Multi-eye imaging apparatus

• US 7,986,343 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2005
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hirasawa, Taku, Kumagai, Hironori
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): OSINSKI, MICHAEL S
• Application Number:
  US10/597,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20070159535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,052 Days
• Field of Search: 348/218.1, 348/208.13, 396 52- 54
• US Class Current: 348/208.13
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/16 Optical arrangements associated therewith, e.g. for beam-splitting or for colour correction
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/843 Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values

Abstract

A multi-eye imaging apparatus comprises a plurality of imaging systems (106a, 106b) each including an optical system (107a, 107b) and an imaging element (108a, 108b) and having a different optical axis. The plurality of imaging systems (106a, 106b) include a first imaging system (106b) having a pixel shift means (101) for changing a relative positional relationship between an image formed on the imaging element (108b), and the imaging element (108b), and a second imaging system (106a) in which a relative positional relationship between an image formed on the imaging element (108a), and the imaging element (108a), is fixed during time-series image capture.

Claims

1. A multi-eye imaging apparatus comprising:

a plurality of imaging systems including a first imaging system and a second imaging system, each imaging system including an optical system and an imaging element and having a different optical axis, wherein

the first imaging system includes a shifter that moves at least one part of the first imaging system in a fixed amount to change a relative positional relationship between an image formed on the imaging element of the first imaging system and the imaging element of the first imaging system, during a time-series image capture, and

a relative positional relationship among parts of the second imaging system is fixed during the time-series image capture;

an image memory that accumulates a plurality of frames of image information captured in the time series from the first and second imaging systems;

a shake amount obtaining unit that obtains a shake amount by comparing the plurality of frames of image information in the image memory, captured in the time series by from the second imaging system, wherein

the shifter moves at least one part of the first imaging system in the fixed amount independent of the shake amount;

a parallax amount obtaining unit that obtains a magnitude of a parallax from images in the image memory, captured by the first and second imaging systems,

an optimal image selecting unit that selects a combination of image information from the plurality of frames of image information in the image memory, captured in the time series from the first imaging system and the second imaging system, so that a resolution of a combined image information is higher than that of each of the plurality of frames of image information, the selected combination of image information based on the fixed amount for the shifter, the shake amount obtained by the shake amount obtaining unit, and the parallax amount obtained b the parallax obtaining unit; and

an image combining unit configured to combine the selected combination of image information.

2. The multi-eye imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image combining unit corrects and combines the images based on the parallax amount obtained by the parallax amount obtaining unit and the shake amount obtained by the shake amount obtaining unit.

3. The multi-eye imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a discrimination unit for discriminating different subjects,

wherein the shake amount obtaining unit obtains a shake amount for each of the different subjects, and

the image combining unit combines images for each of the different subjects.

4. The multi-eye imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a division unit for dividing image information into a plurality of blocks, wherein the shake amount obtaining unit obtains a shake amount for each of the plurality of blocks, and

the image combining unit combines images for each of the plurality of blocks.

5. The multi-eye imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of imaging systems having the different optical axes are composed of:

an imaging system for handling a red color;

an imaging system for handling a green color; and

an imaging system for handling a blue color, wherein, for at least one corresponding to one color of the imaging systems corresponding to the respective colors, the number of the imaging systems corresponding to the one color is two or more, and the two or more imaging systems for handling the one color include the first imaging system and the second imaging system.

6. A method for capturing images with a multi-eye imaging apparatus comprising a plurality of imaging systems including a first imaging system and a second imaging system, each imaging system including an optical system and an imaging element and having a different optical axis, the imaging method comprising:

capturing images from the first imaging system and the second imaging system at a first time,

moving at least one part of the first imaging system from a position at the first time in a fixed amount, to change a relative positional relationship between an image formed on the imaging element of the first imaging system and the imaging element of the first imaging system, with a relative positional relationship among parts of the second imaging system fixed,

capturing images from the first imaging system and the second imaging system at a second time, subsequent to the moving,

obtaining a shake amount from images captured from the second imaging system at the first time and the second time,

obtaining a parallax amount from images captured from the first imaging system and the second imaging system at a same time,

selecting a combination of images from the plurality of images captured from the first imaging system and the second imaging system at the first time and the second time, so that a resolution of a combined image is higher than that of each of the plurality of images, based on the fixed amount for the moving and the shake amount and the parallax amount, and

combining the selected combination of images.