JPH11221194A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an endoscope which makes illumination using an illuminating means having a low illuminance such as a light emitting diode, whereby even a dark image in the overall illuminance because of long distance from the object to be photographed can be given a satisfactory contrast. SOLUTION: A photographing signal generated by a solid photographing element 23 of an electronic endoscope 2 is turned into a video signal by a video signal processing part 10 installed in a video processor 3. For example, when illumination is made using light emitting diode 25, the fact that illumination is conducted by light emitting diode 25 is sensed by an illumination method sensing part 11, followed by an emphasizing oreration made by an emphasis processing part 12, and an image of a human body cavity or an image of a thin pipe of a structure is displayed on a display monitor and is recorded in an image filing device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, and more particularly, to an endoscope apparatus having a feature in an image processing portion of an endoscope image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an optical endoscope that inserts an insertion portion into a lumen and observes a target portion through an eyepiece or a solid-state image pickup device provided with the target portion at the distal end of the insertion portion, such as a CCD, is used. Electronic endoscopes for imaging and observing are widely used. In endoscope devices equipped with these endoscopes, a light source device for supplying illumination light to a target site is used. However, in order to inspect the inside of a body cavity or a thin tube of a structure, a light emitting diode or the like is used. 2. Description of the Related Art Some devices illuminate a subject using an element and perform observation.

[0003]

However, the illuminance of these light-emitting diodes is difficult to obtain a sufficient brightness when compared with the halogen and xenon lamps of the light source devices which have been conventionally used, and the distance to the subject is difficult. For example, there is a problem that the entire image becomes dark when the image is far away.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in an endoscope apparatus that illuminates with low illuminance illuminating means such as a light emitting diode, an image that is entirely dark due to a long distance to a subject. However, an object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope apparatus capable of obtaining an image having good contrast.

[0005]

An endoscope apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
In an endoscope apparatus for irradiating an object with illumination light from an illumination unit and imaging and observing the object with an imaging unit, an illumination detection unit for detecting a type of the illumination unit, and an illumination detection unit for detecting an illuminance. When detecting the type of the illuminating unit that supplies low illumination light, the image processing unit includes an emphasizing unit that performs an emphasizing process on the image signal obtained by the imaging unit.

In the endoscope apparatus according to the present invention, when the illumination detecting means detects the illuminating means of the type supplying illumination light with low illuminance, the emphasizing processing means converts the image signal obtained by the imaging means into an image signal. By performing the emphasizing process on an endoscope apparatus that illuminates with low-illumination illumination means such as a light-emitting diode, an image having good contrast can be obtained even with an image that is entirely dark because the distance to the subject is long. To gain.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 6 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a configuration of an electronic endoscope and a video processor of FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the illumination method detection unit in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the emphasis processing unit in FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a modified example of the video processor in FIG. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the illumination method detection unit shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, an endoscope apparatus 1 of the present embodiment
Is an electronic endoscope 2 for imaging a target site in a lumen, a video processor 3 for signal processing of an image signal from the electronic endoscope, and a display monitor 4 for displaying an image processed by the video processor 3. And an image filing device 5 for recording an image.

The electronic endoscope 2 has an elongated and flexible insertion portion 6.
And an operation unit 7 is provided at the rear end. A universal cord 8 extends from the operation unit 7 side of the electronic endoscope 2, and a connector 9 is provided at an end of the universal cord 8.

As shown in FIG. 2, the electronic endoscope 2 is connected to the video processor 3 having a built-in video signal processing unit 10, an illumination method detection unit 11, and an enhancement processing unit 12 via a connector 9. It is supposed to be. Further, the display monitor 4 and the image filing device 5 described above are connected to the video processor 3.

An observation window 21 is formed on the distal end surface of the insertion section 6 of the electronic endoscope 2, and an imaging optical system 22 and a solid-state image sensor 23 are disposed inside the observation window 21. A light distribution lens 24 is provided on the distal end surface of the insertion section 6, and a light emitting diode 25 is provided therein.

The light emitting diode 25 has an R region, a G region,
The three light-emitting diodes that emit light in the B region are brought into close contact with each other, and are combined into one. When performing imaging in the RGB plane sequential method, the light-emitting diodes of R, G, and B emit light in order, and a color filter is used. When performing simultaneous imaging using the solid-state imaging device provided on the front surface, the R, G, and B light emitting diodes emit light simultaneously.

