Image processing apparatus

• US 8,736,682 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2011
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Sukenori, Atsushi
• Primary Examiner(s): Velez, Roberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kao, Yih-Sien
• Application Number:
  US13/024,433
• Publication Number:
  US 20110199515A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• Field of Search: 348/239, 348/452, 348/220.1, 348/169, 382/294
• US Class Current: 348/169
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2621 Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/7921 for more than one processing mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding

Abstract

There is provided an image processing apparatus. The apparatus includes a moving image data acquisition unit configured to acquire moving image data representing a moving image, a notable-region specification unit configured to specify, as a notable region, a motion region among a plurality of still images forming the moving image represented by the moving image data acquired by the moving image data acquisition unit, for each still image, and an image processing unit configured to perform image processing of changing a style of each still image, in which the notable region is specified by the notable-region specification unit, into a pictorial image, by using different processes between the notable region in the still image specified by the notable-region specification unit and the rest of the still image.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a moving image data acquisition unit configured to acquire moving image data representing a synthetic image obtained by superposing a moving subject image on a still image;

a notable-region specification unit configured to specify, as a notable region, a region of the moving subject image represented by the moving image data acquired by the moving image data acquisition unit; and

an image processing unit configured to perform image processing of changing a style of the synthetic image into a pictorial image in accordance with predetermined parameters;

wherein the image processing is configured to perform the image processing by using different processing degrees between the notable region in the synthetic image specified by the notable-region specification unit and regions other than the notable region in the synthetic image; and

wherein the image processing performed by the image processing unit comprises;

first image processing of increasing a processing degree by setting numerical values of the parameters to be increased when the image processing is performed on the notable region, and decreasing a processing degree by setting numerical values of the parameters to be decreased when the image processing is performed on the regions other than the notable region; and

second image processing of finely rendering a texture of the pictorial image by finely drawing an image portion of the notable region when the image processing is performed on the notable region, and coarsely rendering a texture of the pictorial image by coarsely drawing an image portion of the regions other than the notable region when the image processing is performed on the regions other than the notable region.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the notable-region specification unit further specifies, for each notable region, a value which changes in accordance with a ratio occupied by the notable region in the synthetic image, and

the image processing unit changes the processing degrees of the image processing in accordance with the value specified by the notable-region specification unit.

3. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a program stored thereon which controls performance of image processing by controlling a computer to perform functions comprising:

acquiring moving image data representing a synthetic image obtained by superposing a moving subject image on a still image;

specifying, as a notable region, a region of the moving subject image in the synthetic image represented by the acquired moving image data; and

performing image processing of changing a style of the synthetic image into a pictorial image in accordance with predetermined parameters;

wherein the image processing is performed by using different processing degrees between the specified notable region in the synthetic image and regions other than the notable region in the synthetic image; and

wherein performing the image processing comprises;

performing first image processing of increasing a processing degree by setting numerical values of the parameters to be increased when the image processing is performed on the notable region, and decreasing a processing degree by setting numerical values of the parameters to be decreased when the image processing is performed on the regions other than the notable region; and

performing second image processing of finely rendering a texture of the pictorial image by finely drawing an image portion of the notable region when the image processing is performed on the notable region, and coarsely rendering a texture of the pictorial image by coarsely drawing an image portion of the regions other than the notable region when the image processing is performed on the regions other than the notable region.