IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20120002098A1
• Filed: 06/08/2011
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Ueda, Haruhisa
• Granted Patent: US 9,204,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/362
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

An image capture apparatus includes: a capturing unit that captures an object image and generates image data; a setting unit that sets an exposure time for the capturing unit; a composition unit that generates composite image data, in which a predetermined number of pieces of image data have been composed, by dividing the exposure time set by the setting unit into multiple exposure time segments and sequentially composing image data obtained from the capturing unit for each of the exposure time segments into which the exposure time has been divided; and a recording control unit that records, into a recording medium, the composite image data generated by the composition unit and history image data generated by sequentially composing the image data, obtained from the capturing unit, that has been sequentially generated up until the composite image data has been generated.

Claims

1. An image capture apparatus comprising:

a capturing unit that captures an object image and generates image data;

a setting unit that sets an exposure time for the capturing unit;

a composition unit that generates composite image data, in which a predetermined number of pieces of image data have been composed, by dividing the exposure time set by the setting unit into multiple exposure time segments and sequentially composing image data obtained from the capturing unit for each of the exposure time segments into which the exposure time has been divided; and

a recording control unit that records, into a recording medium, the composite image data generated by the composition unit and history image data generated by sequentially composing the image data, obtained from the capturing unit, that has been sequentially generated up until the composite image data has been generated.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a detection unit that detects the brightness of the history image data sequentially generated by the composition unit,

wherein of the history image data sequentially generated by the composition unit, the recording control unit does not record image data whose brightness as detected by the detection unit does not exceed a predetermined value in the recording medium.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the recording control unit does not record the history image data corresponding to a exposure time segment that is prior to the exposure time segment set by the setting unit by a predetermined amount of time in the recording medium.

4. A control method for an image capture apparatus including a capturing unit that captures an object image and generates image data, the method comprising the steps of:

setting an exposure time for the capturing unit;

generating composite image data in which a predetermined number of pieces of image data have been composed, by dividing the exposure time set by the setting unit into multiple exposure time segments and sequentially composing image data obtained from the capturing unit for each of the exposure time segments into which the exposure time has been divided; and

recording, into a recording medium, the composite image data generated in the step of generating and history image data generated by sequentially composing the image data, obtained from the capturing unit, that has been sequentially generated up until the composite image data has been generated.

5. A recording medium storing the computer readable program to perform the control method according to claim 4.