Image pickup apparatus and processing method for result of image pickup

• US 8,345,108 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Seiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Tuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): FLOHRE, JASON A
• Application Number:
  US11/794,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20080284871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,587 Days
• Field of Search: 348/208.12, 348/363, 348/364
• US Class Current: 348/208.12
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14607 Geometry of the photosensitive area
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1462 Coatings
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14621 Colour filter arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14623 Optical shielding
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14627 Microlenses
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14634 Assemblies, i.e. Hybrid structures
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14636 Interconnect structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/681 Motion detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6811 based on the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/72 Combination of two or more compensation controls
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/44 by partially reading an SSIS array
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/50 Control of the SSIS exposure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/79 Arrangements of circuitry being divided between different or multiple substrates, chips or circuit boards, e.g. stacked image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/145 Movement estimation for video coding H04N19/51

Abstract

The present invention is applied to an image pickup apparatus for which, for example, a CMOS solid-state image pickup element is used. One screen image is divided into a plurality of blocks, and a motion is detected for each of the blocks to control the exposure time of the block.

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus, comprising:

image pickup means having an image pickup surface formed thereon from pixels arranged in a matrix for outputting a result of image pickup of an optical image formed on the image pickup surface;

motion detection means for detecting an amount of motion from the result of the image pickup for each of a plurality of blocks into which the image pickup surface is divided in a horizontal direction and/or a vertical direction;

control means for controlling exposure time of said image pickup means for each of the blocks based on a result of the detection by said motion detection means; and

signal level correction means for correcting and outputting, for each of the blocks, a signal level of the result of the image pickup which varies in accordance with control of the exposure time,

wherein said image pickup means outputs the results of the image pickup of the blocks simultaneously and parallelly so as to output the results of the image pickup of the optical image,

said motion detection means processes the results of the image pickup of the blocks outputted from said image pickup means individually to detect the motion amount for each of the blocks by cumulatively adding the results of the image pickup for each of the blocks in a unit of a frame to calculate an average value for each of the blocks, calculating an interframe difference value of the average values calculated for each of the blocks, the interframe difference value being a difference between, for a same block of the blocks, the average value calculated in a current frame and the average value calculated in a preceding frame, and detecting the motion amount for each of the blocks based on the corresponding interframe difference value, and

said control means controls the exposure time for each of the blocks independently of each other by use of the detected motion amount for each of the blocks such that a respective exposure time is obtained for each block by use of the detected motion amount for the respective block associated therewith and separately from that of all other blocks regardless of the detected motion amount(s) and exposure time(s) of the other blocks.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said control means controls, based on the result of the detection by said motion detection means, the exposure time of said image pickup means for each of the blocks such that the exposure time decreases as the motion amount increases.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

at least said image pickup means and said motion detection means are formed in semiconductor chips different from each other and connected to each other by micro bumps.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

encoding means for performing an encoding process for the result of the image pickup using a macro block based on the result of the detection by said motion detection means,

wherein the blocks used in said motion detection means being set to a size corresponding to that of the macro block used in said encoding means.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the semiconductor chip of said image pickup means includes a wiring layer which is positioned on a side opposite an image pickup surface.

7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup means includes a driving control circuit configured to time division multiplex outputs from the pixels and the signal level correction means includes an amplification circuit configured to receive an output from the driving control circuit and to amplify the same.

5. A processing method for a result of image pickup, comprising:

a motion detection step of detecting an amount of motion from a result of image pickup by image pickup means for each of a plurality of blocks into which an image pickup surface of the image pickup means is divided in a horizontal direction and/or a vertical direction;

a control step of controlling exposure time of the image pickup means for each of the blocks based on a result of the detection at the motion detection step; and

a signal level correction step of correcting and outputting, for each of the blocks, a signal level of the result of the image pickup which varies in accordance with control of the exposure time,

wherein said image pickup means outputs results of the image pickup of the blocks simultaneously and parallelly, and the results of the image pickup of the blocks outputted from said image pickup means are processed individually to detect the motion amount for each of the blocks by cumulatively adding the results of the image pickup for each of the blocks in a unit of a frame to calculate an average value for each of the blocks, calculating an interframe difference value of the average values calculated for each of the blocks, the interframe difference value being a difference between, for a same block of the blocks, the average value calculated in a current frame and the average value calculated in a preceding frame, and detecting the motion amount for each of the blocks based on the corresponding interframe difference value, and the exposure time for each of the blocks is controlled independently of each other by use of the detected motion amount for each of the blocks such that a respective exposure time is obtained for each block by use of the detected motion amount for the respective block associated therewith and separately from that of all other blocks regardless of the detected motion amount(s) and exposure time(s) of the other blocks.