Electronic imaging apparatus and system for specifying an individual

• US 20080002865A1
• Filed: 06/05/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Imaging Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Toyoda, Tetsuya
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,116 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/42 by switching between different modes of operation using different resolutions or aspect ratios, e.g. switching between interlaced and non-interlaced mode

Abstract

Disclosed is an electronic imaging apparatus which has different drive modes of an image pickup device for image shooting between an image for detecting the face of a subject and an image for detecting a feature value for specifying an individual based on the detected face area. For example, the image for detecting the face of the subject can be shot in a drive mode for a low-resolution image and an image for detecting a feature value can be shot in a drive mode for a high-resolution image. For example, the drive mode for a low-resolution image can be a drive mode for live view display, while the drive mode for a high-resolution image can be a drive mode for shooting a still image.

Claims

1. An electronic imaging apparatus comprising:

an image pickup device having a plurality of drive modes including at least a first drive mode and a second drive mode;

a face-area detection part that detects a face area where a face is present in image data acquired by image shooting in the first drive mode;

a feature value detection area determining part that determines a feature value detection area for detecting a feature value for specifying an individual from image data acquired by image shooting in the second drive mode, based on the detected face area; and

a feature value detection part that detects the feature value from image data within the determined feature value detection area.

2. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first drive mode is a drive mode for a low-resolution image, and the second drive mode is a drive mode for a high-resolution image.

3. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the drive-mode for a low-resolution image includes a drive mode for displaying a live view image, and the drive mode for a high-resolution image includes a drive mode for a still image.

4. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first drive mode is a live view pixel mixing mode in which charges from a plurality of pixels in the image pickup device are mixed before being output.

5. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first drive mode is a live view pixel mixing mode in which charges from a plurality of pixels in the image pickup device are mixed before being output.

6. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first drive mode is a thinned readout mode in which charges from individual pixels in the image pickup device are partly thinned before being output.

7. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first drive mode is a thinned readout mode in which charges from individual pixels in the image pickup device are partly thinned before being output.

8. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the feature value detection area determining part has:

a face-area expansion part that expands the face area detected by the face-area detection part based on a predetermined condition; and

a feature value detection area extracting part that extracts an area corresponding to the expanded face area from the image data acquired by image shooting in the second drive mode, as the feature value detection area.

9. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the feature value detection area determining part has:

a face-area expansion part that expands the face area detected by the face-area detection part based on a predetermined condition; and

a feature value detection area extracting part that extracts an area corresponding to the expanded face area from the image data acquired by image shooting in the second drive mode, as the feature value detection area.

10. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the predetermined condition is a time difference between a shooting timing in the first drive mode and a shooting timing at which image data used last in detection of the face area before initiating image shooting in the second drive mode, and

the face-area expansion part increases a degree of expansion of the face area when the time difference is large.

11. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the predetermined condition is a time difference between a shooting timing in the first drive mode and a shooting timing at which image data used last in detection of the face area before initiating image shooting in the second drive mode, and

the face-area expansion part increases a degree of expansion of the face area when the time difference is large.

12. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a luminance measuring part that measures a luminance of a subject, wherein

the predetermined condition is the luminance of the subject measured by the luminance measuring part, and

the face-area expansion part increases a degree of expansion of the face area when the luminance of the subject is low.

13. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a luminance measuring part that measures a luminance of a subject, wherein

the predetermined condition is the luminance of the subject measured by the luminance measuring part, and

the face-area expansion part increases a degree of expansion of the face area when the luminance of the subject is low.

14. An individual specifying system having an electronic imaging part and an individual specifying part, wherein the electronic imaging part comprises:

an image pickup device having a plurality of drive modes including at least a first drive mode and a second drive mode;

a face-area detection part that detects a face area where a face is present in image data acquired by image shooting in the first drive mode;

a feature value detection area determining part that determines a feature value detection area for detecting a feature value for specifying an individual from image data acquired by image shooting in the second drive mode, based on the detected face area; and

a feature value detection part that detects the feature value from image data lying in the determined feature value detection area, and

the individual specifying part comprises;

a feature value database that stores feature value data for specifying an individual; and

a feature value collation part that collates the feature value detected by the feature value detection part with the feature value data stored in the feature value database.

15. A method of specifying an individual from a feature value of a face of a subject, comprising:

shooting a live view image of a subject and a still image thereof by means of an imaging part including an image pickup device;

detecting a face area of the subject in a frame of the shot live view image;

detecting a feature value of the face of the subject in that area in the shot still image which includes at least an area corresponding to the face area of the subject detected in the frame of the live view image; and

specifying the individual subject from the feature value of the face of the subject.