Novel Points of View for Endoscopy: Panoramized Intraluminal Opened Image and 3D Shape Reconstruction

Endoscopic image of the tubular organs is recorded as discontinuous shots taken from a fixed angle without 3D or objective information. Presentation of a 3D picture of intraluminal cavity of the tubular organ covering whole-range of observation from continuous endoscopic video frames would be effective for the diagnosis and identification of the lesion, as well as offering intuitive information to the patients. In this paper, a new method for processing virtual endoscopy from "actual" endoscopic video images is proposed to observe the internal structures of tubular organs. The method consists of two steps of processing: 1. the panoramic image is processed from video image of endoscopy or the tubular organs where the endoscope was pulled at a constant speed automatically using a stepper motor or manually by a doctor. 2. the 3D-height information was extracted from a panoramic image using the intensity of the pixel based on the inverse-square low. This method is carried out under the assumption that the same part of the organ has similar property of reflection and the endoscope is the only source of illumination inside the body. The extracted height information will correspond with the distance between the point of the object and the endoscope. Finally, the virtual tubular object is reconstructed with the panoramic image texture. This method makes use of the advantages of conventional virtual endoscopy processed from "actual" endoscopic images, affording intuitive, multi-angle observation of the objects with color information and fine resolution. To date, virtual endoscopic images have been successfully processed from endoscopic video files for the colon, esophagus, ureter, and the urethra. Such images offer sharing of intuitive information for doctors and patients, and are promising in improving the accuracy of diagnosing the lesions.