Patent ID: 7236621

Claim:
A diagnosis supporting device that is connected to a processor device that acquires an image signal of an image of a subject formed at the tip of an endoscope to convert said image signal into an output video signal for a monitor, said diagnosis supporting device comprising: an image signal acquiring section that repeatedly acquires a reference image signal and a fluorescent image signal transmitted from said processor device, said reference image signal representing an image of a subject that is illuminated with visible light and said fluorescent image signal representing an image of said subject that is excited by irradiation with excitation light to emit fluorescence; an observation image signal generating section that counts the number of pixels having the maximum brightness level in said reference image signal whenever said image signal acquiring section acquires a set of said reference image signal and said fluorescent image signal, then that calculates a difference between brightness level of a pixel in said reference image signal and brightness level of a pixel in said fluorescent image signal at the corresponding position for all of the pixels in said reference image signal when the number of counted pixels is not larger than a predetermined threshold number or for a part of the pixels selected from said reference image signal when the number of counted pixels is larger than said threshold number, and that generates an observation image signal by converting the pixels in said reference image signal whose differences are larger than a predetermined value into specific pixels exhibiting a predetermined color; a memory section that stores the observation image signal and updates it whenever said observation image signal generating section generates an observation image signal; and an output section that reads said observation image signal stored in said memory section and that converts said observation image signal into an output video signal.