Imaging apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9420167-B2
Application number	US-201113166404-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 22, 2011
Priority date	Jun 23, 2010
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

An imaging apparatus includes an optical system; an imaging unit; an extractor that extracts a part of a first image as a reference image, the first image being received via the imaging unit; a first detector that obtains a first similar image from within the first image, the first similar image having a characteristic similar to a characteristic of the reference image; a calculator that obtains a positional relationship between the first similar image and the reference image; a second detector that obtains a second similar image from within a second image, the second image being received via the imaging unit later than the first image, the second similar image having a characteristic similar to the characteristic of the reference image; and a position detector that detects a position of a corresponding part of the second similar image in accordance with the positional relationship.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:
an imaging unit comprising a sensor that captures a first image and captures a second image;
a focus adjustor that sets a first focus area; and
a detector that acquires a first image area from the first image and acquires a second image area from the second image, an image at the first image area being similar to an image at the first focus area of the first image, and an image at the second image area being similar to the image at the first focus area of the first image,
wherein the detector acquires a relative position of the first focus area in the first image area and acquires a position of a second focus area in the second image area by using the relative position of the first focus area in the first image area.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein a size of the first image area and a size of the second image area are each larger than a size of the image at the first focus area of the first image.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the focus adjustor sets the image at the first focus area of the first image as a template image, and the detector acquires the first image area and the second image area with a template matching by using the template image.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the focus adjustor sets the second focus area so that a first positional relationship and a second positional relationship are substantially equal to each other, the first positional relationship representing a positional relationship of the first image area and the first focus area, the second positional relationship representing a positional relationship of the second image area and the second focus area.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the focus adjustor calculates a length from at least one of an upper end and a lower end of the second image area to the second focus area by using a length from at least one of an upper end and a lower end of the first image area to the first focus area.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5 ,
wherein the third detector determines a region which is similar to an image of the first tracking position in the first image as the second two-dimensional region in the second image.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5 ,
wherein the focus adjustor calculates a length from at least one of a left end and a right end of the second image area to the second focus area by using a length from at least one of a left end and a right end of the first image area to the first focus area.

8. An imaging apparatus comprising:
an focus adjustor that adjusts a focus with respect to at least one of a first tracking position in a first image and a second tracking position in a second image, the first image being output from an imaging unit, comprising a sensor;
a first detector that detects a first image area from the first image and determine the first image area as a first two-dimensional region which includes the first tracking position in the first image, an image at the first image area being similar to an image at the first tracking position in the first image;
a second detector that determines a relative relationship of the first tracking position in the first two-dimensional region, in the first image;
a third detector that detects a second image area from the second image and determine the second image area as a second two-dimensional region which corresponds to the first two-dimensional region, in the second image, an image at the second image area being similar to an image at the first tracking position in the first image; and
a fourth detector that determines the second tracking position in the second two-dimensional region by using the determined relative relationship of the first tracking position in the first two-dimensional region.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8 ,
wherein the second two-dimensional region has a two-dimensional shape which is substantially similar to that of the first two-dimensional region.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8 ,
wherein the tracking positions of the first and second images, the first two dimensional region and the second two-dimensional region have similar image information with each other.

11. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8 ,
wherein, when the first two-dimensional region is determined, the first detector uses a similarity map about an image similarity for the first image, the image similarity being provided between in the first two-dimensional region and at the tracking position.

12. The imaging apparatus according to claim 11 ,
wherein the second two-dimensional region is determined based on the similarity map of the first image and a similarity map about the image similarity for the second image.

13. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a memory that stores image information at the tracking position in the first image and the second image.

14. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a display that shows the tracking position in the image while displaying the image obtained from the imaging unit.

15. An imaging apparatus comprising:
an imaging unit comprising a sensor;
a first detector that acquires an image at a first position of a first image as a reference image, the first image being captured by the imaging unit;
a second detector that detects a first image area from the first image and acquire the first image area as a first similar image, the first similar image having a characteristic similar to a characteristic of the reference image and having a larger area compared to all area of the reference image;
a third detector that acquires relative positions of the reference image in the first similar image;
a fourth detects that detects a second image area from a second image and acquires the second image area as a second similar image, the second image being imaged by the imaging unit later than the first image was imaged, the second similar image having a characteristic similar to the characteristic of the reference image and having a larger area compared to the area of the reference image;
a fifth detector that acquires a second position in the second image by using the relative positions of the reference image in the first similar image; and
a focus controller that performs a focus control regarding the first position after the acquisition of the first image and a focus control regarding a second position after the acquisition of the second image.

16. The imaging apparatus according to claim 15 ,
wherein the second detector acquires an image range having the characteristic from within the first image as the first similar image.

17. The imaging apparatus according to claim 16 ,
wherein when a ratio of a size of the second similar image calculated by an imaging magnification which was obtained when the second image was imaged and a size of the first similar image calculated by an imaging magnification which was obtained when the first image was imaged does not fall within a predetermined range, the fifth detector inhibits detecting the position of an image corresponding to the relative position from the second similar image.

18. The imaging apparatus according to claim 15 ,
wherein the fifth detector updates the reference image based on an image of the corresponding part when the position of the corresponding part is detected.

19. The imaging apparatus according to claim 15 , further comprisin

Assignees

• Takeuchi Hiroshi
• Nikon Corp

Inventors

• Takeuchi Hiroshi

Classifications

• H04N23/635

  Region indicators; Field of view indicators · CPC title

• H04N23/61

  based on recognised objects · CPC title

• H04N23/672

  based on the phase difference signals · CPC title

• H04N23/611 Primary

  where the recognised objects include parts of the human body · CPC title

• H04N23/675

  comprising setting of focusing regions · CPC title