The solid-state imaging device 23 uses, for example, a CCD or the like. The imaging signal is processed into a video signal by a video signal processing unit 10 built in the video processor 3 via a signal line. At the time of lighting using the light emitting diode 2,
5 that the lighting has been performed,
, And an image in the body cavity or an image in the narrow tube of the structure is displayed on the display monitor 4.
Further, an image is recorded on the image filing device 5.

In this embodiment, although not shown,
The video processor 3 can be connected to an electronic endoscope using illumination light from illumination means having high illuminance such as a halogen lamp or a xenon lamp. In this case, a separate light source device is required.

As shown in FIG. 3, the illumination method detecting unit 11
Is composed of a pull-up resistor 31 and a NOR circuit 32. The NOR circuit 32 has two inputs, one input is connected to GND, the other input is connected to 5 V via a pull-up resistor 31, and the signal is connected to the electronic endoscope 2 via a signal line 33. Is done.

The end of the signal line 33 is connected to GND in the above-mentioned electronic endoscope 2 which illuminates with low illuminance such as a light emitting diode 25, and is connected to a halogen or xenon lamp. It is connected to 5 V in an electronic endoscope that uses illumination light from illumination means with high illuminance.

Therefore, when the electronic endoscope 2 which illuminates with illumination means having low illuminance such as the light emitting diode 25 is connected, the two inputs of the NOR circuit 32 are "L" and "L".
Therefore, the output of the illumination method detection unit 11 becomes “H.” Also, an electronic endoscope using illumination light from a high illuminance illumination means such as a halogen lamp or a xenon lamp is connected or an electronic endoscope is used. If the endoscope is not connected, the NOR circuit 18
Are "H" and "L", the output of the illumination method detection unit 11 is "L".

Returning to FIG. 2, the emphasis processing section 12 receives the output of the illumination method detection section 11 and switches its operation. That is, when the output of the illumination method detection unit 11 is “L”, the enhancement processing unit 12 does not perform the enhancement process.
When the output of the illumination method detection unit 11 is “H”, the operation is performed to perform the emphasis processing.

Therefore, when the electronic endoscope 2 which illuminates with illumination means having a low illuminance, such as a light emitting diode 25, is connected, the emphasis processing section 12 performs an emphasis processing on a video signal, and performs halogen, xenon, and the like. When an electronic endoscope that illuminates with illumination light with high illuminance such as a lamp is connected, the emphasis processing is not performed.

The emphasis processing unit 12 includes, for example, ROM, RA
Using a memory such as M, a table conversion of characteristics as shown by a solid line in FIG. 4 is performed. The characteristic is such that a change in a low level becomes large in accordance with a dark image. In addition, the through characteristic indicated by a broken line shown in FIG.
The two characteristics are switched and output. The switching of the characteristics may be achieved by connecting the output of the illumination method detection unit 11 to the address of the ROM table.

As described above, in the endoscope apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, when the electronic endoscope 2 that illuminates with illumination means with low illuminance such as the light emitting diode 25 is connected to the video processor 3, the illumination method The detection unit 11 detects this, and the enhancement processing unit 12 can convert the video signal so that a good contrast can be obtained even with a low-level image.

In the present embodiment, the video processor 3 is configured as shown in FIG. 2. However, the present invention is not limited to this. As shown in FIG. Alternatively, a video processor 3a as a modification may be configured from the illumination method detection unit 11a that detects the illumination method based on the level of the video signal output from the video signal processing unit 10.

In this case, the illumination method detecting unit 11a is configured as shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, a maximum value detection circuit 41 for detecting the maximum value of the level of the video signal output from the video signal processing unit 10
A minimum value detection circuit 42 for detecting the minimum value of the level of the video signal output from the video signal processing unit 10, a maximum value detected by the maximum value detection circuit 41, and a minimum value detected by the minimum value detection circuit 42. Subtractor 43 that calculates the difference between the two values, an adder 44 that adds the maximum value detected by the maximum value detection circuit 41 and the minimum value detected by the minimum value detection circuit 42, and outputs the output of the subtractor 43 to the output of the adder 44. , And a comparator 46 that compares the output of the divider 45 with a predetermined value and outputs it to the enhancement processing unit 12 as an illumination method detection signal.

When the output of the divider 45 is smaller than a predetermined value, the comparator 46 of the illumination method detector 11a outputs "H" to the enhancement processor 12 as an illumination method detection signal, and the output of the divider 45 is If the value is greater than the specified value,
L ″ is output to the enhancement processing unit 12 as an illumination method detection signal.

