Image-capturing device, and image combination program

• US 9,509,911 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2011
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Umeyama, Kazuya, Shinoda, Tomotaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Pe, Geepy
• Application Number:
  US13/181,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20120013737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,966 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6811 based on the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene

Abstract

An image-capturing device includes: an image-capturing unit that captures an image of a photographic subject; a selection unit that selects, as a reference image, a single image from among a plurality of images that have been captured in succession by the image-capturing unit; a calculation unit that calculates an amount of positional deviation between the reference image and each of the plurality of images other than the reference image; and a generation unit that generates a combined image by positionally aligning and then combining the reference image and those ones of the plurality of images whose amounts of positional deviation are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation. The selection unit selects the reference image so that the number of images for which the amount of positional deviation is less than or equal to the predetermined amount of deviation becomes large.

Claims

1. An image-capturing device, comprising:

an image-capturing unit that acquires a plurality of captured-image by capturing an image of a photographic subject;

a selection unit that selects, as a reference captured-image, an image from among the plurality of captured-images that have been captured by the image-capturing unit;

a calculation unit that calculates an amount of relative positional deviation of pixels between the reference captured-image selected by the selection unit and each of the plurality of captured-images which are different from the reference captured-image; and

a generation unit that generates a combined image by using the captured-images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels calculated by the calculation unit are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time, and without using the images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels calculated by the calculation unit are greater than the predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time, among the plurality of the captured images, wherein

if a number of the captured-images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels from a first captured-image are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time is greater than a number of the captured-images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels from a second captured-image are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time, the selection unit selects the first captured-image as the reference captured-image.

2. An image capturing device according to claim 1, wherein

the selection unit compares a number of the captured-images whose amounts of relative positional deviation are less than or equal to the predetermined amount of deviation when the first-captured image is selected as the reference image, with a number of the captured-images whose amounts of relative positional deviation are less than or equal to the predetermined amount of deviation when the second captured-image is selected as the reference image, and selects the first captured-image as the reference image if the number when the first captured-image is selected is greater than the number when the second captured-image is selected.

3. An image capturing device according to claim 1, wherein

the selection unit selects the reference image so that the number of images for which the amount of relative positional deviation is less than or equal to the predetermined amount of deviation becomes the largest.

4. An image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein

the selection unit selects the reference image from among the plurality of images captured by the image-capturing unit, after having excluded the image that was captured first and the image that was captured last from the plurality of images.

5. An image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein

from among the plurality of images captured by the image-capturing unit, the selection unit selects as the reference image, an image whose maximum amount of relative positional deviation from other images is the smallest.

6. An image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein

the images that are captured by the image-capturing unit are images upon which hand shaking correction has been performed.

7. An image-capturing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a processing adjusting unit that, if an image having an appropriate exposure cannot be obtained by combination of the reference image and the images whose amounts of relative positional deviation are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation, adjusts processing for exposure correction upon the combined image in accordance with the number of images whose relative positional deviation is less than or equal to the predetermined amount of deviation.

10. An image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein

each relative positional deviation of one image relative to another means how much each respective image has moved relative to each other measured in pixels.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying an image combination program that, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to execute a method, the method comprising:

an image-capturing step of acquiring images of a photographic subject;

a selection step of selecting, as a reference image, an image from among a plurality of images that have been captured in the image-capturing step;

a calculation step of calculating an amount of relative positional deviation of pixels between the reference image selected in the selection step and each of the plurality of images other than the reference image captured in the image-capturing step; and

a generation step of generating a combined image by using the images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels calculated in the calculation step are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time, and without using the images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels calculated in the calculation step are greater than the predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time, among the plurality of the captured-images, wherein

if a number of the images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels from a first image are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time is greater than a number of the images whose amounts of relative positional deviation of pixels from a second image are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation of pixels that is related to exposure time, the first image is selected as the reference image in the selection step.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying an image combination program that, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method according to claim 8, the method further comprising:

a processing adjusting step of adjusting processing for exposure correction, wherein

if the image having the appropriate exposure cannot be obtained by combination of the reference image and the images whose amounts of relative positional deviation are less than or equal to a predetermined amount of deviation, processing for exposure correction upon the combined image is adjusted in accordance with the number of images whose relative positional deviation is less than or equal to the predetermined amount of deviation, in the processing adjusting step.