IMAGING CONTROLLER AND IMAGING CONTROL METHOD AND PROGRAM

• US 20150222816A1
• Filed: 09/03/2013
• Published: 08/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Shohara, Makoto, Irino, Yoshiaki, Tanaka, Tomonori, Imae, Nozomi, Takenaka, Hirokazu, Yamamoto, Hideaki, Masuda, Kensuke, Ito, Yoichi, Sawaguchi, Satoshi, Bessho, Daisuke, Satoh, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,756,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/04 with cameras or projectors providing touching or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 7/08 Control effected solely on the basis of the response, to the intensity of the light received by the camera, of a built-in light-sensitive device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/60 Noise processing, e.g. detecting, correcting, reducing or removing noise

Abstract

An imaging controller includes an index calculator to calculate an index value for each of divided areas of images captured by a plurality of imaging units, the index value for evaluating a photographic state of each of the divided areas, an evaluation value calculator to evaluate the images and an overlapping area between the images on the basis of the index value of each divided area calculated by the index calculator and calculate an overall evaluation value, and a condition determiner to determine an imaging condition for each of the imaging units on the basis of the overall evaluation value calculated by the evaluation value calculator.

Claims

1. An imaging controller comprising:

an index calculator to calculate an index value for each of divided areas of images captured by a plurality of imaging units, the index value for evaluating a photographic state of each of the divided areas;

an evaluation value calculator to evaluate the images and an overlapping area between the images on the basis of the index value of each divided area calculated by the index calculator and calculate an overall evaluation value; and

a condition determiner to determine an imaging condition for each of the imaging units on the basis of the overall evaluation value calculated by the evaluation value calculator.

2. The imaging controller according to claim 1, wherein:

the imaging condition includes an exposure condition;

the index value of a certain divided area is a first brightness level to evaluate a brightness of the certain divided area;

the overall evaluation value is a second brightness level for each of the imaging units to evaluate a total brightness of the images by applying weighting to the overlapping area; and

the condition determiner is configured to determine an imaging condition for each of the imaging units on the basis of the second brightness level.

3. The imaging controller according to claim 1, further comprising

a setter to set, for each of the imaging units, a set of weighted values for the divided areas according to a relation of brightness between the images captured by the imaging units.

4. The imaging controller according to claim 1, further comprising

a weighting setter to apply weighting to a certain divided area in accordance with the index value calculated for the certain divided area:

5. The imaging controller according to claim 4, wherein

the weighting setter is configured to apply weighting to the divided areas such that in a dark scene a divided area for which a larger index value is calculated is given a larger weighting.

6. The imaging controller according to claim 4, wherein

the weighting setter is configured to apply weighting to the divided areas such that in a bright scene a divided area for which a smaller index value is calculated is given a larger weighting.

7. The imaging controller according to claim 4, wherein

the weighting setter is configured to apply weighting to the divided areas such that a divided area for which the index value as an upper limit threshold or more or a lower limit threshold or less is calculated is given a smaller weighting or zero.

8. The imaging controller according to claim 1, wherein

the imaging condition includes at least one of an aperture, an exposure time and a gain.

9. An imaging control method comprising the steps of:

calculating an index value for each of divided areas of images captured by a plurarity of imaging units, the index value for evaluating a photographic state of each of the divided areas;

evaluating the images and an overlapping area between the images on the basis of the index value of each divided area calculated in the calculating step and calculating an overall evaluation value; and

determining an imaging condition for each of the imaging units on the basis of the overall evaluation value calculated in the evaluating step.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the steps of the imaging control method according to claim 9.