Photographing device and vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10412370-B2
Application number	US-201715443318-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2017
Priority date	Jun 7, 2016
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

A photographing device includes a first image sensor, a first filter area, a second image sensor, a first distance calculating unit, and a second distance calculating unit. The first image sensor includes a first sensor receiving light of a first wavelength band and outputting a target image, and a second sensor receiving light of a second wavelength band and outputting a reference image. The first filter area transmits a first light of a third wavelength band, which includes at least part of the first wavelength band, the first light being a part of light incident on the first image sensor. The second image sensor outputs a first image. The first distance calculating unit calculates a first distance to an object captured in the target image and the reference image. The second distance calculating unit calculates a second distance to an object captured in the reference image and the first image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A photographing device comprising:
a first image sensor that includes
a first sensor that receives light of a first wavelength band and outputs a target image, and
a second sensor that receives light of a second wavelength band and outputs a reference image;
a first filter area that transmits a first light of a third wavelength band, which includes at least a part of the first wavelength band, the first light being a part of light incident on the first image sensor;
a second image sensor that outputs a first image;
a first distance calculating unit that, based on the target image and the reference image, calculates a first distance to an object captured in the target image and the reference image;
a second distance calculating unit that, based on the reference image and the first image, calculates a second distance to an object captured in the reference image and the first image; and
an output control unit that, based on the first distance and the second distance, determines and outputs a corrected distance.

2. The photographing device according to claim 1 , wherein
the first distance calculating unit calculates the first distance according to a correlation between the target image and the reference image, and
the second distance calculating unit calculates the second distance based on the reference image, based on the first image, and based on a third distance representing a distance between the first image sensor and the second image sensor.

3. The photographing device according to claim 2 , wherein the first distance calculating unit calculates the first distance based on the target image, which has a point asymmetric point spread function, and the reference image.

4. The photographing device according to claim 2 , further comprising
a second filter area that transmits light of a different wavelength band than the second wavelength band,
wherein in a second direction that is different than a first direction representing a direction of the third distance, a position of a center of gravity of the first filter area is not in alignment with a position of a center of gravity of the second filter area.

5. The photographing device according to claim 4 , wherein the first direction and the second direction are orthogonal to each other.

6. The photographing device according to claim 2 , wherein the first distance calculating unit calculates the first distance based on the target image, which has a point symmetric point spread function, and the reference image, which has a point symmetric point spread function.

7. The photographing device according to claim 1 , further comprising
a correction information calculating unit that, based on the first distance, calculates correction information to be used in correcting a target image for correction, which is at least one of the reference image and the first image, in such a way that a positional relationship between the reference image and the first image becomes a particular relationship,
wherein the second distance calculating unit calculates the second distance based on the target image for correction that has been corrected according to the correction information.

8. The photographing device according to claim 1 , wherein a size of aperture of the first image sensor is adjustable, and the aperture has origin symmetry at an arbitrary size.

9. The photographing device according to claim 1 , wherein the second image sensor includes
a third sensor that receives light of the first wavelength band and outputs another target image, and
a fourth sensor that receives light of the second wavelength band and outputs another reference image.

10. The photographing device according to claim 1 , wherein the object captured in the target image and the reference image is the object captured in the reference image and the first image.

11. The photographing device according to claim 1 , wherein the second distance calculating unit performs stereo ranging to calculate the second distance.

12. A vehicle comprising:
a first image sensor that includes:
a first sensor that receives light of a first wavelength band and outputs a target image, and
a second sensor that receives light of a second wavelength band and outputs a reference image;
a first filter area that transmits a first light of a third wavelength band, which includes at least a part of the first wavelength band, the first light being a part of light incident on the first image sensor;
a second image sensor that outputs a first image; and
one or more hardware processors that, based on the target image and the reference image, calculate a first distance to an object captured in the target image and the reference image; based on the reference image and the first image, calculate a second distance to an object captured in the reference image and the first image; and control movement of the vehicle based on the first distance and the second distance.

13. A photographing device comprising:
a first image sensor that includes:
a first sensor that receives light of a first wavelength band and outputs a target image, and
a second sensor that receives light of a second wavelength band and outputs a reference image;
a first filter area that transmits a first light of a third wavelength band, which includes at least a part of the first wavelength band, the first light being a part of light incident on the first image sensor;
a second image sensor that outputs a first image;
one or more hardware processors that:
based on the target image and the reference image, calculate a first distance to an object captured in the target image and the reference image;
based on the reference image and the first image, calculate a second distance to an object captured in the reference image and the first image; and
based on the first distance and the second distance, determine and output a corrected distance.

14. The photographing device according to claim 13 , wherein the one or more hardware processors further:
calculate the first distance according to a correlation between the target image and the reference image, and
calculate the second distance based on the reference image, based on the first image, and based on a third distance representing a distance between the first image sensor and the second image sensor.

15. The photographing device according to claim 14 , wherein the one or more hardware processors calculate the first distance based on the target image, which has a point asymmetric point spread function, and the reference image.

16. The photographing device according to claim 14 , further comprising
a second filter area that transmits light of a different wavelength band than the second wavelength band,
wherein in a second direction that is different than a first direction representing a direction of the third distance, a position of a center of gravity of the first filter area is not in alignment with a position of a center of gravity of the second filter area.

17. The photographing device according to claim 16 , wherein the first direction and the second direction are orthogonal to each other.

18. The photographing device according to claim 14 , wherein the one or more hardware processors calculate the first distance based on the target image, which has a point symmetric point spread function, and the reference image, which has a point symmetric point spread function.

19. The photographing device according to claim 13 , wherein the one or more hardware processors further:
based on the first distance

Assignees

• Toshiba Kk

Inventors

• Sasaki Takayuki
• Moriuchi Yusuke
• Mishima Nao

Classifications

• H04N23/45 Primary

  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

• B60R2300/8093

  for obstacle warning · CPC title

• G06T2207/10016

  Video; Image sequence · CPC title

• H04N7/181

  for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources · CPC title

• H04N13/257

  Colour aspects · CPC title