IMAGING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGING

• US 20090174789A1
• Filed: 12/31/2008
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: TAKESHITA, Nobuaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,098,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/105 Selection of the reference unit for prediction within a chosen coding or prediction mode, e.g. adaptive choice of position and number of pixels used for prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/577 Motion compensation with bidirectional frame interpolation, i.e. using B-pictures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/587 involving temporal sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. decimation or subsequent interpolation of pictures in a video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/145 Movement estimation for video coding H04N19/51

Abstract

In an imaging apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, three images are picked up by a CCD having a color filter, and thirteen images are picked up by a CMOS having no color filter. Three of thirteen images are picked up at the same timing as by the CCD. A motion vector data between the images is calculated from the thirteen image data of the CCD. Further, the motion vector data is integrated to calculate motion vector data between a previous pickup image and a present pickup image, and motion vector data between the present pickup image and a following pickup image. A predicted image of the present pickup image is generated from the motion vector data, the previous pickup image, and the following pickup image. A weighted average is calculated between the predicted image and the present pickup image, which are synthesized into an image having decreased hand jiggling.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

a light splitting device which splits incident light entering from an object to an imaging optical system into first object light and second object light;

a first imaging device which includes a color imaging element for receiving the first object light and obtains a first image signal of three primary colors;

a second imaging device which includes a white-black imaging element for receiving the second object light and obtains a second image signal of white and black;

a first image-obtaining device which obtains a plurality of the first image signals that are continuously picked up by the first imaging device at a predetermined time interval and include an image signal of a present image pickup;

a second image-obtaining device which obtains a plurality of the second image signals that are picked up by the second imaging device at a shutter speed higher than that when the first image signals are picked up and include image signals picked up at a timing same as that of the plurality of the first image signal;

a device which calculates a motion vector between the plurality of the first image signals based on the plurality of the second image signals;

a device which generates a predicted image signal of the present image pickup based on the motion vector and one or more first image signals other than the image signal of the present image pickup; and

an image generation device which generates an image based on the image signal of the present image pickup and the predicted image signal thereof.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the second image-obtaining device obtains the plurality of the second image signals continuously picked up at a time interval shorter than that of the first imaging device.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a device which detects hand jiggling of the image signal of the present image pickup based on the motion vector between the plurality of the first image signals,

wherein the image generation device generates an image by calculating a weighted average between the image signal of the present image pickup and the predicted image signal thereof to compensate the hand jiggling of the image signal of the present image pickup.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a device which detects hand jiggling of the image signal of the present image pickup based on the motion vector between the plurality of the first image signals,

wherein the image generation device generates an image by calculating a weighted average between the image signal of the present image pickup and the predicted image signal thereof to compensate the hand jiggling of the image signal of the present image pickup.

5. An imaging apparatus comprising:

a light splitting device which splits incident light entering from an object to an imaging optical system into first object light and second object light;

a first imaging device which includes a color imaging element for receiving the first object light and obtains a first image signal of three primary colors;

a second imaging device which includes a white-black imaging element for receiving the second object light and obtains a second image signal of white and black;

a first image-obtaining device which obtains a plurality of the first image signals that are continuously picked up by the first imaging device at a predetermined time interval;

a second image-obtaining device which obtains a plurality of the second image signals that are picked up by the second imaging device at a shutter speed higher than that when the first image signals are picked up and include image signals picked up at a timing same as that of the plurality of the first image signal;

a device which calculates a motion vector between the plurality of the first image signals based on the plurality of the second image signals; and

a device which compresses and encodes the plurality of the first image signal using the motion vector.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a device which detects a moving object based on the motion vector,

wherein, when a moving object is detected, the second image-obtaining device obtains the plurality of the second image signals that have continuously picked up at a time interval shorter than that when the first imaging device picks up the images.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein, when a moving object is detected, the second imaging device increases photographic sensitivity.

8. A method of controlling imaging comprising:

a light splitting step of splitting incident light entering from an object to an imaging optical system into first object light and second object light;

a first imaging step of obtaining a first image signal of three primary colors by a color imaging element for receiving the first object light;

a second imaging step of obtaining a second image signal of white and black by a white-black imaging element for receiving the second object light;

a first image-obtaining step of obtaining a plurality of the first image signals that are continuously picked up by the first imaging step at a predetermined time interval and include an image signal of a present image pickup;

a second image-obtaining step of obtaining a plurality of the second image signals that are picked up by the second imaging step at a shutter speed higher than that when the first image signals are picked up and include image signals picked up at a timing same as that of the plurality of the first image signal;

a step of calculating a motion vector between the plurality of the first image signals based on the plurality of the second image signals;

a step of generating a predicted image signal of the present image pickup based on the motion vector and one or more first image signals other than the image signal of the present image pickup; and

an image generation step of generating an image based on the image signal of the present image pickup and the predicted image signal thereof.

9. A method of controlling imaging comprising:

a light splitting step of splitting incident light entering from an object to an imaging optical system into first object light and second object light;

a first imaging step of obtaining a first image signal of three primary colors by a color imaging element for receiving the first object light;

a second imaging step of obtaining a second image signal of white and black by a white-black imaging element for receiving the second object light;

a first image-obtaining step of obtaining a plurality of the first image signals that are continuously picked up by the first imaging step at a predetermined time interval;

a second image-obtaining step of obtaining a plurality of the second image signals that are picked up by the second imaging step at a shutter speed higher than that when the first image signals are picked up and include image signals picked up at a timing same as that of the plurality of the first image signal;

a step of calculating a motion vector between the plurality of the first image signals based on the plurality of the second image signals; and

a step of compressing and encoding the plurality of the first image signal using the motion vector.