Endoscopic Images Digital Processing for Clinical Decision Support Systems

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to create new automatic methods for endoscopic image digital processing, ensuring their high ergonomics and the possibility of effective use in clinical decision support systems. As the result of investigation, the following methods were proposed: the detection and removal of specular highlights; compensation of radial and tangential geometric distortions; the mosaic panorama creation from the input video stream with low level of detail; brightness and contrast enhancement, providing simultaneous successful correction of both dark and bright areas of the image (uneven contrast) without significant underlining of the noise component typical for the existing nonlinear contrasting methods, especially in low-detail image areas; custom color correction based on linear transformation matrix taking into account endoscopic image characteristics and making it possible to customize color palette according to the physician individual preferences. The methods considered were successfully tested on real endoscopic images at the department of innovative medical devices of the Korean Electrotechnological Research Institute. The test results demonstrate their effectiveness and applicability in clinical decision support systems.