IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS, IMAGE CAPTURE METHOD AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20110187829A1
• Filed: 01/26/2011
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: NAKAJIMA, Mitsuyasu
• Application Number:
  US13/014,058
• Publication Number:
  US 20110187829A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/20 Image signal generators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/221 using the relative movement between cameras and objects

Abstract

There is provided an image capture apparatus. The apparatus includes: an image capture section configured to capture an image of a subject; a focal point distance detector configured to detect a focal point distance from a main point of the image capture section to a focal point of the image capture section on the subject; an image acquisition section configured to acquire first and second images of the subject; an image position detector configured to detect a first image position and a second image position, wherein the first image position represents a position of a certain point on the subject in the first image, and the second image position represents a position of the certain point on the subject in the second image; a 3D image generator configured to generate a 3D image of the subject based on a difference between the first image position and the second image position; a parallelism computation section configured to compute parallelism based on the first and second image positions and the focal point distance; and a display section configured to display the parallelism.

Claims

1. An image capture apparatus comprising:

an image capture section configured to capture an image of a subject;

a focal point distance detector configured to detect a focal point distance from a main point of the image capture section to a focal point of the image capture section on the subject;

an image acquisition section configured to acquire first and second images of the subject, the first and second images being captured by the image capture section whose focal point is on the subject;

an image position detector configured to detect a first image position and a second image position, wherein the first image position represents a position of a certain point on the subject in the first image, and the second image position represents a position of the certain point on the subject in the second image;

a 3D image generator configured to generate a 3D image of the subject based on a difference between the first image position and the second image position;

a parallelism computation section configured to compute parallelism based on the first and second image positions and the focal point distance, the parallelism representing a degree to which an optical axis of the image capture section during capture of the first image and an optical axis of the image capture section during capture of the second image capture are parallel to each other; and

a display section configured to display the parallelism.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parallelism further represents a degree to which a first vertical scanning direction of the first image projected onto a projection plane of the image capture section and a second vertical scanning direction of the second image projected onto the projection plane of the image capture section are parallel to each other.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the parallelism further represents a degree to which a first horizontal scanning direction of the first image projected onto the projection plane and a second horizontal scanning direction of the second image projected onto the projection plane are parallel to each other.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the parallelism further represents a degree to which a movement direction of the main point of the image capture section between during the capture of the first image and the capture of the second image is different from the vertical scanning direction or the horizontal scanning direction.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a depth distance acquisition section configured to acquire a depth distance from the main point to the subject;

an actual movement amount computation section configured to compute an actual movement amount of the certain point between the first image and the second image, based on the first and second image positions;

a movement amount computation section configured to compute a movement amount to generate the 3D image, based on the depth distance;

a movement direction computation section configured to compute a movement direction of the image capture section based on the actual movement amount and the movement amount to generate the 3D image,

wherein the 3D image generator is configured to generate the 3D image with a certain depth accuracy, based on the movement amount and the movement direction, and

wherein the display section is configured to display the movement direction.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:

a parallelism determination section configured to determine, based on the parallelism, whether or not the image capture section during the capture of the first image and the image capture section during the capture of the second image are aligned in parallel stereo,

wherein the 3D image generator is configured to generate the 3D image when the parallelism determination section determines that the image capture section during the capture of the first image and the image capture section during the capture of the second image are aligned in parallel stereo.

7. A computer-readable medium storing a program for causing the computer to perform operations comprising:

(a) capturing an image of a subject by an image capture section;

(b) detecting a focal point distance from a main point of the image capture section to a focal point of the image capture section on the subject;

(c) acquiring first and second images of the subject, the first and second images being captured by the image capture section whose focal point is on the subject;

(d) detecting a first image position and a second image position, wherein the first image position represents a position of a certain point on the subject in the first image, and the second image position represents a position of the certain point on the subject in the second image;

(e) generating a 3D image of the subject based on a difference between the first image position and the second image position;

(f) computing parallelism based on the first and second image positions and the focal point distance, the parallelism representing a degree to which an optical axis of the image capture section during capture of the first image and an optical axis of the image capture section during capture of the second image capture are parallel to each other; and

(g) displaying the parallelism.

8. An image capture method, comprising:

(a) capturing an image of a subject by an image capture section;

(b) detecting a focal point distance from a main point of the image capture section to a focal point of the image capture section on the subject;

(c) acquiring first and second images of the subject, the first and second images being captured by the image capture section whose focal point is on the subject;

(d) detecting a first image position and a second image position, wherein the first image position represents a position of a certain point on the subject in the first image, and the second image position represents a position of the certain point on the subject in the second image;

(e) generating a 3D image of the subject based on a difference between the first image position and the second image position;

(f) computing parallelism based on the first and second image positions and the focal point distance, the parallelism representing a degree to which an optical axis of the image capture section during capture of the first image and an optical axis of the image capture section during capture of the second image capture are parallel to each other; and

(g) displaying the parallelism.