Image capture apparatus

• US 20040208373A1
• Filed: 01/26/2004
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Goto, Makoto, Aoki, Takahiro, Watanabe, Masaki, Endoh, Toshio, Fukui, Satoshi, Fukuda, Mitsuaki, Chinzei, Kiyoshi, Kimura, Shuji, Sugiura, Takayuki, Miki, Atsushi, Gotoh, Mitsuhiro, Nakano, Mieko, Fujimoto, Naoyuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,406,198 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/143 Sensing or illuminating at different wavelengths

Abstract

An image capture apparatus is placed on a desk, etc., and an object to be captured is presented above the apparatus. An illumination device can emit light of a plurality of wavelengths, and a camera captures an image of an object to be captured using different wavelengths. By processing an image using different wavelengths, the material of the object to be captured can be obtained. The captured image is compared with a recorded image stored in the image capture apparatus, etc., and used in image determination.

Claims

1. An image capture apparatus, comprising:

a camera for capturing image data of an object to be captured;

an illumination illuminating the object to be captured using a plurality of wavelengths;

a storage unit storing a recorded image of an object to be captured;

a comparison-determination unit comparing the recorded image with obtained image data of the object to be captured and determining whether or not the image and the data match each other; and

a material determination unit determining the material of the object to be captured from the image of the object to be captured which has been obtained using the plurality of wavelengths, wherein

said image data can be obtained by placing the object to be captured above the camera and the illumination.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said illumination has a plurality of light sources having intensity peaks of different wavelengths, switches these light sources, and obtains an image of the object to be captured using the plurality of wavelengths.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said illumination has a light source emitting light of a continuous range of wavelengths, and when the camera captures an image, an image of a specific wavelength is obtained using a filter.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a brightness correction unit correcting a difference in brightness of illumination of light between different wavelengths on the object to be captured.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

said brightness correction unit comprises a brightness correction table storing a correction coefficient for correction of brightness.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a distance sensor measuring a distance to the object to be captured, wherein

said brightness correction unit comprises a brightness correction table storing a correction coefficient for correction of brightness for each distance to the object to be captured.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

material determination is performed on the object to be captured using a part of an image of the object to be captured.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

as a result of the material determination, information about a capturing operation in which a different material is detected is stored when the material of the object to be captured is determined to be different from a predetermined material.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

an image obtained using one wavelength emitted by the illumination is compared with the recorded image.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a monitor unit indicating to a user a state in which the object to be captured is held.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

image data are obtained using different wavelengths between an even-numbered row and an odd-numbered row of a scanning line of an image obtained by said camera.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image buffer storing an obtained image, wherein

image data is obtained first for material determination, image data only required for the material determination is stored, image data for comparison with the recorded image is obtained, and image data is obtained in a reverse order, thereby setting memory requirements for an image buffer smaller than an amount of data which can be stored in the image buffer.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a brightness correction unit having a brightness correction table storing a correction coefficient for correction of brightness to correct a difference in brightness of light between different wavelengths emitted to the object to be captured.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

said brightness correction table is generated by comparing data obtained when said image capture apparatus performs a first operation with recorded data using the obtained data when similarity is within a predetermined range.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

a standard reflecting object is captured together with the object to be captured to correct a difference in brightness of the object to be captured and illuminated by light having different wavelengths.

16. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a network communications function.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein

The recorded image and wavelength characteristic of the recorded image are recorded in the apparatus connected over a network, or the recorded image and the wavelength characteristic of the recorded image are updated at an instruction from the apparatus.

18. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein

in network communications, encrypted data are communicated.

19. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an external storage medium access unit reading data from an external storage medium, wherein

the recorded image and wavelength characteristic of the recorded image are recorded and updated from the external storage medium.

20. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a peripheral image capture camera capturing a state of a surrounding area when the object to be captured is taken.