Patent ID: 9232883
Filing Date: 2016-01-12
CPC Classification: A61B

Claim Text:
1. An endoscope apparatus, comprising: an illuminating unit comprising plural light sources which generate light beams having different spectra, which illuminates an observation subject; an imaging unit which images the observation subject; an observation magnification varying unit which varies observation magnification of the imaging of the imaging unit; a light quantity ratio varying unit which continuously varies an emission light quantity ratio between the plural light sources according to the observation magnification that is set by the observation magnification varying unit, a wavelength set setting unit which sets a wavelength set which includes a combination of plural wavelength ranges; and an estimated spectral image generating unit which generates an estimated spectral image which would be obtained when the observation subject is illuminated with light including a spectrum that is produced by the wavelength set that is set by the wavelength set setting unit by performing a matrix operation on an observation image taken by illuminating the observation subject with white illumination light, wherein, where an observation image is to be generated using a desired wavelength set that is set by the wavelength set setting unit, an image is taken using illumination light corresponding to the emission light quantity ratio that is set by the light quantity ratio varying unit and is employed as an observation image if a wavelength range of a spectrum determined by the emission light quantity ratio that is set overlaps with a wavelength range of the desired wavelength set, and, if an overlap is not found, the light quantity ratio varying unit causes the white illumination light source to emit white light and the estimated spectral image generating unit generates an estimated spectral image corresponding to the desired wavelength set which is employed as an observation image.