3-D shape recovery of luminal wall from WCE image

The Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is a state-of-the-art imaging technique used to view the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract. With this technique, the clinicians can detect diseases such as obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, polyp, Crohn´s and celiac disease. However, like other endoscopes, the WCE provides only 2-D images. The real anatomical structure of the observed lesion is unavailable and can only be judged by the clinician´s imagination. In this paper, we use shape from shading (SFS) technique to generate 3-D structures from 2-D endoscopic images. For the three assumptions of the SFS technique, we propose a preprocessing method for endoscopic image. Experiments with real WCE data demonstrate good 3-D shape recovery performance. Smooth and visually scene can be created based on the pre-processed endoscopic image, while preserving the structure of the observed objects without any hardware upgrades. The 3-D shape enhances the video and therefore improves the viewing of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract leading to a more accurate diagnosis.