Image capture apparatus and method

• US 20090244317A1
• Filed: 03/24/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Makii, Tatsuo
• Granted Patent: US 8,558,944 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/229.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/76 by influencing the image signals

Abstract

An image capture apparatus includes an image capture unit configured to capture an image of a subject to obtain image data, an image-capture control unit configured to allow the image capture unit to execute an image capture operation of capturing a plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time so that a frame rate of the image capture unit is changed in accordance with a change of a subject brightness level during the execution of the image capture operation, and a combination processing unit configured to perform a combination process using, as combination-use image data to be combined, the plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time captured by the image capture unit so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

Claims

1. An image capture apparatus comprising:

an image capture unit configured to capture an image of a subject to obtain image data;

an image-capture control unit configured to allow the image capture unit to execute an image capture operation of capturing a plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time so that a frame rate of the image capture unit is changed in accordance with a change of a subject brightness level during the execution of the image capture operation; and

a combination processing unit configured to perform a combination process using, as combination-use image data to be combined, the plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time captured by the image capture unit so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

2. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image capture unit includes an optical system including an aperture mechanism, and

wherein the image-capture control unit performs exposure adjustment control during the execution of the image capture operation by controlling the aperture mechanism and by variably controlling the frame rate.

3. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image capture unit includes an optical system including a light intensity filter mechanism, and

wherein the image-capture control unit performs exposure adjustment control during the execution of the image capture operation by controlling the light intensity filter mechanism and variably controlling the frame rate.

4. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image capture unit includes an image-capture signal processing system including a variable gain circuit, and

wherein the image-capture control unit performs exposure adjustment control during the execution of the image capture operation by controlling the variable gain circuit in response to a captured image signal and variably controlling the frame rate.

5. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a recording unit configured to record the plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time captured by the image capture unit onto a recording medium as a sequence of image data used for a combination process.

6. The image capture apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the combination processing unit performs a combination process using the plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time recorded onto the recording medium so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

7. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation detection unit configured to detect operation input information used for a combination process,

wherein the combination processing unit performs a combination process on combination-use image data of frames in a range on a time axis specified by the operation input information among the combination-use image data having continuity in time so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

8. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation detection unit configured to detect operation input information used for a combination process,

wherein the combination processing unit performs a combination process on combination-use image data of each of a plurality of frames using a weighting coefficient specified by the operation input information so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

9. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the combination processing unit performs a combination process on combination-use image data of each of a plurality of frames using weighted averages so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

10. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the combination processing unit performs a combination process on combination-use image data of each of a plurality of frames by assigning a weighting coefficient, the weighting coefficient being determined as an inverse of a ratio of lengths of frame periods of the combination-use image data in the image capture operation, so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

11. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the combination processing unit performs a combination process using the combination-use image data and interpolated image data, the interpolated image data being generated by an interpolation process using the combination-use image data, so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.

12. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display control unit configured to output the combined-image data generated by the combination processing unit as image data used for display.

13. The image capture apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the recording unit records the combined-image data generated by the combination processing unit onto a recording medium.

14. The image capture apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sending unit configured to send the combined-image data generated by the combination processing unit to an external device.

15. An image capture method comprising the steps of:

executing an image capture operation of capturing a plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time;

changing a frame rate of image capture in accordance with a change of a subject brightness level during the execution of the image capture operation; and

performing a combination process using, as combination-use image data to be combined, the plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time so as to generate combined-image data representing a still image.