Patent ID: 8111286

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for generating image data from an image pickup signal output from an image pickup device, the apparatus comprising: a color image data generation unit that generates color image data from an image pickup signal of a red component, an image pickup signal of a green component, and an image pickup signal of a blue component which are output from the image pickup device; an infrared image data generation unit that generates infrared image data from an image pickup signal of an infrared component output from the image pickup device; and a high-contrast infrared image data generation unit that generates high-contrast infrared image data using the color image data and the infrared image data, wherein: contrast of the high-contrast infrared image data is more enhanced than that of the infrared image data, wherein: pixel data of the color image data includes red-component data, green-component data and blue-component data, pixel data of the infrared image data includes infrared-component data, the high-contrast infrared image data generation unit generates the high-contrast infrared image data using the following expression: I ( x,y )= r 1 ×R ( x,y )+ g 1 ×G ( x,y )+ b 1 ×B ( x,y )+ ir 1 ×IR ( x,y ) where I(x, y) denotes pixel data of the high-contrast infrared image data at coordinates (x, y), R(x, y) denotes the red-component data of the pixel data at the coordinates (x, y), G(x, y) denotes the green-component data of the pixel data at the coordinates (x, y), B(x, y) denotes the blue-component data of the pixel data at the coordinates (x, y), and r 1 , g 1 , b 1 and ir 1 denote coefficients, and the coefficients r 1 , g 1 , b 1 , and ir 1 are determined so that r 1 ×R(λ)+g 1 ×G(λ)+b 1 ×B(λ)+ir 1 ×IR(λ) is as close as possible to Real(λ), where R(λ) denotes a spectral sensitivity of a red-component photoelectric conversion element of the photoelectric conversion elements that outputs the image pickup signal of the red component, G(λ) denotes a spectral sensitivity of a green-component photoelectric conversion element of the photoelectric conversion elements that outputs the image pickup signal of the green component, B(λ) denotes a spectral sensitivity of a blue-component photoelectric conversion element of the photoelectric conversion elements that outputs the image pickup signal of the blue component, IR(λ) denotes a spectral sensitivity of an infrared-component photoelectric conversion element of the photoelectric conversion elements that outputs the image pickup signal of the infrared component, and Real (λ) denotes a spectral sensitivity with which a observation target substance used to grasp change in a human body can be picked up with the highest contrast.