Imaging apparatus, image processing device, computer-readable medium having stored thereon an imaging apparatus controlling program, and computer-readable medium having stored thereon an image processing program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9693036-B2
Application number	US-201514694482-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2015
Priority date	Oct 26, 2012
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

Provided is an imaging apparatus including an imaging section that generates, from a single scene, captured image data including reference image data, first parallax image data having a first parallax in one direction relative to a subject of the reference image data, and second parallax image data having a second parallax in another direction that is opposite the one direction; an adjustment condition acquiring section that acquires an adjustment condition relating to parallax amount adjustment; and an image processing device that processes the reference image data, the first parallax image data, and the second parallax image data, based on the adjustment condition, to generate third parallax image data having a third parallax that is in the one direction and different from the first parallax and fourth parallax image data having a fourth parallax that is in the other direction and different from the second parallax.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to perform operations including
generating, by capturing a single scene, captured image data including reference image data, first parallax image data having a first parallax in one direction relative to a subject image of the reference image data, and second parallax image data having a second parallax in another direction that is opposite the one direction,
acquiring an adjustment condition relating to parallax amount adjustment, and
processing the reference image data, the first parallax image data, and the second parallax image data, based on the adjustment condition, to generate third parallax image data having a third parallax that is in the one direction and different from the first parallax and fourth parallax image data having a fourth parallax that is in the other direction and different from the second parallax, the processing including
determining an adjustment value based on the adjustment condition,
extracting a reference pixel value at a target pixel position in the reference image data, a first parallax pixel value at the target pixel position in the first parallax image data, and a second parallax pixel value at the target pixel position in the second parallax image data, and
calculating a third parallax pixel value forming the third parallax image data and a fourth parallax pixel value forming the fourth parallax image data by an averaging operation using the reference pixel value, the first parallax pixel value, the second parallax pixel value and the adjustment value.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the processing further includes generating a moving image file based on the third parallax image data and the fourth parallax image data by processing the captured image data, which is generated continuously.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
output the adjustment condition in association with the captured image data.

4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein
the outputting includes associating the adjustment condition with a moving image file created from the captured image data, which is generated continuously.

5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the acquiring includes dynamically acquiring the adjustment condition in correspondence with the captured image data, which is generated continuously.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the adjustment condition includes a setting condition of an optical system that focuses the subject image.

7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the setting condition includes at least one of diaphragm constriction, focal distance, and focus lens position.

8. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the adjustment condition includes a subject state in the single scene.

9. The imaging apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein
the subject state includes a subject distribution in a depth direction.

10. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the adjustment condition includes user instructions designated by a user.

11. The imaging apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein
the adjustment condition includes a range setting for a parallax amount designated by the user instructions.

12. An imaging apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to perform operations including:
generating, by capturing a single scene, captured image data including reference image data, first parallax image data having a first parallax in one direction relative to a subject image of the reference image data, and second parallax image data having a second parallax in another direction that is opposite the one direction,
acquiring an adjustment condition relating to parallax amount adjustment, and
processing the reference image data, the first parallax image data, and the second parallax image data, based on the adjustment condition, to generate third parallax image data having a third parallax that is in the one direction and different from the first parallax and fourth parallax image data having a fourth parallax that is in the other direction and different from the second parallax; wherein

the adjustment condition includes a cumulative parallax amount obtained by integrating a parallax amount of each pixel in an entire frame.

13. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the processing includes calculating the third parallax pixel value forming the third parallax image data and the fourth parallax pixel value forming the fourth parallax image data by using the arithmetic expressions of:
P 3 =2 P 0 ×( C·P 1 +(1− C ) P 2 )/( P 1 +P 2 ) and

P 4 =2 P 0 ×((1− C ) P 1 +C·P 2 )/( P 1 +P 2 ),

where P 0 is the reference pixel value, P 1 is the first parallax pixel value, P 2 is the second parallax pixel value, P 3 is the third parallax pixel value, P 4 is the fourth parallax pixel value, C is the adjustment value, and C is a real number such that 0.5<C<1.

14. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the processing includes calculating the third parallax pixel value forming the third parallax image data and the fourth parallax pixel value forming the fourth parallax image data by using the arithmetic expressions of:
P 3 =P 0 ×( P 1 /P 2 ) (C-0.5) and

P 4 =P 0 ×( P 2 /P 1 ) (C-0.5) ,

where P 0 is the reference pixel value, P 1 is the first parallax pixel value, P 2 is the second parallax pixel value, P 3 is the third parallax pixel value, P 4 is the fourth parallax pixel value, C is the adjustment value, and C is a real number such that 0.5<C<1.

15. An image processing device comprising:
a processor configured to perform operations including
obtaining captured image data including reference image data, first parallax image data having a first parallax in one direction relative to a subject image of the reference image data, and second parallax image data having a second parallax in another direction that is opposite the one direction, and an adjustment condition relating to a parallax amount adjustment associated with the captured image data, and
processing the reference image data, the first parallax image data, and the second parallax image data, based on the adjustment condition, to generate third parallax image data having a third parallax that is in the one direction and different from the first parallax and fourth parallax image data having a fourth parallax that is in the other direction and different from the second parallax, the processing including
determining an adjustment value based on the adjustment condition,
extracting a reference pixel value at a target pixel position in the reference image data, a first parallax pixel value at the target pixel position in the first parallax image data, and a second parallax pixel value at the target pixel position in the second parallax image data, and
calculating a third parallax pixel value forming the third parallax image data and a fourth parallax pixel value forming the fourth parallax image data by an averaging operation using the reference pixel value, the first parallax pixel value, the second parallax pixel value and the adjustment value.

16. The image processing device according to claim 15 , wherein
the processing further includes generating a moving image file based on the third parallax image data and the fourth parallax image data by processing the captured image data, which is continuously obtained.

Assignees

• Nikon Corp

Inventors

• Shibazaki Kiyoshige
• Hamashima Muneki

Classifications

• H04N13/207 Primary

  using a single two-dimensional [2D] image sensor · CPC title

• H04N13/218

  using spatial multiplexing · CPC title

• H04N13/257

  Colour aspects · CPC title

• H04N13/296

  Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof · CPC title

• H04N13/128

  Adjusting depth or disparity · CPC title