Pixel shifting image sensor with a different number of images sensed in each mode

• US 6,195,125 B1
• Filed: 08/07/1996
• Issued: 02/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Masato, Udagawa, Yoshiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Garber, Wendy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Harrington, Alicia M
• Application Number:
  US08/695,233
• Time in Patent Office: 1,665 Days
• Field of Search: 348/222, 348/224, 348/223, 348/266, 348/272, 348/273, 348/279, 348/348
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/84 for processing colour signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/133 including elements passing panchromatic light, e.g. filters passing white light
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/134 based on three different wavelength filter elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/48 Increasing resolution by shifting the sensor relative to the scene

Abstract

An image sensing apparatus has a plurality of image sensing modes each of which performs image sensing operation using different pixel shifting method. One of these image sensing modes is selected through a selection unit in accordance with an object to be sensed, and a plurality of images of the object are sensed in image sensing position arrays on the basis of the selected image sensing mode. A combining unit combines the plurality of sensed images to obtain a single still image of high resolution.

Claims

1. An image sensing apparatus which obtains an image of high resolution by using pixel shifting technique, comprising:

image sensing means for sensing an image of an object to obtain image data;

shifting means for shifting image formation position of the image of the object on said image sensing means;

selection means for selecting one of a plurality of image sensing modes each of which performs image sensing operation using different pixel shifting methods wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a first image sensing mode for performing a first plural number of pixel shifting operations and a second image sensing mode for performing a second plural number of pixel shifting, operations, wherein said second plural number is different from said first plural number; and

combining means which combines images of said first plural number in said first image sensing mode and images of said second plural number in said second image sensing mode respectively.

2. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a color filter.

3. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a fifth mode for sensing images by obtaining image data of different colors of the filter at each image sensing point in a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means, in a second image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel in the horizontal direction with respect to the first image sensing point array, in a third image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel in the vertical direction with respect to the first image sensing point array, and in a fourth image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel both in the horizontal and vertical directions with respect to the first image sensing point array.

4. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a sixth mode for sensing an image in a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means and an image in a second image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel in the horizontal direction and by an integer multiple number of half pixel in the vertical direction with respect to the first image sensing point array.

5. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, in said sixth mode, the second image sensing point array is shifted by a half pixel in the vertical direction and shifted by one and half pixels in the horizontal direction with respect to the first image sensing point array.

6. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a seventh mode for sensing images by obtaining image data of different colors of the filter at each image sensing point in a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means by shifting image formation positions on said image sensing means the number of times which is the same as the number of colors used in the color filter by said shifting means.

7. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a eighth mode for sensing an image in a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means and an image in a second image sensing point array which is shifted by an integer multiple number of half pixel in the horizontal direction with respect to the first image sensing point array.

8. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, in said sixth mode, the second image sensing point array is shifted by one and half pixels in the horizontal direction with respect to the first image sensing point array.

9. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said color filter has an arrangement in which each color forms vertical lines, and colors used in the color filter appear in sequence in the horizontal direction.

10. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said color filter has cyan, green and yellow.

11. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a mode for shifting the image formation position by a pixel and a mode for shifting the image formation position by a half pixel.

12. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in each of said plurality of image sensing modes, a different number of images are sensed.

13. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a first mode for sensing an image in a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means, an image in a second image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel in the horizontal direction with respect to the first image sensing point array, an image in a third image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel in the vertical direction with respect to the first image sensing point array, and an image in a fourth image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel both in the horizontal and vertical directions with respect to the first image sensing point array.

14. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a second mode for sensing an image in a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means and an image in a second image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel both in the horizontal and vertical directions with respect the first image sensing point array.

15. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein image data of the images sensed in said second mode are read out in such a manner that image data sensed in a combined image sensing point array of the first and second image sensing point arrays is read out in different combinations of two adjacent horizontal lines to obtain image data of an even field and image data of an odd field.

16. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a third mode for sensing an image in a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means and an image in a second image sensing point array which is shifted by a half pixel in the horizontal direction with respect to the first image sensing point array.

17. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of image sensing modes include a fourth mode for sensing an image at a first image sensing point array of said image sensing means.

18. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said shifting means includes a piezoelectric element, and the image formation position on said image sensing means is shifted by shifting said image sensing means.

19. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of optical low pass filters which can be freely inserted and extracted to and from light path of the image of the object, wherein said plurality of optical low pass filters are used in accordance with said plurality of image sensing modes.

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

recording means for recording the image data obtained by said image sensing means into a storage medium; and

compression means for compressing the image data in different compression ratio in accordance with a speed of writing and reading of said recording means.

21. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the speed of writing and reading of said recording means is measured between the time when the storage medium is attached to the image sensing apparatus and when an image sensing operation starts.

22. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the compression ratio of the image data obtained by said image sensing means to compressed image data becomes high when the speed of said recording means to write and read to and from a storage medium is slow.

23. The image sensing apparatus according to claim 20, wherein coefficients to be multiplied to the image data of each color are adjusted so that the image data of each color at a white point has a same value before compressing the image data by said compression means.