Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an approximate-surface calculator that calculates multiple approximate surfaces that each approximate the pixel value of a pixel included in an examination-target region of an image; an approximate-surface selector that selects at least one approximate surface from the approximate surfaces on the basis of the relation between the pixel value of the pixel in the examination-target region and the approximate surfaces; an approximate-region setting unit that sets an approximate region that is approximated by at least the selected one approximate surface; and an abnormal-region detector that detects an abnormal region on the basis of the pixel value of a pixel in the approximate region and the value corresponding to the coordinates of that pixel on at least one approximate surface.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an area dividing unit that divides an image obtained by capturing inside of a body lumen into one or more areas by using a value of a specific wavelength component that is specified in accordance with a degree of absorption or scattering in vivo from a plurality of wavelength components included in the image or wavelength components obtained by conversion of the plurality of wavelength components; and a target-of-interest site specifying unit that specifies a target-of-interest site in the area by using a discriminant criterion in accordance with an area obtained by the division.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus according to an embodiment that processes time-series images that include a plurality of images captured in time series includes an interval setting unit that sets a time-series interval on the basis of a variation between images of the time-series images; and an area classifying unit that performs, in an image included in the time-series interval, classification into a plurality of category areas using a classification reference for each time-series interval set by the interval setting unit.

Abstract: An image processing device includes a feature value calculating unit that calculates a color feature value of each pixel or each segment inside at least one of a series of images captured by an image pickup device while moving inside a gastrointestinal tract; a color feature value estimating unit that, based on data distribution of the color feature value of each pixel or each segment, estimates color feature value data representing mucous membrane and color feature value data representing gastrointestinal contents; and a discrimination boundary setting unit that, based on the estimated color feature value data, sets a color feature value discrimination boundary between mucous membrane and gastrointestinal contents.

Abstract: In an image processing device that discriminates between a mucosal region and a non-mucosal region that are contained in an intraluminal image, the image processing device includes a residue candidate region detecting unit that detects a residue candidate region to be discriminated whether the candidate region is a mucosal region or not, on the basis of a feature data of each pixel that constitutes the intraluminal image, a structure edge region detecting unit that detects a structure edge contained in the intraluminal image, and an approximate structure edge line calculating unit and an overlap deciding unit that discriminate whether the residue candidate region is a mucosal region or not, based on a relative positional relationship between the structure edge and the residue candidate region.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a gradient magnitude calculating unit that calculates a gradient magnitude of each pixel on the basis of pixel values of a target image in which a predetermined target object is imaged; a candidate-edge detecting unit that detects contour-candidate edge positions on the basis of the gradient magnitude of each pixel; a reference-range setting unit that sets a reference range, which is to be referred to when a contour edge position is selected from among the contour-candidate edge positions, on the basis of the gradient magnitude of each pixel; and a contour-edge selecting unit that selects, as the contour edge position, one of the contour-candidate edge positions in the reference range.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for performing an image processing on a body cavity image captured in a living body includes: a storage unit which stores information including image information of the body cavity image; a change amount calculator which reads out the image information of the body cavity image from the storage unit and calculates, in the read body cavity image, a pixel value change amount of a pixel of interest with a plurality of surrounding pixels located around the pixel of interest; and a candidate lesion region detector which detects a candidate lesion region in the body cavity image based on a calculation result of the change amount calculator.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a calculating unit that calculates gradient strength of respective pixel values based on an intraluminal image, an extracting unit that extracts a closed region from the image, and a detecting unit that detects an abnormal portion of the closed region. The closed region satisfies conditions that the pixel of which gradient strength is a predetermined value or more is not included in the closed region and a boundary of the closed region does not bend with predetermined curvature or higher toward an inner side of the closed region. The extracting unit includes a setting unit that sets an initial closed region based on the gradient strength, an energy calculating unit that calculates values of types of energies based on an outer shape of the closed region and the gradient strength, and an energy weighted-sum calculating unit that calculates a weighted sum of the types of energy.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a gradient strength calculating unit that calculates a gradient strength of respective pixel values based on an intraluminal image; an extracting unit that extracts a closed region satisfying conditions that the pixel of which gradient strength is a predetermined value or more is not included in the region and a boundary of the region does not bend with a predetermined curvature or higher toward an inner side of the region; and a detecting unit that detects an abnormal portion inside the region. The extracting unit includes a setting unit that sets an initial shape of the region; an energy calculating unit that calculates values of types of energy including at least energies determined respectively by an outer shape of the region and the gradient strength; and an energy-weighted sum calculating unit that calculates a weighted sum of the types of energy.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for performing an image processing on a body cavity image captured in a living body includes: a storage unit which stores information including image information of the body cavity image; a change amount calculator which reads out the image information of the body cavity image from the storage unit and calculates, in the read body cavity image, a pixel value change amount of a pixel of interest with a plurality of surrounding pixels located around the pixel of interest; and a candidate lesion region detector which detects a candidate lesion region in the body cavity image based on calculation result of the change amount calculator.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an identification criterion creating unit that creates an identification criterion so as to enable identification of specific regions in a target image to be processed that is selected in chronological order from among images constituting a set of time-series images; includes a feature data calculating unit that calculates the feature data of each segmented region in the target image to be processed; and includes a specific region identifying unit that, based on the feature data of each segmented region, identifies the specific regions in the target image to be processed by using the identification criterion. Moreover, the identification criterion creating unit creates the identification criterion based on the pieces of feature data of the specific regions identified in the images that have been already processed.

