IMAGING DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20090167877A1
• Filed: 12/22/2008
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Imamura, Keiichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,723,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/208.400
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 7/00 Control of exposure by setting shutters, diaphragms or filters, separately or conjointly control of exposure in television cameras by means of circuitry influencing the optical part of the camera H04N23/75
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• 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 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

A digital camera comprises a CCD, a flash memory for storing images captured by the CCD, setting unit configured to set a recording condition, an auto shutter condition table for storing auto recording conditions for each of the auto shutter mode which are set by detecting an input from a key input device during auto shutter mode setting, and a CPU for determining whether the captured image satisfies the set recording condition and for recording the captured image to the flash memory it is determined that the image satisfies the recording condition.

Claims

1. An imaging device comprising:

an imaging unit configured to sequentially capture images;

an image recording unit configured to record an image captured by the imaging unit;

a setting unit configured to set a recording condition of the image recording unit;

a determination unit configured to determine whether or not the image captured by the imaging unit satisfies the recording condition set by the setting unit; and

a recording control unit configured to control the image recording unit to record the image when the determination unit determines that the image satisfies the recording condition.

2. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an indication unit configured to indicate a degree of coincidence between the image captured by the imaging unit and the recording condition set by the setting means.

3. The imaging device according to claim 2, wherein the indication unit comprises a first display configured to display, together with the image, the degree of coincidence between the image and the recording condition.

4. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image capture mode storage unit configured to store a plurality of image capture modes and corresponding recording conditions set by the setting unit means; and

a selection unit configured to select one of the image capture modes, wherein

the determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the image satisfies a recording condition corresponding to the one of the image capture modes selected by the selection unit.

5. The imaging device according to claim 4, further comprising a second display configured to display the one of the image capture modes selected by the selection unit and the recording condition corresponding to the one of the image capture modes.

6. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising a shutter speed calculation unit configured to calculate a shutter speed based on the image captured by the imaging unit, wherein

the recording condition set by the setting unit comprises a given shutter speed at which image blurring does not occur in recording, and

the determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the image satisfies the recording condition by comparing the shutter speed calculated by the shutter speed calculation unit and the given shutter speed.

7. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising a focal distance obtaining unit configured to obtain a focal distance based on the image captured by the imaging unit, wherein

the recording condition set by the setting unit comprises a given focal distance at which image blurring does not occur in recording, and

the determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the image satisfies the recording condition by comparing the focal distance obtained by the focal distance obtaining unit and the given focal distance.

8. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising a moving amount detection unit configured to detect a moving amount of the image captured by the imaging unit, wherein

the recording condition set by the setting unit comprises a given moving amount at which image blurring does not occur in recording, and

the determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the image satisfies the recording condition by comparing the moving amount detected by the moving amount detection unit and the given moving amount.

9. The imaging device according to claim 8, wherein the moving amount detection unit is configured to detect the moving amount for each pixel region in the image captured by the imaging unit, which further comprises:

a moving direction detection unit configured to detect a moving direction of each pixel region in the image captured by the imaging unit; and

a specifying unit configured to specify a main subject region based on the moving amount for each pixel region detected by the moving amount detection unit and the moving direction of each pixel region detected by the moving direction detection unit, and wherein

the recording condition set by the setting unit comprises a moving amount at which image blurring of the main subject region in the image does not occur in recording.

10. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising a facial image detection unit configured detect a facial image from the image captured by the imaging unit, and wherein

the recording condition set by the setting unit comprises a given smiling state, and

the determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the image satisfies the recording condition by comparing a smiling state of the facial image detected by the facial image detection unit and the given smiling state.

11. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising a facial image number detection unit configured to detect the number of facial images from the image captured by the imaging unit, wherein

the recording condition set by the setting unit comprises a given ratio of the number of smiling facial images to the total number of facial images in the image, and

the determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the image satisfies the recording condition by comparing a ratio of the number of smiling facial images in the image to the number of facial images detected by the facial image number detection unit and the given ratio.

12. A computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon that is executed by a computer of an image capture apparatus to control the image capture apparatus to perform functions comprising:

setting a recording condition;

determining whether or not the captured image satisfies the set recording condition; and

recording the captured image when it is determined that the captured image satisfies the recording condition.