A system for real-time endoscopic image enhancement

Abstract

During endoscopic operations the surgeon works without direct visual contact to the operation area. The image of the operation situs is displayed on a monitor. Currently, only hardware based image enhancement methods are used (e. g., white balance) and often only once at the beginning of an operation. In this contribution we describe a system for real-time endoscopic image enhancement: a typical video-endoscopic system was extended by a computer and a second monitor. Thus the enhanced and the original image can be displayed at the same time. The implemented image enhancement methods (temporal filtering, undistortion and color normalization) were evaluated by 14 surgeons and the results showed that the enhanced images were preferred. The system was already used during a real operation.