Patent ID: 8269824

Claim:
An electronic endoscope system comprising: a light emission device for emitting white light as general illumination light and specific illumination light having different spectral characteristics from those of the general illumination light; an electronic endoscope having a lighting window for projecting illumination light from said light emission device toward a body part to inspect inside a test body, and a solid state imaging device for outputting image signals corresponding to light beams reflected from the body part to inspect; a processor for producing images from image signals outputted from said solid state imaging device, said processor comprising a device for estimating and producing a spectral image of an arbitrary wavelength band from image signals captured under the general illumination light and image signals captured under the specific illumination light; and a monitor for displaying images produced by said processor; said light emission device comprising at least a light source emitting the general illumination light, and at least an optical filter for obtaining the specific illumination light from the general illumination light through said optical filter, said optical filter having spectral transmission characteristics, spectral sensitivity characteristics of said solid state imaging device being virtually modified under the specific illumination light from those under the general illumination light; the spectral transmission characteristics of said optical filter show a linear characteristic curve which inclines upward or downward to an axis of wavelength, spectral sensitivity bands of said solid state imaging device being virtually shifted under the specific illumination light from those under the general illumination light; said processor further comprises an image producer for producing a general image from those image signals captured under the general illumination light, and a display controller for displaying the general image and the spectral image simultaneously individually on said monitor.