Image Capture and Video Processing Systems and Methods for Multiple Viewing Element Endoscopes

A multiple sensor endoscope system and a video processing method, wherein the system includes an endoscope having a plurality of daisy chained image sensors and a central control unit, is described. At least one daisy-chained image sensor includes a sensor array for capturing images and generating video packets from the captured images, a video compression unit configured to compress the video packets, a self-packet buffer configured to store the video packets, a serial-to-parallel de-serializer input unit configured to convert serialized input video packets to parallel data, a chain packet buffer configured to store the video packets received from previous-in-chain image sensors, an arbitration unit configured to interleave the stored video packets, and a serial output unit configured to output serially the interleaved video packets. The central control unit is configured to de-interleave the video packets and regenerate separated images as captured by the plurality of daisy chain image sensors.