IMAGING APPARATUS AND IMAGING METHOD

• US 20120026297A1
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sato, Shunichi
• Application Number:
  US13/260,857
• Publication Number:
  US 20120026297A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/47
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 35/08 by simultaneous recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/387 Composing, repositioning or otherwise geometrically modifying originals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/243 using three or more 2D image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/951 by using two or more images to influence resolution, frame rate or aspect ratio
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/41 Extracting pixel data from a plurality of image sensors simultaneously picking up an image, e.g. for increasing the field of view by combining the outputs of a plurality of sensors

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes: a plurality of imaging elements; a plurality of solid lenses that form images on the plurality of imaging elements; a plurality of optical axis control units that control the directions of the optical axes of light that is incident to each of the plurality of imaging elements; a plurality of video processing units that convert photoelectric converted signals output from each of the plurality of imaging elements to video signals; a stereo image processing unit that, by performing stereo matching processing based on the plurality of video signals converted by the plurality of video processing units, determines the amount of shift for each pixel, and generates compositing parameters in which the shift amounts that exceed the pixel pitch of the plurality of imaging elements are normalized to the pixel pitch; and a video compositing processing unit that generates high-definition video by compositing the video signals converted by the plurality of video processing units, based on the compositing parameters generated by the stereo image processing unit.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

a plurality of imaging elements;

a plurality of solid lenses that form images on the plurality of imaging elements;

a plurality of optical axis control units that control the directions of the optical axes of light that is incident to each of the plurality of imaging elements;

a plurality of video processing units that convert photoelectric converted signals output from each of the plurality of imaging elements to video signals;

a stereo image processing unit that, by performing stereo matching processing based on the plurality of video signals converted by the plurality of video processing units, determines the amount of shift for each pixel, and generates compositing parameters in which the shift amounts that exceed the pixel pitch of the plurality of imaging elements are normalized to the pixel pitch; and

a video compositing processing unit that generates high-definition video by compositing the video signals converted by the plurality of video processing units, based on the compositing parameters generated by the stereo image processing unit.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising;

a stereo image noise reduction processing unit that, based on the compositing parameters generated by the stereo image processing unit, reduces the noise of the parallax image used in stereo matching processing.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the video compositing processing unit achieves high definition only in a prescribed region, based on the parallax image generated by the stereo image processing unit.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the video compositing processing unit achieves high definition only in a prescribed region, based on the parallax image generated by the stereo image processing unit.

4. An imaging method for generating high-definition video comprising:

controlling the directions of the optical axes of light that is incident to each of the plurality of imaging elements;

converting the photoelectric converted signals output by the plurality of imaging elements into video signals;

by performing stereo matching processing based on the plurality of video signals converted by the plurality of video processing units, determining the amount of shift for each pixel, and generating compositing parameters in which the shift amounts that exceed the pixel pitch of the plurality of imaging elements are normalized to the pixel pitch; and

generating high-definition video by compositing the video signals based on the compositing parameters.