Medical control device and medical observation system
A medical control device includes: a driving mode switch configured to switch a driving mode of a rolling shutter type image sensor in which a plurality of pixels are two-dimensionally arrayed in units of horizontal lines; and a dimming controller configured to control a light emitting element configured to emit light according to a supplied current, and switch control of the light emitting element according to the driving mode.
1 . A medical control device comprising:
a driving mode switch configured to switch a driving mode of a rolling shutter type image sensor in which a plurality of pixels are two-dimensionally arrayed in units of horizontal lines between a first driving mode having a first control pattern during an exposure period and a second driving mode having a second control pattern during exposure, the second control pattern being different from the first control pattern; and
a dimming controller configured to adjust a brightness of an image output by the image sensor to have a reference brightness executing dimming control including first control for adjusting a supply time of a current to be supplied to a light emitting element, second control for adjusting a current value to be supplied to the light emitting element, and third control for adjusting an electronic shutter of the image sensor, the dimming controller being configured to
when in the first driving mode,
control the light emitting element to emit light continuously, and
execute only the second control and the third control among the first to the third controls, and
when in the second driving mode,
control the light emitting element to emit light discontinuously, and
execute at least one of only the first control and the second control among the first to the third controls while fixing the electronic shutter of the image sensor during dimming control.
2 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein in the first driving mode, there is no entire line exposure period in which all horizontal lines in an effective pixel area in the image sensor are simultaneously exposed.
3 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein, in the second driving mode, the image sensor reads out pixels in the region of the image sensor that contribute to image generation using binning in a period that is shorter than a period for reading out all of the pixels.
4 . The medical control device according to claim 3 , wherein in the second driving mode, there is an entire line exposure period in which all horizontal lines in the region of the image sensor that contribute to image generation are simultaneously exposed.
5 . The medical control device according to claim 4 , wherein in the second driving mode, the dimming controller is configured to fix the current value supplied to the light emitting element to a specific current value during the entire line exposure period.
6 . The medical control device according to claim 4 , wherein in the second driving mode, during the readout period, the dimming controller is configured to adjust a supply time of current supplied to the light emitting element by the first control.
7 . The medical control device according to claim 3 , wherein the binning includes at least one of adding a plurality of pixels or thinning out some of the pixels.
8 . The medical control device according to claim 3 , wherein the readout period in the second driving mode is shorter than an exposure period of the horizontal lines.
9 . The medical control device according to claim 1 ,
further comprising:
an observation mode switch configured to switch an observation mode between a first observation mode and a second observation mode, wherein
the first observation mode is an observation mode in which an observation target irradiated with the light in a first wavelength band is captured by the image sensor to obtain a first captured image,
the second observation mode is an observation mode in which the first captured image is obtained and the observation target irradiated with the light in a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band is captured by the image sensor to obtain a second captured image,
the driving mode switch is configured to automatically switch the driving mode to the second driving mode when the observation mode is switched to the second observation mode.
10 . The medical control device according to claim 9 , further comprising a first light emitting element configured to emit light in the first wavelength band and a second light emitting element configured to emit light in the second wavelength band, wherein the dimming controller causes the first light emitting element and the second light emitting element to emit light alternately.
11 . The medical control device according to claim 10 , wherein the first wavelength band includes visible light wavelengths, the second wavelength band includes near-infrared wavelengths in a range of 750 nm to 800 nm, and the light in the near-infrared wavelength band is excitation light for exciting a fluorescent substance.
12 . The medical observation system according to claim 9 , further comprising an image processor configured to generate a superimposed image by superimposing a fluorescence image on a normal light image, wherein the image processor superimposes a fluorescence area in which a pixel whose luminance value is equal to or greater than a specific threshold is included in the fluorescence image onto the normal light image.
13 . The medical observation system according to claim 9 , wherein when the observation mode is switched to the second observation mode, the driving mode switch switches the driving mode to generate an entire line exposure period that is longer than an entire line exposure period during the first observation mode.
14 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein, when the driving mode is the first driving mode, the dimming controller is configured to fix a supply time of the current supplied to the light emitting element to a specific supply time.
15 . The medical control device according to claim 14 , wherein the specific supply time is a period of one field.
16 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein, when in the second driving mode, the dimming controller is configured to execute both the first control and the second control.