As a result, the same operation and effect as the above-described embodiment can be obtained in the video processor 3a as a modification.

FIGS. 7 to 9 relate to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope apparatus, and FIG. 8 is a configuration showing a configuration of an illumination method detection unit in FIG. FIG. 9 and FIG. 9 are explanatory diagrams for explaining the operation of the noise removal processing unit of FIG.

Since the second embodiment is almost the same as the first embodiment, only different points will be described, and the same components will be denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

Since the illuminance of a light emitting element such as a light emitting diode is lower than that of a conventionally used xenon or halogen lamp, the S / N ratio of an image is deteriorated when the distance to a subject is long. There is.

Therefore, in the second embodiment, in an endoscope apparatus that illuminates with a light-emitting element such as a light-emitting diode, the S / N ratio is poor in a dark image as a whole because the distance to the subject is long. An endoscope apparatus capable of improving the S / N ratio even when the endoscope apparatus becomes inadequate will be described.

As shown in FIG. 7, in the present embodiment, an image signal from the solid-state image sensor 23 is transmitted by a video signal processing unit 10 incorporated in the video processor 3b of the present embodiment via a signal line. For example, at the time of illumination using the light-emitting diode 25, the illumination method detection unit 11b detects that illumination is performed by the light-emitting diode 25, noise is removed by the noise removal processing unit 51, and the body monitor is displayed by the display monitor 4. , Or an image in the narrow tube of the structure. Further, an image is recorded on the image filing device 5.

In this embodiment, as in the first embodiment, although not shown, the video processor 3
An electronic endoscope using illumination light from illumination means having a high illuminance such as a halogen lamp or a xenon lamp can be connected to b. In this case, a separate light source device is required.

The illumination method detecting section 11b of the present embodiment comprises:
As shown in FIG. 8, the pull-up resistor 61 and the AND circuit 6
It consists of two. The input of the AND circuit 62 is two inputs, one input is connected to 5V, the other input is connected to 5V via a pull-up resistor 61, and is connected to the electronic endoscope 2 through a signal line 63. Is done.

The end of the signal line 63 is connected to GND in the electronic endoscope 2 illuminated by the light emitting diode 25, and connected to 5V in the electronic endoscope illuminated by a halogen or xenon lamp. I have.

With the above configuration, when the electronic endoscope 2 that illuminates with the light emitting diode 25 is connected, the two inputs of the AND circuit 62 become "L" and "H". The output of the unit 11b becomes "L".
Further, when an electronic endoscope that performs illumination with a halogen or xenon lamp is connected and when the electronic endoscope is not connected, the input of the AND circuit 62 becomes “H” and “H”. The output of the lighting method detection unit 11b becomes "H".

The noise removal processing section 51 receives the output of the illumination method detection section 11b and switches its operation. That is, when the output of the illumination method detection unit 11b is “L”, the noise removal processing is performed, and when the output of the illumination method detection unit 11b is “H”, the noise removal processing is not performed.

The noise elimination processing section 51 performs a 3 × 3 smoothing filter processing as shown in FIG. 9 using, for example, a spatial filter. In addition, a median filter or the like may be used.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the electronic endoscope 2 using the light emitting diode 25 in the illumination method detector 11b.
Can be detected and noise can be removed by the noise removal processing unit 51. Even if the S / N ratio is low in an image obtained by illumination with low illuminance, noise is removed and S / N
The ratio can be improved.

The illumination method detector 11 of the present embodiment
Needless to say, b can be applied to the first embodiment.

FIGS. 10 and 11 relate to the third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video processor, and FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an illumination method detecting section in FIG. is there.

Since the third embodiment is almost the same as the second embodiment, only different points will be described, and the same components will be denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 10, the video processor 3c according to the present embodiment includes a video signal processing unit 10, a noise removal processing unit 51, a lighting device 71, and a lighting method detecting unit 11c. In the present embodiment, the video processor 3
c is provided with the lighting device 71 and the lighting method detecting unit 1
It is the same as the second embodiment except that the internal configuration of 1c is different.

The illumination device 71 is composed of a halogen and a xenon lamp. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that a simultaneous imaging method is employed, and the illumination device 71 emits white light.

In this embodiment, though not shown, an electronic endoscope using illumination light from the illumination device 71 can be connected to the video processor 3c.

In the illumination device 71, the illumination method detection unit 11c
Is "L", no illumination is performed, and when the output of the illumination method detection unit 11c is "H", the lamp is turned on.

