Method and apparatus for real-time detection of polyps in optical colonoscopy

Abstract

A method for performing real-time detection and displaying of polyps in optical colonoscopy, includes a) acquiring and displaying a plurality of real-time images within colon regions to a video stream frame rate, each real-time image comprising a plurality of color channels; b) selecting one single color channel per real-time image for obtaining single color pixels; c) scanning the single color pixels across each the real-time image with a sliding sub-window; d) for each position of the sliding sub-window, extracting a plurality of single color pixels local features of the real-time image; e) passing the extracted single color pixels local features of the real-time image through a classifier to determine if a polyp is present within the sliding sub-window; f) real-time framing on display of colon regions corresponding to positions of the sliding sub-window wherein polyps are detected. A system for carrying out such a method is also provided.