IMAGE SHOOTING DEVICE AND IMAGE SHOOTING METHOD

• US 20090225182A1
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: TAMURA, Kazunori
• Granted Patent: US 8,373,766 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means

Abstract

An image shooting device includes an image shooting component, a brightness detector, a flash component, a shift detector, a controller, and a flash amount determining component. The shift detector detects a shift amount of a subject position in a set of image data that has arisen due to shaking of the image shooting device. The controller corrects, on the basis of the detected shift amount, at least one of two sets of image data acquired within non-flash state and flash-emitting state, such that positions of a detection target region with respect to the subject position of the respective sets of image data are substantially matched. The flash amount determining component determines a flash amount of the flash component on the basis of the detected brightness level.

Claims

1. An image shooting device comprising:

an image shooting component that outputs a set of image data that is obtained by shooting a subject and which represents the subject, the set of image data comprising target region image data that correspond to a detection target region that includes the subject;

a brightness detector that detects a brightness level from the target region image data;

a flash component that emits light toward the subject;

a shift detector that detects a shift amount, of a subject position in a set of image data, of a shift that has arisen due to shaking of the image shooting device;

a controller that, on the basis of the shift amount detected by the shift detector, corrects at least one of two sets of image data comprising a set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is not emitting light or a set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is emitting light, such that positions of the detection target region with respect to the subject position of the respective sets of image data are substantially matched; and

a flash amount determining component that determines a flash amount of the flash component on the basis of the detected brightness level.

2. The image shooting device of claim 1, wherein, on the basis of the shift amount detected by the shift detector, the controller moves a position of the detection target region with respect to the subject position of one of the two sets of image data so as to substantially match that of the other of one of the two sets of image data.

3. The image shooting device of claim 1, wherein the detection target region comprises a plurality of sub-regions, and the brightness detector detects a brightness level from each of a plurality of sets of sub-region image data that correspond to the plurality of the sub-regions.

4. The image shooting device of claim 1, further comprising a face detector that detects, from the set of image data, a human face that is included in the subject, wherein the target region image data includes the detected human face.

5. The image shooting device of claim 1, further comprising a prohibiting component that prohibits correction of the detection target region by the controller when the image shooting component outputs a set of image data in which the shift of the subject position therein has been corrected on the basis of the shift amount detected by the shift detector.

6. The image shooting device of claim 1, wherein

when the image shooting component outputs a set of image data in which the shift of the subject position has been corrected by a correction amount that is within a predetermined range on the basis of the shift amount detected by the shift detector, the controller, on the basis of the shift amount detected by the shift detector and the correction amount of the image data corrected by the image shooting component, corrects at least one of two sets of image data comprising a set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is not emitting light or a set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is emitting light, such that positions of the detection target region with respect to the subject position of the respective sets of image data are substantially matched.

7. The image shooting device of claim 5, further comprising:

a display component; and

a prohibition display controller that controls the display component to display the fact that the correction is being prohibited by the prohibiting component.

8. The image shooting device of claim 1, further comprising a recording component that records relative position data of the detection target region of the set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is not emitting light and the detection target region of the set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is emitting light.

9. An image shooting method comprising:

shooting a subject in a state in which a flash component of an image shooting device does not emit light and in a state in which the flash component emits light, to acquire two sets of image data that represent the subject, each set of image data comprising target region image data that correspond to a detection target region that includes the subject;

detecting a shift amount of a subject position between the two sets of image data that has arisen due to shaking of an image shooting device;

correcting at least one of the acquired sets of image data, on the basis of the shift amount, such that a position of the detection target region with respect to the subject position of the image data acquired in a state in which the flash component does not emit light and that of the image data acquired in a state in which the flash component emits light, are substantially matched;

detecting brightness levels of the respective target region image data; and

determining a flash amount of the flash component on the basis of the detected brightness levels.

10. The image shooting method of claim 9, wherein the correcting includes moving, on the basis of the detected shift amount, the position the detection target region with respect to the subject position of one of the two sets of image data so as to substantially match that of the other of the two sets of image data.

11. The image shooting method of claim 9, wherein the detection target region comprises a plurality of sub-regions, and the detecting of the brightness levels comprises detecting brightness levels from each of a plurality of sets of sub-region image data that correspond to the plurality of sub-regions.

12. The image shooting method of claim 9, further comprising detecting a human face that is included in the subject from the two sets of image data,

wherein the target region image data represent a region that includes the detected human face.

13. The image shooting method of claim 9, further comprising recording relative position data of the detection target region of the set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is not emitting light and the detection target region of the set of image data acquired in a state in which the flash component is emitting light.