IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, AND PROGRAM FOR CAUSING COMPUTER TO EXECUTE THE SAME METHOD

• US 20120314908A1
• Filed: 05/31/2012
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: HIRASAWA, YASUTAKA, KANO, NATSUKI
• Granted Patent: US 8,891,829 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/20 using local operators
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2621 Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability

Abstract

There is provided an image processing device including a depth acquisition unit and a smoothing processing unit. The depth acquisition unit acquires a depth to a subject in correlation with a pixel in a captured image of the subject, and the smoothing processing unit designates a pixel in a region excluding a predetermined region in the image as a target pixel, and performs a smoothing process of the degree according to the depth corresponding to the target pixel for a pixel value of the target pixel in a predetermined direction. This causes a pixel in a region excluding the predetermined region in the image to be blurred, thereby generating a panning image.

Claims

1. An image processing device comprising:

a depth acquisition unit for acquiring a depth to a subject in correlation with a pixel in a captured image of the subject; and

a smoothing processing unit for designating a pixel in a region excluding a predetermined region in the image as a target pixel, and for performing a smoothing process of the degree according to the depth corresponding to the target pixel for a pixel value of the target pixel in a predetermined direction.

2. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the smoothing processing unit includes

a smoothing parameter setting section for setting smoothing parameters indicating characteristics of the smoothing process;

and

a smoothing process performing section for performing the smoothing process on the basis of the set smoothing parameters and the acquired depth.

3. The image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the smoothing process performing section includes

a calculation part for calculating the degree of the smoothing process on the basis of the amount prescribed in the smoothing parameters and the acquired depth;

and

a smoothing filter for performing the calculated degree of the smoothing process.

4. The image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the smoothing parameter setting section sets the smoothing parameters including a direction in which the smoothing process is performed, as the predetermined direction, and

wherein the smoothing process performing section performs the smoothing process in the set direction on the basis of the acquired depth.

5. The image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the smoothing parameter setting section sets the smoothing parameters including information indicating a region for which the smoothing process is not performed as the predetermined region, and

wherein the smoothing process performing section designates a pixel in a region excluding the set region as a target pixel, and performs the smoothing process on the basis of the acquired depth.

6. The image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the smoothing parameter setting section sets the smoothing parameters including information indicating one or more pixels in the predetermined region, and

wherein the smoothing process performing section includes

a region detection part for detecting a region including the pixels related to the depths where a difference with the depths corresponding to the one or more pixels is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value;

and

a smoothing filter for designating a pixel in a region excluding the detected region as the target pixel, and for performing the smoothing process on the basis of the acquired depth.

7. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the smoothing processing unit performs the smoothing process using a moving average filter.

8. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the smoothing processing unit performs the smoothing process using a Gaussian filter.

9. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the image includes a criterion image regarded as a criterion and a reference image referred to when the depth is generated,

wherein the depth acquisition unit includes

a parallax detection section for detecting a distance between any one pixel in the criterion image and a pixel in the reference image corresponding to the pixel as a parallax;

and

a depth generation section for generating the depth in correlation with the pixel in the criterion image on the basis of the detected parallax, and

wherein the smoothing processing unit designates a pixel in a region excluding the predetermined region in the criterion image as the target pixel and performs the smoothing process.

10. A method of controlling an image processing device, the method comprising:

acquiring, with a depth acquisition unit, a depth to a subject in correlation with a pixel in a captured image of the subject; and

designating, with a smoothing processing unit, a pixel in a region excluding a predetermined region in the image as a target pixel, and performing, with the smoothing processing unit, a smoothing process of the degree according to the depth corresponding to the target pixel for a pixel value of the target pixel in a predetermined direction.

11. A program for causing a computer to execute a process, the process comprising:

acquiring, with a depth acquisition unit, a depth to a subject in correlation with a pixel in a captured image of the subject; and

designating, with a smoothing processing unit, a pixel in a region excluding a predetermined region in the image as a target pixel, and performing, with the smoothing processing unit, a smoothing process of the degree according to the depth corresponding to the target pixel for a pixel value of the target pixel in a predetermined direction.