IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS

• US 20110199502A1
• Filed: 02/09/2011
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Okamura, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,817,122 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• 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

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus includes a face area selecting unit configured to select at least a face area situated at a first object distance and a face area situated at a second object distance, and to select a face area occupying the smallest area in a picked-up image among two or more face areas in a case where the two or more face areas are situated at the first object distance or at the second object distance.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

a face area detecting unit configured to detect face areas of persons in a picked-up image;

a face information obtaining unit configured to obtain face information including at least information corresponding to object distances and information corresponding to object sizes;

a face area selecting unit configured to select fewer face areas than the detected face areas on the basis of the face information in a case where an assist function is set in manual focusing; and

a display unit configured to effect enlarging display of the selected face areas, wherein

the face area selecting unit selects at least a face area situated at a first object distance and a face area situated at a second object distance, and selects a face area occupying the smallest area in the picked-up image among two or more face areas in a case where the two or more face areas are situated at the first object distance or at the second object distance.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the face area selecting unit selects at least a most distant face area and a nearest face area situated in the depth of field from among the detected face areas.

3. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup apparatus has an adjusting function of the depth of filed capable of adjusting the depth of field at the time of photographing and performs a face area selecting operation by the face area selecting unit and an enlarging display operation by the display unit during adjusting the depth of field.

4. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

a face area detecting unit configured to detect face areas of persons in a picked-up image;

a face information obtaining unit configured to obtain face information including at least distance information and size information;

a face area selecting unit configured to select fewer face areas than the detected face areas on the basis of the face information in a case where an assist function is set in manual focusing; and

a display unit configured to effect enlarging display of the selected face areas, wherein

the face area selecting unit selects at least a face area situated at a first object distance and a face area situated at a second object distance, and selects a face area occupying the largest area in the picked-up image among two or more face areas situated at the first object distance and a face area occupying the smallest area in the picked-up image among two or more face areas situated at the second object distance in a case where two or more face areas are situated at the first object distance or at the second object distance, respectively.

5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the face area selecting unit selects at least a most distant face area and a nearest face area situated in the depth of field from among the detected face areas.

6. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the image pickup apparatus has an adjusting function of the depth of filed capable of adjusting the depth of field at the time of photographing and performs a face area selecting operation by the face area selecting unit and an enlarging display operation by the display unit during adjusting the depth of field.

7. A control method of an image pickup apparatus comprising the steps of:

detecting face areas of persons in a picked-up image;

obtaining face information including at least information corresponding to object distances and information corresponding to object sizes;

selecting fewer face areas than the detected face areas on the basis of the face information in a case where an assist function is set in manual focusing; and

effecting enlarging display of the selected face areas, wherein

the step of selecting the face areas selects at least a face area situated at a first object distance and a face area situated at a second object distance, and selects a face area occupying the smallest area in the picked-up image among two or more face areas in a case where the two or more face areas are situated at the first object distance or at the second object distance.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program comprising a program code for causing a computer to execute the control method according to claim 7.

8. A control method of an image pickup apparatus comprising the steps of:

detecting face areas of persons in a picked-up image;

obtaining face information including at least distance information and size information;

selecting fewer face areas than the detected face areas on the basis of the face information in a case where an assist function is set in manual focusing; and

effecting enlarging display of the selected face areas, wherein

the step of selecting the face areas selects at least a face area situated at a first object distance and a face area situated at a second object distance, and selects a face area occupying the largest area in the picked-up image among two or more face areas situated at the first object distance and a face area occupying the smallest area in the picked-up image among two or more face areas situated at the second object distance in a case where two or more face areas are situated at the first object distance or at the second object distance, respectively.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program comprising a program code for causing a computer to execute the control method according to claim 8.