DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT HAVING RECORDED THEREON A PROGRAM FOR EXECUTING THE METHOD

• US 20110043655A1
• Filed: 08/20/2010
• Published: 02/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Chang, Soon-keun, Park, Jeong-yong
• Application Number:
  US12/859,886
• Publication Number:
  US 20110043655A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/67 Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals

Abstract

A digital photographing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method for obtaining a plurality of clear sections in a plurality of images and combining such clear section into a final image. The digital photographing apparatus including: a lens unit including a focusing lens that adjusts a focal length; an image capturing device that obtains image data from incident light; a border image data obtaining unit that obtains border image data from image data obtained by the image capturing device; and a clear image determining unit that determines an image including an area that is the clearest from among images that respectively correspond to a plurality of image data.

Claims

1. A digital photographing apparatus comprising:

a lens unit comprising a focusing lens adjustable to a focal length;

an image capturing device adapted to obtain image data from incident light that is incident on the image capturing device through the lens unit;

a border image data obtaining unit that obtains border image data from image data obtained by the image capturing device; and

a clear image determining unit adapted to determine an image that includes an area that is the clearest from among images that correspond to a plurality of image data,

wherein, when the focusing lens of the lens unit is controlled to vary the focal length, the image capturing device obtains first through n-th image data where n is an integer, and

the border image data obtaining unit obtains first through n-th border image data from the first through n-th image data, and

the clear image determining unit determines a first clear image including a first area that is the clearest from among first through n-th images that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border image data, by using the first through n-th border image data, and

the clear image determining unit determines a second clear image including a second area that is the clearest from among the first through n-th images that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border image data and that is different from the first area, by using the first through n-th border image data.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an image matching unit that corrects image data so that the first clear image and second clear image may be matched with each other.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the border image data obtaining unit obtains a first result that is obtained by applying a Gaussian filter to image data by using a first standard deviation and obtains a second result that is obtained by applying the Gaussian filter to the image data by using a second standard deviation that is different from the first standard deviation and then, obtains border image data from a difference between the first result and the second result.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a final image data obtaining unit that obtains image data corresponding to the first clear image including the first area that is the clearest and image data corresponding to the second clear image including the second area that is the clearest and obtains final image data corresponding to a final image in which both the first area and the second area are clear.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising a display unit that displays a final image, and after the final image is displayed on the display unit, if one of the first and second areas is selected, the image including the selected area that is the clearest, from among the first through n-th images, is displayed on the display unit.

6. A digital photographing apparatus comprising:

a lens unit comprising a focusing lens adjustable to a focal length;

an image capturing device that obtains image data from incident light that is incident on the image capturing device through the lens unit;

a border image data obtaining unit that obtains border image data from image data obtained by the image capturing device;

a clarity data obtaining unit that obtains a difference between maximum border image data and minimum border image data in an area k×

l based on a pixel (x,y) of a border image that is obtained from the border image data obtained by the border image data obtaining unit, as clarity data of the pixel (x,y); and

a clear image determining unit that determines an image that includes an area that is the clearest from among images that respectively correspond to a plurality of image data,

wherein, when the focusing lens of the lens unit is controlled to vary the focal length, the image capturing device obtains first through n-th image data where n is an integer, and

the border image data obtaining unit obtains first through n-th border image data from the first through n-th image data, and obtains a first result that is obtained by applying a Gaussian filter to m-th image data by using a first standard deviation and obtains a second result that is obtained by applying the Gaussian filter to the m-th image data by using a second standard deviation that is different from the first standard deviation, and then obtains m-th border image data, where 1≦

m≦

n, from a difference between the first result and the second result, and

the clarity data obtaining unit obtains clarity data in each of pixels that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border images, and

the clear image determining unit determines one image from among first through n-th images, which corresponds to a border image that represents the greatest clarity data in each of pixels that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border images, as a clear image in the pixel.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising an image matching unit that corrects image data so that one of the first through n-th images and another of the first through n-th images may be matched with each other.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising a final image data obtaining unit that obtains image data in a pixel that corresponds to a pixel (x,y) from the image that corresponds to a border image having the greatest clarity data in the pixel that corresponds to the pixel (x,y) from among the first through n-th border images and obtaining final image data.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a display unit that displays a final image, and after the final image is displayed on the display unit, if any one of the first and second areas is selected, the image corresponding to a border image that represents the greatest clarity data in the selected area, from among the first through n-th images, is displayed on the display unit.

