IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND IMAGE CAPTURING METHOD

• US 20090096879A1
• Filed: 03/13/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Motomura, Hideto, Sato, Satoshi, Kanamori, Katsuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,961,222 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/208.6
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 5/00 Adjustment of optical system relative to image or object surface other than for focusing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6811 based on the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/684 performed by controlling the image sensor readout, e.g. by controlling the integration time

Abstract

To provide an image capturing apparatus that detects a camera movement accurately and corrects image blurring appropriately. An image capturing apparatus (200) includes: an image sensor unit (103) that captures and outputs an input image (105); an output unit (121) that outputs an image of a framing area (160) of the input image (105); a motion vector calculation unit (106) and a stationary object detection unit (201) that detect motion vectors in an outer-frame area (161) of the input image (105) and derive detection accuracy; an outer-frame area adjustment unit (205) that adjusts the outer-frame area (161) in size so that the detection accuracy meets an outer-frame area change threshold (tr); and a camera movement calculation unit (113) and a framing area modification unit (115) that move the framing area (160) according to motion vectors in the adjusted outer-frame area (161), irrespective of motion vectors in the other area.

Claims

1. An image capturing apparatus that captures an image and corrects blurring of the captured image, said image capturing apparatus comprising:

an image capturing unit configured to capture an image;

an output unit configured to output an image of a framing area, the framing area being a part of a spatial area of the image captured by said image capturing unit;

a movement detection unit configured to detect motion vectors in an outer area in the spatial area of the image captured by said image capturing unit, and derive a dispersion of the detected motion vectors as detection accuracy;

an area adjustment unit configured to adjust a size of the outer area so that the detection accuracy derived by said movement detection unit meets a predetermined threshold; and

a correction unit configured to correct blurring of the image outputted by said output unit, by moving the framing area according to the motion vectors detected by said movement detection unit in the outer area of the size which has been adjusted by said area adjustment unit, irrespective of a movement of an image in an inner area in the spatial area.

2. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a framing area setting unit configured to set, according to the size of the outer area adjusted by said area adjustment unit, a size of the framing area so that a boundary of the outer area and a boundary of the framing area coincide with each other.

3. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said image capturing unit is configured to capture the image so that an image of a moving subject is contained in the inner area.

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

an angle-of-view adjustment unit configured to make an angle of view of the image captured by said image capturing unit wider, when the size of the outer area is adjusted to be larger by said area adjustment unit.

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

a zoom adjustment unit configured to zoom in or out the image outputted by said output unit, by changing an angle of view of the image captured by said image capturing unit or a size of the framing area according to an operation by a user.

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

a storage unit in which the image captured by said image capturing unit is stored,

wherein said output unit and said movement detection unit are each configured to read the image stored in said storage unit and process the read image.

7. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said movement detection unit is configured to detect the motion vectors each of which has at least one of an initial point and a terminal point included in the outer area.

8. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said movement detection unit is configured to further extract, from the detected motion vectors, motion vectors having higher similarity to a mean of the detected motion vectors as motion vectors of an image of a stationary object, with a higher priority, and

said correction unit includes:

a calculation unit configured to calculate a mean motion vector showing a mean of the extracted motion vectors of the image of the stationary object; and

a framing area modification unit configured to move the framing area according to the mean motion vector.

9. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a correction judgment unit configured to judge whether or not to perform the correction, according to a movement of the image captured by said image capturing unit,

wherein said correction unit is configured to cancel the movement of the framing area, when said correction judgment unit judges not to perform the correction.

10. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said movement detection unit and said area adjustment unit are configured to repeat respective processes until the detection accuracy meets the predetermined threshold, by said movement detection unit re-performing the detection in the outer area of the size which has been adjusted by said area adjustment unit, and

said area adjustment unit is configured to adjust the size of the outer area to a smaller extent than in previous adjustment, when repeating the adjustment of the size of the outer area.

11. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a clipping unit configured to clip the image of the framing area out of the image captured by said image capturing unit; and

a size adjustment unit configured to magnify the image clipped by said clipping unit,

wherein said output unit is configured to output the image magnified by said size adjustment unit.

12. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein said size adjustment unit includes:

a resource data storage unit in which low-resolution resource data and high-resolution resource data are stored for each image, the low-resolution resource data showing the image in a low resolution, and the high-resolution resource data showing the image in a high resolution; and

a similar data search unit configured to magnify the image clipped by said clipping unit, by searching said resource data storage unit for low-resolution resource data that shows an image having similarity to the clipped image, and extracting high-resolution resource data corresponding to the low-resolution image data from said resource data storage unit.

13. The image capturing apparatus according to claim 12,

wherein said similar data search unit is configured to search for the low-resolution resource data that shows a spatial frequency characteristic having similarity to a spatial frequency characteristic of the image clipped by said clipping unit.

14. An image capturing method for capturing an image and correcting blurring of the captured image, said image capturing method comprising:

capturing an image;

outputting an image of a framing area, the framing area being a part of a spatial area of the image captured in said capturing;

detecting motion vectors in an outer area in the spatial area of the image captured in said capturing, and deriving a dispersion of the detected motion vectors as detection accuracy;

adjusting a size of the outer area so that the detection accuracy derived in said deriving meets a predetermined threshold; and

correcting blurring of the image outputted in said outputting, by moving the framing area according to the motion vectors detected in said detecting in the outer area of the size which has been adjusted in said adjusting, irrespective of a movement of an image in an inner area in the spatial area.

15. A program for capturing an image and correcting blurring of the captured image, said program causing a computer to execute:

capturing an image;

outputting an image of a framing area, the framing area being a part of a spatial area of the image captured in said capturing;

detecting motion vectors in an outer area in the spatial area of the image captured in said capturing, and deriving a dispersion of the detected motion vectors as detection accuracy;

adjusting a size of the outer area so that the detection accuracy derived in said deriving meets a predetermined threshold; and

correcting blurring of the image outputted in said outputting, by moving the framing area according to the motion vectors detected in said detecting in the outer area of the size which has been adjusted in said adjusting, irrespective of a movement of an image in an inner area in the spatial area.