Fluorescence observation apparatus

1. A fluorescence observation apparatus, comprising:

a light source configured to irradiate a subject with reference light and excitation light; and

one or more processors comprising hardware, wherein the one or more processers are configured to implement:

a fluorescence-image generating portion configured to generate a fluorescence image based on fluorescence produced in the subject due to irradiation with the excitation light;

a reference-image generating portion configured to generate a color reference image based on return light returning from the subject due to irradiation with the reference light;

an extraction portion configured to extract, from the fluorescence image generated by the fluorescence-image generating portion, a fluorescence region having a gradation value equal to or higher than a prescribed threshold;

a motion-effect generating portion configured to generate a frame image that is assigned a time-varying gradation value so as to bring about an effect that is visually time-varying with a variation quantity depending on a gradation value of the fluorescence region, in a region corresponding to the fluorescence region extracted by the extraction portion; and

a synthesis portion configured to add the frame image generated by the motion-effect generating portion to at least one of a plurality of color-component images constituting the reference image, to synthesize a synthetic image from the plurality of color-component images comprising the color-component image that the frame image has been added to.

2. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to implement a coefficient-calculating portion configure to calculate a coefficient, which increases with an increase of the gradation value of the fluorescence region, based on said gradation value, and

wherein the motion-effect generating portion is configured to determine the variation quantity based on the coefficient calculated by the coefficient-calculating portion.

3. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the motion-effect generating portion is configured to generate the frame image that brings about an effect causing a predetermined object to move within the corresponding region at a speed depending on the gradation value of the fluorescence region.

4. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the motion-effect generating portion is configured to generate the frame image that brings about an effect causing a predetermined object to move within the corresponding region with an amplitude depending on the gradation value of the fluorescence region.

5. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the motion-effect generating portion is configured to generate the frame image that brings about an effect causing a color to vary with a period depending on the gradation value of the fluorescence region.

6. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the motion-effect generating portion is configured to generate the frame image that brings about an effect causing a color to vary with a range depending on the gradation value of the fluorescence region.

7. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 3 ,

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to implement a movement-quantity detecting portion configured to detect a movement quantity of the subject in the reference image, and

wherein the motion-effect generating portion is configured to generate the frame image that varies with a variation quantity depending on a value obtained by adding the movement quantity of the subject detected by the movement-quantity detecting portion to the gradation value of the fluorescence region.

8. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 4 ,

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to implement a movement-quantity detecting portion configured to detect a movement quantity of the subject in the reference image, and

wherein the motion-effect generating portion is configured to generate the frame image that varies with a variation quantity depending on a value obtained by adding the movement quantity of the subject detected by the movement-quantity detecting portion to the gradation value of the fluorescence region.

9. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to implement a fluorescence-correcting portion configured to divide the fluorescence image generated by the fluorescence-image generating portion by the reference image generated by the reference-image generating portion to thereby correct the gradation value of the fluorescence image, and

wherein the extraction portion is configured to extract the fluorescence region from the fluorescence image corrected by the fluorescence-correcting portion.

10. The fluorescence observation apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to implement a threshold-setting portion configured to set the prescribed threshold in the extraction portion based on a sum of a mean of gradation values of respective pixels in the fluorescence image corrected by the fluorescence-correcting portion and a standard deviation of the gradation values.