IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20120307092A1
• Filed: 05/14/2012
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kotani, Takuya
• Granted Patent: US 8,810,683 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/218.1
• 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 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/40 Extracting pixel data from image sensors by controlling scanning circuits, e.g. by modifying the number of pixels sampled or to be sampled
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2226 Determination of depth image, e.g. for foreground/background separation determining depth by image analysis in general G06T7/50; segmentation by image analysis in general G06T7/10

Abstract

An image capturing apparatus and a control method thereof relate to an image capturing apparatus such as a camera array. The image capturing apparatus comprises a plurality of image capturing units. An image capturing unit to be activated out of a plurality of image capturing units is decided based on the capturing distance of an object included in a captured scene. Electricity is supplied to the image capturing unit decided to be activated.

Claims

1. An image capturing apparatus comprising:

a plurality of image capturing units;

a decision unit configured to decide an image capturing unit to be activated out of the plurality of image capturing units based on a capturing distance of an object included in a captured scene; and

a supply unit configured to supply electricity to the image capturing unit decided to be activated.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated in accordance with the capturing distance and a capturing mode of the image capturing apparatus.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated in accordance with the capturing distance and an operation state of the image capturing apparatus.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in long-term exposure capturing, the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated not to activate the image capturing units adjacent to each other.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the supply unit supplies no electricity to the image capturing units other than the image capturing unit to be activated, or suppresses the electricity supplied to the image capturing units other than the image capturing unit to be activated to a minimum.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a determination unit configured to determine a capturing mode and an operation state of the image capturing apparatus,

wherein the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated in accordance with the capturing mode and the operation state.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein when the operation state is one of a framing state and a live view state, the decision unit decides one of the plurality of image capturing units as the image capturing unit to be activated.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein when the capturing mode and the operation state are a still image capturing mode and a capturing preparation state, respectively, the decision unit decides a part of the plurality of image capturing units as the image capturing unit to be activated.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

an estimation unit configured to estimate the capturing distance of the object included in the captured scene from image data captured by the activated image capturing unit; and

a control unit configured to, when the operation state transits from the capturing preparation state to a still image capturing state, control the supply unit to activate the image capturing unit decided to be activated,

wherein the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated when capturing the captured scene based on a minimum capturing distance estimated by the estimation unit.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a temperature sensor which acquires a temperature of the image capturing apparatus; and

a control unit configured to, when the operation state transits from the live view state to a moving image capturing state, control the supply unit to activate the image capturing unit decided to be activated,

wherein the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated in moving image capturing based on the temperature of the image capturing apparatus.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising an acquisition unit configured to acquire a focal length of the plurality of image capturing units,

wherein the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated in the moving image capturing based on the temperature of the image capturing apparatus and the focal length.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the decision unit decides the image capturing unit to be activated in the moving image capturing based on the temperature of the image capturing apparatus and a set state of electronic vibration isolation processing of the image capturing apparatus.

13. A control method of an image capturing apparatus having a plurality of image capturing units, the method comprising:

using a processor to perform the steps of;

deciding an image capturing unit to be activated out of the plurality of image capturing units based on a capturing distance of an object included in a captured scene; and

supplying electricity to the image capturing unit decided to be activated.