Patent ID: 7768570
Filing Date: 2010-08-03
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An etalon calibration procedure for use in an image pickup apparatus, said image pickup apparatus being an endoscope having an insertion end that is inserted within a patient in order to diagnose the presence of disease in living tissue, and said endoscope detects fluorescence emitted from a fluorescent marker under the illumination of excitation light, the fluorescent marker having been previously introduced into a subject's living tissue, said image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup unit that includes a processor coupled to the image pickup unit that includes a circuit for controlling the operation of the etalon and a circuit for executing arithmetic operations based on image data obtained by the image pickup unit; said etalon calibration procedure is performed after the insertion end of the endoscope reaches a site of the living tissue to be examined and includes the following steps: