IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND SEMICONDUCTOR CIRCUIT ELEMENT

• US 20090174804A1
• Filed: 05/10/2007
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Iijima, Tomokuni, Tamaki, Satoshi, Imada, Katsumi
• Granted Patent: US 8,107,000 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/340
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 19/07 having more than one objective
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/45144 Gold (Au) as principal constituent
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48091 Arched
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00014 the subject-matter covered by the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group, being disclosed without further technical details
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/16195 Flat cap [not enclosing an internal cavity]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/13 with multiple sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/843 Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/00 Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/41 Extracting pixel data from a plurality of image sensors simultaneously picking up an image, e.g. for increasing the field of view by combining the outputs of a plurality of sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/443 by reading pixels from selected 2D regions of the array, e.g. for windowing or digital zooming

Abstract

The present invention includes: a plurality of lens portions, each having at least one lens; a plurality of image pickup regions which are provided to correspond to the lens portions, respectively, and each of which has a light receiving surface substantially perpendicular to a direction of an optical axis of the corresponding lens portion; an image pickup signal input portion 133 which receives image pickup signals generated by the image pickup regions; a transfer range determining portion 144 which determines a transfer range of the image pickup signals transferred from the image pickup regions to the image pickup signal input portion 133; an image pickup region driving portion 132 which drives the image pickup regions such that the image pickup signals corresponding to the transfer range determined by the transfer range determining portion 144 are transferred to the image pickup signal input portion 133; and a parallax calculating portion 142 which calculates a parallax based on the image pickup signals transferred to the image pickup signal input portion 133, and the transfer range determining portion 144 switches between a first operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by at least two image pickup regions of the plurality of image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range and a second operating mode in which the image pickup signals different from those of the first operating mode are determined as the transfer range.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

a plurality of lens portions, each having at least one lens;

a plurality of image pickup regions which are provided to correspond to said plurality of lens portions, respectively, and each of which has a light receiving surface substantially perpendicular to a direction of an optical axis of a corresponding lens portion;

an image pickup signal input portion which receives image pickup signals generated by the image pickup regions;

a transfer range determining portion which determines a transfer range of the image pickup signals transferred from the image pickup regions to said image pickup signal input portion;

an image pickup region driving portion which drives the image pickup regions such that the image pickup signals corresponding to the transfer range determined by said transfer range determining portion are transferred to said image pickup signal input portion; and

a parallax calculating portion which calculates a parallax based on the image pickup signals transferred said image pickup signal input portion, wherein

said transfer range determining portion is configured to be able to switch between a first operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by at least two image pickup regions of said plurality of image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range and a second operating mode in which the image pickup signals different from those of the first operating mode are determined as the transfer range.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured to be able to switch between the first operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by substantially all of the image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range and the second operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by a substantially half of the image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the substantially half of the image pickup regions is a substantially half, which is earlier in order of transfer, of the image pickup regions.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

said plurality of image pickup regions are four image pickup regions arranged in two rows and two columns; and

the substantially half of the image pickup regions is two image pickup regions, which are arranged diagonally, of the four image pickup regions.

5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the image pickup regions are divided into a plurality of fields to be interlaced; and

said transfer range determining portion is configured to be able to switch between the first operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by substantially all of the image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range and the second operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by one field of the image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured to switch between the first operating mode and the second operating mode based on information about a subject.

7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured to switch from the first operating mode to the second operating mode when it determines that high speed is required to calculate the parallax.

8. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured to switch from the second operating mode to the first operating mode when it determines that high accuracy is required to calculate the parallax.

9. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured such that in both the first operating mode and the second operating mode, the image pickup signals generated by a part of said plurality of image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range.

10. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured such that in at least one of the first operating mode and the second operating mode, the image pickup signals generated by the image pickup regions taking an image of a moving subject are determined as the transfer range.

11. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured to switch between the first operating mode and the second operating mode based on speed of movement of the subject.

12. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured to switch to, when the movement of the subject is fast, an operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by a large number of the image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range, and to, when the movement of the subject is slow, an operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by a small number of the image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range.

13. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said transfer range determining portion is configured such that a number of pixels corresponding to the image pickup signals in the transfer range is maintained substantially constant in at least one of the first operating mode and the second operating mode.

14. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the image pickup regions are configured to take an image of regions containing regions corresponding to a road surface; and

said transfer range determining portion is configured such that in at least one of the first operating mode and the second operating mode, the image pickup signals corresponding to regions other than the regions corresponding to the road surface are determined as the transfer range.

15. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the image pickup regions are configured to take an image of regions containing regions corresponding to a face of a person; and

said transfer range determining portion is configured such that in at least one of the first operating mode and the second operating mode, the image pickup signals corresponding to the regions corresponding to the face of the person are determined as the transfer range.

16. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least two image pickup regions of said plurality of image pickup regions are configured to repeatedly alternately transfer a part of the generated image pickup signals to said image pickup signal input portion to transfer all of the generated image pickup signals to said image pickup signal input portion.

17. The image pickup apparatus according to any one of claim 1, further comprising a distance calculating portion which calculates a distance to the subject based on the parallax obtained by said parallax calculating portion.

18. A semiconductor circuit element for use in an image pickup apparatus including:

a plurality of lens portions, each having at least one lens; and

a plurality of image pickup regions which are provided to correspond to said plurality of lens portions, respectively, and each of which has a light receiving surface substantially perpendicular to a direction of an optical axis of the corresponding lens portion,

the semiconductor circuit element comprising;

an image pickup signal input portion which receives image pickup signals generated by the image pickup regions;

a transfer range determining portion which determines a transfer range of the image pickup signals transferred from the image pickup regions to said image pickup signal input portion;

an image pickup element driving portion which drives the image pickup regions such that the image pickup signals corresponding to the transfer range determined by said transfer range determining portion are transferred to said image pickup signal input portion; and

a parallax calculating portion which calculates a parallax based on the image pickup signals transferred to said image pickup signal input portion, wherein

said transfer range determining portion is configured to be able to switch between a first operating mode in which the image pickup signals generated by at least two image pickup regions of said plurality of image pickup regions are determined as the transfer range and a second operating mode in which the image pickup signals different from those of the first operating mode are determined as the transfer range.