17 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein the driving mode switch switches the driving mode by changing at least one of a length of an entire line exposure period or a length of a readout period.
18 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein when the driving mode is the first driving mode and when increasing brightness, the dimming controller is configured to increase a current value by the second control while fixing an effective exposure period by electronic shutter to 1/60 second.
19 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein when the driving mode is the first driving mode and when decreasing brightness, the dimming controller is configured to adjust electronic shutter by the third control while fixing a current value to a specific minimum current value.
20 . The medical control device according to claim 1 , wherein when the driving mode is a third driving mode in which a period longer than the one field of the first driving mode is treated as one field and exposure is performed for each such field, the dimming controller is configured to execute at least one of the first control and the second control.
21 . The medical control device according to claim 20 , wherein the one field in the third driving mode has a length corresponding to a plurality of fields of the one field in the first driving mode.
22 . A medical observation system comprising:
an imaging device including a rolling shutter type image sensor in which a plurality of pixels are two-dimensionally arrayed in units of horizontal lines;
a light source including a light emitting element configured to emit light according to a supplied current; and
a medical controller configured to control operations of the imaging device and the light source, the medical controller including:
a driving mode switch configured to switch a driving mode of the image sensor between a first driving mode having a first control pattern during an exposure period and a second driving mode having a second control pattern during exposure, the second control pattern being different from the first control pattern; and
a dimming controller configured to adjust a brightness of an image output by the image sensor to have a reference brightness executing dimming control including first control for adjusting a supply time of a current to be supplied to the light emitting element, second control for adjusting a current value to be supplied to the light emitting element, and third control for adjusting an electronic shutter of the image sensor, the dimming controller being configured to
when in the first driving mode,
control the light emitting element to emit light continuously, and
execute only the second control and the third control among the first to the third controls, and
when in the second driving mode,
control the light emitting element to emit light discontinuously, and
execute at least one of only the first control and the second control among the first to the third controls while fixing the electronic shutter of the image sensor during dimming control.
23 . The medical observation system according to claim 22 , wherein the medical observation system is a medical observation system using a rigid endoscope, a flexible endoscope, or a microscope.
24 . The medical observation system according to claim 22 , wherein the light emitting element includes at least one of a semiconductor laser or an LED light source.
25 . A medical control device comprising:
a driving mode switch configured to switch a driving mode of a rolling shutter type image sensor in which a plurality of pixels are two-dimensionally arrayed in units of horizontal lines between a first driving mode having a first control pattern during an exposure period and a second driving mode having a second control pattern during exposure, the second control pattern being different from the first control pattern; and
a dimming controller configured to adjust a brightness of an image output by the image sensor to have a reference brightness executing dimming control including first control for adjusting a supply time of a current to be supplied to a light emitting element, second control for adjusting a current value to be supplied to the light emitting element, and third control for adjusting an electronic shutter of the image sensor, and, to adjust the brightness, the dimming controller being configured to
when in the first driving mode, perform exposure within one field and read out pixels in a region of the image sensor that contribute to image generation in a first period, wherein the dimming controller controls dimming at least by varying the electronic shutter, and
when in the second driving mode, read out pixels in the region of the image sensor that contribute to image generation by a method including binning in a second period shorter than a period for reading out all of the pixels, wherein the dimming controller controls dimming by adjusting the light emitting element, with a fixed electronic shutter.
26 . The medical control device according to claim 25 , wherein in the second driving mode, there is an entire line exposure period in which all horizontal lines in the region of the image sensor that contribute to image generation are simultaneously exposed.
27 . The medical control device according to claim 26 , wherein in the second driving mode, the dimming controller is configured to fix the current value supplied to the light emitting element to a specific current value during the entire line exposure period.
28 . The medical control device according to claim 26 , wherein in the first driving mode, the dimming controller is configured to control dimming by adjusting both the current value supplied to the light emitting element and the electronic shutter.
29 . The medical control device according to claim 25 , wherein in the first driving mode, the light emitting element is configured to emit light continuously.
30 . The medical control device according to claim 25 , wherein the driving mode switch is configured to switch the driving mode to a driving mode in which a period longer than one field is treated as one field and exposure is performed for each such field when the observation mode is switched to the second observation mode.