IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS AND IMAGE CAPTURING METHOD

• US 20110109754A1
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Makino, Tetsuji, Onozawa, Masaru, Nakagomi, Kouichi, MATSUNAGA, Kazuhisa
• Granted Patent: US 8,599,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/208.4
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/683 performed by a processor, e.g. controlling the readout of an image memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/743 Bracketing, i.e. taking a series of images with varying exposure conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2625 for obtaining an image which is composed of images from a temporal image sequence, e.g. for a stroboscopic effect sequence generated by event triggered capturing H04N7/188

Abstract

An image capture apparatus includes: an image capturing unit; a first image capture controller configured to control the image capturing unit to capture a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images; a second image capture controller configured to obtain a plurality of sets of the images; an addition combination section configured to perform image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets and to perform addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image; a combination controller configured to control the addition combination section to perform the image alignment and the addition combination for each of the sets to obtain a plurality of combined images; a selector configured to evaluate the combined images and to select one of the combined images most highly evaluated as a selected image; and a storage configured to store the selected image.

Claims

1. An image capture apparatus comprising:

an image capturing unit;

a first image capture controller configured to control the image capturing unit to capture a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images;

a second image capture controller configured to control the first image capture controller to perform capturing of the set of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

an addition combination section configured to perform image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets and to perform addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image;

a combination controller configured to control the addition combination section to perform the image alignment and the addition combination for each of the sets to obtain a plurality of combined images;

a selector configured to evaluate the combined images and to select one of the combined images most highly evaluated as a selected image; and

a storage configured to store the selected image.

2. The image capture apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the set of the images comprises a first group of images comprising at least one image and a second group of images comprising at least one image, and

wherein the first image capture controller is configured to control the image capturing unit to capture the first group of images with a first exposure time, and thereafter, to capture the second group of images with a second exposure time that is longer than the first exposure time.

3. The image capture apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a detector configured to detect brightness of capturing condition,

wherein the addition combination section is configured to perform the positional alignment and the addition combination on the images contained in two or more of the sets when the brightness detected by the detector lower than a threshold value.

4. The image capture apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the selector is configured to evaluate blurring of a subject for each of the combined images and to select one of the combined images having least blurring as the selected image.

5. The image capture apparatus of claim 4,

wherein the selector is configured to evaluate the blurring of the subject affected by camera shake for each of the combined images and to select one of the combined images having least blurring as the selected image.

6. The image capture apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a determination section configured to determine whether or not a face image is contained in a captured image,

wherein the selector is configured to evaluate the face image of the combined images and to select one of the combined images most highly evaluated as the selected image, when the determination section determines that the face image is contained in the captured image.

7. An image capture apparatus comprising:

an image capturing unit;

a first image capture controller configured to control the image capturing unit to capture a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images;

a second image capture controller configured to control the first image capture controller to perform capturing of the set of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

a selector configured to evaluate the images contained in each of the sets and to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as a selected set;

an addition combination section configured to perform image alignment on the images contained in the selected set and to perform addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image; and

a storage configured to store the selected image.

8. The image capture apparatus of claim 7,

wherein the set of the images comprises a first group of images comprising at least one image and a second group of images comprising at least one image, and

wherein the first image capture controller is configured to control the image capturing unit to capture the first group of images with a first exposure time, and thereafter, to capture the second group of images with a second exposure time that is longer than the first exposure time.

9. The image capture apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

a detector configured to detect brightness of capturing condition,

wherein the addition combination section is configured to perform the positional alignment and the addition combination on the images contained in two or more sets when the brightness detected by the detector lower than a threshold value.

10. The image capture apparatus of claim 7,

wherein the selector is configured to evaluate blurring of a subject for each of the images contained in each of the sets and to select one of the sets having least blurring as the selected set.

11. The image capture apparatus of claim 10,

wherein the selector is configured to evaluate the blurring of the subject affected by camera shake for each of the images contained in each of the sets and to select one of the sets having least blurring as the selected set.

12. The image capture apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

a determination section configured to determine whether or not a face image is contained in a captured image,

wherein the selector is configured to evaluate the face image of the images contained in each of the sets and to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as the selected set, when the determination section determines that the face image is contained in the captured image.

13. An image capturing method comprising:

capturing a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

performing image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets;

performing addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image;

performing the image alignment and the addition combination for each of the sets to obtain a plurality of combined images;

evaluating the combined images to select one of the combined images most highly evaluated as a selected image; and

storing the selected image.

14. An image capturing method comprising:

capturing a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

evaluating the images contained in each of the sets to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as a selected set;

performing image alignment on the images contained in the selected set;

performing addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image; and

storing the selected image.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a software program for causing a computer comprised in an image capture apparatus comprising an image capturing unit to execute a process comprising:

controlling the image capturing unit to capture a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

performing image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets;

performing addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image;

performing the image alignment and the addition combination for each of the sets to obtain a plurality of combined images;

evaluating the combined images to select one of the combined images most highly evaluated as a selected image; and

storing the selected image.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a software program for causing a computer comprised in an image capture apparatus comprising an image capturing unit to execute a process comprising:

controlling the image capturing unit to capture a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

evaluating the images contained in each of the sets to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as a selected set;

performing image alignment on the images contained in the selected set;

performing addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image; and

storing the selected image.