ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT

• US 20120105590A1
• Filed: 10/28/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Xacti Corporation (Office Support KK)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: YAMADA, Akihiko, KOYAMA, Kanichi, Tsuda, Yoshiyuki, FUKUMOTO, Shinpei
• Application Number:
  US13/284,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20120105590A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/632 for displaying or modifying preview images prior to image capturing, e.g. variety of image resolutions or capturing parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/633 for displaying additional information relating to control or operation of the camera

Abstract

Electronic equipment includes a target output image generating portion that generates a target output image by changing a depth of field of a target input image by image processing, a monitor that displays on a display screen a distance histogram indicating a distribution of distance between an object at each position in the target input image and an apparatus that photographed the target input image, and displays on the display screen a selection index that is movable along a distance axis in the distance histogram, and a depth of field setting portion that sets a depth of field of the target output image based on a position of the selection index determined by an operation for moving the selection index along the distance axis.

Claims

1. An electronic equipment comprising:

a target output image generating portion that generates a target output image by changing a depth of field of a target input image by image processing;

a monitor that displays on a display screen a distance histogram indicating a distribution of distance between an object at each position in the target input image and an apparatus that photographed the target input image, and displays on the display screen a selection index that is movable along a distance axis in the distance histogram; and

a depth of field setting portion that sets a depth of field of the target output image based on a position of the selection index determined by an operation for moving the selection index along the distance axis.

2. The electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the depth of field setting portion sets the depth of field of the target output image so that a distance on the distance axis corresponding to the position of the selection index belongs to the depth of field of the target output image.

3. The electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the depth of field setting portion sets a typical distance from frequencies of the distance histogram and extracts image data of an object corresponding to the typical distance from the image data of the target input image, and hence a typical distance object image based on the extracted image data is displayed on the display screen in association with the typical distance of the distance histogram.

4. An electronic equipment comprising:

a target output image generating portion that generates a target output image by changing a depth of field of a target input image by image processing;

a touch panel monitor having a display screen that accepts a touch panel operation when a touching object touches the display screen, and accepts a designation operation as the touch panel operation for designating a plurality of specific objects on the display screen in a state where the target input image or an image based on the target input image is displayed on the display screen; and

a depth of field setting portion that sets a depth of field of the target output image based on the designation operation.

5. The electronic equipment according to claim 4, wherein the depth of field setting portion sets the depth of field of the target output image so that the plurality of specific objects are included within the depth of field of the target output image.

6. The electronic equipment according to claim 4, wherein the depth of field setting portion extracts a distance between each specific object and an apparatus that photographed the target input image from a distance map indicating a distance between and object at each position on the target input image and the apparatus, and sets distances at both ends of the depth of field of the target output image based on the extracted distance.

7. An electronic equipment comprising:

a target output image generating portion that generates a target output image by changing a depth of field of a target input image by image processing;

a touch panel monitor having a display screen that accepts a touch panel operation when a touching object touches the display screen, and accepts a designation operation as the touch panel operation for designating a specific object on the display screen in a state where the target input image or an image based on the target input image is displayed on the display screen; and

a depth of field setting portion that sets a depth of field of the target output image so that the specific object is included in the depth of field of the target output image, wherein

the depth of field setting portion sets a width of the depth of field of the target output image in accordance with a time length while the touching object is touching the specific object on the display screen in the designation operation.

8. An electronic equipment comprising:

a target output image generating portion that generates a target output image by changing a depth of field of a target input image by image processing;

a depth of field setting portion that sets a depth of field of the target output image in accordance with a given operation; and

a monitor that displays information indicating the set depth of field.

9. The electronic equipment according to claim 8, wherein the information contains an f-number corresponding to the set depth of field.