Image change sensing and storage apparatus and method

• US 5,930,405 A
• Filed: 11/28/1995
• Issued: 07/27/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Chida, Makoto
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANG, JON CARLTON
• Application Number:
  US08/563,701
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 382/218, 382/299, 382/298, 382/240, 382/217, 382/312, 382/236, 382/305, 382/284, 348/219, 348/143, 348/152, 348/154, 348/155, 348/218, 348/240, 348/347, 348/358
• US Class Current: 382/284
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/207 for motion estimation over a hierarchy of resolutions multi-resolution motion estimation or hierarchical motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/58 Means for changing the camera field of view without moving the camera body, e.g. nutating or panning of optics or image sensors

Abstract

A still image of high resolution is stored as a reference image. Regarding images which are inputted later, they are inputted at lower resolution and analyzed, then if any portion differing from the reference image is found, an image section in an area including the differing portion is sensed at higher resolution, and information on the sensed image section is stored. Thereby, data representing a large number of image is stored in a memory having relatively small capacity.

Claims

1. An image sensing apparatus which senses an object by image sensing means and stores a sensed object image as a still image in storage means, said apparatus comprising:

first input means for inputting an image in a predetermined image sensing area in a first resolution by said image sensing means;

second input means for inputting images in the predetermined image sensing area in a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution by said image sensing means;

determination means for determining whether or riot there is a differing area between two images inputted by said second input means and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing the two images;

third input means for inputting an image which includes the differing area in a third resolution which is higher than the second resolution by said image sensing means;

input control means for selecting either second or third input means to be used on the basis of a determination result by said determination means; and

control means for controlling so as to store information on the image inputted by said third input means in said storage means.

2. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means embeds the image inputted by said third input means in an area whose position corresponds to a position of the image inputted by said third input means, in the image inputted by said first input means.

3. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first input means divides the image of the predetermined image sensing area into a plurality of sections, senses images by section, and combines the images, thereby inputting the whole image in the image sensing area.

4. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first input means senses the image in the image sensing area a plurality of times each time after an optical axis of said image sensing means is slightly changed, and combining the plurality of sensed images, thereby inputting the whole image in the image sensing area.

5. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second input means zooms out from the object so that an image in the image sensing area can be sensed in one image sensing operation by said image sensing means, thereby inputting the image at the second resolution.

6. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said third input means zooms in to the object so that an image in an area including the differing area can be sensed, thereby inputting the image at the third resolution.

7. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the first resolution and the third resolution are the same.

8. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said third input means inputs an image of a smaller area than an image sensing area sensed by said first input means.

9. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information on the image inputted by said third input means is information on time when image is sensed.

10. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information on the image inputted by said third input means is position information of the differing area.

11. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information on the image inputted by said third input means is attribution information of the image.

12. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

designation means for designating one of a plurality of still images stored in said storage means; and

output means for outputting a still image designated by said designation means,

wherein said control means searches the still image designated by said designation means from said storage means, and converts the searched still image into a form to be outputted on the basis of attribution of the searched still image.

13. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising setting means for setting the first resolution.

14. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means controls said determination means to determine a differing area at a predetermined time interval.

15. An image sensing apparatus which senses an object by image sensing means and stores a sensed object image as a still image in storage means, said apparatus comprising:

first input means for inputting an image in a predetermined image sensing area in a first resolution by said image sensing means;

second input means for inputting images in the predetermined image sensing area in a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution by said image sensing means;

determination means for determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images inputted by said second input means and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing the two images;

image sensing area designation means for designating an image sensing area of said image sensing means;

third input means for inputting an image in the image sensing area designated by said image sensing area designation means which contains the differing area in a third resolution which is higher than the second resolution by said image sensing means;

input control means for selecting either second or third input means to be used on the basis of a determination result by said determination means; and

control means for controlling so as to store information on the image inputted by said third input means in said storage means.

16. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising camera control means for controlling said image sensing means so as to change an image sensing area,

wherein said third input means inputs an image including the differing area by controlling the image sensing means by said camera control means.

17. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said third input means sequentially inputs images including all differing areas determined by said determination means in a smaller number of the image sensing areas.

18. An image sensing method of sensing an object and stores a sensed object image as a still image, said method comprising:

a first input step of inputting an image in a predetermined image sensing area in a first resolution;

a second input step of inputting images in the predetermined image sensing area in a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution;

a determination step of determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images inputted in the second resolution and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing two images;

a resolution determination step of determining a third resolution to be used in sensing of a next image on the basis of a determination result in said determination step;

a third input step of inputting an image which includes the differing area in the third resolution determined in said resolution determination step; and

a storing step of storing information on the image inputted at said third input step when it is determined in said determination step that there is a differing area.

19. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein the image inputted at said third input step is embedded in an area whose position corresponds to a position of the image inputted in said third input step, in the image inputted at said first input step.

20. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein, at said first input step, the image of the predetermined image sensing area is divided into a plurality of sections, images are sensed by section, and the images are combined, thereby inputting the whole image in the image sensing area.

21. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein, at said first input step, the image in the image sensing area is sensed a plurality of times each time after an optical axis of image sensing means is slightly changed, and the plurality of sensed images are combined, thereby inputting the whole image in the image sensing area.

22. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein, at said second input step, the object is zoomed out so that an image in the image sensing area can be sensed in one image sensing operation, thereby inputting the image at the second resolution.

