Image recording/reproducing apparatus, image pick-up apparatus, and color aberration correcting method

• US 20060232681A1
• Filed: 12/24/2003
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Okada, Miyuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,477,290 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/67 Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/76 by influencing the image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/61 the noise originating only from the lens unit, e.g. flare, shading, vignetting or "cos4"
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/611 Correction of chromatic aberration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

An image recording and reproducing apparatus, an image pickup apparatus, and a chromatic aberration correcting method capable of performing excellent correction processing of an aperture amount of an iris and a lens image height of an object in an image pickup lens are provided.

An output signal from a camera signal processing circuit 4 is selected by a switch 5 to be supplied to a chromatic aberration correction unit 6. An aperture amount of an iris 31 provided in an image pickup lens 1 and coordinates of a pixel, to which correction processing is performed, from the chromatic aberration correction unit 6 are supplied to a conversion ratio calculation unit 10. A driving state such as a zoom focal length and focal position of the image pickup lens 1 and a camera shake correction vector are supplied to the conversion ratio calculation unit 10. Then, a conversion ratio for each color is obtained to be supplied to the chromatic aberration correction unit 6. Further, a signal corrected in the chromatic aberration correction unit 6 is compressed in a data compression circuit 15 to be supplied to a recording medium in a recording and reproducing apparatus 17. A signal reproduced from the recording and reproducing apparatus 17 is decompressed in a data decompression circuit 18 to be supplied to the switch 5. Accordingly, picture-quality degradation occurring in a miniaturized image pickup lens can be corrected by processing a picked-up image signal, and excellent correction processing can be performed on an aperture amount of an iris and a lens image height of an object in the image pickup lens.

Claims

1. An image recording and reproducing apparatus comprising:

an image pickup lens;

image pickup means for converting image light that passes through said image pickup lens into an electrical image signal;

camera signal processing means for processing said image signal;

color signal conversion means for converting or inversely converting an output signal from said camera signal processing means into at least three primary color signals;

resolution conversion means for performing magnification or reduction of an image on each color of said primary color signal;

detection means for detecting a driving state of an iris and a lens image height of an object in said image pickup lens; and

control means for controlling a conversion coefficient and optical axis-centered coordinates for the magnification or reduction in said resolution conversion means in accordance with a detection output from said detection means.

2. An image recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

signal conversion means for converting or inversely converting an output signal from said resolution conversion means into an external output image signal or a recording image signal, and

external output means for outputting said external output image signal and/or recording and reproducing means for recording or reproducing said recording image signal in a recording medium.

3. An image recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the output signal from said camera signal processing means is recorded in said recording medium in said recording and reproducing means, and

information on the driving state of the iris and the lens image height of the object in said image pickup lens detected by said detection means when picking up the image, or correction information corresponding thereto, is recorded in said recording medium together with the output signal from said camera signal processing means.

4. An image recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

switch means for switching between the output signal from said camera signal processing means and an image signal from arbitrary external input means or recording and reproducing means,

wherein a signal from said switch means is supplied to said color signal conversion means, and

said control means is provided with a user interface for performing arbitrary settings to said conversion coefficient and optical axis-centered coordinates for the magnification or reduction.

5. An image recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein information on said driving state of the iris and the lens image height of the object in the image pickup lens detected by said detection means when picking up the image signal, or correction information corresponding thereto, is recorded together with said image signal in the recording medium reproduced in said recording and reproducing means, and

the conversion coefficient and the optical axis-centered coordinates for the magnification or reduction in said resolution conversion means are controlled in accordance with said information reproduced in said recording and reproducing means.

6. An image recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein a difference between detected pixel coordinates and optical axis-centered coordinates on a screen is used to detect said lens image height of the object.

7. An image recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

automatic focus adjusting means capable of controlling a focusing position,

wherein coordinates of said controlled focusing position are made to represent said detected pixels of the whole screen to be used for detecting said lens image height of the object.

8. An image recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein a said driving state and an amount of camera shake correction of image pickup lens are further detected, and

the conversion coefficient for the magnification or reduction and the optical axis-centered coordinates for said magnification or reduction are controlled in said resolution conversion means, in accordance with said further detected output in addition to said detected output.

9. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

an image pickup lens;

image pickup means for converting image light that passes through said image pickup lens into an electrical image signal;

camera signal processing means for processing said image signal;

color signal conversion means for converting or inversely converting an output signal from said camera signal processing means into at least three primary color signals;

resolution conversion means for performing magnification or reduction of an image with respect to each color of said primary color signals;

detection means for detecting a driving state of an iris and a lens image height of an object in said image pickup lens; and

control means for controlling a conversion coefficient and optical axis-centered coordinates for the magnification or reduction in said resolution conversion means in accordance with a detection output from said detection means.

10. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

signal conversion means for converting or inversely converting an output signal from said resolution conversion means into an external output image signal or a recording image signal, and

external output means for outputting said external output image signal and/or recording and reproducing means for recording or reproducing said recording image signal in a recording medium.

11. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein the output signal from said camera signal processing means is recorded in said recording medium in said recording and reproducing means, and

information on the driving state of the iris and the lens image height of the object in said image pickup lens detected by said detection means when picking up the image, or correction information corresponding thereto, is recorded in said recording medium together with the output signal from said camera signal processing means.

12. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

switch means for switching between the output signal from said camera signal processing means and an image signal from arbitrary external input means or recording and reproducing means,

wherein a signal from said switch means is supplied to said color signal conversion means, and

said control means is provided with a user interface for performing arbitrary settings to said conversion coefficient and optical axis-centered coordinates for the magnification or reduction.

13. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 12,

wherein information on said driving state of the iris and the lens image height of the object in the image pickup lens detected by said detection means when picking up the image signal, or correction information corresponding thereto, is recorded together with said image signal in the recording medium reproduced in said recording and reproducing means, and

the conversion coefficient and the optical axis-centered coordinates for the magnification or reduction in said resolution conversion means are controlled in accordance with said information reproduced in said recording and reproducing means.

14. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein a difference between detected pixel coordinates and optical axis-centered coordinates on a screen is used to detect said lens image height of the object.

15. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

automatic focus adjusting means capable of controlling a focusing position,

wherein coordinates of said controlled focusing position are made to represent said detected pixels of the whole screen to be used for detecting said lens image height of the object.

16. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein a driving state of said image pickup lens and an amount of camera shake correction are further detected, and

the conversion coefficient for the magnification or reduction and the optical axis-centered coordinates for said magnification or reduction are controlled in said resolution conversion means, in accordance with said further detected output in addition to said detected output.

17. A chromatic aberration correcting method employed in an image recording and reproducing apparatus or image pickup apparatus including an image pickup lens, image pickup means for converting image light that passes through said image pickup lens into an electrical image signal, and camera signal processing means for processing said image signal, comprising the steps of:

converting an output signal from said camera signal processing means into at least three primary color signals;

performing magnification or reduction of an image with respect to each color of said primary color signal; and

detecting a driving state of an iris and a lens image height of an object in said image pickup lens and controlling said conversion coefficient and optical axis-centered coordinates for magnification or reduction in accordance with the detection output thereof.

18. A chromatic aberration correcting method according to claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

converting the output signal from said resolution conversion means into an external output image signal or a recording image signal, and

outputting said external output image signal and/or recording said recording image signal in a recording medium.

19. A chromatic aberration correcting method according to claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

making the output signal from said camera signal processing means capable of being recorded in said recording medium, and

recording information on the driving state of the iris and the lens image height of the object in said image pickup lens detected when picking up the image, or correction information corresponding thereto together with said output signal in said recording medium.

20. A chromatic aberration correcting method according to claim 17 in which said image recording and reproducing apparatus or image pickup apparatus further includes switch means for switching between the output signal from said camera signal processing means and an image signal from an arbitrary external input or from a recording medium, further comprising the steps of:

converting a signal from said switch means into at least three primary color signals, and

performing the magnification or reduction of the image with respect to each color of said primary color signal, and

performing arbitrary settings to said conversion coefficient and optical axis-centered coordinates for magnification or reduction.

21. A chromatic aberration correcting method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

recording information on the driving state of the iris and the lens image height of the object in said image pickup lens detected when picking up the image signal, or correction information corresponding thereto together with said image signal in said recording medium, and

controlling said conversion coefficient and optical axis-centered coordinates for magnification or reduction in accordance with said reproduced information.

22. A chromatic aberration correcting method according to claim 17,

wherein a difference between the coordinates of the detected pixel and the optical axis-centered coordinates on the screen is used for detecting said lens image height of the object.

23. A chromatic aberration correcting method according to claim 17 in which said image recording and reproducing apparatus or image pickup apparatus further includes automatic focus adjusting means capable of controlling a focusing position,

wherein coordinates of said controlled focusing position is made to represent said detected pixels of the whole screen to be used for detecting said lens image height of the object.

24. A chromatic aberration correcting method according to claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

detecting the driving state and the amount of camera shake correction of said image pickup lens, and

controlling said conversion coefficient for magnification or reduction and controlling said optical axis-centered coordinates for magnification or reduction in said resolution conversion means, in accordance with said further detected output in addition to said detected output.