Image taking system and lens apparatus

• US 8,310,652 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2010
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kanayama, Masaomi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ratcliffe, Luke
• Application Number:
  US12/888,026
• Publication Number:
  US 20110075125A1
• Time in Patent Office: 783 Days
• Field of Search: 356 301- 315, 356 401- 41, 356 501- 515, 356 6- 22
• US Class Current: 356/4.06
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 3/08 Use of electric radiation detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 7/28 Systems for automatic generation of focusing signals

Abstract

An image taking system including: a lens apparatus; an image pickup apparatus; an operation angle detection unit detecting an operation angle; a direction storage unit storing an object direction relative to the lens apparatus; an angle-of-field calculation unit calculating an image taking angle of field based on zoom and focus positions; a ranging area setting unit calculating a position of at least one object in a screen based on the operation angle detected by the operation angle detection unit, the object direction stored in the direction storage unit, and the image taking angle of field calculated by the angle-of-field calculation unit, to set a ranging area at the position of the at least one object; an object distance calculation unit calculating an object distance in the ranging area; and an output image generation unit generating an output image and information based on the object distance.

Claims

1. An image taking system, comprising:

a lens apparatus;

an image pickup apparatus;

an operation angle detection unit for detecting an operation angle of the lens apparatus;

a direction storage unit for storing a direction of an object with respect to the operation angle of the lens apparatus;

an angle-of-field calculation unit for calculating an image taking angle of field based on a zoom position and a focus position of the lens apparatus;

a ranging area setting unit for calculating a position of at least one object in an image taking screen based on the operation angle detected by the operation angle detection unit, the direction stored in the direction storage unit, and the image taking angle of field calculated by the angle-of-field calculation unit, to thereby set a ranging area at the position of the at least one object;

an object distance calculation unit for calculating an object distance in the ranging area; and

an output image generation unit for generating an output image containing a taken image generated by the image pickup apparatus and information based on the object distance corresponding to the ranging area.

2. An image taking system according to claim 1, further comprising a ranging position output unit for outputting position information indicating a position of the ranging area,

wherein the output image generation unit generates the output image by superimposing the object distance corresponding to the ranging area that is set by the ranging area setting unit on the position in the taken image corresponding to the position information.

3. An image taking system according to claim 1, further comprising an object selection unit for selecting an object for which the object distance is to be calculated,

wherein, when the object selection unit selects the object, the direction storage unit stores the operation angle obtained by the operation angle detection unit, as the direction of the object.

4. An image taking system according to claim 3, wherein the direction is deleted from the direction storage unit when the object selection unit selects an object located in the same direction as the direction stored in the direction storage unit.

5. An image taking system according to claim 1, further comprising a deletion unit for deleting the stored directions of all the objects from the direction storage unit.

6. An image taking system according to claim 1, wherein the operation angle detection unit comprises one of an angular velocity sensor and an angle sensor.

7. An image taking system according to claim 1, further comprising a support member for supporting the lens apparatus,

wherein the operation angle detection unit comprises a rotary encoder for detecting the operation angle of the lens apparatus with respect to the support member.

8. A lens apparatus of the image taking system according to claim 1, comprising the direction storage unit, the angle-of-field calculation unit, the ranging area setting unit, and the object distance calculation unit.

9. A lens apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a phase difference sensor for detecting a phase difference between object images formed from light entering the lens apparatus,

wherein the object distance calculation unit calculates the object distance based on an output from the phase difference sensor.

10. A lens apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a focus control unit for performing focus control based on the output from the phase difference sensor.