Digital Camera and Image Combination Device

• US 20090021594A1
• Filed: 10/20/2005
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Ogawa, Hidehiro, Tsuda, Yutaka
• Application Number:
  US11/666,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20090021594A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/741 by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/587 acquired sequentially, e.g. using the combination of odd and even image fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

The digital camera includes: a storage unit that stores a plurality of images captured by an image sensor when a multiple exposure photographic mode is set; a gain impartation unit that imparts, to the plurality of captured images, gains based upon the number of shots of multiple exposure photography and determined so that their sum equals unity; and a combination unit that creates a multiple exposure photographic image by combining the plurality of images, after the gains have been imparted by the gain impartation unit.

Claims

1. A digital camera, comprising:

a storage unit that stores a plurality of images captured by an image sensor when a multiple exposure photographic mode is set;

a gain impartation unit that imparts, to the plurality of captured images, gains based upon a number of shots of multiple exposure photography and determined so that a sum of the gains equals unity; and

a combination unit that creates a multiple exposure photographic image by combining the plurality of images, after the gains have been imparted by the gain impartation unit.

2. A digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the combination unit, when the captured images are being stored in the storage unit after the gains have been imparted, reads out and combines the plurality of images from the storage unit, and, when the captured images are being stored in the storage unit without the gains having been imparted, imparts the gains to the plurality of images that have been read out from the storage unit, and then combines the plurality of images.

3. A digital camera according to claim 1, further comprising:

an interrupt command unit that interrupts image capture before image capture of the number of shots for multiple exposure photography is completed, wherein;

when image capture has been interrupted by the interrupt command unit before image capture of the number of shots for multiple exposure photography is completed, the gain impartation unit imparts, to the plurality of captured images, the gains based upon a number of shots that have been captured up to a point of interruption, and determined so that a sum of the gains equals unity; and

the combination unit combines the plurality of images that have been captured up to the point of interruption, to create a multiple exposure photographic image.

4. A digital camera according to claim 1, further comprising:

a changeover unit that changes over between effectiveness or ineffectiveness of gain impartation by the gain impartation unit, wherein

when gain impartation is made effective by the changeover unit, the gain impartation unit imparts the gains to the plurality of images that have been captured.

5. A digital camera according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image processing unit that executes various types of image processing upon the multiple exposure photographic image created by the combination unit.

6. A digital camera, comprising:

a storage unit that stores a plurality of images captured by an image sensor when a multiple exposure photographic mode is set;

a combination unit that creates a multiple exposure photographic image by combining the plurality of images stored in the storage unit; and

a recording control unit that, when performing processing to record a multiple exposure photographic image that has been combined by the combination unit upon a recording medium, also records original images before combination that are stored in the storage unit upon the recording medium along with the multiple exposure photographic image.

7. A digital camera according to claim 6, further comprising:

a recording selection unit that, when performing processing to record a multiple exposure photographic image upon the recording medium, selects a first recording mode in which only the multiple exposure photographic image is recorded or a second recording mode in which the multiple exposure photographic image and original images are recorded.

8. A digital camera according to claim 7, further comprising:

a gain impartation unit that imparts, to the plurality of captured images, gains based upon a number of shots of multiple exposure photography and determined so that a sum of the gains equals unity, wherein

the combination unit creates the multiple exposure photographic image by combining the plurality of images, after the gains have been imparted by the gain impartation unit.

9. A digital camera according to claim 8, further comprising:

a combination selection unit that, for combination of images by the combination unit, selects a first combination mode in which, after impartation of the gains by the gain impartation unit, the plurality of images are combined and a multiple exposure photographic image is created, or a second combination mode in which, without the gains being imparted by the gain impartation unit, the plurality of images are combined and a multiple exposure photographic image is created.

10. A digital camera according to claim 9, wherein, when the second recording mode has been selected by the recording selection unit:

the combination unit creates the multiple exposure photographic image by combining the plurality of images after the gains have been imparted to the original images by the gain impartation unit, even though the second combination mode is selected by the combination selection unit; and

the recording control unit records the original images to which no gains have been imparted upon the recording medium, along with the multiple exposure photographic image.

11. A digital camera according to claim 6, further comprising:

a gain impartation unit that imparts, to the plurality of captured images, gains based upon a number of shots of multiple exposure photography and determined so that a sum of the gains equals unity, wherein

the combination unit creates the multiple exposure photographic image by combining the plurality of images after the gains have been imparted thereto by the gain impartation unit.

12. A digital camera according to claim 11, further comprising:

a combination selection unit that, for combination of images by the combination unit, selects a first combination mode in which, after impartation of the gains by the gain impartation unit, the plurality of images are combined and a multiple exposure photographic image is created, or a second combination mode in which, without the gains being imparted by the gain impartation unit, the plurality of images are combined and a multiple exposure photographic image is created.

13. An image combination device, comprising:

an image combination unit that obtains an image in which a first image and a second image are superimposed;

an auxiliary image combination unit that, before the image combination unit starts superimposition of images, superimposes a first auxiliary image that is created based upon data of the first image and in which an amount of data is less than that of the first image, and a second auxiliary image that is created based upon data of the second image and in which an amount of data is less than that of the second image, to obtain an auxiliary image that corresponds to the image obtained by the image combination unit after superimposition; and

a display unit that displays the auxiliary image after superimposition by the auxiliary image combination unit.

14. An image combination device according to claim 13, wherein the display unit displays the first auxiliary image, the second auxiliary image, and the auxiliary image after superimposition within the same screen.

15. An image combination device according to claim 13, wherein:

the first auxiliary image is a thumbnail image that is comprised within a data file in which the first image is recorded; and

the second auxiliary image is a thumbnail image that is comprised within a data file in which the second image is recorded.

16. An image combination device according to claim 13, further comprising:

a superimposition ratio setting unit that sets a superimposition ratio when the image combination unit is superimposing images, wherein

the auxiliary image combination unit superimposes the first auxiliary image and the second auxiliary image using the superimposition ratio set by the superimposition ratio setting unit.

17. An image combination device according to claim 13, wherein the image combination unit starts superimposition of images, in correspondence to a start command after the auxiliary image combination unit has obtained the auxiliary image after superimposition.

18. An image combination device according to claim 17, wherein the image combination unit starts recording of the image after superimposition, in correspondence to a start command after the image combination unit has obtained the image after superimposition.

19. An image combination device according to claim 18, wherein a recording format of the image after superimposition is an image recording format that is set in a digital camera.

20. An image combination device according to claim 13, wherein the images that are superimposed by the image combination unit are recorded as RAW data.

21. A digital camera, comprising an image combination device according to claim 13.