Microscope Pseudocolor Blending for Fluorescence Overlay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current microscopes and endoscopes using fluorescence struggle to provide high-quality images that effectively merge visible-light and fluorescent-light data, often resulting in unnatural overlays of fluorescent parts, which can obscure important tissue details.
Innovation Solution
An image processing unit that combines visible-light and fluorescence image data to create pseudocolor images, where the color of output pixels is interpolated based on both the visible-light pixel color and fluorescence intensity, allowing for natural blending and user-selectable pseudocolors that do not occur in the object, enhancing visibility of fluorescent tissues.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If fluorescent-light image data is simply overlaid onto visible-light image data, then fluorescence information is displayed, but the resulting image appears unnatural and obscures tissue details
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the fluorescent-light image data from intensity-only values to pseudocolor values by mapping intensity ranges to specific colors. This parameter transformation allows the fluorescent information to be displayed in a visually distinguishable yet naturally integrated manner, resolving the contradiction between displaying fluorescence information and maintaining natural image appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces pseudocolor as an intermediary representation between the raw fluorescent intensity data and the final displayed image. Instead of directly overlaying grayscale fluorescent data onto the color visible-light image, the system converts fluorescent intensity to pseudocolor values that are then blended with the corresponding visible-light pixel colors, creating a natural-looking composite image that preserves both fluorescence information and tissue detail.
2Loss of information
If multiple fluorophores are visualized using their natural fluorescent colors, then different fluorophores can be distinguished, but the colors may not be visually distinct enough in the final image
Solution Approach 1:
The patent systematically changes the color representation of fluorescent signals by assigning distinct pseudocolors to different fluorophores based on their intensity values. Instead of relying on the natural fluorescent colors which may be subtle or overlapping, the system maps intensity ranges to visually distinct pseudocolors, enhancing the differentiation between multiple fluorophores while maintaining accurate intensity-based discrimination.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution improves image quality by naturally merging fluorescent and visible-light data, providing clearer visualization of fluorescent tissues, and allowing for differentiation between multiple fluorophores, thus aiding surgeons in more precise diagnostics.
Implementation Method 1
a second input section configured to receive fluorescence image data representing a fluorescent-light image of the object
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a medical inspection apparatus (1), such as a microscope or endoscope, and to a medical inspection method such as microscopy or endoscopy. Visible image data (11) representing a visible-light image (49) and fluorescence image data (12) representing a fluorescent-light image (51) and a pseudocolor (70, 71) are merged to give an improved visual rendition of an object (2) which comprises at least one fluorophore (6) to mark special features of the object (2). This is accomplished in that an image processing unit (18) of the microscope (1) or endoscope is configured to compute a color (ro, go, bo) of an output pixel (54) in the pseudocolor image (53) from at least one pseudocolor (rp, gp, bp), a color (ri, gi, bi) of a first input pixel (50) in the visible-light image (49) and an intensity (f) of a second input pixel (52) in the fluorescent-light image (51). In particular, the color (ro, go, bo) may result from a linear interpolation in a color space (RGB) between the pseudocolor and the color of the first input pixel (50) of the visible-light image (49) depending on the intensity (f) of the second input pixel (52) in the fluorescent-light image.