Fluorescent image system

Abstract

The present invention relates to a fluorescent image system capable of generating white light by mixing three monochromatic lights, i.e. red, green and blue monochromatic lights, having a narrow band wavelength, instead of white light of constant wavelength; providing a fluorescent image-use light source that generates a mixed light by adding a fluorescent excitation light source suitable for fluorescent substances; and photographing a general image and fluorescent image simultaneously with the light sources. The fluorescent image system includes a monochromatic light source to generate white light by mixing red, green and blue monochromatic lights, and a fluorescent excitation light source for fluorescent images; and includes a mixed light source to provide a mixed light which mixes monochromatic light and fluorescent light, and an image photographing device which separates the wavelengths of visible light and fluorescent light in the mixed light, and photographs a general image, fluorescent image and mixed image.

Claims

1. A fluorescent imaging system, comprising: a mixed light source including a monochromatic light source generating a white light from mixing red, green, and blue monochromatic light, and a fluorescent excitation light source for fluorescent imaging, wherein the mixed light source provides a monochromatic light and a fluorescent light; and an imaging device separating visible light and fluorescent light from the mixed light and taking a normal light image, a fluorescent image, and mixture of the normal light image and the fluorescent image.

2. The fluorescent imaging system of claim 1, wherein the wavelength of the fluorescence is in a range of the visible light, and the imaging device comprises: monochromatic mirrors, comprising a red-light mirror, a green-light mirror, and a blue-light mirror that separates red, green, and blue monochromatic light, respectively from the mixed light source; a fluorescent mirror that separates the fluorescent light and transmit it to a fluorescent imaging device; a normal light imaging device that takes a normal light image by mixing the separated monochromatic lights from the monochromatic mirrors; and the fluorescent imaging device that takes a fluorescent image from the fluorescent light separated from the fluorescent mirror.

3. The fluorescent imaging system of claim 1, wherein in case of the wavelength of the fluorescence is longer than the visible light, the imaging device comprises: a monochromatic mirror, comprising a red-light mirror that separates all the other light of which wavelength are shorter than the red light from the mixed light source; a normal light imaging device that takes a normal light image from the visible light separated from the red-light mirror; and a fluorescent imaging device that takes a fluorescent image from the fluorescent light separated from the red-light mirror.

4. The fluorescent imaging system of claim 1, wherein in case of the wavelength of the fluorescence is shorter than the blue light, the imaging device comprises: a fluorescent mirror, separating the fluorescent light of which wavelength is shorter than the blue light and the white light from the mixed light source, and transmitting the separated fluorescent light to a fluorescent imaging device; a normal light imaging device that takes a normal light image from the visible light separated from the fluorescent mirror; and the fluorescent imaging device that takes a fluorescent image from the fluorescent light separated from the fluorescent mirror.

5. The fluorescent imaging system of claim 1, wherein the mixed light source is generated by mixing the red, green, and blue light having wavelengths of about 590750, 480570, and 370460 nm, respectively.

6. The fluorescent imaging system of claim 1, wherein the fluorescence excitation light source applies to at least one fluorescent material among indocyanine green, fluorescein, and 5-ALA.

7. The fluorescent imaging system of claim 1, further comprising intensity control devices for adjusting the color temperature when mixing the red, green, and blue monochromatic light to generate the white light.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a detailed structure of a mixed light source in the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(2) FIG. 2 is a graph showing a principle of the reconstructed white light illumination from RGB monochromatic light in the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(3) FIG. 3 is a CIE chromaticity diagram illustrating the RGB gamut in the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(4) FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a detailed configuration of the imaging device in the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(5) FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a first embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(6) FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a second embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(7) FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a third embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(8) FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a fourth embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention.

(9) FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the concept of illuminating and acquiring images for the fluorescent imaging system when two fluorescent materials are in use according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(10) A detailed description of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention follows.

(11) The fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention comprises mainly of a mixed light source 50 and an imaging system 100. The mixed light source 50 comprises a reconstructed white light with red, green, and blue monochromatic lights combined and a fluorescent excitation light.

(12) FIG. 1 is a diagram diagram showing a detailed structure of a mixed light source 50 according to the present invention. A controller 10 controls red-light source 1, green-light source 2, and blue-light source 3 to produce red, green, and blue monochromatic lights. In the present invention, each red, green, and blue light sources 1, 2, 3 having narrow bandwidth may be produced by narrow-band sources such as laser or LED, or by filtering using a narrow band-pass optical filter and a continuous white light source.

(13) In detail, human recognizes the light having a wavelength of 380780 nm between the UV and IR as shown in FIG. 2. The human eye is known to aware more selectively with red, green, and blue light in this visible range and the brain recognizes various colors in combination of these three colors. In the CIE chromaticity diagram, light coordinated inside the triangle may be obtained in combination of the three colors, red, green, and blue. That is, red, green, and blue light can be properly mixed to make white light even though there may be slight differences or shift in each wavelength range. A reconstructed white light having vacant wavelength regions for fluorescent excitation light and fluorescent emission light may be made using two or more red, green and blue light in combination.

(14) When various monochromatic LEDs are used for source, a variety of color coordinates may be selected to get similar white light because LEDs have narrow bandwidth having the half-width less than 20 nm. White light mixed with general R+G+B LEDs renders color quite correctly, but the white light using LEDs having narrow bandwidth according to the present invention may be hard to render natural white light having high color rendering index (CRI). However, the color rendering quality may be improved by combining more than three monochromatic lights or may be compensated by alternately illuminating with white light.

