Imaging device

• US 8,786,677 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2011
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yano, Shuji, Harada, Nakaba
• Primary Examiner(s): Pe, Geepy
• Application Number:
  US13/196,838
• Publication Number:
  US 20120033047A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,085 Days
• Field of Search: 348/187, 348/607, 382/167, 382/276, 375/240.16
• US Class Current: 348/46
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/646 compensating for small deviations, e.g. due to vibration or shake movement of one or more optical elements for control of motion blur in cameras, projectors or printers G03B2205/0007; image stabilisation in cameras peculiar to the presence or use of an electronic image sensor H04N23/68
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 7/102 controlled by a microcomputer cameras with interchangeable lenses G03B17/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6812 based on additional sensors, e.g. acceleration sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/685 performed by mechanical compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/60 Noise processing, e.g. detecting, correcting, reducing or removing noise

Abstract

An imaging device is provided that comprises a movement detection component configured to detect movement of the imaging device based on a force imparted to the imaging device, an imaging component configured to produce image data by capturing a subject image, a movement vector detection component configured to detect a movement vector based on a plurality of sets of image data produced by the imaging component, and a three-dimensional NR component configured to reduce a noise included in first image data produced by the imaging component, based on second image data produced earlier than the first image data, wherein the three-dimensional NR component is configured to decide whether to correct the second image data in response to the detection result of the movement vector detection component, based on both the detection result of the movement detection component and the detection result of the movement vector detection component.

Claims

1. An imaging device, comprising:

a movement detection component configured to detect movement of the imaging device by detecting force imparted to the imaging device, and to produce a movement detection result;

an imaging component configured to produce image data by capturing a subject image, the image data including a first image data and a second image data, the first image data including a noise, and the second image data produced before the first set of image data;

a movement vector detection component configured to detect a movement vector based on at least the produced plurality of sets of image data, and to output a vector detection result; and

a three-dimensional noise reduction (NR) component configured to select a correction method from a plurality of correction methods, the plurality of correction methods being non-blur correction methods, the selecting based on the movement detection result and the vector detection result;

wherein the three-dimensional NR component is further configured to correct the first image data using the selected correction method, when the movement detection result indicates that the imaging device is moving, and the vector detection result indicates that the movement vector is greater than or equal to a threshold value, the three-dimensional NR component is further configured to select a correction method from the plurality of correction methods that incorporates the vector detection result, when either the movement detection result indicates that the imaging device is still or when the vector detection result indicates that the movement vector is less than the threshold value, the three-dimensional NR component selects a correction method from the plurality of correction methods that does not incorporate the vector movement result;

the imaging device further comprising;

an electronic zoom component configured to change a zoom ratio by changing a cropping range for image data produced by the imaging component, and the three-dimensional NR component configured to change an upper limit of a correction amount of the first image data on the basis of the zoom ratio of the electronic zoom component, and the three-dimensional NR component configured to correct the first image data in response to the detection result of the movement vector detection component.

2. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein:

the three-dimensional NR is further configured to correct the first image data using the selected correction method, the selecting dependent upon the detection result of the movement vector detection component.

3. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein:

the three-dimensional NR component is configured to select a correction method that does not incorporate correcting the first image data in response to the detection result of the movement vector detection component when either the movement detection result indicates that the imaging device is not moving, or the vector detection result is less than a threshold value.

4. The imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a two-dimensional NR component configured to reduce the noise included in the first image data in response to information contained in the first image data;

a region setting component configured to set;

a first region in the image data produced by the imaging component, in which the noise is reduced by the three-dimensional NR component; and

a second region in the image data produced by the imaging component, in which the noise is reduced by the two-dimensional NR component; and

a control component configured to control the region setting component to set the first region and the second region, on the basis of the detection result of the movement vector detection component

5. The imaging device according to claim 4, wherein:

the region setting component is further configured to further set a third region in which the noise is reduced by both the two-dimensional NR component and the three-dimensional NR component, and

the control component is further configured to control the region setting component to set the first region and the second region and the third region, based on the detection result of the movement vector detection component.

6. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein:

the three-dimensional NR component is further configured to calculate a difference between the first image data and the second image data, and to reduce a noise included in the first image data using the difference between the first image data and the second image data.