Abstract: An image processing device includes: a candidate abnormal region determining unit that determines a candidate abnormal region from an image using a first determination criterion; a bubble region determining unit that determines a bubble region from the image; a bubble inside determining unit that determines whether the candidate abnormal region is present inside the bubble region based on a determination result of the bubble region; and an abnormal region determining unit that determines whether the candidate abnormal region is an abnormal region using a second determination criterion different from the first determination criterion when the candidate abnormal region is determined to be present inside the bubble region.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a category area dividing unit that divides each image constituting the time-series images of an object to be examined, which are captured in time series, into category areas including an examined area and an abnormal candidate area, the examined area showing the object to be examined, the abnormal candidate area being possibly an abnormal area showing an abnormal site of the object to be examined; an optical flow calculator that calculates optical flows of the examined area and the abnormal candidate area from images constituting the time-series images; and an abnormal area detector that compares the optical flow of the examined area and the optical flow of the abnormal candidate area, and detects the abnormal candidate area as the abnormal area according to the result of the comparison.

Abstract: An image processing device includes: a non-target region detecting unit that detects a region that is not to be examined as a non-target region from an image; a pixel-of-interest region setting unit that sets a pixel-of-interest region in a predetermined area including a pixel-of-interest position in the image; a surrounding region determining unit that determines a surrounding region, which is an area for acquiring information for use in forming a reference plane with respect to the pixel-of-interest position, based on the non-target region; a reference plane forming unit that forms the reference plane based on the information in the surrounding region; and an outlier pixel detecting unit that detects an outlier pixel having a pixel value numerically distant from circumferential values based on a difference between corresponding quantities of the reference plane at each pixel position and of the original image.

Abstract: An image processing device includes: a feature data calculator configured to calculate the feature data of each pixel in an image; an approximate shape calculator configured to calculate an approximate shape approximating a profile of a distribution area in which the feature data is distributed in a feature space having the feature data as an element; and an abnormal area detector configured to detect an abnormal area in the image based on the approximate shape and the profile of the distribution area.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a corresponding region connecting unit that connects regions that depict the same target between a series of images captured in time series, thereby sets at least one connected region; a connected region feature data calculation unit that calculates feature data of the connected region; a digest index value calculation unit that calculates a digest index value corresponding to a degree at which the target depicted in the series of images is aggregated in each image of the series of images, based on the feature data; and a digest image detector that detects a digest image based on the digest index value.

Abstract: An image processing device classifies a region of interest included in an image into multiple classification items. The image processing device has: an initial region detector that detects at least part of the region of interest and sets the part as an initial region; an expansion region detector that detects an expansion region by expanding the initial region; and a region determining unit that calculates feature data of the initial region and the expansion region, and determines, based on the feature data, to which of the multiple classification items the region of interest belongs.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a distance information calculator that calculates distance information corresponding to a distance to an imaging object at each of portions in an image; a feature data calculator that calculates feature data at each portion in the image; a feature data distribution calculator that calculates a distribution of the feature data in each of regions that are classified according to the distance information in the image; a reliability determining unit that determines the reliability of the distribution of the feature data in each of the regions; and a discrimination criterion generator that generates, for each of the regions, a discrimination criterion for discriminating a specific region in the image based on a determination result of the reliability and the distribution of the feature data in each of the regions.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a small area divider that divides, on the basis of edge information of an image, the image into multiple small areas each including multiple pixels; an attribute probability estimator that estimates attribute probability for each of the small areas, which is probability that the small area is attributed to a specific area to be detected; an adjacent-small-area connection strength calculator that calculates connection strength that quantitatively indicates a degree to which small areas adjacent to each other among the multiple small areas are attributed to the same area that is the specific area or a non-specific area; and a specific area detector that detects the specific area on the basis of the attribute probability and the connection strength.

Abstract: An image processing device includes a region-of-interest detecting unit that detects a region of interest from each of sequence images acquired in chronological order; a region dividing unit that divides a plurality of images temporally neighboring to each other into regions based on region-of-interest detection results obtained from the plurality of images; an inter-image variation calculating unit that calculates an inter-image variation between the plurality of images based on a variation in each region obtained by the division by the region dividing unit; and a display-condition setting unit that sets a display condition for each image based on the inter-image variation.