Patent ID: 7029437
Filing Date: 2006-04-18
Classification: A61B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An electronic endoscope apparatus having a video-scope with an image sensor and a video-processor, comprising: a light source that radiates light for illuminating a subject; a pixel luminance detector that detects a luminance level of each pixel in a plurality of pixels, that forms a subject image displayed on a display, in accordance with image-pixel signals read from said image sensor; a division setter that divides the subject image into a plurality of blocks composed of given pixels; an average block luminance calculator that calculates a plurality of average block-luminance-levels, each of which indicates a substantial average-luminance-level of the corresponding block, the average block-luminance-levels being calculated from a plurality of luminance levels of pixels arranged in the corresponding block; a peak-luminance determiner that compares the average block-luminance-levels with each other to determine a substantially maximum average block-luminance-level from the plurality of average block-luminance-levels as a peak luminance level; a representative luminance calculator that calculates a representative luminance level indicating a brightness of the subject image on the basis of at least the peak luminance level; and a brightness adjuster that adjusts the brightness of the subject image in accordance with the representative luminance level.