IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGING DEVICE, AND IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM

• US 20110043656A1
• Filed: 08/20/2010
• Published: 02/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: TANAKA, Mikiya
• Granted Patent: US 8,355,056 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/25 Determination of region of interest [ROI] or a volume of interest [VOI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• 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 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

An image processing device includes: an input unit that inputs an image obtained by imaging; a resize processing unit that performs one of enlargement and reduction processing for the image input by the input unit as a category decision target image, so as to obtain a first image equivalent of a predetermined camera-to-subject distance; a feature amount calculation unit that calculates a first feature amount that indicates a feature of the first image resized by the resize processing unit; and a decision unit that makes a category decision on the category decision target image based upon the first feature amount, the category decision being to make a decision as to which of a plurality of categories the category target image corresponds to.

Claims

1. An image processing device, comprising:

an input unit that inputs an image obtained by imaging;

a resize processing unit that performs one of enlargement and reduction processing for the image input by the input unit as a category decision target image, so as to obtain a first image equivalent of a predetermined camera-to-subject distance;

a feature amount calculation unit that calculates a first feature amount that indicates a feature of the first image resized by the resize processing unit; and

a decision unit that makes a category decision on the category decision target image based upon the first feature amount, the category decision being to make a decision as to which of a plurality of categories the category target image corresponds to.

2. An image processing device according to claim 1, wherein:

the resize processing unit further performs one of enlargement and reduction processing for the image input by the input unit as a sample image, so as to obtain a second image equivalent of a predetermined camera-to-subject distance; and

the feature amount calculation unit further calculates a second feature amount that indicates a feature of the second image resized by the resize processing unit, further comprising;

a classifier generation unit that generates a classifier for the category decision based upon the second feature amount.

3. An image processing device according to claim 2, wherein:

the decision unit makes the category decision on the category decision target image by comparing the classifier with the first feature amount.

4. An image processing device according to claim 1, wherein:

the resize processing unit performs one of the enlargement and reduction processing corresponding to a camera-to-subject distance predetermined for each category.

5. An image processing device according to claim 1, wherein:

when carrying out the enlargement processing for the category decision target image, the resize processing unit obtains the first image by using an image of a predetermined range including a focus control area among the category decision target images.

6. An imaging device, comprising:

an image generation unit that captures an image of a subject so as to generate an image;

a resize processing unit that performs one of enlargement and reduction processing for the image generated by the image generation unit as a category decision target image, so as to obtain a first image equivalent of a predetermined camera-to-subject distance;

a feature amount calculation unit that calculates a first feature amount that indicates a feature of the first image resized by the resize processing unit; and

a decision unit that makes a category decision on the category decision target image based upon the first feature amount, the category decision being to make a decision as to which of a plurality of categories the category decision image corresponds to.

7. A computer-readable program product that includes a computer-executable image processing program, wherein the image processing program causes a computer to execute:

input processing for inputting an image obtained by imaging;

resize processing for performing one of enlargement and reduction processing for the image input by the input processing as a category decision target image, so as to obtain a first image equivalent of a predetermined camera-to-subject distance;

feature amount calculation processing for calculating a feature amount of the first image resized by the resize processing; and

decision processing for making a category decision on the category decision target image based upon a feature amount of the first image, the category decision being to make a decision as to which of a plurality of categories the category decision target image corresponds to.