel region. Instead of uniform enhancement, the system adjusts enhancement parameters locally: reducing enhancement for pixels with large signal level differences (identifying non-concave areas like blood vessels and highlights) while maintaining enhancement for pixels with smaller signal level differences (identifying concave portions). This localized differentiation resolves the contradiction by preventing harmful enhancement of non-concave areas while preserving useful enhancement of concave portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements parameter changes by dynamically adjusting the enhancement coefficient based on the signal level difference at each pixel. The enhancement coefficient is set to a first value when the signal level difference is small (for concave portions) and to a second value (smaller than the first) when the signal level difference is large (for non-concave areas). This parameter modulation allows the same enhancement processing algorithm to adaptively handle different tissue structures, resolving the contradiction between enhancing concave portions and avoiding enhancement of non-concave areas.
2Shape
If enhancement processing is performed on all pixels with signal level differences, then surface irregularities are enhanced, but the concave portion may not be capable of being made noticeable due to over-enhancement of other features
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making the enhancement processing adaptive to local pixel characteristics. The system evaluates the signal level difference at each pixel and adjusts the enhancement coefficient accordingly. This ensures that concave portions with appropriate signal characteristics receive sufficient enhancement to become noticeable, while regions with large signal level differences (blood vessels, highlights) receive reduced enhancement that prevents them from obscuring the concave portions. The localized quality adjustment resolves the contradiction between general surface irregularity enhancement and specific concave portion noticeability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements parameter changes by modulating the enhancement coefficient based on local signal level differences. The enhancement coefficient varies between a first value (for pixels with small signal level differences representing concave portions) and a second value (for pixels with large signal level differences representing non-concave areas). This parameter adaptation ensures that the enhancement processing strengthens the visibility of concave portions without allowing other features to become so enhanced that they obscure the concave portions, thereby resolving the contradiction.
Data Source
AI summary
An aspect of the present invention is a processor for an electronic endoscope that acquires a captured image of a living tissue and performs enhancement processing. The processor includes: a region detection unit configured to detect an enhancement processing target region in the captured image from pixel information of the captured image of the living tissue; and an enhancement processing unit configured to perform enhancement processing on the enhancement processing target region detected by the region detection unit. The region detection unit detects the enhancement processing target region based on a difference in signal level between a pixel of interest in the captured image and a pixel surrounding the pixel of interest, and the enhancement processing unit performs enhancement processing on the enhancement processing target region such that enhancement is weakened as the difference in signal level is larger and enhancement is strengthened as luminance is higher.