As shown in FIG. 11, the illumination method detector 11
c is composed of a pull-down resistor 81 and an OR circuit 82. The OR circuit 82 has two inputs, one of which is connected to GND. The other input is connected to GND via a pull-down resistor 81 and to the electronic endoscope 2 and the like via a signal line 83.

The end of the signal line 83 is connected to GND in the electronic endoscope 2 illuminated by the light emitting diode 25, and is connected to 5 V in the electronic endoscope illuminated by the illumination device 71. .

Therefore, when the electronic endoscope 2 for lighting with the light emitting diode 25 is connected and when the electronic endoscope is not connected, the input of the OR circuit 82 becomes “L” and “L”. Therefore, the output of the illumination method detection unit 11c becomes “L”. When an electronic endoscope using illumination light from the illumination device 71 is connected, the OR circuit 8
Since the inputs of 2 become “H” and “L”, the output of the illumination method detection unit 11c becomes “H”.

Then, when the electronic endoscope 2 having the light emitting diode 25 as the illumination means is connected, noise removal is performed by the noise removal processing unit 51 on the video signal output by the video signal processing unit 10. Video processor 3
c, and at this time, the lighting device 71 automatically stops its operation.

On the other hand, when an electronic endoscope using the illumination light from the illumination device 71 is connected, the illumination light is supplied from the illumination device 71 and the noise removal processing section 51 stops its operation, and The video signal output from the processing unit 10 is directly output from the video processor 11c.

As described above, also in this embodiment, the second
The same effect as that of the embodiment can be obtained.

In each of the above embodiments, the electronic endoscope in which the solid-state imaging device is provided at the distal end of the insertion section to perform imaging is described. However, the present invention can be applied to the case where the observation section of the fiberscope is provided with imaging means. It is.

Further, the noise removal processing section 51 may be constantly operating, and may be configured to more strongly remove noise when illumination is performed by a light emitting element such as a light emitting diode.

Incidentally, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-55924
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H11-216, proposes a dimming device that takes in a signal from an image sensor, and automatically corrects the light intensity by illuminating the illumination intensity for each color signal with an output signal corresponding to the input level of the signal. Have been.

However, in the light control device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-55924, the color correction must be performed each time the endoscope is replaced to properly use it according to the purpose. There is an inconvenience in performing color correction, that is, white balance every time the endoscope is replaced, and when emergency use is required, it must be used without obtaining white balance.

In particular, when an LED is used as a light source, the variation of each color LED appears as it is in a color, which is more remarkable than a light source having a fixed spectral distribution such as a xenon lamp.

Therefore, next, an endoscope apparatus will be described which does not require a white balance every time the endoscope is replaced.

FIGS. 12 to 14 relate to an embodiment in which it is not necessary to maintain the white balance each time the endoscope is replaced. FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the endoscope apparatus, and FIG. FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the storage circuit of FIG. 12, and FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a modification of the storage circuit of FIG.

The endoscope apparatus according to the present embodiment is an endoscope for observing the inside of a body cavity having a solid-state image sensor and a plurality of solid-state light-emitting elements at the tip (wiring connected to the solid-state image sensor and connected to the solid-state light-emitting element). A video signal processing circuit that processes an image signal from the solid-state image sensor into a color video signal; a solid-state light-emitting element driving circuit that supplies a light-emitting current of the solid-state light-emitting element; Storage means for storing information for determining a drive current of the solid-state light emitting element;
Storage means for reading information from the storage means.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 12, the endoscope device 100 according to the present embodiment has a solid state light emitting element 102 for emitting illumination light and a solid state imaging device for imaging a target portion in the distal end of the insertion section 101. An endoscope 104 having an image sensor 103;
A video processing device 105 that performs signal processing on an imaging signal from the endoscope 104 is provided.

The video processing device 105 includes the solid state light emitting device 1
02 driving circuit 106 for supplying a light emitting current of 02
And information for determining the drive current of the solid-state light-emitting element 102 incorporated in the connector 109 provided at the distal end of the universal cable 108 extending from the operation section 107 provided at the base end of the insertion section 101 of the endoscope 104. The connector 109 includes at least a reading circuit 111 for reading information stored in the storage circuit 110 and a video processing circuit 112 for signal processing of an image signal from the solid-state image sensor 103.
Are detachably connected to the video processing device 105.

A video signal is output from the video processing device 105 to an observation monitor or a VTR (not shown) so that an image necessary for observation of the endoscope 104 and an image can be recorded. .