10. A method of controlling a digital photographing apparatus, the method comprising:

obtaining first through n-th image data where n is an integer by varying a focal length;

obtaining first through n-th border image data from the first through n-th image data;

determining a first clear image including a first area that is the clearest from among first through n-th images that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border image data by using the first through n-th border image data; and

determining a second clear image including a second area that is the clearest from among the first through n-th images that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border image data so that the second area is different from the first area, by using the first through n-th border image data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining of the first clear image including the first area and the determining of the second clear image including the second image are performed after the first through n-th images are matched with one another.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the obtaining of the first through n-th border image data comprises obtaining a first result that is obtained by applying a Gaussian filter to m-th image data by using a first standard deviation and obtaining a second result that is obtained by applying the Gaussian filter to the m-th image data by using a second standard deviation that is different from the first standard deviation and then obtaining m-th border image data, where 1—

m≦

n, from a difference between the first result and the second result.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising obtaining image data corresponding to the first clear image including the first area that is the clearest and image data corresponding to the second clear image including the second area that is the clearest and obtaining final image data corresponding to a final image in which both the first area and the second area are clear.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, after the final image is displayed on the display unit, if any one of the first and second areas is selected, displaying the image including the selected area that is the clearest, from among the first through n-th images on the display unit.

15. A method of controlling a digital photographing apparatus, the method comprising:

obtaining first through n-th image data, where n is an integer by varying a focal length;

obtaining first through n-th border image data from the first through n-th image data, obtaining a first result by applying a Gaussian filter to m-th image data by using a first standard deviation and obtaining a second result by applying the Gaussian filter to the m-th image data by using a second standard deviation that is different from the first standard deviation, and then obtaining m-th border image data, where 1≦

m≦

n, from a difference between the first result and the second result;

obtaining a difference between maximum border image data and minimum border image data in an area k≦

l based on a pixel (x,y) of a border image that is obtained from the first through n-th border image data obtained by a border image data obtaining unit, as clarity data of the pixel (x,y) and obtaining clarity data in each of pixels that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border images; and

determining one image from among first through n-th images, which corresponds to the border image that represents the greatest clarity data in each of pixels that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border images, as a clear image in the pixel.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining of the one image is performed after the first through n-th images are matched with one another.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising obtaining image data in a pixel that corresponds to a pixel (x,y) from the image that corresponds to the border image having the greatest clarity data in the pixel that corresponds to the pixel (x,y) from among the first through n-th border images and obtaining final image data.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising, after the final image obtained from the final image data is displayed on a display unit, if any one of the first and second areas is selected, displaying the image corresponding to the border image that represents the greatest clarity data in the selected area, from among the first through n-th images on the display unit.

19. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method of controlling a digital photographing apparatus, the method comprising:

obtaining first through n-th image data where n is an integer by varying a focal length;

obtaining first through n-th border image data from the first through n-th image data;

determining a first clear image including a first area that is the clearest from among first through n-th images that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border image data by using the first through n-th border image data; and

determining a second clear image including a second area that is the clearest from among the first through n-th images that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border image data so that the second area is different from the first area, by using the first through n-th border image data.

20. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method of controlling a digital photographing apparatus, the method comprising:

obtaining first through n-th image data, where n is an integer by varying a focal length;

obtaining first through n-th border image data from the first through n-th image data, obtaining a first result that is obtained by applying a Gaussian filter to m-th image data by using a first standard deviation and obtaining a second result that is obtained by applying the Gaussian filter to the m-th image data by using a second standard deviation that is different from the first standard deviation, and then obtaining m-th border image data, where 1≦

m≦

n, from a difference between the first result and the second result;

obtaining a difference between maximum border image data and minimum border image data in an area k×

l based on a pixel (x,y) of a border image that is obtained from the first through n-th border image data obtained by a border image data obtaining unit, as clarity data of the pixel (x,y) and obtaining clarity data in each of pixels that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border images; and

determining one image from among first through n-th images, which corresponds to the border image that represents the greatest clarity data in each of pixels that respectively correspond to the first through n-th border images, as a clear image in the pixel.