ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

• US 20180097988A1
• Filed: 03/30/2016
• Published: 04/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: TSUCHIYA, Satoshi, ASANO, Yuuki, YOSHIKAWA, Shuhei, NAMIKAWA, Aiko
• Granted Patent: US 10,567,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/00 Special procedures for taking photographs; Apparatus therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 7/091 Digital circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/10 Image acquisition document image scanning and transmission H04N1/00; control of digital cameras H04N23/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/147 Details of sensors, e.g. sensor lenses fingerprint or palmprint sensors G06V40/13; vascular sensors G06V40/145; eye sensors G06V40/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/50 by performing operations within image blocks; by using histograms, e.g. histogram of oriented gradients [HoG]; by summing image-intensity values; Projection analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14621 Colour filter arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14627 Microlenses
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1464 Back illuminated imager structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/00 Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/632 for displaying or modifying preview images prior to image capturing, e.g. variety of image resolutions or capturing parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/67 Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/672 based on the phase difference signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/673 based on contrast or high frequency components of image signals, e.g. hill climbing method
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/72 Combination of two or more compensation controls
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/76 by influencing the image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/134 : based on three different wavelength filter elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/533 : by using differing integration times for different sensor regions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/79 : Arrangements of circuitry being divided between different or multiple substrates, chips or circuit boards, e.g. stacked image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/64 : Circuits for processing colour signals H04N9/77 takes precedence; camera processing pipelines for processing colour signals H04N23/84

Abstract

An electronic device includes: an image-capturing unit that captures an image of a subject with an image sensor, the image sensor being configured to be able to set image-capturing conditions for a plurality of regions on an image-capturing surface; and a control unit that determines the image-capturing conditions varied for each of the regions, based on a subject element detected from the image captured by the image-capturing unit.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

an image-capturing unit that captures an image of a subject with an image sensor, the image sensor being configured to be able to set image-capturing conditions for a plurality of regions on an image-capturing surface; and

a control unit that determines the image-capturing conditions varied for each of the regions, based on a subject element detected from the image captured by the image-capturing unit.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein:

the control unit determines the image-capturing conditions, based on the subject element and a preset image-capturing mode.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image processing unit that generates a candidate image by varying the image-capturing conditions determined by the control unit, in at least one of the plurality of regions.

4. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein:

the image processing unit generates a plurality of candidate images having varying stages of the image-capturing conditions.

5. The electronic device according to claim 4, wherein:

the image-capturing conditions are at least one of luminance and chroma; and

the image processing unit generates the plurality of candidate images having varying stages of luminance or chroma.

6. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein:

the image processing unit generates the captured image before a change in the image-capturing conditions for each of the regions as a reference image and also generates the candidate image after the change in the image-capturing conditions for each of the regions.

7. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein:

the image processing unit generates the reference image and an image having a luminance different from that of the reference image.

8. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein:

the image processing unit generates the reference image and an image having a chroma different from that of the reference image.

9. The electronic device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a display unit that displays the candidate image or the candidate images.

10. The electronic device according to claim 9, further comprising:

a setting unit that sets the image-capturing conditions for the candidate image in the image-capturing surface corresponding to the candidate image, if an operation of selecting the candidate image displayed on the display unit is performed.

11. The electronic device according to claim 9, further comprising:

a display control unit that displays a region representing an image created under the image-capturing conditions varied by the image processing unit, among the plurality of regions, in a manner different from other regions on the display unit.

12. A computer program product that causes a computer to execute:

an image-capturing process of capturing an image of a subject with an image sensor, the image sensor being configured to be able to set image-capturing conditions for a plurality of regions on an image-capturing surface; and

a determining process of determining the image-capturing conditions varied for each of the regions, based on a subject element detected from the image captured by the image-capturing unit.

13. An electronic device, comprising:

a display unit that displays a first image of a subject captured under first image-capturing conditions and a second image of the subject captured under second image-capturing conditions so that image-capturing conditions to be set in an image sensor are selected; and

a setting unit that sets image-capturing conditions selected from the first image and the second image in the image sensor.

14. The electronic device according to claim 13, wherein:

the first image-capturing conditions and the second image-capturing conditions are determined in accordance with a captured subject element and a preset image-capturing mode.

15. The electronic device according to claim 13, wherein:

the first image-capturing conditions and the second image-capturing conditions are determined in accordance with information based on luminance or chroma.

16. The electronic device according to any claim 13, wherein:

the display unit displays an image of a subject captured under image-capturing conditions different from the first image-capturing conditions and the second image-capturing conditions as a reference image.

17. The electronic device according to claim 16, wherein:

the display unit displays at least one of the first image and the second image in conjunction with the reference image.

18. The electronic device according to claim 13, wherein:

the display unit alternately displays the first image and the second image.

19. The electronic device according to claim 13, wherein:

the display unit displays the first image and the second image together.