Patent ID: 8038609

Claim:
An endoscope apparatus for use in combination with a near infrared light irradiation unit that irradiates near infrared light on a target irradiation section, the apparatus comprising: an illumination means for irradiating white light, not including the near infrared light, on a target observation area including the target irradiation section; an imaging means for spectroscopically imaging a reflected light image of the target observation area irradiated by the near infrared light and the white light, and outputting the image as a spectral image signal; a storage section for storing estimated matrix data for estimating the reflected light intensity of the near infrared light; an IR image signal generation means for generating an IR image signal constituted by an estimated value of the reflected light intensity of the near infrared light by performing a matrix operation on the spectral image signal using the estimated matrix data stored in the storage section and spectral matrix data of the near infrared light; and a color image signal generation means for generating a color image signal based on the spectral image signal and the IR image signal.