Increased resolution and dynamic range image capture unit in a surgical instrument and method
In a minimally invasive surgical system, an image capture unit includes a prism assembly and sensor assembly. The prism assembly includes a beam splitter, while the sensor assembly includes coplanar image capture sensors. Each of the coplanar image capture sensors has a common front end optical structure, e.g., the optical structure distal to the image capture unit is the same for each of the sensors. A controller enhances images acquired by the coplanar image capture sensors. The enhanced images may include (a) visible images with enhanced feature definition, in which a particular feature in the scene is emphasized to the operator of minimally invasive surgical system; (b) images having increased image apparent resolution; (c) images having increased dynamic range; (d) images displayed in a way based on a pixel color component vector having three or more color components; and (e) images having extended depth of field.
1. In a system comprising an image capture unit, a method comprising:
separating, by a beam splitter of the image capture unit, light received from a common front end optical system into a first portion and a second portion;
reflecting, by a surface separated from the beam splitter, the first portion of the received light in a first direction to a first image capture sensor of the image capture unit;
directing in the first direction, by a reflective unit of the image capture unit, the second portion of the received light to a second image capture sensor of the image capture unit;
capturing, in the first image capture sensor, a first image from the first portion of the received light; and
capturing, in the second image capture sensor of the image capture unit, a second image from the second portion of the received light,
wherein a first optical path length in the image capture unit to the first image capture sensor is about equal to a second optical path length in the image capture unit to the second image capture sensor,
wherein a first image capture sensor surface of the first image capture sensor is in a first plane, a second image capture sensor surface of the second image capture sensor is in a second plane, and
wherein the first and second planes are parallel to a longitudinal axis of image capture unit.
2. The method of claim 1 , the first and second image capture sensor surfaces being coplanar so that the first and second planes are a same plane.
3. The method of claim 1 , the first and second planes being separated by a known distance.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the received light is not equal to the second portion of the received light.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the received light is equal to the second portion of the received light.
6. The method of claim 5 , the beam splitter and the surface being positioned to offset an image captured by the first image capture sensor from an image captured by the second image capture sensor with the first optical path length remaining about equal to the second optical path length.
7. The method of claim 1 :
the received light comprising a plurality of color components, the first portion comprising one color component of the plurality of color components; and
the second portion comprising other color components of the plurality of color components.
8. The method of claim 7 , the first and second image capture sensor surfaces being coplanar so that the first and second planes are a same plane.
9. The method of claim 7 , the first and second planes being separated by a known distance.
10. The method of claim 7 :
the first image capture sensor comprising a monochrome image capture sensor; and
the second image capture sensor comprising an image capture sensor having a color filter array for the other color components in the plurality of color components.
11. The method of claim 10 ,
wherein the one color component of the plurality of color components is a green color component; and
wherein the other color components of the plurality of color components are a red color component and a blue color component.