(15) Red, green, and blue light do not have fixed wavelength range, and proper mixing of them may result in a white color. The mixed light source 50 according to the present invention is a combination of red light ranging 590750 nm, green light ranging 480570 nm, and blue light ranging 370460 nm. It may have a variety of combination as follows.

(16) Combination Example 1BGR 460 nm+510 nm+610 nm

(17) Combination Example 2BGR 480 nm+540 nm+700 nm

(18) Additionally, in the present invention, it is desirable to further include an intensity control device for each monochromatic light of red, green, and blue to adjust the color temperature of the mixed light source 50.

(19) The monochromatic lights generated from the red-light source 1, the green-light source 2, and the blue-light source 3 is reflected by each monochromatic light mirror 21, 22, 23, which is a dichroic mirror, then transmitted to the mixing apparatus 51.

(20) In addition, the mixed light source 50 according to the present invention comprises at least one fluorescent excitation light sources 41, 42, 43, 44 that applies to the specific fluorescent material. The fluorescent excitation light sources 41, 42, 43, 44 are respectively equipped with a dedicated optical filter and a source-side fluorescent mirror 31, 32, 33 according to the wavelength of the excitation light.

(21) The mixed light source according to the present invention provides such mixed light source that has a reconstructed white light and a fluorescent excitation light suitable for the fluorescent material in use. Wherein the reconstructed white light is made by mixing red, green, and blue monochromatic light having narrow bandwidth devoid of some spectrum range for the fluorescence excitation and imaging.

(22) The imaging system 100 takes a normal light image, fluorescent image, and the mixture of both by separating visible light and fluorescent light reflected from the object illuminated by the mixed light source 50. The imaging system 100 according to the present invention comprises a monochromatic mirror, an imaging-side fluorescent mirror, a normal light imaging device, and a fluorescent imaging device.

(23) The monochromatic mirror separates at least one monochromatic light among the red, green, and blue monochromatic light from the reflected mixed light 50. The monochromatic mirror can be arranged in multiple places according to the location of the natural imaging device.

(24) The monochromatic light mirror in an embodiment of the present invention comprises a pair of blue-light mirrors 71, 72, green-light mirrors 73, 74, and red-light mirrors 75, 76 that reflect the monochromatic light separately according to its corresponding wavelength.

(25) Each monochromatic light mirror according to the present invention may be omitted or integrated according to the wavelength of fluorescence.

(26) The fluorescent mirrors 61, 62, 63 at the imaging system separate the fluorescence light and transmit it to the fluorescent imaging devices. A total of three fluorescent mirrors 61, 62, 63 is comprised in the imaging system in the embodiment of the present invention.

(27) The normal light imaging device 81 takes image by combining each separated monochromatic light from the blue-light mirrors 71, 72, green-light mirrors 73, 74, and red-light mirror 75, 76. The fluorescent imaging devices 82, 83, 84, 85 take images from the emitted fluorescent light from the fluorescent mirrors 61, 62, 63 and may be comprised of a plurality of mirrors depending on the number of fluorescent materials used.

(28) FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention, and it may correspond in particular to a case of imaging the fluorescence of the indocyanine green and the normal light image.

(29) The indocyanine green has an excitation wavelength of 780 nm and an emission wavelength of 850 nm, longer beyond visible light wavelength. Thus, the imaging device 100 may have only the red-light mirror 75, so the normal light imaging device 81 receives the reflected white light mixed with RGB light, and the fluorescent imaging device 85 receives the transmitted fluorescent light through the red-light mirror 75, both at the same time.

(30) FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention, and the fluorescent mirror 84 is placed between the red-light mirror 75 and the green-light mirror 73 as the emission wavelength of the fluorescence is in between the red-light and the green-light. This second embodiment may apply to the fluorescent material 5-ALA, to get the fluorescent image and normal light image simultaneously. The 5-ALA has an excitation wavelength of 380440 nm and an emission wavelength of 635 nm. Thus, the excitation light source is placed in the shorter wavelength range before the blue-light source 3, and the fluorescent mirror 63 is placed between the red-light mirror 75 and the green-light mirror 73.

(31) FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention; it may correspond in particular to a case of imaging the fluorescence of the fluorescein and the normal light image. The fluorescein has an excitation wavelength of 494 nm and an emission wavelength of 521 nm. Thus, the excitation light enters in between the green-light source 2 and the blue-light source 3 in the second embodiment of the white light mixer, and the fluorescent mirror 62 is located between the green-light mirror 73 and the blue-light mirror 71.

(32) FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a fourth embodiment of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention, and all monochromatic light mirrors may be omitted except the fluorescent mirror 61 when the emission wavelength of the fluorescence is shorter than that of the blue-light.

(33) FIG. 9 is a view showing the concept of illuminating and acquiring images for the fluorescent imaging system when two fluorescent materials are in use according to the present invention, and this concept demonstrates simultaneous imaging of the fluorescence of 5-ALA and indocyanine green along with the normal light image.

(34) As described above, the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention may provide a simultaneous imaging system of the normal light image and the fluorescent image by combining the fluorescent excitation light suitable for the fluorescent material with the reconstructed white light from the monochromatic red, green, and blue light rather than with the continuous white light.

(35) While particular embodiments of the fluorescent imaging system according to the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention, and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of this invention.