IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND PROGRAM

• US 20110157394A1
• Filed: 10/11/2010
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: YOSHIZUMI, Shingo
• Granted Patent: US 8,514,285 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/56 Accessories carrying-cases A45C11/38
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/561 Support related camera accessories
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/04 with cameras or projectors providing touching or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/50 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/61 based on recognised objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/695 Control of camera direction for changing a field of view, e.g. pan, tilt or based on tracking of objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes: a picture range variation control section adapted to variably set a picture range extent of image data; and a composition processing section adapted to detect whether or not a target image is included in a picture range while the picture range extent is variably set by the picture range variation control section and carry out, when one or more target images are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different target image around the detected target image or images.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

a picture range variation control section adapted to variably set a picture range extent of image data; and

a composition processing section adapted to detect whether or not a target image is included in a picture range while the picture range extent is variably set by said picture range variation control section and carry out, when one or more target images are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different target image around the detected target image or images.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data are picked up image data in an image pickup apparatus adapted to carry out pickup of an image of an image pickup object and recording of picked up image data into or on a recording medium;

the target image being an image of a target image pickup object;

said picture range variation control section being an image pickup visual field variation control section adapted to control driving of a variation mechanism for an image pickup visual field in the image pickup apparatus is provided;

said composition processing section being an image pickup preparation processing section adapted to detect whether or not the target image pickup object is included in the image pickup visual field from the picked up image data of the image pickup apparatus while driving of the variation mechanism is controlled by said image pickup visual field variation control section and carry out, when one or more target image pickup objects are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different image pickup object around the detected image pickup object or objects is provided.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the composition determination process includes:

a tentative composition adjustment process for carrying out, when one or more target image pickup objects are detected, composition adjustment while the image pickup visual field is varied so that a different image pickup object around the detected image pickup object or objects can be confirmed; and

a regular composition adjustment process for varying the image pickup visual field in order to optimize a composition after completion of the tentative composition adjustment.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the composition adjustment process is carried out as a process for controlling driving of the variation mechanism so that the center of gravity regarding one or a plurality of detected image pickup objects is placed within a target range set in the picture range;

and

setting of the target range is different between the tentative composition adjustment process and the regular composition adjustment process.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the target range upon the tentative composition adjustment process is set such that a variation width of the image pickup visual field is greater than a variation width of the image pickup visual field upon the regular composition adjustment process.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said image pickup visual field variation control section carries out, as the variation mechanism, driving control for a pan mechanism, a tilt mechanism or a zoom mechanism.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the composition determination process is executed as a process to be executed when automatic still picture image pickup operation which does not depend upon a release operation by a user is carried out.

8. An image processing method for image data, comprising the steps of:

variably setting a picture range extent of image data;

detecting whether or not a target image is included in a picture range while the picture range extent is variably set; and

carrying out, when one or more target images are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different target image around the detected target image.

9. An image processing method for an image pickup apparatus or an image pickup system which includes a still picture image pickup section adapted to carry out image pickup of an image pickup object and recording of picked up image data into or on a recording medium and an image pickup visual field variation mechanism for the still picture image pickup section, comprising the steps of:

detecting whether or not a target image pickup object is included in an image pickup visual field from the picked up image data of the image pickup apparatus while driving of the variation mechanism is controlled; and

carrying out, when one or more target image pickup objects are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different image pickup object around the detected image pickup object or objects.

10. A control processing program for an image processing apparatus adapted to carry out a process for image data, the control processing program causing a calculation processing apparatus to execute the steps of:

variably setting a picture range extent of image data;

detecting whether or not a target image is included in a picture range while the picture range extent is variably set; and

carrying out, when one or more target images are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different target image around the detected target image.

11. A control processing program for an image pickup apparatus or an image pickup system which includes a still picture image pickup section configured to carry out image pickup of an image pickup object and recording of picked up image data into or on a recording medium and an image pickup visual field variation mechanism for the still picture image pickup section, the control processing program causing a calculation processing apparatus to execute the steps of:

detecting whether or not a target image pickup object is included in an image pickup visual field from the picked up image data of the image pickup apparatus while driving of the variation mechanism is controlled; and

carrying out, when one or more target image pickup objects are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different image pickup object around the detected image pickup object or objects.

12. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

picture range variation control means for variably setting a picture range extent of image data; and

composition processing means for detecting whether or not a target image is included in a picture range while the picture range extent is variably set by said picture range variation control means and carrying out, when one or more target images are detected, a composition determination process including confirmation of a different target image around the detected target image or images.