Imaging device capable of combing a plurality of image data, and control method for imaging device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9807293-B2
Application number	US-201514720506-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 22, 2015
Priority date	Jun 3, 2014
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

An imaging device comprises an image data acquisition circuit for forming a subject image while shifting focus position by a given amount and acquiring a plurality of image data, an image selection circuit for selecting images to be combined based on shift amount of focus position when image data was acquired by the image acquisition circuit, and image data resolution, and an image combination circuit for combining the plurality of image data that was selected by the image selection circuit, to generate image data having a large depth of field.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging device, comprising:
an image data acquisition circuit for repeatedly shifting a focus position by a given amount thereby defining a plurality of focus positions, forming a subject image at each of the plurality of focus positions, and acquiring a plurality of frames of image data from the formed subject images;
a resolution conversion circuit that converts image data that has been acquired by the image data acquisition circuit to image data for storage, and to image data for display;
an image selection circuit for selecting, from among the plurality of frames of image data, image data to be combined based on shift amount of focus position when image data was acquired by the image data acquisition circuit, and image data resolution; and
an image combination circuit for combining the plurality of frames of image data that was selected by the image selection circuit, to generate image data having a large depth of field,
wherein the image combining circuit, in a case where image data that has been subjected to resolution conversion by the resolution conversion circuit is subjected to image combination, selects frames of image data of a lower number of frames of images than a number of frames of images that are subjected to image combination in a case where resolution conversion is not carried out, using the image selection circuit, and carries out image combination.

2. The imaging device of claim 1 ,
wherein
the image selection circuit selects, from among the plurality of frames of image data, frames of image data to be combined based on at least shift amount in focus position and resolution after resolution conversion.

3. The imaging device of claim 1 , wherein:
the image data acquisition circuit repeatedly shifts the focus position by a shift amount appropriate for detection of contrast peak from the image data.

4. The imaging device of claim 3 , wherein:
focus interval is set finer and a range in which focus is scanned is set wider than for contrast peak detection with normal auto focus.

5. The imaging device of claim 2 , wherein:
the image selection circuit increases shift amount of the focus positions of image data to be combined as resolution after resolution conversion by the resolution conversion circuit is lowered, and as resolution of image data that have been acquired by the image acquisition circuit is lowered.

6. The imaging device of claim 1 , wherein:
regarding the number of combination frames selected by the image selection circuit, the most numerous are combination frames of image data for storage, followed by combination frames of confirmation image data for storage for actual shooting, and finally the least numerous are combination frames for image data for combination effect confirmation for the shooting preparation state.

7. The imaging device of claim 1 , wherein the image data for display has a lower resolution than the image data for storage.

8. An imaging device, comprising:
an acquisition circuit repeatedly shifting a focus position by a given amount thereby defining a plurality of focus positions, forming a subject image at each of the plurality of focus positions, and acquiring a plurality of frames of image data from the formed subject images;
a resolution conversion circuit for converting image data that has been acquired by the image data acquisition circuit to image data for storage, and to image data for display;
an operation member for instructing actual shooting;
an image combination circuit for, when the actual shooting has been instructed by the operation member, generating image data for storage by combining all of the plurality of frames of image data that have been acquired by the image data acquisition circuit, and further selecting some from among the plurality of frames of image data that were acquired by the image data acquisition circuit, and combining the selected image data to generate image data for confirmation of a large depth of field; and
a display circuit for displaying a focus stacking image based on image data for confirmation that was combined by the image combination circuit,
wherein the image combining circuit, in a case where image data that has been subjected to resolution conversion by the resolution conversion circuit is subjected to image combination, selects image data of a lower number of frames than a number of frames that are subjected to image combination in a case where resolution conversion is not carried out, using the image selection circuit, and carries out image combination.

9. The imaging device of claim 8 , further comprising:
a storage circuit for storing image data, and wherein
the image combination circuit generates image data for storage by combining all of the plurality of image data that were acquired by the image data acquisition circuit, and
the storage circuit stores image data for storage that has been generated by the image combination circuit.

10. The imaging device of claim 8 , wherein the image combination circuit for combining the selected image data to generate image data of a different resolution to image data for confirmation of lower resolution than the image data for storage of a large depth of field.

11. A control method for an imaging device, having an image data acquisition circuit for forming a subject image and acquiring image data, a resolution conversion circuit for converting the resolution of the image data, and an image combining circuit for combining a plurality of frames of image data, the method comprising:
repeatedly shifting a focus position by a given amount thereby defining a plurality of focus positions, forming a subject image at each of the plurality of focus positions, and acquiring a plurality of frames of image data from the formed subject images;
selecting, from among the plurality of frames of image data, image data to be combined based on shift amount of focus position when the plurality of frames of image data were acquired, and resolution of the image data; and
combining the plurality of selected image data to be combined, using the image combining circuit, to generate image data having a large depth of field,
wherein, in a case where image data is subjected to image combination by the image combining circuit, image data of a lower number of frames than a number of frames that are subjected to image combination in a case where resolution conversion is not carried out by the resolution conversion circuit are selected, and image combination is carried out.

12. The control method of claim 11 , further comprising:
converting image data that has been acquired by the image data acquisition circuit to image data for storage, and to image data for display, wherein the image data for display has a lower resolution than the image data for storage, using the resolution conversion circuit.

13. A non-transitory storage medium storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at lease one processor to perform a control method for an imaging device, having an image data acquisition circuit for forming a subject image and acquiring image data, a resolution conversion circuit for converting the resolution of the image data, and an image combining circuit for combining a plurality of frames of image data, the method comprising:
repeatedly shifting a focus position by a given amount thereby defining a plurality of focus positions, forming a subject image at leach of the plurality of focus positions, and acquiring a plurality of frames of image data from the formed subject images;
selecting, from among the plurality of frames of image data, image d

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• Toyoda Tetsuya

Classifications

• H04N23/6815

  by distinguishing pan or tilt from motion · CPC title

• H04N23/743

  Bracketing, i.e. taking a series of images with varying exposure conditions · CPC title

• H04N23/673 Primary

  based on contrast or high frequency components of image signals, e.g. hill climbing method · CPC title

• H04N23/6812

  based on additional sensors, e.g. acceleration sensors · CPC title

• H04N23/63

  by using electronic viewfinders · CPC title