Image capture apparatus and image capturing method

• US 8,599,283 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Matsunaga, Kazuhisa, Onozawa, Masaru, Nakagomi, Kouichi, Makino, Tetsuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Sinh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Peterson, Christopher K
• Application Number:
  US12/943,229
• Publication Number:
  US 20110109754A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,119 Days
• Field of Search: 348363-368
• US Class Current: 348/229.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/683 performed by a processor, e.g. controlling the readout of an image memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/743 Bracketing, i.e. taking a series of images with varying exposure conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2625 for obtaining an image which is composed of images from a temporal image sequence, e.g. for a stroboscopic effect sequence generated by event triggered capturing H04N7/188

Abstract

An image capture apparatus includes: an image capturing unit; a first image capture controller configured to control the image capturing unit to capture a set of a plurality of images while changing exposure time for each of the images; a second image capture controller configured to obtain a plurality of sets of the images; an addition combination section configured to perform image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets and to perform addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image; a combination controller configured to control the addition combination section to perform the image alignment and the addition combination for each of the sets to obtain a plurality of combined images; a selector configured to evaluate the combined images and to select one of the combined images most highly evaluated as a selected image; and a storage configured to store the selected image.

Claims

1. An image capture apparatus comprising:

an image capturing unit;

a first image capture controller configured to control the image capturing unit to sequentially capture a set of a plurality of images in a shorter exposure time that is shorter than an appropriate exposure time, in a longer exposure time that is longer than the appropriate exposure time, and in the appropriate exposure time;

a second image capture controller configured to control the first image capture controller to perform capturing of the set of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

a selector configured to perform image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets and evaluate results of the image alignment, and to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as a selected set;

an addition combination section configured to perform addition combination on the images contained in the selected set, to generate a combined image; and

a storage configured to store the combined image.

2. The image capture apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a detector configured to detect a brightness of a capturing condition,

wherein the selector is configured to select two or more of the sets, and the addition combination section is configured to perform the addition combination on the images contained in the two or more of the sets, when the brightness detected by the detector is lower than a threshold value.

3. The image capture apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a determination section configured to determine whether or not a face image is contained in a captured image,

wherein the selector is configured to evaluate positional displacement of the face image in the sets of images and to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as the selected set, when the determination section determines that the face image is contained in the captured image.

4. An image capturing method comprising:

controlling an image capturing unit to sequentially capture a set of a plurality of images in a shorter exposure time that is shorter than an appropriate exposure time, in a longer exposure time that is longer than the appropriate exposure time, and in the appropriate exposure time;

performing capturing of the set of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

performing image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets and evaluating results of the image alignment, to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as a selected set;

performing addition combination on the images contained in the selected set to generate a combined image; and

storing the combined image.

5. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having an image capturing program stored thereon for controlling a computer of an apparatus comprising an image capturing unit to perform functions comprising:

controlling the image capturing unit to sequentially capture a set of a plurality of images in a shorter exposure time that is shorter than an appropriate exposure time, in a longer exposure time that is longer than the appropriate exposure time, and in the appropriate exposure time;

performing capturing of the set of the images for a plurality of times to obtain a plurality of sets of the images;

performing image alignment on the images contained in each of the sets and evaluating results of the image alignment, to select one of the sets most highly evaluated as a selected set;

performing addition combination on the images contained in the selected set to generate a combined image; and

storing the combined image.