Image pickup system, image processing method, and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10218919-B2
Application number	US-201715855782-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2017
Priority date	Sep 11, 2015
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

An image pickup system includes an image pickup section configured to pick up an optical image formed by an interchangeable lens and output picked-up image data having a predetermined sampling frequency, a super-resolution synthesizing section and a resizing section configured to generate image data having higher resolution from picked-up image data corresponding to a partial region in a screen, and a control section configured to determine, on the basis of an MTF characteristic value corresponding to the partial region among a plurality of MTF characteristic values and the predetermined sampling frequency, an upper limit of the resolution of the generated image data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image pickup system in which an interchangeable lens is detachably attached to a camera main body, the image pickup system comprising:
an image pickup circuit provided in the camera main body and configured to pick up, on an image pickup plane on which a plurality of pixels are arrayed, an optical image formed by the interchangeable lens and output picked-up image data with a predetermined sampling frequency;
a resolution changing circuit configured to generate, on the basis of the picked-up image data corresponding to a partial region in a screen obtained from the image pickup circuit, image data with resolution higher than resolution of the picked-up image data; and
a control circuit configured to determine, on the basis of an MTF characteristic value corresponding to the partial region among a plurality of MTF characteristic values corresponding to a plurality of regions in the screen of the interchangeable lens and the predetermined sampling frequency, an upper limit of the resolution of the image data generated by the resolution changing circuit.

2. The image pickup system according to claim 1 , further comprising a receiving circuit provided in the camera main body and configured to receive the plurality of MTF characteristic values from an outside of the camera main body.

3. The image pickup system according to claim 2 , further comprising a storing circuit provided in the interchangeable lens and configured to store the plurality of MTF characteristic values, wherein
the receiving circuit further receives the plurality of MTF characteristic values from the interchangeable lens.

4. The image pickup system according to claim 1 , further comprising a storing circuit provided in the camera main body and configured to store the plurality of MTF characteristic values in advance.

5. The image pickup system according to claim 1 , wherein
the resolution changing circuit includes an image enlarging circuit configured to interpolate pixels of the picked-up image data and generate enlarged image data, and
the control circuit further determines an upper limit enlargement magnification of the enlarged image data on the basis of the MTF characteristic value corresponding to the partial region among the plurality of MTF characteristic values and the predetermined sampling frequency.

6. The image pickup system according to claim 1 , further comprising a pixel shifting circuit configured to perform pixel shift for shifting relative positions of the optical image and the image pickup circuit, the pixel shifting circuit being able to be set in a plurality of pixel-shift super-resolution modes including different shift amounts, wherein
the control circuit further causes the image pickup circuit to perform image pickup a plurality of times and acquire a plurality of picked-up image data in which the relative positions are different while setting the pixel shifting circuit in a certain pixel-shift high-resolution mode and causing the pixel shifting circuit to perform the pixel shift,
the resolution changing circuit includes a super-resolution synthesizing circuit configured to synthesize super-resolution image data with resolution higher than resolution of one piece of the picked-up image data from the plurality of picked-up image data corresponding to the partial region in the screen, and
the control circuit further determines a pixel-shift super-resolution mode corresponding to the upper limit of the resolution on the basis of the MTF characteristic value corresponding to the partial region among the plurality of MTF characteristic values and the predetermined sampling frequency.

7. The image pickup system according to claim 1 , wherein the image pickup circuit includes a pixel mixing circuit configured to perform pixel mixing to be able to change a number of mixed pixels, the image pickup circuit being able to change the predetermined sampling frequency of the picked-up image data by changing the number of mixed pixels.

8. The image pickup system according to claim 7 , wherein the control circuit further determines an upper limit value of the predetermined sampling frequency on the basis of the plurality of MTF characteristic values.

9. An image processing method for processing picked-up image data obtained from an image pickup system, in which an interchangeable lens is detachably attached to a camera main body, including an image pickup circuit configured to pick up, on an image pickup plane on which a plurality of pixels are arrayed, an optical image formed by the interchangeable lens and output the picked-up image data with a predetermined sampling frequency, the image processing method comprising:
a resolution changing step for generating, on the basis of the picked-up image data corresponding to a partial region in a screen, image data with resolution higher than resolution of the picked-up image data; and
a control step for determining, on the basis of an MTF characteristic value corresponding to the partial region among a plurality of MTF characteristic values corresponding to a plurality of regions in the screen of the interchangeable lens and the predetermined sampling frequency, an upper limit of the resolution of the image data generated by the resolution changing step.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing an image processing program for causing a computer to process picked-up image data obtained from an image pickup system, in which an interchangeable lens is detachably attached to a camera main body, including an image pickup circuit configured to pick up, on an image pickup plane on which a plurality of pixels are arrayed, an optical image formed by the interchangeable lens and output the picked-up image data with a predetermined sampling frequency, the image processing program comprising:
a resolution changing step for generating, on the basis of the picked-up image data corresponding to a partial region in a screen, image data with resolution higher than resolution of the picked-up image data; and
a control step for determining, on the basis of an MTF characteristic value corresponding to the partial region among a plurality of MTF characteristic values corresponding to a plurality of regions in the screen of the interchangeable lens and the predetermined sampling frequency, an upper limit of the resolution of the image data generated by the resolution changing step.

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• Toyoda Tetsuya

Classifications

• G03B17/14

  interchangeably · CPC title

• G03B5/00

  Adjustment of optical system relative to image or object surface other than for focusing · CPC title

• G03B2205/0046

  Movement of one or more optical elements for zooming · CPC title

• H04N5/2628 Primary

  Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation · CPC title

• G06T3/4053

  based on super-resolution, i.e. the output image resolution being higher than the sensor resolution · CPC title