23. The image sensing method according to claim 22, wherein, at said third input step, when the third resolution to be used is determined higher than the second resolution in said resolution determination step, the object is zoomed in so that an image in an area including the differing area can be sensed, thereby inputting the image at the third resolution.

24. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein, in said resolution determination step, when the third resolution to be used is determined higher than the second resolution, the third resolution which is equal to the first resolution is determined.

25. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein, at said third input step, an image in a smaller area is inputted than an image sensing area sensed at said first input step.

26. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein information on the image inputted at said third input step is information on time when image is sensed.

27. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein information on the image inputted at said third input step is position information of the differing area.

28. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein information on the image inputted at said third input step is attribution information of the image.

29. The image sensing method according to claim 18, further comprising:

a designation step of designating one of a plurality of still images stored at said storage step; and

an output step of searching the still image designated at said designation step from storage means, converting the searched still image into a form to be outputted on the basis of attribution of the searched still image, and outputting the still image.

30. The image sensing method according to claim 18, further comprising a setting step of setting the first resolution.

31. The image sensing method according to claim 18, wherein, at said determination step, a differing area is determined at a predetermined time interval.

32. An image sensing method of sensing an object and stores a sensed object image as a still image, said method comprising:

a first input step of inputting an image in a predetermined image sensing area in a first resolution;

a second input step of inputting images in the predetermined image sensing area in a second resolution which is lower than the first resolution;

a determination step of determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images inputted in the second resolution and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing two images;

an image sensing area designation step of designating an image sensing area of said image sensing step;

a resolution determination step of determining a third resolution to be used in sensing of a next image on the basis of a determination result in said determination step;

a third input step of inputting an image in the image sensing area designated at said image sensing area designation step which contains the differing area in the third resolution determined in said resolution determination step; and

a storing step of storing information on the image inputted at said third input step when it is determined in said determination step that there is a differing area.

33. The image sensing method according to claim 32, further comprising a camera control step of controlling an image sensing area,

wherein, at said third input step, an image in the image sensing area, controlled at said camera control step, including the differing area is inputted.

34. The image sensing method according to claim 33, wherein, at said third input step, images including all differing areas, determined at said determination step, are sequentially inputted in a smaller number of the image sensing areas.

35. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for realizing an image sensing method of sensing an object and stores a sensed object image as a still image, said product including:

first computer readable program code means for inputting an image in a predetermined image sensing area at first resolution;

second computer readable program code means for inputting an image in the predetermined image sensing area at second resolution which is lower than the first resolution;

third computer readable program code means for determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images inputted in the second resolution and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing two images inputted in the second resolution;

fourth computer readable program code means for inputting an image which includes the differing area in a third resolution which is higher than the second resolution;

fifth computer readable program code means for storing information on the image inputted in the third resolution; and

sixth computer readable program code means for selecting either the second or fourth computer readable program code means to be used on the basis of a determination result by said third computer readable program code means.

36. An image sensing apparatus comprising:

image sensing means capable of sensing images in a plurality of different resolutions;

determination means for determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images of a first resolution inputted by said image sensing means and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing the two images; and

control means for controlling said image sensing means to sense an image in a second resolution which is higher than the first resolution in a state that said determination means determined that there is the differing area.

37. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 36 further comprising image sensing area setting means for setting an area of an image to be sensed by said image sensing means.

38. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 36 further comprising storage means for storing an image sensed by said image sensing means.

39. An image sensing method comprising:

an image sensing step capable of sensing images in a plurality of different resolutions;

a determination step of determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images of a first resolution inputted in said image sensing step and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing the two images; and

a control step of controlling said image sensing step to sense an image in a second resolution which is higher than the first resolution in a state that it is determined in said determination step that there is the differing area.

40. The image sensing method according to claim 39 further comprising an image sensing area setting step of setting an area of an image to be sensed in said image sensing step.

41. The image sensing method according to claim 39 further comprising a storing step of storing an image sensed in said image sensing step.

42. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for realizing an image sensing method of sensing an object and stores a sensed object image as a still image, said product including:

first computer readable program code means for sensing an image;

second computer readable program code means for determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images of a first resolution and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing the two images; and

third computer readable program code means for controlling said first computer readable program code means to sense in a second resolution which is higher than the first resolution in a state that it is determined that there is the differing area.

43. An image sensing apparatus which is controlled by a control apparatus, comprising:

image sensing means capable of sensing images in a plurality of different resolutions,

wherein said control apparatus comprises;

determination means for determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images of a first resolution inputted by said image sensing means and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing the two images; and

control means for controlling said image sensing means to sense an image in a second resolution which is higher than the first resolution in a state that said determination means determined that there is the differing area.

44. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 43 further comprising image sensing area setting means for setting an area of an image to be sensed by said image sensing means.

45. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 43 further comprising storage means for storing an image sensed by said image sensing means.

46. A control apparatus for controlling an image sensing apparatus capable of sensing images in a plurality of different resolutions, comprising:

determination means for determining whether or not there is a differing area between two images of a first resolution inputted by the image sensing apparatus and, if there is, determining the differing area by comparing the two images; and

control means for determining a second resolution to be used in the image sensing apparatus on the basis of a determination result by said determination means and controlling the image sensing apparatus to sense an image in a second resolution which is higher than the first resolution in a state that said determination means determined that there is the differing area.

47. The control apparatus according to claim 46 further comprising image sensing area setting means for setting an area of an image to be sensed by the image sensing apparatus.

48. The control apparatus according to claim 46 further comprising storage means for storing an image sensed by the image sensing apparatus.