RESUMO
High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging is a digital image processing technique used to produce a wider range of brightness and color by using multiple captures of a scene taken with different exposures times. It enables capturing more details and producing a more natural-looking image with less washed-out highlights and deeper, more saturated colors. In medical endoscopy, HDR imaging enhances the visibility and clarity of images captured during endoscopy procedures. It provides enhanced visualization of subtler details in both dark cavities and bright areas, resulting in a uniformly exposed view and improved contrast among various tissue types. Standard HDR imaging methods are often complex and computationally demanding, making them unsuitable for performance-critical applications like endoscopy, where real-time performance is crucial. This paper introduces a more efficient and less complex method for achieving HDR-like image quality in real time. The method takes a high-pixel-bit-depth frame and generates multiple low-pixel-bit-depth frames and uses them to generate the high quality image. The focus of the paper is to enhance endoscopic image quality using HDR imaging, and the proposed method is demonstrated to be effective in achieving this goal with real-time performance. The method is implemented in the FPGA System-on-a-Chip (SoC) of a bronchoscope video processor system, and its effectiveness is verified through a simulated study using a phantom, which confirms the improved image quality and real-time performance.