Imaging apparatus

• US 20050285945A1
• Filed: 04/25/2005
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxell, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Nakano, Norihiko, Usui, Tsutomu, Kamimura, Junji
• Granted Patent: US 7,847,816 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.99
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/133 Equalising the characteristics of different image components, e.g. their average brightness or colour balance
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/239 using two 2D image sensors having a relative position equal to or related to the interocular distance H04N13/243 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/41 Extracting pixel data from a plurality of image sensors simultaneously picking up an image, e.g. for increasing the field of view by combining the outputs of a plurality of sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2624 for obtaining an image which is composed of whole input images, e.g. splitscreen

Abstract

In an imaging apparatus having two imaging devices, a converter module which synthesizes the two signals of each horizontal line produced from the two imaging devices to thereby convert the two signals into a single composite signal, a line memory which cooperates with the converter module to convert the signals, a line delay module which accumulates the output signals from the converter module, a line memory which cooperates with the line delay module to accumulate the signals, an exposure controller, an auto focus controller, a white balance controller, a color signal processor module, a luminance signal processor module, and an arithmetic processor module for stereo imaging process, the output signals from the plurality of imaging devices are converted to the single composite signal and processed on a one-channel processing basis.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

two imaging devices;

a converter module which receives output signals of each horizontal line from said two imaging devices and cooperates with a line memory to convert said output signals of each horizontal line to a single composite signal, thus producing said composite signal of each horizontal line; and

a single camera signal processor which processes the output signal from said converter module and produces a video signal containing at least a luminance signal.

2. An imaging apparatus comprising:

two imaging devices;

a converter module which synthesizes two signals of each horizontal line produced from said two imaging devices to thereby convert said two signals to a single composite signal;

a line memory which cooperates with said converter module to convert said two signals;

a line delay module which accumulates the signals produced from said converter module;

a line memory which cooperates with said line delay module to accumulate said signals from said converter module;

an exposure controller;

an auto focus controller;

a white balance controller;

a color signal processor module;

a luminance signal processor module;

a stereo imaging processor module which makes arithmetic operation for stereo imaging; and

an object/feature recognition-processing module to recognize objects and features.

3. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said apparatus is constructed by said two imaging devices and a one-channel signal processor including said other elements.

4. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said exposure controller, said auto focus controller and said white balance controller make control by using only one component signal of said composite signal formed by said converter module.

5. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said exposure controller, said auto focus controller and said white balance controller make control by using the average of said two component signals of said composite signal formed by said converter module.

6. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said exposure controller, said auto focus controller and said white balance controller make control by using an alternate one of said two component signals of said composite signal formed by said converter module.

7. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when either one or both of said two imaging devices are monochrome, said color signal processor module does not make color signal processing for the signal or signals from said monochrome imaging device or devices.

8. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a boundary signal for identifying said signals from said imaging devices is added at the boundary between said component signals of said single composite signal formed by said converter module.

9. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein an alarm judgment processor module is provided to judge the status of an imaged object by using information of the object recognized by said object/feature recognition processor module.

10. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when said two component signals of said single composite signal formed by said converter module are displayed on a monitor screen, said two signals from said two imaging devices are both displayed with a correct aspect ratio by using zoom processor module or downscale processor module.

11. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when said single composite signal into which said signals from said two imaging devices are converted by said converter module is displayed on a monitor screen, one of the two component signals is selected from said composite signal and displayed on said monitor screen.

12. An imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when said single composite signal into which said signals from said two imaging devices are converted by said converter module is zoomed, said single composite signal is zoomed over an arbitrarily selected area of said composite signal.