Image Processing Apparatus And Image Sensing Apparatus

• US 20100149384A1
• Filed: 12/11/2009
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xacti Corporation (Office Support KK)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: HATANAKA, Haruo, IIJIMA, Yasuhiro, FUKUMOTO, Shimpei
• Granted Patent: US 8,373,776 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/741 by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/81 for suppressing or minimising disturbance in the image signal generation

Abstract

An image processing apparatus outputs an output image by synthesizing a first image obtained by shooting, a second image obtained by shooting with an exposure time longer than the exposure time of the first image, and a third image obtained by reducing noise in the first image. The image processing apparatus has a noise reduction processing control portion which controls the contents of image processing for obtaining the third image from the first image according to the noise level in the first image.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus which generates an output image by synthesizing a first image obtained by shooting, a second image obtained by shooting with an exposure time longer than an exposure time of the first image, and a third image obtained by reducing noise in the first image, the image processing apparatus comprising:

a noise reduction processing control portion which controls contents of image processing for obtaining the third image from the first image according to a noise level in the first image.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

a plurality of mutually different noise reduction portions which reduce noise in the first image, wherein

the noise reduction processing control portion selects one of the plurality of noise reduction portions according to the noise level in the first image, and

the third image is generated as a result of the selected noise reduction portion reducing noise in the first image.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the third image is generated by applying predetermined noise reduction processing to the first image once or more times, and

the noise reduction processing control portion varies how many times the noise reduction processing is applied to the first image according to the noise level in the first image.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a position adjustment portion which adjusts positions of the first and second images;

a first synthesis portion which generates a fourth image by synthesizing, at a synthesis ratio based on a difference between the third image and the position-adjusted second image, the third image and the position-adjusted second image; and

a second synthesis portion which generates the output image by synthesizing, at a synthesis ratio based on intensity of an edge contained in the first or third image, the first image and the fourth image.

5. An image sensing apparatus comprising:

an image sensing portion which acquires an image by shooting; and

the image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the first and second images are acquired by the image sensing portion.

6. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a position adjustment portion which adjusts positions of a first image obtained by shooting and a second image obtained by shooting with an exposure time longer than an exposure time of the first image;

a noise reduction portion which identifies an overlap region and a non-overlap region between image regions of the position-adjusted first and second images, and which then performs first noise reduction processing on an image within the overlap region on the first image to generate a first noise-reduced image and performs second noise reduction processing different from the first noise reduction processing on an image within the non-overlap region on the first image to generate a second noise-reduced image; and

a joining portion which generates an output image by synthesizing, on one hand, a synthesized image obtained by synthesizing the image within the overlap region on the first and second images and the first noise-reduced image and, on another hand, the second noise-reduced image.

7. An image sensing apparatus comprising:

an image sensing portion which acquires an image by shooting; and

the image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the first and second images are acquired by the image sensing portion.

8. An image processing apparatus which generates, from a first image obtained by shooting and a second image obtained by shooting with an exposure time longer than an exposure time of the first image, a third image in which noise in the first image has been reduced and a fourth image which is a synthesized image of the second and third images, the image processing apparatus generating an output image by synthesizing the first and fourth images, the image processing apparatus comprising:

a synthesis ratio adjustment portion which adjusts, according to a noise level in the first image, at least one of a first synthesis ratio at which the second and third images are synthesized and a second synthesis ratio at which the first and fourth images are synthesized.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the first synthesis ratio is derived by applying a difference between the second and third images to a first predetermined conversion condition, and the second synthesis ratio is derived by applying intensity of an edge contained in the first or third image to a second predetermined conversion condition, and

the synthesis ratio adjustment portion adjusts the at least one of the first and second synthesis ratios according to the noise level in the first image by adjusting at least one of the first and second conversion conditions according to the noise level in the first image.

10. An image sensing apparatus comprising:

an image sensing portion which acquires an image by shooting; and

the image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the first and second images are acquired by the image sensing portion.