Patent ID: 6980227
Filing Date: 2005-12-27
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An electronic endoscope having a video-scope with an image sensor and a video-processor, said video-scope being one of a plurality of connectable video-scopes and being selectively connected to said video-processor, said electronic endoscope comprising: a light source that emits light; an illuminating lens that is provided in a tip of said video-scope and that transmits the light to a subject; an objective lens that is provided in the tip of said video-scope and that forms a subject image on said image sensor; an image processor that generates luminance signals from image signals read from said image sensor; a tip characteristic detector that detects tip characteristics corresponding to a type of said video-scope, the tip characteristics including at least an arrangement relationship between said objective lens and said illuminating lens; a metering setter that defines a plurality of division areas by dividing the total area of the subject image into a plurality of areas and that sets a plurality of weighted coefficients corresponding to the plurality of division areas, in accordance with the tip characteristics; a luminance calculator that calculates a plurality of segment luminance values corresponding to the plurality of division areas, and that calculates a total luminance value indicating a total brightness of the subject image by multiplying each of the plurality of the segment luminance values by a corresponding weighted coefficient among the plurality of weighted coefficients; and a light-amount adjuster that adjusts a quantity of light illuminating the subject in accordance with the total luminance value.