IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, RECORDING MEDIUM AND IMAGE PICKUP METHOD

• US 20190020838A1
• Filed: 07/03/2018
• Published: 01/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Hatakeyama, Ryo, Haneda, Kazuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,827,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera
• 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 25/134 based on three different wavelength filter elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/702 SSIS architectures characterised by non-identical, non-equidistant or non-planar pixel layout
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/704 Pixels specially adapted for focusing, e.g. phase difference pixel sets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/709 Circuitry for control of the power supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/75 Circuitry for providing, modifying or processing image signals from the pixel array
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/778 comprising amplifiers shared between a plurality of pixels, i.e. at least one part of the amplifier must be on the sensor array itself
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/78 Readout circuits for addressed sensors, e.g. output amplifiers or A/D converters

Abstract

An image pickup device, in which a plurality of pixels photoelectrically convert incident light and generate a plurality of pieces of pixel data, includes a vertical scanning section configured to generate a pixel data sequence composed of pixel data having a same characteristic, a pixel section, an analog processing section, an ADC processing section, a memory section, a horizontal scanning section, and an output section configured to add additional information indicating the characteristic of the pixel data sequence to the pixel data sequence.

Claims

1. An image pickup device comprising a plurality of pixels, the plurality of pixels being configured to photoelectrically convert incident light and generate a plurality of pieces of pixel data, the image pickup device comprising:

a pixel data sequence generation section configured to array the plurality of pieces of pixel data according to a characteristic of the pixel data and generate a pixel data sequence composed of the pixel data having a same characteristic; and

an information adding section configured to add additional information indicating the characteristic of the pixel data sequence to the pixel data sequence.

2. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

the image pickup device according to claim 1;

a data processing section configured to receive the pixel data outputted from the image pickup device as required and process the pixel data when the pixel data is inputted; and

a control section configured to determine, based on the additional information, whether or not valid pixel data is inputted to the data processing section, supply power and a clock to the data processing section when the control section determines that the valid pixel data is inputted to the data processing section, or stop at least a clock supply to the data processing section when the control section determines that the valid pixel data is not inputted to the data processing section.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control section further performs control so as to stop a power supply to the data processing section when the control section determines that the valid pixel data is not inputted to the data processing section.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the image pickup device comprises a plurality of micro lenses configured such that incident light passing through each of the plurality of micro lenses arrives at a predetermined plural number of pixels and an in-device processing section configured to pixel-synthesize one piece of pixel data from a plurality of pieces of the pixel data of the predetermined number of pieces of pixel data respectively generated from the predetermined number of pixels corresponding to each of the plurality of micro lenses,

the additional information comprises information indicating an aspect of pixel synthesis by the in-device processing section, and

the control section performs control so as to change a process by the data processing section based on the information indicating the aspect of the pixel synthesis included in the additional information.

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

the data processing section comprises an image processing section configured to apply image processing to the pixel data and generate an image,

the additional information comprises an image pixel flag, and

the control section determines, when the image pixel flag is ON, that the valid pixel data is inputted to the image processing section, performs control so as to supply power and a clock to the image processing section and cause the image processing section to perform image processing, or performs control so as to stop at least a clock supply to the image processing section when the image pixel flag is OFF.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the additional information further comprises an image synthesis processing flag, and

the control section causes, when the image pixel flag is ON and further the image synthesis processing flag is ON, the image processing section to perform a process of synthesizing image pixel data from focus detection pixel data obtained from pixels at different positions relative to each of the plurality of micro lenses.

7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the data processing section comprises a focus detection section configured to perform focus detection based on focus detection pixel data obtained from pixels at different positions relative to each of the plurality of micro lenses,

the additional information comprises a focus detection pixel flag, and

the control section determines, when the focus detection pixel flag is ON, that the valid pixel data is inputted to the focus detection section, performs control so as to supply power and a clock to the focus detection section and cause the focus detection section to perform focus detection, or performs control so as to stop at least a clock supply to the focus detection section when the focus detection pixel flag is OFF.

8. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the additional information further comprises a focus detection subtraction processing flag, and

the control section causes, when the focus detection pixel flag is ON and further the focus detection subtraction processing flag is ON, the focus detection section to reconstruct the focus detection pixel data through a focus detection subtraction process according to a subtraction reading scheme.

9. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the data processing section comprises an image processing section configured to perform image processing on the pixel data and generate an image and a focus detection section configured to perform focus detection based on focus detection pixel data obtained from pixels at different positions relative to each of the plurality of micro lenses,

the additional information comprises information indicating that the pixel data sequence is an invalid pixel data sequence, and

the control section performs control, when the additional information includes information indicating that the pixel data sequence is an invalid pixel data sequence, so as to stop at least both a clock supply to the image processing section and a clock supply to the focus detection section.

10. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information adding section adds the additional information to a part of the pixel data sequence.

11. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the information adding section adds the additional information to a head of the pixel data sequence.

12. A computer-readable non-transitory recording medium configured to record an image pickup program for causing a computer to execute:

an image pickup step of photoelectrically converting incident light and generating a plurality of pieces of pixel data by a plurality of pixels;

a pixel data sequence generation step of arraying the plurality of pieces of pixel data according to a characteristic of the pixel data and generating a pixel data sequence composed of the pixel data having a same characteristic,

an information adding step of adding additional information indicating the characteristic of the pixel data sequence to the pixel data sequence;

a data processing step of inputting the pixel data outputted from an image pickup device to a data processing section as required and processing the pixel data by the data processing section when the pixel data is inputted; and

a control step of performing control so as to determine, based on the additional information, whether or not valid pixel data is inputted to the data processing section, supply power and a clock to the data processing section when determining that the valid pixel data is inputted to the data processing section, or stop at least a clock supply to the data processing section when determining that the valid pixel data is not inputted to the data processing section.

13. The recording medium according to claim 12, wherein the control step is a step of performing control, when determining that the valid pixel data is not inputted to the data processing section, so as to further stop a power supply to the data processing section.

14. The recording medium according to claim 12, wherein

the additional information comprises information indicating an aspect of pixel synthesis by the image pickup device, the image pickup device comprising a plurality of micro lenses configured such that incident light passing through each of the plurality of micro lenses arrives at a predetermined plural number of pixels and an in-device processing section configured to pixel-synthesize one piece of pixel data from the plurality of pieces of pixel data of the predetermined number of pieces of pixel data respectively generated from the predetermined number of pixels corresponding to each of the plurality of micro lenses, and

the control step is a step of performing control so as to change a process by the data processing section based on the information indicating the aspect of the pixel synthesis included in the additional information.

15. The recording medium according to claim 14, wherein

the additional information comprises an image pixel flag, and

the control step determines, when the image pixel flag is ON, that the valid pixel data is inputted to an image processing section included in the data processing section and configured to apply image processing to the pixel data and generate an image, supplies power and a clock to the image processing section and causes the image processing section to perform image processing, and performs control, when the image pixel flag is OFF, so as to stop at least a clock supply to the image processing section.

16. The recording medium according to claim 14, wherein

the additional information further comprises a focus detection pixel flag, and

the control step determines, when the focus detection pixel flag is ON, that the valid pixel data is inputted to a focus detection section included in the data processing section and configured to perform focus detection based on focus detection pixel data obtained from pixels at different positions relative to each of the plurality of micro lenses, performs control so as to supply power and a clock to the focus detection section, causes the focus detection section to perform focus detection, and performs control, when the focus detection pixel flag is OFF, so as to stop at least a clock supply to the focus detection section.

17. An image pickup method comprising:

an image pickup step of photoelectrically converting incident light and generating a plurality of pieces of pixel data by a plurality of pixels;

a pixel data sequence generation step of arraying the plurality of pieces of pixel data according to a characteristic of the pixel data and generating a pixel data sequence composed of the pixel data having a same characteristic;

an information adding step of adding additional information indicating the characteristic of the pixel data sequence to the pixel data sequence;

a data processing step of inputting the pixel data outputted from an image pickup device to a data processing section as required and processing the pixel data by the data processing section when the pixel data is inputted; and

a control step of performing control by determining, based on the additional information, whether or not valid pixel data is inputted to the data processing section so as to supply power and a clock to the data processing section when determining that the valid pixel data is inputted to the data processing section, or stop at least a clock supply to the data processing section when determining that the valid pixel data is not inputted to the data processing section.

18. The image pickup method according to claim 17, wherein the control step is a step of performing control so as to further stop a power supply to the data processing section when determining that the valid pixel data is not inputted to the data processing section.

19. The image pickup method according to claim 17, wherein in the image pickup device comprising a plurality of micro lenses configured such that incident light passing through each of the plurality of micro lenses arrives at a predetermined plural number of pixels and an in-device processing section configured to pixel-synthesize one piece of pixel data from the plurality of pieces of pixel data of the predetermined number of pieces of pixel data respectively generated from the predetermined number of pixels corresponding to each of the plurality of micro lenses,

the additional information comprises information indicating an aspect of pixel synthesis by the in-device processing section, and

the control step is a step of performing control so as to change a process by the data processing section based on the information indicating the aspect of the pixel synthesis included in the additional information.

20. The image pickup method according to claim 19, wherein

the additional information comprises an image pixel flag, and

the control step is a step of determining, when the image pixel flag is ON, that the valid pixel data is inputted to an image processing section included in the data processing section and configured to apply image processing to the pixel data and generate an image and performing control so as to supply power and a clock to the image processing section and cause the image processing section to perform image processing, and stop at least a clock supply to the image processing section when the image pixel flag is OFF.