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

• US 20130070116A1
• Filed: 08/20/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: SUZUKI, Naho, HARANO, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,131,148 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/35 Categorising the entire scene, e.g. birthday party or wedding scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body

Abstract

There is provided an image processing device including an image acquisition part acquiring an image; a depth acquisition part acquiring a depth in association with a pixel included in the image; a target object detection part detecting a region of a predetermined target object in the image; a target object detection distance selection part selecting the depth corresponding to the pixel included in the detected region as a target object detection distance; a local maximum distance selection part selecting the depth having a local maximum frequency in a frequency distribution of the depths as a local maximum distance; and a determination part determining whether the image is a target object image obtained by shooting the target object depending on whether a degree of closeness between a value of the target object detection distance and a value of the local maximum distance is higher than a predetermined value.

Claims

1. An image processing device comprising:

an image acquisition part acquiring an image;

a depth acquisition part acquiring a depth in association with a pixel included in the image;

a target object detection part detecting a region of a predetermined target object in the image;

a target object detection distance selection part selecting the depth corresponding to the pixel included in the detected region as a target object detection distance;

a local maximum distance selection part selecting the depth having a local maximum frequency in a frequency distribution of the depths as a local maximum distance; and

a determination part determining whether the image is a target object image obtained by shooting the target object depending on whether a degree of closeness between a value of the target object detection distance and a value of the local maximum distance is higher than a predetermined value.

2. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the target object detection part detects a face region of a person as the region of the target object, and

the determination part determines that the image is a person image obtained by shooting the person in the case where the degree of closeness is higher than the predetermined value.

3. The image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the determination part determines, in the case of determining that the image is the person image, that the person image is a portrait image obtained by shooting a particular person when the number of the detected face regions is less than a predetermined number, and determines that the person image is a group image obtained by shooting a plurality of gathered persons when the number of the detected face regions is equal to or more than the predetermined number.

4. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the determination part determines that the image is the target object image in the case where the degree of closeness is higher than the predetermined value and determines that the image is a landscape image obtained by shooting a landscape in the case where the degree of closeness is equal to or lower than the predetermined value.

5. The image processing device according to claim 1, further comprising a recording part storing a determination result performed by the determination part in association with the image.

6. An image processing device comprising:

an image acquisition part acquiring an image;

a depth acquisition part acquiring a depth in association with a pixel included in the image;

a target object detection part detecting a region of a predetermined target object in the image;

a target object detection distance selection part selecting, in the case where the region of the target object is detected, the depth corresponding to the pixel included in the detected region as a target object detection distance;

a local maximum distance selection part selecting the depth having a local maximum frequency in a frequency distribution of the depths as a local maximum distance; and

a determination part determining, in the case where the target object detection distance is selected, whether the image is a target object image obtained by shooting the target object depending on whether a degree of closeness between a value of the target object detection distance and a value of the local maximum distance is higher than a predetermined value, and determining, in the case where the target object detection distance is not selected, whether the image is a macro image depending on whether a value of the local maximum distance is less than a threshold value.

7. The image processing device according to claim 6, wherein the determination part determines, in the case where the target object detection distance is not selected, that the image is the macro image when a hyperfocal distance of an image pickup apparatus shooting the image or the value of the local maximum distance is less than the threshold value.

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

acquiring an image with an image acquisition part;

acquiring, with a depth acquisition part, a depth in association with a pixel included in the image;

detecting, with a target object detection part, a region of a predetermined target object in the image;

selecting, with a target object detection distance selection part, the depth corresponding to the pixel included in the detected region as a target object detection distance;

selecting, with a local maximum distance selection part, the depth having a local maximum frequency in a frequency distribution of the depths as a local maximum distance; and

determining, with a determination part, whether the image is a target object image obtained by shooting the target object depending on whether a degree of closeness between a value of the target object detection distance and a value of the local maximum distance is higher than a predetermined value.

9. A program causing a computer to execute:

acquiring an image with an image acquisition part;

acquiring, with a depth acquisition part, a depth in association with a pixel included in the image;

detecting, with a target object detection part, a region of a predetermined target object in the image;

selecting, with a target object detection distance selection part, the depth corresponding to the pixel included in the detected region as a target object detection distance;

selecting, with a local maximum distance selection part, the depth having a local maximum frequency in a frequency distribution of the depths as a local maximum distance; and

determining, with a determination part, whether the image is a target object image obtained by shooting the target object depending on whether a degree of closeness between a value of the target object detection distance and a value of the local maximum distance is higher than a predetermined value.