IMAGING APPARATUS

• US 20110032387A1
• Filed: 10/14/2010
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd. (Winbond Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: TAKAHASHI, Atsushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,373,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/231.99
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/61 based on recognised objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/40 Extracting pixel data from image sensors by controlling scanning circuits, e.g. by modifying the number of pixels sampled or to be sampled
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

An imaging apparatus according to an implementation of the present invention is connected to a memory and includes: an imaging device reading any given area; a main image storage unit reading an image of a main image area, the image representing a whole image formed on the imaging device, and store in the memory an image associated with the read image as a main image; a sub image storage unit reading an image of a watch area from the imaging device, the watch area being an area to be watched, and store the read image in the memory as a sub image; an encoder encoding the main image and the sub image stored in the memory by the main image storage unit and the sub image storage unit; and a recording unit recording the main image and the sub image encoded by the encoder on a recording medium.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus connected to a memory, said apparatus comprising:

an imaging device which reads any given area;

a main image storage unit configured to read an image of a main image area, the image representing a whole image formed on said imaging device, and store in the memory an image associated with the read image as a main image;

a sub image storage unit configured to read an image of a watch area from said imaging device, the watch area being an area to be watched, and store the read image in the memory as a sub image;

an encoder which encodes the main image and the sub image stored in the memory by said main image storage unit and said sub image storage unit; and

a recording unit configured to record the main image and the sub image encoded by said encoder on a recording medium.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said imaging device obtains images so that an obtainment cycle of said imaging device is faster than a video frame cycle, and

said main image storage unit and said image storage unit are configured to read the images obtained by said imaging device at different times.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the number of pixels which said imaging device has is greater than the numbers of pixels in the main image or the sub image,

said main image storage unit is configured to convert the number of pixels included in the image of the main image area, and to store the image of the main image area, which has the converted number of pixels, in the memory as the main image, and

said sub image storage unit is configured to convert the number of pixels included in the image of the watch area, and to store the image of the watch area, which has the converted number of pixels, in the memory as the sub image.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said sub image storage unit is configured to store in the memory images of watch areas including the image of the watch area as sub images including the sub image, the sub images corresponding to the respective watch areas,

said main image storage unit and said sub image storage unit are configured to (i) determine respective reading frame cycles of the images of the main image area and the watch area according to the number of the sub images, and (ii) store the main image and the sub image in the memory at the determined respective reading frame cycles, and

said encoder encodes the main image and the sub image at the determined respective reading frame cycles.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

an area specifying unit configured to dynamically specify the watch area.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said area specifying unit (i) includes an input device having a touch panel, and (ii) is configured to specify an area designated by said input device as the watch area.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said area specifying unit (i) includes a human detecting unit configured to detect a desired person by person recognition to detect an area of the detected person, and (ii) is configured to specify the area detected by said human detecting unit as the watch area.

8. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said area specifying unit (i) includes a motion estimating unit configured to estimate an area in which a motion is estimated by motion estimation, and (ii) is configured to specify the area estimated by said motion estimating unit as the watch area.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said area specifying unit (i) includes an eye-gaze detecting unit configured to detect an eye gaze of a user to specify an area at which the user is watching using the detected eye gaze, and (ii) is configured to select the area specified by said eye-gaze detecting unit as the watch area.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising

a sub image information generating unit configured to record information indicating the watch area as additional information in the recording medium, the watch area being specified by said area specifying unit.

11. The imaging apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising

a displaying unit configured to display the image of the main image area and the image of the watch area.

12. The imaging apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein said displaying unit is configured to change to display a frame color of a displayed image, of a watch area, corresponding to the sub image depending on whether or not said recording unit is recording the sub image.

13. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a main image displaying unit configured to display the image of the main image area; and

a sub image displaying unit configured to display the image of the watch area.