IMAGE PROCESSOR AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20150312487A1
• Filed: 04/17/2015
• Published: 10/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Nomoto, Yuichi
• Application Number:
  US14/690,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20150312487A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• 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

An image processor according to the present invention includes: an image capturing unit; an image processing unit configured to perform image processing on an image captured by the image capturing unit; a detection unit configured to detect a shooting scene for the image captured by the image capturing unit; a determination unit configured to determine the priorities of a plurality of different image processing methods to be used by the image processing unit based on the result of the detection by the detection unit; and a control unit configured to control the image processing unit so as to generate a plurality of images on which different methods of the plurality of image processing methods image processing have been performed in accordance with the priorities, where in the control unit simplifies image processing by using lower-priority image processing methods of the plurality of different image processing methods.

Claims

1. An image processor, comprising:

an image capturing unit;

an image processing unit configured to perform image processing on an image captured by the image capturing unit;

a detection unit configured to detect a shooting scene for the image captured by the image capturing unit;

a determination unit configured to determine priorities of a plurality of different image processing methods to be used by the image processing unit based on a result of the detection by the detection unit; and

a control unit configured to control the image processing unit so as to generate a plurality of images on which different image processing methods of the plurality of image processing methods have been performed in accordance with the priorities,

wherein the control unit simplifies image processing by using lower-priority image processing methods of the plurality of different image processing methods.

2. The image processor according to claim 1, wherein the lower-priority image processing methods are used for processing an image with a lower number of pixels than the pixels of an image processed by a higher-priority image processing method of the different image processing methods.

3. The image processor according to claim 1, wherein the lower-priority image processing methods perform a smaller number of synchronization processing steps than higher-priority image processing methods.

4. The image processor according to claim 1, wherein the lower-priority image processing methods have a larger unit block than higher-priority image processing methods for performing the same processing.

5. The image processor according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit configured to display an image processed by the image processing unit and a plurality image processing methods of the plurality of different image processing methods determined by the determination unit to be used for the image; and

an instruction unit configured to issue an instruction to stop image processing methods of the plurality of different image processing methods from being used for the images, wherein

the control unit accepts the instruction issued by the instruction unit to stop the image processing methods of the plurality of different image processing methods from being used when processing is to be sequentially performed on the image by the plurality of different image processing methods.

6. The image processor according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the display unit to clearly indicate image processing methods which have been used and image processing methods which have not been used and will be used when processing is to be sequentially performed on the image by the plurality of different image processing methods.

7. An image capturing apparatus, comprising:

an image capturing unit configured to take an image of an object and sequentially output image signals;

an image processing unit configured to perform image processing on an image captured by the image capturing unit;

a detection unit configured to detect a shooting scene for the image captured by the image capturing unit;

a determination unit configured to determine priorities of a plurality of different image processing methods to be used by the image processing unit based on a result of the detection by the detection unit; and

a control unit configured to control the image processing unit so as to generate a plurality of images on which different image processing methods of the plurality of image processing methods have been performed in accordance with the priorities,

wherein the control unit simplifies image processing by using lower-priority image processing methods of the plurality of different image processing methods.

a display unit configured to sequentially display images corresponding to the image signals.

8. A method for controlling an image processor, the image processor including an image capturing unit, an image processing unit configured to perform image processing on an image captured by the image capturing unit, and a detection unit configured to detect a shooting scene for the image captured by the image capturing unit,

the method comprising:

determining priorities of a plurality of different image processing methods to be used by the image processing unit based on a result of the detection by the detection unit; and

controlling the image processing unit so as to generate a plurality of images on which different image processing methods of the plurality of image processing methods have been performed in accordance with the priorities, and

controlling the image processing unit to simplify image processing by using lower-priority image processing methods of the plurality of different image processing methods.