Imaging device and imaging method for composing a non-visible light image and a visibile light image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10291859-B2
Application number	US-201515518806-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2015
Priority date	Nov 13, 2014
Publication date	May 14, 2019
Grant date	May 14, 2019

Abstract

An imaging device includes an imaging section including an imaging sensor section of a rolling shutter system, a condition designator that sets an imaging condition using first auxiliary light which is non-visible light as an imaging condition for the imaging section and an imaging condition using visible light with the first auxiliary light as non-emitted light, and alternately designates the imaging condition and a light emission condition of the first auxiliary light at a cycle of at least two frames in a time division basis, a first light emitter that emits the first auxiliary light according to the light emission condition; and an image composer that composes a non-visible light image captured by the imaging section under the imaging condition using the first auxiliary light during a first period in which the first auxiliary light is emitted and a visible light image captured by the imaging section under the imaging condition using the visible light during a second period subsequent to the first period.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An imaging device comprising:
an imaging sensor of a rolling shutter system, that captures a non-visible light image and a visible light image;
a first light emitter that emits non-visible light as first auxiliary light; and
a processor that composes the non-visible light image and the visible light image,
wherein,
the imaging sensor captures the non-visible light image during a first period that includes an emission period of the first auxiliary light and is longer than the emission period of the first auxiliary light,
the imaging sensor captures the visible light image during a second period that is subsequent to the emission period of the first auxiliary light and is a period that the first auxiliary light is not emitted, and
the processor composes the non-visible light image captured during the first period and the visible light image captured during the second period.

2. The imaging device of claim 1 , wherein
the processor further causes the first light emitter to emit the first auxiliary light in the emission period, the emission period being a period in which the non-visible light image is being captured and the visible light image is not being captured.

3. The imaging device of claim 2 ,
wherein the imaging sensor is provided with a plurality of lines, each line of the plurality of lines including a plurality of imaging sensor elements arrayed in line, and
wherein the emission period is a period from an exposure end time for a last line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in a frame of the visible light image to an exposure start time for a first line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in a next frame of the visible light image.

4. The imaging device of claim 2 ,
wherein the imaging sensor is provided with a plurality of lines, each line of the plurality of lines including a plurality of imaging sensor elements arrayed in line, and
wherein the emission period is a period from an exposure start time for the last line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in a frame of the non-visible light image to an exposure end time for the first line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in the frame of the non-visible light image.

5. The imaging device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a filter,
wherein the imaging sensor receives light via the filter,
wherein transmittance of the filter for light of a wavelength in a first wavelength region or a second wavelength region is higher than transmittance for light of a wavelength in a wavelength region other than the first wavelength region and the second wavelength region,
wherein the first wavelength region includes a wavelength region of the visible light, and
wherein the second wavelength region includes a wavelength region of the non-visible light.

6. The imaging device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second light emitter that emits white light as second auxiliary light; and
wherein the processor further causes the second light emitter to emit the second auxiliary light in a third period, which is included in the second period, the third period being a period in which the visible light image is being captured by the imaging sensor, and the non-visible light image is not being captured by the imaging sensor,
wherein the processor composes the non-visible light image captured during the first period and the visible light image captured during the second period, which includes the third period, in which the second auxiliary light is emitted.

7. The imaging device of claim 6 ,
wherein the imaging sensor is provided with a plurality of lines, each line of the plurality of lines including a plurality of imaging sensor elements arrayed in line, and
wherein the third period is a period from an exposure end time for a last line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in a frame of the non-visible light image to an exposure start time for a first line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in a next frame of the non-visible light image.

8. The imaging device of claim 6 ,
wherein the imaging sensor is provided with a plurality of lines, each line of the plurality of lines including a plurality of imaging sensor elements arrayed in line, and
wherein the third period is a period from an exposure start time for a last line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in a frame of the visible light image to an exposure end time for a first line of the plurality of lines in the imaging sensor in the frame of the visible light image as the second period.

9. The imaging device of claim 1 ,
wherein a length of the second period is equal to or longer than a length of the first period.

10. An imaging method in an imaging device including an imaging sensor of a rolling shutter system, the method comprising:
capturing a non-visible light image and a visible light image by the imaging sensor of the rolling shutter system;
emitting non-visible light as first auxiliary light; and
composing the non-visible light image and the visible light image,
wherein,
the capturing of the non-visible light image is performed during a first period that includes an emission period of the first auxiliary light and is longer than the emission period of the first auxiliary light,
the capturing of the non-visible light image is performed during a second period that is subsequent to the emission period of the first auxiliary light and is a period that the first auxiliary light is not emitted, and
the composing of the non-visible light image and the visible light image composes the non-visible light image captured during the first period and the visible light image captured during the second period.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tanaka Shogo
• Tabei Kenji

Classifications

• H04N23/72 Primary

  Combination of two or more compensation controls · CPC title

• H04N23/56

  provided with illuminating means · CPC title

• H04N23/70

  Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene · CPC title

• H04N23/45

  for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images · CPC title

• H04N23/88

  for colour balance, e.g. white-balance circuits or colour temperature control · CPC title