IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS

• US 20160277666A1
• Filed: 03/09/2016
• Published: 09/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Shoda, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,826,142 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus, including: a compression unit configured to perform compression processing on image data; an expansion unit configured to perform expansion processing on the image data that has been subjected to the compression processing based on a coding parameter used for the compression processing on the image data; and a processing unit configured to perform autofocus processing based on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing, the autofocus processing being adaptively performed based on the coding parameter.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus, comprising:

a compression unit configured to perform compression processing on image data;

an expansion unit configured to perform expansion processing on the image data that has been subjected to the compression processing based on a coding parameter used for the compression processing on the image data; and

a processing unit configured to perform autofocus processing based on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing, the autofocus processing being adaptively performed based on the coding parameter.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the compression unit is included in an image pickup element; and

the image data that has been subjected to the image processing is transmitted to the expansion unit from the image pickup element through a data transmission path.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit adaptively performs the autofocus processing based on a distribution of values of the coding parameter.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit adaptively selects a computation method to be used for the autofocus processing in accordance with a distribution of values of the coding parameter.

5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

the coding parameter is assigned to each coding block corresponding to a unit to be used for the compression processing on the image data;

the coding parameter comprises a quantization parameter;

the processing unit performs processing using a first bandpass filter on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing to calculate a contrast by using the image data that has been subjected to the processing using the first bandpass filter when a number of the coding blocks, each having a value of the quantization parameter larger than a first threshold value, in a predetermined region is equal to or smaller than a second threshold value; and

the processing unit performs processing using a second bandpass filter, which has a high-pass edge of a passband lower than a high-pass edge of a passband of the first bandpass filter, on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing to calculate the contrast by using the image data that has been subjected to the processing using the second bandpass filter when the number of coding blocks, each having the value of the quantization parameter larger than the first threshold value, in the predetermined region is larger than the second threshold value.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit adaptively selects a method of driving a lens to be used for the autofocus processing in accordance with a distribution of values of the coding parameter.

7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:

the coding parameter is assigned to each coding block corresponding to a unit to be used for the compression processing on the image data;

the coding parameter comprises a quantization parameter; and

the processing unit drives the lens at a first speed when a number of the coding blocks, each having a value of the quantization parameter smaller than a third threshold value, in a predetermined region is equal to or smaller than a fourth threshold value, and drives the lens at a second speed higher than the first speed when the number of the coding blocks, each having the value of the quantization parameter smaller than the third threshold value, in the predetermined region is larger than the fourth threshold value.

8. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit adaptively selects a computation target region of the image data, which corresponds to a target region to be computed during the autofocus processing, in accordance with a distribution of values of the coding parameter.

9. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 8, wherein:

the coding parameter is assigned to each coding block corresponding to a unit to be used for the compression processing on the image data;

the coding parameter comprises a quantization parameter;

the processing unit extracts image data in a first range from the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing to perform a correlation computation for the image data in the first range when a number of the coding blocks, each having a value of the quantization parameter smaller than a fifth threshold value, is equal to or smaller than a sixth threshold value;

the processing unit extracts image data of a second range larger than the first range from the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing to perform the correlation computation on the image data in the second range, when the number of the coding blocks, each having the value of the quantization parameter smaller than the fifth threshold value, is larger than the sixth threshold value.

10. A method of controlling an image pickup apparatus, comprising:

performing compression processing on image data;

performing expansion processing on the image data that has been subjected to the compression processing based on a coding parameter used for the compression processing on the image data; and

performing autofocus processing based on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing, the autofocus processing being adaptively performed based on the coding parameter.

11. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for causing a computer to function as:

an expansion unit configured to perform expansion processing on image data that has been subjected to compression processing based on a coding parameter used for the compression processing on the image data; and

a processing unit configured to perform autofocus processing based on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing, the autofocus processing being adaptively performed based on the coding parameter.

12. An image pickup element, comprising:

a light receiving unit configured to receive a light flux from an object via an image pickup optical system, and to convert the light flux into an analog electric signal;

a conversion unit configured to convert the analog electric signal output from the light receiving unit into digital image data;

a compression unit configured to compress the digital image data based on a coding parameter comprising a quantization parameter; and

an output unit configured to output the coding parameter and the digital image data compressed by the compression unit to an external element.

13. The image pickup element according to claim 12, wherein, the output unit is further configured to output the digital image data to the external element with the coding parameter being contained in a header, which is provided for each unit of coded data.

14. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire image data that has been subjected to compression processing by an image pickup element, and a coding parameter used for the compression processing;

an expansion unit configured to perform expansion processing on the image data that has been subjected to the compression processing based on the coding parameter; and

a processing unit configured to perform autofocus processing based on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing, the autofocus processing being adaptively performed based on the coding parameter.

15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 14,

wherein the acquisition unit is further configured to acquire the image data with a coding parameter corresponding to each block contained in a header, which is provided for each unit of coded data of the image data, and

wherein the expansion unit is further configured to perform the expansion processing on the image data of a corresponding coded block based on the coding parameter contained in the header.

16. A method of controlling an image pickup element, comprising:

receiving a light flux from an object via an image pickup optical system to convert the light flux into an analog electric signal;

converting the analog electric signal into digital image data;

compressing the digital image data based on a coding parameter including a quantization parameter; and

outputting the coding parameter and the digital image data compressed in the compressing to an external element.

17. A method of controlling an image processing apparatus, comprising:

acquiring image data that has been subjected to compression processing by an image pickup element, and a coding parameter used for the compression processing;

performing expansion processing on the image data that has been subjected to the compression processing based on the coding parameter; and

performing autofocus processing based on the image data that has been subjected to the expansion processing, the autofocus processing being adaptively performed based on the coding parameter.