Patent ID: 7179221

Claim:
An endoscope apparatus, comprising: a light emitting source for projecting light onto an observation area, and an imaging means for obtaining image data based on the reradiated light emitted from the observation area upon the irradiation thereof by the light projected from the light source, further comprising: a memory means for storing, as first image data, image data obtained by projecting light onto an observation area to which a first mark and a second mark differing from said first mark have been applied; a magnification correcting means for comparing the first image data stored in said memory means to second image data, which has been obtained after the passage of a predetermined period of time following the obtainment of said first image data, by projecting the light onto the observation area to which the first mark and the second mark have been attached, and subjecting at least one of the first image data and the second image data to a magnification correction process so that the distance between the first mark image data and the second mark image data within the first image data is substantially equal to the distance between the first mark image data and the second mark image data within the second image data; and a diagnostic image forming means for forming a diagnostic image by performing a computational process between the two images that have been subjected to the correction processing, wherein said diagnostic image forming means judges, based on at least one of the two correction processed image data, the region of the diseased portion within said image data and forms an outline image data composed of the outline of the judged diseased region, and superposes said outline image data over the other of the two correction processed image data to form outline superposed diagnostic image data.