Image pickup apparatus

• US 20080002030A1
• Filed: 08/24/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Sakurai, Keiichi, Yui, Takaaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,036,486 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.99
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20221 Image fusion; Image merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/009 Global, i.e. based on properties of the image as a whole applied in cameras using an electronic image sensor H04N23/80, H04N23/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/40 using histogram techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/92 based on global image properties

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image pickup apparatus which informs a user of a state of brightness adjusting operation and which has excellent usability for the user. Disclosed is a digital camera including an image adder 5d for synthesizing a plurality of continuously taken image frames to produce a synthesized image, an image processing apparatus 5 for executing image brightness adjusting processing for synthesizing a required synthesis number of image frames and adjusting brightness of the synthesized image at the time of continuous picture-taking of a subject, and a display device for displaying an image which is being synthesized by the image adder in the image brightness adjusting processing.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

a picture-taking section to continuously take pictures of a subject to output a plurality of image frames;

an image synthesizing section to synthesize the plurality of image frames to produce a synthesized image;

an image brightness adjusting section which allows the image synthesizing section to synthesize the image frames and executes image brightness adjusting processing for adjusting brightness of the synthesized image in continuous shooting by the picture-taking section; and

a halfway-image display section to display an image which is being synthesized by the image synthesizing section in the image brightness adjusting processing.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image brightness adjusting section changes the image brightness adjusting processing between before and after brightness of the synthesized image becomes equal to predetermined brightness.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a noise reducing section which further synthesizes the image frames onto the synthesized image produced by the image brightness adjusting processing by the image synthesizing section so as to reduce noise of the synthesized image, after the brightness of the synthesized image becomes equal to the predetermined brightness.

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

a tone adjusting section which executes tone adjusting processing for adjusting tone of the synthesized image, wherein

a the tone adjusting section changes the tone adjusting processing between before and after brightness of the synthesized image becomes equal to predetermined brightness.

5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a number calculating section to calculate a required synthesis number of the image frames required for the synthesized image to obtain predetermined brightness based on brightness of an image of the subject;

a number measuring section to measure the number of image frames synthesized by the image synthesizing section; and

a number display section to display the required synthesis number and the number of image frames measured by the number measuring section when a picture of the subject is taken.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a picture-taking operation input section to receive an input of a picture-taking command of the subject by the picture-taking section, wherein

the image brightness adjusting section executes the image brightness adjusting processing based on an operation on the picture-taking operation input section by an operator, and allows the image synthesizing section to synthesize the required synthesis number of image frames.

7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a picture-taking operation input section to receive an input of a picture-taking command of the subject by the picture-taking section, wherein

the image brightness adjusting section executes the image brightness adjusting processing while the picture-taking operation input section is operated by an operator.

8. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

an image storing section to store the synthesized image produced whenever a predetermined number of image frames are synthesized by the image synthesizing section in the image brightness adjusting processing; and

an image display section to display the synthesized image stored in the image storing section.