Imaging apparatus

• US 20060028577A1
• Filed: 08/02/2005
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Maeda, Kenji, Honjo, Kenichi, Okamoto, Mitsuyoshi, Sato, Minori, Suzuki, Seiichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,035,721 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/345
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/673 based on contrast or high frequency components of image signals, e.g. hill climbing method
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/84 for processing colour signals

Abstract

An imaging apparatus has an image sensor that captures the optical image of an object formed by an imaging optical system and converts the optical image into the electrical still image signal, a signal processor for dividing a representation of the image signal into a plurality of areas, and for determining a color characteristic for each area of the plurality of areas, the color characteristic consisting of a hue and/or chroma saturation, a selector for selecting at least one area of the plurality of area for which its respective color characteristic substantially corresponds to a preset color characteristic, and a focus controller for determining focus parameters of the imaging apparatus for the selected area and generating a focus control signal for adjusting the image optical system based on the focus parameters.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an image sensor that captures the optical image of an object formed by an imaging optical system and converts the optical image into the electrical still image signal;

a signal processor for dividing a representation of the image signal into a plurality of areas, and for determining a color characteristic for each area of the plurality of areas, the color characteristic consisting of a hue and/or chroma saturation;

a selector for selecting at least one area of the plurality of area for which its respective color characteristic substantially corresponds to a preset color characteristic; and

a focus controller for determining focus parameters of the imaging apparatus for the selected area and generating a focus control signal for adjusting the image optical system based on the focus parameters.

2. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the preset color characteristic corresponds to a representation of an image previously analyzed.

3. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

an image processor including a corrector that corrects the image signal outputted by the image sensor based on the preset color characteristic.

4. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the corrector performs, on the image signal outputted from the image sensor, a correction different from a correction performed on an image signal used for display or storage.

5. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the signal processor calculates brightness from the image signal for each of the areas,

the imaging apparatus further comprising:

a brightness determiner that determines whether the calculated brightness is higher than a predetermined value or not; and

a selection inhibitor that inhibits the area selector from selecting an area where the brightness calculated by the brightness determined is higher than the predetermined value.

6. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

an auxiliary light source that projects auxiliary light to the object when the focusing lens unit is driven by the lens driver,

wherein the color characteristic calculator corrects the calculated color characteristic in accordance with a color of the auxiliary light.

7. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

a display portion that displays the representation of the image signal; and

a specific area color corrector that corrects the color of the image signal to be displayed by the display portion based on the preset color characteristic for the selected area.

8. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an information storage that stores a plurality of pieces of preset color characteristic.

9. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a display portion that displays the plurality of pieces of preset color characteristic stored in the information storage.

10. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an information storage that stores a plurality of pieces of preset color characteristic and an image signal for displaying an image associated with the preset color characteristic.

11. An imaging apparatus as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a display portion that displays at least one of an image based on the image signal stored in the information storage and the plurality of pieces of preset color characteristic.

12. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an image sensor that captures the optical image of an object formed by an imaging optical system and converts the optical image into the electrical moving image signal;

a signal processor for dividing a representation of the image signal into a plurality of areas, and for determining a color characteristic for each area of the plurality of areas, the color characteristic consisting of a hue and/or chroma saturation;

a selector for selecting at least one area of the plurality of area for which its respective color characteristic substantially corresponds to a preset color characteristic;

an image processor including a corrector that corrects the image signal outputted by the image sensor based on the preset color characteristic; and

a focus controller for determining focus parameters of the imaging apparatus for the selected area and generating a focus control signal for adjusting the image optical system based on the focus parameters.

13. An apparatus for controlling focus adjustment of an imaging apparatus comprising:

a signal processor for dividing a representation of an image signal into a plurality of areas, and for determining a color characteristic for each area of the plurality of areas, the color characteristic consisting of a hue and/or chroma saturation;

a selector for selecting at least one area of the plurality of area for which its respective color characteristic substantially corresponds to a preset color characteristic; and

a focus controller for determining focus parameters of the imaging apparatus for the selected area and generating a focus control signal for adjusting the image optical system based on the focus parameters.

14. A method for controlling focusing of an imaging apparatus comprising:

dividing a representation of an image into a plurality of areas;

calculating color characteristic from the representation for each area of the plurality of areas;

comparing preset color characteristic calculated for each area of the plurality of areas;

determining at least one area of the plurality of area for which respective color information substantially corresponds to preset color characteristic based on results of comparison;

determining focus parameters of an imaging optical system for the at least one area; and

generating a focus control signal for focus adjustment of the imaging apparatus.