Memory circuit 11 provided in connector 109
Reference numeral 0 denotes a ROM (Read Only Memory), and the reading circuit 111 reads the contents of the ROM. As a reading method, since data can be read from the ROM as serial data, the number of connected devices can be reduced.

The reading circuit 111 outputs the read information of the storage circuit 110 to the solid-state light-emitting element driving circuit 106 as white balance information, and the solid-state light-emitting element driving circuit 106 outputs the information based on the information. The white balance of the solid state light emitting element 102 at the tip of the endoscope 104 is determined.

The solid state light emitting element 102 is composed of three color LEDs of red, blue and green, and the solid state light emitting element driving circuit 106 is a light emitting light source suitable for video processing by balancing the light amounts of the three color LEDs. It is designed to be balanced.

The white balance processing is performed as described above,
The solid state light emitting device 102 illuminated from the tip of the endoscope 104
Is output to the observation target to illuminate the observation target.

The object to be observed is imaged by the solid-state image sensor 103, for example, a CCD at the tip of the endoscope 104, and the image signal of the solid-state image sensor 103 is
04 from the connector 109 via the video processing device 10
5 is transmitted to the video processing circuit 112.

In the video processing circuit 112, the solid-state imaging device 1
Signal processing is performed on the basis of the imaging signal of No. 03, and processing for outputting the image signal to a monitor or VTR (not shown) is performed.

FIG. 13 shows an example of the storage circuit 110. The storage circuit 110 provided in the endoscope 104 is an electrically rewritable storage means using a clock synchronous serial input / output in a 128-word × 16-bit EEPROM. The video signal is output to the video processing circuit 112 via the video processing circuit 112. By using serial input / output, the number of contacts of the connector 109 can be reduced.

The solid-state light-emitting element 102 composed of an LED of the endoscope 104 or the solid-state image pickup element 1 composed of a CCD
03 is stored in the storage circuit 110 in advance. The reading circuit 111 corresponds to serial input / output.

The storage circuit 110 has a solid-state image sensor 103
Information on how to output each LED (red, blue, green) of the solid-state light-emitting element 102 is written based on the information on color reproducibility of the solid-state light-emitting element 102. This is stored as white balance information for color reproduction corresponding to the variation or the like of each solid-state imaging device 103 of the endoscope when there are several types of endoscopes 104.

Accordingly, the output of the reading circuit 111 read from the storage circuit 110 is used as the
06, each LED of the solid state light emitting device 102 (red,
Blue and green) to emit light.
From 10, the data is read out in synchronization with the clock SCK, the sequence is serially input to DI so as to output the status, and then the address is specified. Then, the read data is output from the storage circuit 110 to DO.

The data is composed of 16 bits × 2, and RG
B is set with 8 bits, and other data is set with 8 bits.
The number of pixels, the type of endoscope, the type of optical system, and the like are stored, and the settings of the video processing circuit 112 are changed based on the data to perform signal processing suitable for the endoscope 104, a solid-state image sensor. By setting the driving of the solid state light emitting device 102 and the driving of the solid state light emitting device 102, light emission can be performed according to the characteristics of each solid state light emitting device 102.

Here, the solid state light emitting device 102 has three types of L
Although ED (red, blue, green) is used, this balance is usually achieved by varying the balance between red and blue on the basis of green.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the endoscope 104
Since the respective characteristics are stored in the storage circuit 110, illumination suitable for the endoscope 104 can be automatically performed without performing an operation of obtaining a white balance. More specifically, illumination can be automatically corrected for variations and the like.

Although the storage circuit 110 has the circuit configuration shown in FIG. 13, for example, as shown in FIG. 14, the storage circuit 110a may be configured by a trimmer resistor 121.

In this case, the trimmer resistance 1 according to the balance
The resistance value of the reference numeral 21 is set to such a value that white balance can be obtained by correcting variations in the solid-state imaging device 103, for example.

The resistance value of the storage circuit 110a is read by the reading circuit 111 as voltage information by actually converting the resistance value into a voltage by applying a current. Here, the white balance information of the storage circuit 110a read as the voltage information is input to the video processing circuit 112.

The video processing circuit 112 automatically balances the color adjustment based on the white balance information to automatically balance the white balance.

Storage circuit 1 for obtaining white balance
This is a method of setting the resistance value of the trimmer resistor 121 to be stored in 10a. The solid light emitting element 102 has three colors of red, blue, and green in order to achieve white balance. White balance can be achieved by the balance of red and blue. In this case, the point that the setting of the resistance value is just balanced is, for example, the trimmer resistance 1
It is assumed that the resistance value is set at the center of the resistance value 21. This state is a point where no correction is required.

