Wide range image pickup apparatus and arrangement for suppressing the appearance of parallax

• US 7,006,123 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2002
• Issued: 02/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Tajima, Shigeru, Yoshikawa, Koichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Garber, Wendy R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hernandez, Nelson D.
• Application Number:
  US10/072,223
• Publication Number:
  US 20040201769A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,483 Days
• Field of Search: 348/335, 348/222.1, 348/36, 348/47, 348/16, 359/631, 359/637, 359/433, 359/16
• US Class Current: 348/36
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/54 Mounting of pick-up tubes, electronic image sensors, deviation or focusing coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus which can suppress appearance of a parallax between images picked up by multiple cameras is disclosed. The image pickup apparatus includes several video cameras for individually picking tip images of a number of divisional image pickup objects of an image pickup object extending over a wide range. A processing section is provided for receiving image information from the video cameras and processing the image information to produce a single image by stitching images presented by the image information. A lens set including a number of lenses is provided in a lens barrel of each of the video cameras and has an aperture stop interposed therein. In one of the video camera, a straight line component in an object space of a principal ray which passes the center of the aperture stop and is positioned in a Gauss region is extended, and a point at which the extension intersects with the optical axis of the lens set is set as a first non-parallax point. The lens sets of the other video cameras are disposed such that such non-parallax points thereof are positioned within a spherical region of a radius of approximately 20 mm centered at the first non-parallax point.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of image pickups for individually picking up images of a plurality of divisional image pickup objects of an image pickup object extending over a wide range; and

a processor for receiving image information from said image pickups and processing the image information to produce a single image by stitching images presented by the image information;

said image pickups being disposed such that, where a point at which an extension of a straight line component in an object space of a selected one of principal rays passing the center of an aperture stop for a lens set provided in each of said image pickup means which is positioned in a Gauss region intersects with an optical axis of said lens set is set as an NP point, the NP points of said image pickup means are collectively set within a predetermined radius region centered at one of the NP points.

2. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radius of the predetermined radius region is set to approximately 20 mm from the center which is one of the NP points.

3. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said lens set of each of said image pickups includes a plurality of lenses arranged in a plurality of stages and is provided in a lens barrel, and the lens barrels of said image pickups are collectively disposed on a single support member.

4. An image pickup apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of image pickups for individually picking up images of a plurality of divisional image pickup objects of an image pickup object extending over a wide range; and

a processor for receiving image information from said image pickups and processing the image information to produce a single image by stitching images presented by the image information;

said image pickups being disposed such that, where a point at which an extension of a straight line component in an object space of a selected one of principal rays passing the center of an aperture stop for a lens set provided in each of said image pickups which is positioned in a Gauss region intersects with an optical axis of said lens set is set as an NP point, the NP point is set to a position outside a lens barrel by disposing, intermediately of a light path which passes said lens set of the image pickups, a mirror member for bending incoming light at a predetermined angle in an inclined relationship by a predetermined angle so that the incoming light is bent and the NP points of said image pickup means are collectively set within a predetermined radius region centered at one of the NP points.

5. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the radius of the predetermined radius region is set to approximately 20 mm from the center which is one of the NP points.

6. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the inclination angle of said mirror member is set arbitrarily with respect the optical axis of said lens set.

7. An image pickup apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising additional image pickups having an NP point set within the predetermined radius region at a central position between said image pickup means and the mirror members which are arranged radially.