IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGING PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND IMAGING PROCESSING SYSTEM

• US 20130286207A1
• Filed: 03/29/2013
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Group Corp.
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Oba, Eiji
• Granted Patent: US 10,306,199 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 11/00 Colour television systems details H04N9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/74 for obtaining special effects H04N9/65 - H04N9/73 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/77 Circuits for processing the brightness signal and the chrominance signal relative to each other, e.g. adjusting the phase of the brightness signal relative to the colour signal, correcting differential gain or differential phase circuits for matrixing H04N9/67

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes: an image sensor; a signal processing unit repeatedly performing processing different from each other in a given number of sequential frames to imaging signals obtained by the image sensor to thereby obtain image data of respective frame; and an image data output unit sequentially outputting the image data of respective frames.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an image sensor;

a signal processing unit repeatedly performing processing different from each other in a given number of sequential frames to imaging signals obtained by the image sensor to thereby obtain image data of respective frame; and

an image data output unit sequentially outputting the image data of respective frames.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a header addition unit adding a header at least including identification information for identifying to which frame the image data corresponds in the given number of frames to image data of each frame obtained by the signal processing unit.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the header addition unit adds the header to an area outside an effective image area or an area inside the effective image area in each frame.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the header addition unit adds the header by using part of bits in a given number of pixel data when adding the header in the area inside the effective image area in each frame.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the signal processing unit obtains first frame image data by performing first processing in a first frame and obtains second frame image data by performing second processing in a second frame in sequential two frames of the imaging signals obtained by the image sensor.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the first frame image data is visual image data and the second frame image data is image data to which image conversion is performed.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein the second frame image data is image data to which bird'"'"'s eye-view conversion is performed.

8. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein the image data to which the bird'"'"'s eye-view conversion is performed is image data obtained by superimposing a chroma edge signal on a luminance signal.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the first frame image data is normal image data and the second frame image data is image data obtained by superimposing a chroma edge signal on a luminance signal.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the first frame image data is image data of a whole screen and the second frame image data is image data of a reduced screen.

11. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the first frame image data is color image data and the second frame image data is monochrome image data.

12. An imaging processing method comprising:

obtaining imaging signals by an image sensor;

repeatedly performing processing different from each other in a given number of sequential frames to the imaging signals to thereby obtain image data of respective frames; and

sequentially outputting the obtained image data of respective frames.

13. The imaging processing method according to claim 12,

wherein an object is imaged with illumination intensity in a wide range by performing exposure processing different according to the frame in the process of obtaining the imaging signals by the image sensor.

14. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an image sensor; and

an information addition unit adding information of peculiar setting and processing to a header portion of a corresponding frame as identification determination information in accordance with signal processing of an imaging signal obtained by the image sensor.

15. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an image sensor; and

an image processing unit,

wherein the image processing unit extracts a chroma edge signal with respect to part of a taken image obtained by the image sensor and superimposes the chroma edge signal on a luminance signal not having a luminance signal boundary in the same direction.

16. An image processing device comprising:

an image data input unit inputting image data, in which the image data is obtained by repeatedly performing processing different from each other in a given number of sequential frames, and a header at least including identification information for identifying to which frame the image data corresponds in the given number of frames is added to image data of each frame; and

a processing unit appropriately performing processing of the inputted image data of each frame based on the added header.

17. An imaging processing system comprising:

an imaging apparatus; and

an image processing device,

wherein the imaging apparatus includes

an image sensor,

a signal processing unit repeatedly performing processing different from each other in a given number of sequential frames to imaging signals obtained by the image sensor to thereby obtain image data of respective frames,

a header addition unit adding a header at least including identification information for identifying to which frame the image data corresponds in the given number of frames to the image data of each frame, and

an image data output unit outputting the image data of respective frames, and

wherein the image processing device includes

an image data input unit inputting image data, and

a processing unit appropriately performing processing of the inputted image data of each frame based on the added header.

18. The imaging processing system according to claim 17,

wherein the header includes at least one or more information of sensor electronic shutter, sensor amplifier gain and lens aperture information, lens filter information, temperature information, image differentiation component adjustment parameter values, image gray-scale adjustment parameters, image resolution adjustment parameters, processing between frames adjustment parameters, illumination estimation information, environment estimation information, camera AE adjustment information, camera WB adjustment information, image conversion presence information, image histogram information, image conversion setting information and image cutout coordinate information.

19. An imaging processing system having an imaging apparatus and an image processing device, comprising:

a means for outputting images in units of frames by the imaging apparatus;

a means for adding a means for uniquely identifying the frame to a header of the image to be outputted; and

a selection means for appropriately allocating the outputted images to unique memory addresses based on the image headers.