For example, if the trimmer resistor 121 is set so that the slider is exactly at the center with respect to the resistance value at both ends, if the resistance value is 1 KΩ, 5 m
When an amperage current is applied, the voltage obtained from the center of the sliding resistance is 2.5V.

When this 2.5V is set as information that the white balance does not need to be corrected,
In the reading circuit 111, for example, when the voltage is higher than this, it can be used when correction for emphasizing red is required, and when the level of blue needs to be emphasized,
By setting this voltage to a low value from 2.5 V, blue can be emphasized.

The reading circuit 111 transmits this information to the video processing circuit 112 as white balance information and inputs the information to the white balance adjustment circuit of the video processing circuit 112. By increasing the level of the red signal and decreasing the level of the blue signal in accordance with the level of the voltage from, the balance emphasized on the red side can be achieved.

In this case, the amount necessary for this balance is determined by storing in the storage circuit 110a composed of the trimmer resistor 121.
The type of each endoscope 104 and solid-state image sensor 103 or the solid-state image sensor 103 whose variation is measured in advance
Is stored so that the video processing circuit 112 balances the signal based on the signal, so that the white balance of the signal output from the video processing device 105 to the monitor or the VTR can be obtained. Will be.

As described above, even if the storage circuit 110a of the modification shown in FIG. 14 is used, the same effect as that of the present embodiment can be obtained, and the white balance can be adjusted according to each endoscope 104. Even if no operation is performed, a white balance in which the variation of the endoscope 104 is automatically corrected can be obtained. In the case of the present embodiment, the settings of the three colors of RGB of the solid-state imaging device 103 can be stored in the storage circuit 110 as a balance of the three colors, as compared with the modified example. The balance can be obtained by changing the green value other than the balance adjustment.

[Additional remarks] (Additional remark 1) In an endoscope apparatus for irradiating an object with illumination light from an illuminating unit and imaging and observing the object by an imaging unit, illumination for detecting the type of the illuminating unit Detecting means, and emphasizing processing means for performing emphasizing processing on an image signal obtained by the imaging means when the lighting detecting means detects the lighting means of a type for supplying illumination light with low illuminance. An endoscope apparatus characterized in that:

(Additional Item 2) In an endoscope apparatus for irradiating an object with illumination light from an illuminating unit, and imaging and observing the object with an imaging unit, an illumination detecting unit for detecting a type of the illuminating unit; When the illumination detection means detects the illumination means of a type that supplies illumination light with low illuminance,
An endoscope apparatus comprising: a noise removing unit that removes noise from an image signal obtained by the imaging unit.

[0088]

As described above, according to the endoscope apparatus of the present invention, when the illumination detecting means detects the illumination means of the type supplying the illumination light with low illuminance, the emphasis processing means is obtained by the imaging means. Since the enhanced image signal is subjected to enhancement processing, in an endoscope apparatus that illuminates with low illuminance illumination means such as a light-emitting diode, even if the image is dark overall because the distance to the subject is long, good contrast can be obtained. There is an effect that an image having the following can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an electronic endoscope and a video processor of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an illumination method detection unit in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of an emphasis processing unit in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a modification of the video processor of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an illumination method detection unit in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an illumination method detection unit in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the operation of the noise removal processing unit in FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a video processor according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an illumination method detection unit in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment in which a white balance does not have to be obtained each time an endoscope is replaced.

13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a storage circuit in FIG.

14 illustrates a configuration of a modification of the storage circuit in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Endoscope apparatus 2 ... Electronic endoscope 3 ... Video processor 4 ... Display monitor 5 ... Image filing apparatus 6 ... Insertion part 7 ... Operation part 8 ... Universal code 9 ... Connector 10 ... Video signal processing part 11 ... Lighting method Detecting section 12 ... Enhancing processing section 21 ... Observation window 22 ... Imaging optical system 23 ... Solid-state image sensor 24 ... Light distribution lens 25 ... Light emitting diode 31 ... Pull-up resistor 32 ... NOR circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An endoscope apparatus for irradiating an object with illumination light from an illuminating unit and imaging the object by an imaging unit for observation, wherein: an illumination detecting unit for detecting a type of the illuminating unit; When the detecting means detects the illuminating means of the type supplying the illumination light with low illuminance, the image processing apparatus further includes an emphasizing processing means for performing an emphasizing process on the image signal obtained by the imaging means. Endoscope device.