Imaging apparatus for obtaining a high resolution image

• US 5,754,226 A
• Filed: 12/19/1995
• Issued: 05/19/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yamada, Eiji, Iwaki, Tetsuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Faile, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vu, Ngoc-Yen, VU, NGOC YEN T
• Application Number:
  US08/574,612
• Time in Patent Office: 882 Days
• Field of Search: 348/155, 348/207, 348/218, 348/219, 348/264, 348/335, 348/340, 348/343, 348/344, 348/369, 348/699
• US Class Current: 348/219.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4007 based on interpolation, e.g. bilinear interpolation image demosaicing G06T3/4015; edge-driven or edge-based scaling G06T3/403
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/00 Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/48 Increasing resolution by shifting the sensor relative to the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/145 Movement estimation for video coding H04N19/51

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging plate having a light receiving face; focusing device for focusing light from a subject on the light receiving face of the imaging plate as the image formed on the light receiving face; image position displacing device for displacing a position of the image formed by the focusing device with respect to a reference position; image position displacement control device for controlling the image position displacing device; motion vector detecting device for detecting a motion vector of each image with respect to a reference image; and image synthesis device for displacing pixels constituting each image and for interpolating the displaced pixels constituting each image between adjacent pixels of the reference image, thereby synthesizing the images into a single image.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an imaging plate having a light receiving face, on which a plurality of light receiving elements are arranged at intervals of P_H (P_H is a positive real number) in a first direction and at intervals of P_v (P_v is a positive real number) in a second direction perpendicularly crossing the first direction, for imaging the received image formed on the light receiving face during a predetermined period of time as an image constituted by a plurality of pixels, the number of pixels being independent of the number of light receiving elements;

focusing means for focusing light from a subject on the light receiving face of the imaging plate as the received image formed on the light receiving face;

image position displacing means for displacing a position of the received image formed by the focusing means with respect to a reference position by approximately P_H ×

i/H (H is a predetermined integer of 1 or greater; and

i is an integer;

0<

i <

H) in the first direction and by approximately P_v ×

j/V (V is a predetermined integer of 1 or greater; and

j is an integer;

0<

j<

V) in the second direction;

image position displacement control means for controlling the image position displacing means each time the imaging plate images the image so as to displace the received image to a position represented by a combination of i and j;

motion vector detecting means for detecting a motion vector of each of (N-1) images (N=H×

V) with respect to a reference image, using one of N images imaged by the imaging plate as the reference image; and

image synthesis means for displacing pixels constituting each of the (N-1) images by a degree obtained by synthesizing the motion vector of each of the (N-1) images detected by the motion vector detecting means and a displacement vector of the position of each of the (N-1) images with respect to the reference image, and for interpolating the displaced pixels constituting each of the (N-1) images between adjacent pixels of the reference image, thereby synthesizing the N images into a single image.

2. An imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the motion vector detecting means detects a displacement of each of the (N-1) images with respect to the reference image as the motion vector.

3. An imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the motion vector detecting means includes:

means for displacing pixels constituting each of the (N-1) images in the first direction and/or in the second direction so as to generate a plurality of displaced images of each of the (N-1) images; and

means for detecting a displacement of a displaced image having the highest correlation with the reference image among the plurality of displaced images of each of the (N-1) images, the motion vector detecting means detecting the displacement as the motion vector of each of the (N-1) images.

4. An imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the means for displacing pixels further includes interpolation means for interpolating luminance of pixels.

5. An imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the motion vector detecting means includes:

means for displacing a plurality of predetermined pixels among the pixels constituting each of the (N-1) images in the first direction and/or in the second direction so as to generate a displaced image constituted only by the displaced pixels; and

means for detecting a displacement of the displaced image having a minimum value obtained by accumulating a difference between each pixel of the plurality of displaced images having respectively different combinations of displacements in the first direction and the second direction and each pixel at a corresponding predetermined position in the reference image so as to detect the displacement as the motion vector of each of the (N-1) images.

6. An imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the motion vector detecting means includes a filter for removing at least a high frequency component at a spatial frequency of a signal of each of the (N-1) images, and the signal is passed through the filter prior to the detection of the motion vector.

7. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an imaging plate having a light receiving face, on which a plurality of light receiving elements are arranged at intervals of P_H (P_H is a positive real number) in a first direction and at intervals of P_v (P_v is a positive real number) in a second direction perpendicularly crossing the first direction, for imaging a received image formed on the light receiving face during a predetermined period of time as an image formed of a plurality of pixels, the number of pixels being independent of the number of light receiving elements;

focusing means for focusing light from a subject on the light receiving face of the imaging plate as the received image formed on the light receiving face;

image position displacing means for displacing a position of the received image formed by the focusing means with respect to a reference position by approximately P_H ×

i/H (H is a predetermined integer of 1 or greater; and

i is an integer;

0≦

i<

H) in the first direction and by approximately P_v ×

j/V (V is a predetermined integer of 1 or greater; and

j is an integer;

0≦

j<

V) in the second direction;

motion vector detecting means, with respect to each pair of images among N image imaged by the imaging plate, for detecting a displaced image having the highest correlation with one of the pair of images from displaced images obtained by displacing each pixel constituting the other of the pair of images in the first direction and/or the second direction;

image synthesis means for displacing pixels constituting the one image by a degree obtained by synthesizing a motion vector obtained from the other image to the one image, which is detected by the motion vector detection means, and a displacement of a position of the one image from the other image, and for synthesizing the pair of images by repeating a process for interpolating each displaced pixel of the one image between adjacent pixels of the other image, thereby finally obtaining a single synthesized image.