OMNIDIRECTIONAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND OMNIDIRECTIONAL IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20120045149A1
• Filed: 01/26/2011
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Arai, Yuko, Sugiura, Masataka, Takemoto, Yuichiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,744,216 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/296
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/047 Fisheye or wide-angle transformations
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/12 Panospheric to cylindrical image transformations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

An omnidirectional image processing apparatus is provided that enables the visibility of a specified monitoring object in an omnidirectional image to be improved while maintaining the continuity of that omnidirectional image. An omnidirectional image processing apparatus (400) is an apparatus that performs image processing on an omnidirectional image, and has a monitoring object specification section (405) that specifies a monitoring object photographed in the omnidirectional image, an image rotating section (406) that rotates the omnidirectional image so that the position of a specified monitoring object becomes upper-central, and a center position moving section (407) that moves the center position of the omnidirectional image rotated by the image rotating section (406) downward by means of warping processing.

Claims

1. An omnidirectional image processing apparatus that performs image processing on an omnidirectional image, the omnidirectional image processing apparatus comprising:

a monitoring object specification section that specifies a monitoring object photographed in the omnidirectional image;

an image rotating section that rotates the omnidirectional image so that a position of the specified monitoring object becomes upper-central; and

a center position moving section that moves a center position of the omnidirectional image rotated by the image rotating section downward by means of warping processing.

2. The omnidirectional image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a monitoring object position information input section that inputs a position of the specified monitoring object in the omnidirectional image in initial-state,

wherein the image rotating section rotates the omnidirectional image based on the position of the specified monitoring object.

3. The omnidirectional image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the center position moving section enlarges an image area of the specified monitoring object.

4. The omnidirectional image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image ellipsification section that changes a shape of the omnidirectional image to an elliptical shape by extending the omnidirectional image horizontally.

5. The omnidirectional image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a distortion correction section that locally changes a shape of an image area of the specified monitoring object among monitoring objects photographed in the omnidirectional image, and corrects distortion thereof.

6. The omnidirectional image processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a moving image storage section that stores a moving image that is time series data of the omnidirectional image;

a monitoring object position information storage section that stores a position of the specified monitoring object at each time input by the monitoring object position information input section; and

an image output section that outputs the moving image on which the image processing has been performed.

7. An omnidirectional image processing method that performs image processing on an omnidirectional image, the omnidirectional image processing method comprising:

a step of specifying a monitoring object photographed in the omnidirectional image;

a step of rotating the omnidirectional image so that a position of the specified monitoring object becomes upper-central; and

a step of moving a center position of rotated the omnidirectional image downward by means of warping processing.