Image capture apparatus and method for tracking a subject

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9106830-B2
Application number	US-201313804677-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Apr 10, 2012
Publication date	Aug 11, 2015
Grant date	Aug 11, 2015

Abstract

Disclosed is an image capture apparatus that has a subject tracking functionality of sequentially detecting a predetermined subject in images that are continuously shot, and a method for controlling the same. During tracking of the subject, degrees of reliability of tracking are determined. When the detected face is set as a template image, the template image is not changed until it is determined a predetermined plurality of times in succession that the degrees of reliability of tracking are low. It is thus possible to achieve a subject tracking functionality that is hardly affected by false detections.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image capture apparatus comprising:
a face detection unit configured to detect a face that is included in an image;
a subject detecting unit configured to track a subject by sequentially detecting an area similar to a template image of the subject in a sequence of images obtained by shooting; and
a control unit configured to:
determine, during tracking of the subject, reliability of the detection by the subject detecting unit, and
if the face detec…

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• FUNAMOTO Shohei

Classifications

• H04N23/61

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N23/672 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N23/611 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N23/635

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N23/70

  Electricity · mapped topic