Bounded iterative thresholding for lumen region detection in endoscopic images

Abstract

The development of a fully automated robotic endoscopic steering system has been an active area of research for more than a decade. This paper aims at proposing a hardware-efficient iterative thresholding strategy to locate the lumen region in captured endoscopic images in order to enhance traditional endoscopes with certain degree of autonomy and intelligence. The proposed method is characterized by a definite requirement on the number of iterations of thresholding in order to detect the lumen region. The proposed algorithm has been demonstrated to be robust against varying characteristics using real endoscopic sample images. The reduction in the number of operations required by the proposed method can be up to 71% compared to a previously reported method. FPGA synthesis results of the proposed approach confirm its viability for real-time realization.