IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE MANAGING APPARATUS, IMAGE MANAGING METHOD, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND IMAGE ORDER SHEET

• US 20080240493A1
• Filed: 03/27/2008
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: YODA, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 8,254,712 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/993 Evaluation of the quality of the acquired pattern
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/18 Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00143 Ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00167 Processing or editing H04N1/00196 - H04N1/00201 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00188 Printing, e.g. prints or reprints H04N1/0019, H04N1/00196 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/60 Colour correction or control H04N1/54 takes precedence

Abstract

An image processing apparatus is provided that can quickly provide an image in which a main portion has a high image quality. The image processing apparatus includes an original image acquiring section that acquires an original image; a characteristic region judging section that makes a judgment as to whether a characteristic region is present in the original image captured by the original image acquiring section; an image adjusting section that, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is present, adjusts an image of the characteristic region in the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section based on optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image; and an image output section that, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is present, outputs an image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section and, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is not present, outputs the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

an original image acquiring section that acquires an original image;

a characteristic region judging section that makes a judgment as to whether a characteristic region is present in the original image captured by the original image acquiring section;

an image adjusting section that, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is present, adjusts an image of the characteristic region in the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section based on optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image; and

an image output section that, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is present, outputs an image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section and, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is not present, outputs the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the original image acquiring section acquires the original image captured by the image capturing apparatus that has an optical system in which the optical transfer function is substantially constant over a predetermined object distance range on an optical axis, and

the image adjusting section adjusts the image of the characteristic region in the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section based on the optical transfer function of the optical system of the image capturing apparatus.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the original image acquiring section acquires the plurality of original images included in a motion image captured by the image capturing apparatus,

the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment as to whether the characteristic region is present in each of the plurality of original images,

the image adjusting section adjusts the image of the characteristic region in the original image in which the characteristic region is judged to be present by the characteristic region judging section based on the optical transfer function of the optical system of the image capturing apparatus, and

the image output section outputs the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section of the original image in which the characteristic region is judged to be present by the characteristic region judging section and also outputs the original image in which the characteristic region is judged to not be present by the characteristic region judging section.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment as to whether the characteristic region is present in each of the plurality of original images based on a motion vector included in the motion image.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment as to whether a moving object is present in each of the plurality of original images based on the motion vector included in the motion image, and

the image adjusting section adjusts the image of the region in which the moving object is present in the original image in which the moving object is judged to be present by the characteristic region judging section based on the optical transfer function of the optical system of the image capturing apparatus.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment as to whether a region changing over time is present in each of the plurality of original images based on the motion vector included in the motion image, and

the image adjusting section adjusts the image of the region changing over time in the original image in which the region changing over time is judged to be present by the characteristic region judging section based on the optical transfer function of the optical system of the image capturing apparatus.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment as to whether the characteristic region is present in each of the plurality of original images based on a color included in the plurality of original images.

8. An image processing method, comprising:

acquiring an original image;

making a judgment as to whether a characteristic region is present in the original image acquired at the original image acquiring step;

adjusting an image of the characteristic region in the original image acquired at the original image acquiring step based on optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image when a judgment is made at the characteristic region judging step that the characteristic region is present; and

outputting an image obtained through the adjustment at the image adjusting step in a case where a judgment is made at the characteristic region judging step that the characteristic region is present and outputting the original image acquired at the original image acquiring step in a case where a judgment is made at the characteristic region judging step that the characteristic region is not present.

9. A computer program product used by an image processing apparatus, having computer instructions, recorded on a computer readable medium, for enabling a computer executing the computer instructions to cause the image processing apparatus to function as:

an original image acquiring section that acquires an original image;

a characteristic region judging section that makes a judgment as to whether a characteristic region is present in the original image captured by the original image acquiring section;

an image adjusting section that, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is present, adjusts an image of the characteristic region in the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section based on optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image; and

an image output section that, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is present, outputs an image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section and, in a case where the characteristic region judging section makes a judgment that the characteristic region is not present, outputs the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section.

10. An image managing apparatus, comprising:

an original image acquiring section that acquires an original image and associated information that indicates optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image;

a small data amount image generating section that generates a small data amount image obtained by reducing a data amount of the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section;

an image adjusting section that adjusts the original image captured by the original image acquiring section based on the optical characteristics indicated by the information acquired by the original image acquiring section in association with the original image;

a characteristic portion detecting section that detects a characteristic portion in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section;

a partial image extracting section that extracts a partial image that includes the characteristic portion in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section;

a partial image enlarging section that enlarges the partial image extracted by the partial image extracting section; and

an image output section that outputs the partial image enlarged by the partial image enlarging section along with the small data amount image generated by the small data amount image generating section.

11. The image managing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

the small data amount image generating section includes a thumbnail image generating section that generates a thumbnail image obtained by decreasing a data amount of the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section, and

the image output section outputs the partial image enlarged by the partial image enlarging section along with the thumbnail image generated by the thumbnail image generating section.

12. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising an extraction condition storage section that stores in advance therein an extraction condition for a partial image to be extracted by the partial image extracting section, the image managing apparatus wherein the characteristic portion detecting section extracts a portion that matches the extraction condition stored in the extraction condition storage section from the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section.

13. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the original image acquiring section acquires the plurality of original images and information that indicates optical characteristics of each image capturing apparatus that captured each of the plurality of original images in association with each other,

the thumbnail image generating section generates a thumbnail of each of the plurality of original images acquired by the original image acquiring section,

the image adjusting section adjusts each of the plurality of original images captured by the original image acquiring section based on the optical characteristics indicated by the information acquired by the original image acquiring section in association with each of the plurality of original images,

the characteristic portion detecting section detects a characteristic portion in each of the plurality of original images obtained through the adjustment of each of the plurality of original images by the image adjusting section,

the partial image extracting section extracts a partial image that includes the characteristic portion in each of the plurality of original images obtained through the adjustment of each of the plurality of original images by the image adjusting section,

the partial image enlarging section enlarges the plurality of partial images extracted by the partial image extracting section, and

the image output section outputs each of the plurality of partial images enlarged by the partial image enlarging section along with each of the plurality of the thumbnail images generated by the thumbnail image generating section.

14. The image managing apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a print order receiving section that receives an order for printing of the original images corresponding to the plurality of thumbnail images output by the image output section, the image managing apparatus wherein the image output section displays an order sheet in which each of the plurality of partial images enlarged by the partial image enlarging section is displayed in a vicinity of each of the plurality of thumbnail images generated by the thumbnail image generating section.

15. The image managing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the image output section prints an order sheet in which each of the plurality of partial images enlarged by the partial image enlarging section is printed in a vicinity of each of the plurality of thumbnail images generated by the thumbnail image generating section.

16. The image managing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the image output section records each of the plurality of thumbnail images generated by the thumbnail image generating section and each of the plurality of partial images enlarged by the partial image enlarging section to be output in association with each other by outputting the partial images and the thumbnail images to the recording medium to be recorded thereon.

17. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the characteristic portion detecting section detects a main subject in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section, and

the partial image extracting section extracts the partial image that includes the main subject in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section.

18. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the characteristic portion detecting section detects a person in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section, and

the partial image extracting section extracts the partial image that includes the person in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section.

19. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the characteristic portion detecting section detects a face of a person in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section, and

the partial image extracting section extracts the partial image that includes the face of the person in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section.

20. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the characteristic portion detecting section detects an eye of a person in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section, and

the partial image extracting section extracts the partial image that includes the eye of the person in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section.

21. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a brightness distribution calculating section that calculates a brightness distribution in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section, the image managing apparatus wherein

the characteristic portion detecting section detects a portion in which a density of pixels having a minimum brightness or pixels having a maximum brightness is high in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section based on a calculation result from the brightness distribution calculating section, and

the partial image extracting section extracts the partial image of the portion in which the density of the pixels having the minimum brightness or the pixels having the maximum brightness is high in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section.

22. The image managing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the original image acquiring section acquires the original image captured by the image capturing apparatus that includes an optical system that holds an optical transfer function substantially constant over a predetermined object distance range on an optical axis, in association with information that indicates the optical transfer function of the image capturing apparatus, and

the image adjusting section adjusts the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section based on the optical transfer function indicated by the information acquired by the original image acquiring section.

23. An image managing method, comprising:

acquiring an original image and information that indicates optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image in association with each other;

generating a thumbnail image of the original image acquired at the original image acquiring step;

adjusting the original image acquired at the original image acquiring step based on the optical characteristics indicated by the information acquired at the original image acquiring step in association with the original image;

detecting a characteristic portion in the image obtained through the adjustment at the image adjusting step;

extracting a partial image that includes the characteristic portion in the image obtained through the adjustment at the image adjusting step;

enlarging the partial image extracted at the partial image extracting step; and

outputting the partial image enlarged at the partial image enlarging step along with the thumbnail image generated at the thumbnail image generating step.

24. A computer program product used by an image managing apparatus, having computer instructions, recorded on a computer readable medium, for enabling a computer executing the computer instructions to cause the image managing apparatus to function as:

an original image acquiring section that acquires an original image and information that indicates optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image in association with each other;

a thumbnail image generating section that generates a thumbnail image of the original image acquired by the original image acquiring section;

an image adjusting section that adjusts the original image captured by the original image acquiring section based on the optical characteristics indicated by the information acquired by the original image acquiring section in association with the original image;

a characteristic portion detecting section that detects a characteristic portion in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section;

a partial image extracting section that extracts a partial image that includes the characteristic portion in the image obtained through the adjustment by the image adjusting section;

a partial image enlarging section that enlarges the partial image extracted by the partial image extracting section; and

an image output section that outputs the partial image enlarged by the partial image enlarging section along with the thumbnail image generated by the thumbnail image generating section.

25. An image order sheet, comprising:

an entire image printing section in which an entire original image is printed;

a partial image printing section in which is printed an image obtained by enlarging a partial image that includes a characteristic portion in an image obtained through adjustment of the original image based on optical characteristics of an image capturing apparatus that captured the original image; and

an entire image order entry section into which an order for the original image is entered.