Image processing apparatus and image sensing apparatus

• US 8,373,776 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2009
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xacti Corporation (Office Support KK)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Iijima, Yasuhiro, Hatanaka, Haruo, Fukumoto, Shimpei
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Nhan T
• Application Number:
  US12/636,171
• Publication Number:
  US 20100149384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 348/241, 348/208.99, 348/208.1, 348/208.4, 348/208.12, 348/208.13, 348/239, 348/362, 348/222.1, 396/52, 396/55, 382/254, 382/255
• US Class Current: 348/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/741 by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/81 for suppressing or minimising disturbance in the image signal generation

Abstract

An image processing apparatus outputs an output image by synthesizing a first image obtained by shooting, a second image obtained by shooting with an exposure time longer than the exposure time of the first image, and a third image obtained by reducing noise in the first image. The image processing apparatus has a noise reduction processing control portion which controls the contents of image processing for obtaining the third image from the first image according to the noise level in the first image.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus which generates, from a first image obtained by shooting and a second image obtained by shooting with an exposure time longer than an exposure time of the first image, a third image in which noise in the first image has been reduced and a fourth image which is a synthesized image of the second and third images, the image processing apparatus generating an output image by synthesizing the first and fourth images, the image processing apparatus comprising:

a synthesis ratio adjustment portion which adjusts, according to a noise level in the first image, at least one of a first synthesis ratio at which the second and third images are synthesized and a second synthesis ratio at which the first and fourth images are synthesized.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein

the first synthesis ratio is derived by applying a difference between the second and third images to a first predetermined conversion condition, and the second synthesis ratio is derived by applying intensity of an edge contained in the first or third image to a second predetermined conversion condition, and

the synthesis ratio adjustment portion adjusts the at least one of the first and second synthesis ratios according to the noise level in the first image by adjusting at least one of the first and second conversion conditions according to the noise level in the first image.

3. An image sensing apparatus comprising:

an image sensing portion which acquires an image by shooting; and

the image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the first and second images are acquired by the image sensing portion.