A lighting unit has a plurality of light sources that emits excitation light having relative spectral distributions different from each other. An imaging unit simultaneously captures an image of fluorescent light emitted from the subject by the excitation light and an image of reflected light obtained by reflecting the excitation light by the subject, to generate a captured image. The arithmetic unit calculates a relative spectral distribution of the fluorescent light emitted from the subject by using the information about the relative spectral distribution of the reflected light for each of the plurality of light sources stored in the memory and the captured image for each of the plurality of light sources generated by the imaging unit.

An imaging device includes an image sensor. The image sensor includes: a light receiving unit having pixels configured to receive light and generate an imaging signal according to an amount of the received light; a color filter having a filter unit disposed corresponding to the pixels, the filter unit including first band filters for passing light of a wavelength band of a primary color or a complementary color and including at least one second band filter for passing narrow-band light whose wavelength band is narrower than the wavelength band of the light passing through each of the first band filters; and an output unit configured to output the imaging signal under conditions that an amount of light incident on a second pixel corresponding to the at least one second band filter is greater than an amount of light incident on each of first pixels corresponding to the first band filters.

An endoscope includes: a light source for emitting white light or narrow band light; a color filter having a first filter for passing light in WLI and NBI, a second filter for passing light in WLI, a third filter for passing light in NBI; and a demosaicing processor that: generates a color image signal based on a luminance component in WLI under the white light; and performs interpolation for a pixel of a luminance component in WLI at a position of a pixel corresponding to the first filter using a pixel corresponding to the second filter under the narrow band light, and then, performs interpolation for a pixel of a luminance component in NBI at the position of the pixel corresponding to the first filter based on a pixel corresponding to the first filter and the pixel of the luminance component in WLI, thereby generating a color image signal.

A light emitting device includes a light source that emits a primary light having a light energy density exceeding 0.5W/mm.sup.2, and a first phosphor that absorbs the primary light to convert the primary light into a first wavelength-converted light having a wavelength longer than that of the primary light. The first phosphor includes a compound serving as a host, the compound being a simple oxide including one kind of metal element or a composite oxide including a plurality of different kinds of the simple oxide as an end member. When an energy conversion value at a peak wavelength of the primary light is E1 electron volts and an energy conversion value at a fluorescence peak wavelength of the first wavelength-converted light is E2 electron volts, a bandgap energy of a crystal of the simple oxide is larger than a sum of the E1 electron volts and the E2 electron volts.

An illuminator apparatus and method for illuminating an object field imaged by a rectangular image sensor having a first aspect ratio is disclosed. The apparatus includes an optical fiber having a proximal end disposed to receive a plurality of input light beams, each light beam having differing spectral properties, the optical fiber being operable to transmit the light beams along the fiber to a distal end of the optical fiber. The apparatus also includes an integrating element disposed to receive the light beams from the distal end of the fiber and combine the light beams to produce a generally homogenous illumination beam at a rectangular output face of the integrating element. The apparatus further includes an illumination projector operable to project an image of the output face of the integrating element into the object field to produce a generally rectangular illuminated region of the object field substantially corresponding to the portion of the object field imaged by the rectangular image sensor.

An endoscopic system includes a single-use portion and a multiple-use portion. The two portions can be mated and un-mated. The single-use portion includes an elongated cannula that has a bendable section near its distal end providing a “steerable” distal tip. The imaging system includes at least two separate cameras and two separate light sources. The camera and light sources are configured to simultaneously image a target object. By employing different illuminations, different filters and manipulating the spectral responses, different characteristics of the target object can be captured. According to some embodiments, a system processor can coordinate the cameras, the light sources and combine the resulting images to display to an operator an enhanced combined image the object.

An endoscope device includes: an image sensor that has a first color filter and a second color filter and that acquires a first image signal based on a first light transmitted through the first color filter and a second image signal based on a second light transmitted through the second color filter; and one or more processors configured to: perform color separation processing and individual-difference correction processing; and respectively allocate the first and second image signals after the processings being performed to first and second channels of a color image signal. The color separation processing is processing in which the second and first light are subtracted from the first and second image signals, respectively. The individual-difference correction processing is processing in which, for each image signals, an error is corrected based on the difference in spectral characteristics between the color filter and a reference color filter.

Driving an emitter to emit pulses of electromagnetic radiation according to a jitter specification in a hyperspectral, fluorescence, and laser mapping imaging system is described. A system includes an emitter for emitting pulses of electromagnetic radiation and an image sensor comprising a pixel array for sensing reflected electromagnetic radiation. The system includes a driver for driving emissions by the emitter according to a jitter specification. The system is h that at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter comprises one or more of a hyperspectral emission, a fluorescence emission, and/or a laser mapping pattern.

A hybrid spectral imager apparatus has an imaging head arrangement (IHA), a control and processing unit (CPU), and a display. The IHA includes an optical imager, multiband filtering optics (MBFO), and a sensor arrangement. The optical imager collects and focuses an image of a target scene or object along an imaging path. The multiband optics includes a beam divider for generating at least two replica images of the target image, and a multiband filter (MF) interposed into the imaging path and effecting multi-bandpass filtering in the image replicas. The sensor arrangement has at least one Mosaic filter array (MFA) focal plane array (FPA) sensor onto which the multiband filtered image replicas are focused, and a focal plane array masked, in a pixelized manner, with at least three wide-band primary color-type filters, with each primary color-type response separating and capturing one single-band. The CPU is coupled to the IHA and is configured to execute program instructions for calibrating image acquisition processes, controlling and synchronizing the acquisition/capturing of the image replicas by the MFA sensor arrangement, and spectrally purifying the MFA sensor arrangement responses to compensate band cross-talking between the MFA and the MF. The display is configured to display on a user interface at least the acquired single-band images. The CPU is further configured to reconstruct and display, on the display, a set of at least three different single-band images per MFA-FPA sensor employed. The IHA is configured to capture sets of different single-band images for video snapshot spectral imaging at desired spectral bands within the FPA sensor arrangement spectral sensitivity range.

The invention provides systems and methods for imaging a sample. In various embodiments, the invention provides a system comprising an image sensor, a laser for emitting excitation light for an infrared or near-infrared fluorophore, a visible light source, a notch beam splitter, a notch filter, a synchronization module, an image processing unit, an image displaying unit, and light-conducting channels. In various embodiments, the present invention provides a system comprising an image sensor, a laser for emitting excitation light for an infrared or near-infrared fluorophore, a laser clean-up filter, a notch filter, a white light source, an image processing unit, an image displaying unit, and light-conducting channels. In accordance with the present invention, the image sensor can detect both visible light and infrared light.