In this paper we present possibilities of improving conventional and fluorescence bronchoscopic diagnosis by means of digital image processing methods. After a description of the particularities of the bronchoscopic imaging system on one hand and the state-of-the-art in real-time digital image processing on the other hand, we present a series of methods which improve bronchoscopic diagnosis. These methods are based on real-time processing of the bronchoscopic images in video form. Among them, spatial and temporal filtering have been implemented with good results. For further improvements of the bronchoscopy in general and the fluorescence bronchoscopy in particular, we propose two other methods which are histogram equalization and the generation of an intrinsic fluorescence image.

Date Published: 7 December 1981
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 0292, Processing of Images and Data from Optical Sensors, (7 December 1981); doi: 10.1117/12.932829

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0292:
Processing of Images and Data from Optical Sensors
William H. Carter, Editor(s)