Image stabilization apparatus, method thereof, and program product thereof

• US 20070098291A1
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
• Inventors: Nishida, Takashi, Takami, Kazuhiko, Niikura, Kentarou, Oya, Akitaka
• Granted Patent: US 7,773,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/254
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/73 Deblurring; Sharpening
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/683 performed by a processor, e.g. controlling the readout of an image memory

Abstract

An image stabilization apparatus of the present invention includes a detection unit which detects an amount of an image blur between a plurality of image data, an evaluation unit which selects at least one image data to use in correcting image blur from the plurality of image data according to a result of the detection of the amount of image blur, and a correction unit which generates image data with its image blur corrected using the image data selected by the evaluation unit.

Claims

1. An image stabilization apparatus comprising:

a detection unit detecting an amount of an image blur between a plurality of image data;

an evaluation unit selecting at least one image data to use in correcting image blur from the plurality of image data according to a result of the detection of the amount of image blur;

a correction unit generating image data with its image blur corrected using the image data selected by the evaluation unit.

2. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the correction unit adjusts a luminance of the image data with its image blur corrected to a specified luminance regardless of the number of the image data selected by the evaluation unit.

3. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the correction unit generates the image data with its image blur corrected by superposing the plurality of the image data selected by the evaluation unit to cancel out the amount of image blur.

4. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 3, wherein with the plurality of image data being N number of image data and the number of the selected image data being less than N, N being an integer having a value of at least 2, and

the correction unit generates the image data with its image blur corrected by superposing at least one of the selected image data for a plurality of times.

5. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation unit selects only one image data among the plurality of image data to be used in the correction of image blur in case the evaluation unit evaluates that there is at least one image data not suitable for the image stabilization among the plurality of image data.

6. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the correction unit adjusts a luminance of the image data with its image blur corrected to a specified luminance regardless of the number of the image data selected by the evaluation unit.

7. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the evaluation unit evaluates the image data in which a part of an image is moving or the image data including an image blur of a rotation direction as image data not suitable for the image stabilization, according to a result of the detection of the amount of image blur.

8. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of image data is consecutively captured image data, and

the one image data selected by the evaluation unit is image data captured first among the image data consecutively captured.

9. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of image data is N number of image data consecutively captured, with N being an integer having a value of at least 2,

the detection unit detects an amount of an image blur between a first image data captured first and the N-1 number of image data, and

the evaluation unit selects the first image data and image data possible to correct the amount of image blur by superposing the first image data as image data to be used for the image stabilization.

10. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the evaluation unit:

evaluates in time series of an image capture from a next image data following the first image data whether the image data is suitable for the image stabilization by superposing with the first image data; and

in case of evaluating mth image data is not suitable for the image stabilization, the first image to m-lth image data are used for the image stabilization, with m being an integer between 2 and N.

11. The image stabilization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of image data is consecutively captured image data, and

the detection unit sequentially detects an amount of an image blur between consecutive two image data.

12. An image stabilization method for correcting an image blur using a plurality of image data, the image stabilization method comprising:

evaluating the plurality of image data whether they are suitable for a correction of the image blur; and

correcting the image blur using image data excluding the image data evaluated to be unsuitable for the image stabilization among the plurality of image data.

13. The image stabilization method according to claim 12, wherein the evaluating step includes:

detecting an amount of an image blur between the plurality of image data;

determining the plurality of image data whether they are suitable for a correction of the image blur according to a result of the detection of the amount of the image blur; and

selecting the image data evaluated to be suitable for the image stabilization among the plurality of image data, and wherein the correcting step includes;

generating image data with its image blur corrected by superposing the selected image data to cancel out the amount of the image blur.

14. The image stabilization method according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of image data is consecutively captured image data, and the selection of image data evaluated to be suitable for the image stabilization in case of evaluating that there is at least one image data not suitable for an image stabilization among the plurality of image data is executed by selecting image data captured first among the consecutively captured image data.

15. The image stabilization method according to claim 13, further comprising:

adjusting a luminance of the image data with its image blur corrected to a specified luminance regardless of the number of the selected image data.

16. The image stabilization method according to claim 12, wherein the plurality of image data is N number of image data consecutively captured, and the evaluating step includes:

detecting an amount of an image blur between a first image data captured first among the N-1 number of image data, with N being an integer having a value of at least 2;

selecting the first image data and image data possible to correct the amount of image blur by superposing the first image data as image data to be used for the image stabilization, and the correcting step includes;

superposing the selected image data to cancel out the amount of the image blur.

17. A computer program product for executing an image stabilization process using a plurality of image data, wherein the image stabilization process comprises:

reading the plurality of image data stored in a memory;

detecting an amount of image blur between the plurality of image data;

evaluating whether the plurality of image data is suitable for a correction of image blur according to a result of the detection of the amount of image blur;

selecting image data evaluated to be suitable for the image stabilization as image data to be used for the image stabilization; and

superposing the selected image data to cancel out the amount of image blur and generating corrected image data.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the plurality of image data is consecutively captured image data, and the selection of image data evaluated to be suitable for the image stabilization in case of evaluating that there is at least one image data not suitable for an image stabilization among the plurality of image data is executed by selecting image data captured first among the consecutively captured image data.