Imaging pickup apparatus, image pickup method, image processing apparatus, image processing method, and image processing program

• US 20080094485A1
• Filed: 10/11/2007
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Huang, Huakun
• Granted Patent: US 8,654,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/223.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/88 for colour balance, e.g. white-balance circuits or colour temperature control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/643 Hue control means, e.g. flesh tone control

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus includes a color component acquiring unit that acquires picked-up-image color-component signals representing color components of a picked-up image, a face detecting unit that detects a face, a skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit that, when the picked-up image includes a face, acquires skin-color-region color-component signals based on a face detection result, a skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information creating unit that creates skin-color-eliminated component-signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color-component signals, obtained by the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit, from the picked-up-image color-component signals obtained by the color component acquiring unit, a white-balance-gain setting unit that sets a white balance gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information, and a white balance control unit that performs white balance adjustment of the color components of the picked-up image by using the white balance gain.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus for picking up an image by using a solid-state image sensing device, the image pickup apparatus comprising:

a color component acquiring unit that acquires picked-up-image color-component signals representing color components of the picked-up image;

a face detecting unit that detects a face from the picked-up image;

a skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit that, when the picked-up image includes a face, acquires skin-color-region color-component signals based on a face detection result;

a skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information creating unit that creates skin-color-eliminated component-signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color-component signals, obtained by the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit, from the picked-up-image color-component signals obtained by the color component acquiring unit;

a white-balance-gain setting unit that sets a white balance gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information; and

a white balance control unit that performs white balance adjustment of the color components of the picked-up image by using the white balance gain.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the color component acquiring unit generates color component integration values by respectively integrating the picked-up-image color-component signals;

the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit generates skin-color-region-color-component integration values by respectively integrating color component signals of the face detected by the face detecting unit; and

the skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information creating unit creates the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information by calculating differences between the color component integration values and the skin-color-region-color-component integration values.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit calculates color component threshold values defining a skin color region extracted from the face detection result, and uses the color component threshold values to acquire color component signals representing a skin color region in the picked-up image.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

the color component acquiring unit generates color component integration values by respectively integrating the picked-up-image color-component signals;

after the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit generates skin-color-region-color-component integration values by respectively integrating color component signals of the face detected by the face detecting unit, the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit calculates the color component threshold values by using the skin-color-region-color-component integration values, and acquires color component integration values of the picked-up image which satisfy the color component threshold values; and

the skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information creating unit creates the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information by calculating differences between the color component integration values and the color component integration values of the picked-up image which satisfy the color component threshold values.

5. An image pickup method for picking up an image by using a solid-state image sensing device, the image pickup method comprising the steps of:

acquiring picked-up-image color-component signals representing color components of the picked-up image;

detecting a face from the picked-up image;

when the picked-up image includes a face, acquiring skin-color-region color-component signals based on a face detection result;

creating skin-color-eliminated component-signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color-component signals from the picked-up-image color-component signals;

setting a white balance gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information; and

performing white balance adjustment of the color components of the picked-up image by using the white balance gain.

6. An image processing apparatus for performing white balance processing on an input image, the image processing apparatus comprising:

a color component acquiring unit that acquires input-image color-component signals representing color components of the input image;

a face detecting unit that detects a face from the input image;

a skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit that, when the input image includes a face, acquires skin-color-region color-component signals based on a face detection result;

a skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information creating unit that creates skin-color-eliminated component-signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color-component signals, obtained by the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit, from the input-image color-component signals obtained by the color component acquiring unit;

a white-balance-gain setting unit that sets a white balance gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information; and

a white balance control unit that performs white balance adjustment of the color components of the input image by using the white balance gain.

7. An image processing method for performing white balance processing on an input image, the image processing method comprising the steps of:

acquiring input-image color-component signals representing color components of the input image;

detecting a face from the input image;

when the input image includes a face, acquiring skin-color-region color-component signals based on a face detection result;

creating skin-color-eliminated component-signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color-component signals from the input-image color-component signals;

setting a white balance gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information; and

performing white balance adjustment of the color components of the input image by using the white balance gain.

8. An image processing program for performing white balance processing on an input image, the image processing program allowing a computer to function as:

a color component acquiring unit that acquires input-image color-component signals representing color components of the input image;

a face detecting unit that detects a face from the input image;

a skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit that, when the input image includes a face, acquires skin-color-region color-component signals based on a face detection result;

a skin-color-eliminated-component-signal-information creating unit that creates skin-color-eliminated component-signal information obtained by eliminating the skin-color-region color-component signals, obtained by the skin-color-region color-component acquiring unit, from the input-image color-component signals obtained by the color component acquiring unit;

a white-balance-gain setting unit that sets a white balance gain by using the skin-color-eliminated component-signal information; and

a white balance control unit that performs white balance adjustment of the color components of the input image by using the white balance gain.