Adaptive brightness non-uniformity correction in endoscope visualization

1. An endoscopic system comprising:

a light source positioned to emit illumination light onto a scene;

a photodetector positioned to receive illumination light reflected off of the scene and configured to generate a scene signal based on the received illumination light;

a display; and

a controller operatively coupled to the light source, the photodetector, and the display, the controller including logic that, when executed by the controller, causes the endoscopic system to perform operations including:

illuminating the scene with the light source;

detecting a scene depth across an endoscopic system field of view;

estimating a scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction based on the detected scene depth and an endoscopic system brightness non-uniformity profile; and

displaying an image of the scene with the display based on the scene signal, the detected scene depth, and the scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction.

2. The endoscopic system of claim 1 , wherein the controller further includes logic that, when executed by the controller causes the endoscopic system to perform operations including:

emitting structured light from the light source, wherein detecting the scene depth across the field of view is based upon structured light reflected off of the scene.

3. The endoscopic system of claim 2 , wherein the structured light includes non-visible light.

4. The endoscopic system of claim 2 , wherein the controller further includes logic that, when executed by the controller causes the endoscopic system to perform operations including:

emitting the illumination light in a first time interval; and

emitting the structured light in a second time interval not overlapping with the first time interval.

5. The endoscopic system of claim 4 , wherein detecting the scene depth across the field of view is based upon a structured light signal of the photodetector generated during the second time interval.

6. The endoscopic system of claim 1 , further comprising a structured light source operatively coupled to the controller, the structured light source configured to emit structured light onto the scene, wherein the controller further includes logic that, when executed by the controller causes the endoscopic system to perform operations including:

emitting structured light from the structured light source, wherein detecting the scene depth across the field of view is based upon structured light reflected off of the scene.

7. The endoscopic system of claim 1 , wherein the photodetector is a first photodetector and the scene signal is a first scene signal, wherein the endoscopic system further comprises a second photodetector positioned receive illumination light reflected off of the scene and configured generate a second scene signal based on the received illumination light.

8. The endoscopic system of claim 7 , wherein detecting the scene depth across the field of view of the endoscopic system includes co-registering the first scene signal and the second scene signal; establishing a correspondence between the first scene signal and the second scene signal; and generating a depth map based on the first scene signal and the second scene signal.

9. The endoscopic system of claim 8 , wherein the depth map is based on pixel coordinates of pixels of the first photodetector and the second photodetector, an offset distance between the pixels of the first photodetector and the second photodetector, a distance between the first photodetector and the second photodetector, and a focal distance of the endoscopic system.

10. The endoscopic system of claim 8 , wherein generating a depth map based on the first scene signal and the second scene signal includes generating a depth map for each pixel of the first photodetector and the second photodetector.

11. The endoscopic system of claim 7 , wherein estimating the scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction includes:

estimating a first scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction based on a detected first scene depth of the first photodetector and a first endoscopic system brightness non-uniformity profile of the first photodetector; and

estimating a second scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction based on a detected second scene depth of the second photodetector and a second endoscopic system brightness non-uniformity profile of the second photodetector.

12. The endoscopic system of claim 1 , wherein the endoscopic system brightness non-uniformity profile is based on a plurality of images generated by the photodetector with varying scene depths and varying orientations within the endoscopic system field of view.

13. The endoscopic system of claim 1 , wherein the endoscopic system brightness non-uniformity profile is based on:

empirically estimating system brightness non-uniformity at a nominal scene depth; and

extrapolating to other working distances using a theoretical estimate of illumination drop-off with distance.

14. The endoscopic system of claim 1 , wherein displaying the image of the scene includes adjusting raw image data based on the scene signal with the scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction.

15. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:

illuminating a scene with a light source of an endoscopic system;

generating a scene signal with a photodetector based on illumination light reflected off of the scene;

detecting a scene depth across an endoscopic system field of view;

estimating a scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction based on the detected scene depth and an endoscopic system brightness non-uniformity profile; and

displaying an image of the scene with a display of the endoscopic system based on the scene signal, the detected scene depth, and the scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction.

16. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:

emitting structured light from the light source, wherein detecting the scene depth across the field of view is based upon structured light reflected off of the scene.

17. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the structured light includes non-visible light.

18. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:

emitting the illumination light in a first time interval; and

emitting the structured light in a second time interval not overlapping with the first time interval.

19. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein detecting the scene depth across the field of view of the endoscopic system includes co-registering a first scene signal of the photodetector and a second scene signal of a second photodetector of the endoscopic system; establishing a correspondence between the first scene signal and the second scene signal; and generating a depth map based on the first scene signal and the second scene signal.

20. A method for correcting brightness non-uniformity of an endoscopic system, the method comprising:

illuminating a scene with a light source of an endoscopic system;

generating a scene signal with a photodetector based on illumination light reflected off of the scene;

detecting a scene depth across an endoscopic system field of view;

estimating a scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction based on the detected scene depth and an endoscopic system brightness non-uniformity profile; and

displaying an image of the scene with a display of the endoscopic system based on the scene signal, the detected scene depth, and the scene-specific brightness non-uniformity correction.