Patent ID: 7880937
Filing Date: 2011-02-01
Classification: A61B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An electronic endoscope apparatus comprising: an imaging element which obtains an image of an observation object at a light receiving area of the imaging element by receiving light reflected by the observation object when the observation object is illuminated with light, and which outputs an image signal of the observation object; and a signal processing unit which alternately repeats obtainment of a first partial image signal using a part of the light receiving area of the imaging element and obtainment of a second partial image signal using a remaining part of the light receiving area, and which obtains a whole image signal corresponding to an image of the observation object using the first partial image signal obtained in an n-th (n is a natural number) obtainment and the second partial image signal obtained in an (n+1)th obtainment, wherein the image signal processing unit includes an extraction unit for extracting a blurred image signal, which is obtained by administering a blur process on at least one of a brightness component and a color component of the n-th partial image signal and an addition unit for adding the blur signal, extracted by the extraction unit, to the (n+1)th partial image signal.