Image-capture device, image-capture method, and image-capture program

• US 20100177207A1
• Filed: 01/11/2010
• Published: 07/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Fukuda, Kenichiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,108 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2166 for mass storage, e.g. in document filing systems information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2195 with temporary storage before final recording or on play-back, e.g. in a frame buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure

Abstract

An image-capture device includes: an image-capture section that captures an image of a subject; a detector that detects a portion of the subject, the portion having a specific feature, from the image captured by the image-capture section; an evaluator that determines a numerically expressed evaluation value of the specific feature of the portion detected by the detector; a buffer section that temporarily stores delayed images corresponding to a predetermined amount of time; and a recording-operation controller that controls the image-capture device to record image data including a predetermined delayed image in the buffer section, upon determining that the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition.

Claims

1. An image-capture device comprising:

an image-capture section that captures an image of a subject;

a detector that detects a portion of the subject, the portion having a specific feature, from the image captured by the image-capture section;

an evaluator that determines a numerically expressed evaluation value of the specific feature of the portion detected by the detector;

a buffer section that temporarily stores delayed images corresponding to a predetermined amount of time; and

a recording-operation controller that controls the image-capture device to record image data including a predetermined delayed image in the buffer section, upon determining that the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition.

2. The image-capture device according to claim 1, wherein the recording-operation controller determines a recording start point of images in the buffer section, on a basis of the evaluation value.

3. The image-capture device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the predetermined condition is that the evaluation value is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

4. The image-capture device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the predetermined condition is that a rate of increase in the evaluation value is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

5. The image-capture device according to one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the recording-start point is a point of time when the evaluation value in the buffer section is greater than or equal to a second threshold value.

6. The image-capture device according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the subject is a person and the evaluation value is a value obtained by evaluating a facial expression.

7. The image-capture device according to one of claims 3 to 6, wherein after recording is started, the recording-operation controller controls the image-capture device to stop the recording when a certain amount of time passes after the evaluation value falls below the first threshold.

8. The image-capture device according to one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the recording-operation controller controls the image-capture device to record the evaluation value corresponding to an image to be recorded, in conjunction with the image.

9. An image-capture method for an image-capture device, the method comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of a subject;

detecting a portion of the subject, the portion having a specific feature;

determining a numerically expressed evaluation value of the specific feature of the detected portion;

determining whether or not the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition;

determining a recording-start time; and

recording image data from the recording-start time.

10. An image-capture program for causing an image-capture device to execute the steps of:

capturing an image of a subject;

detecting a portion of the subject, the portion having a specific feature;

determining a numerically expressed evaluation value of the specific feature of the detected portion;

determining whether or not the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition;

determining a recording-start time; and

recording image data from the recording-start time.