JPH10210486A - Image-pickup device and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an image of a visual light and an infrared ray on an identical optical axis. SOLUTION: An infrared ray, emitted from an infrared ray emission device 21, is irradiated to an object. The infrared ray, among incident lights from the object is reflected in a cold mirror of an image pickup part 1 and is made incident to a CCD 14. Then dichronic mirrors 12, 13 separate a visual light into red, green and blue components and they are made incident to CCDs 15, 16, 17 respectively. Image data outputted from the CCDs 14-17 are coded by a coder 18 and outputted to a processing unit 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an image pickup apparatus and method capable of obtaining an invisible light image on the same optical axis as visible light. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a forest or the like, when an animal living there is photographed and observed by a video camera, a bait is arranged at a predetermined position, and a video is taken at a position where the animal eating the bait can be photographed. Position the camera. Then, the video camera continuously captures images in an unmanned state. In this way, when the animal comes to eat the food, it is possible to photograph the animal eating the food.

[0003] However, since photographing is continuously performed in an unmanned state, most images are useless images in which animals are not photographed.

Therefore, for example, when there is a motion in an image, recording of the image can be started. In this way, the animal generally moves around, so that the animal can be reliably and efficiently photographed.

[0005] However, if the movement is detected and the recording of the image is started, for example, even if the trees shake or the fallen leaves fly due to the wind, the recording is performed. Sometimes.

Therefore, it is conceivable to use an infrared video camera, for example. However, an image captured by an infrared video camera is unclear compared to an image using ordinary visible light, and it becomes difficult to observe a subject in detail.

[0007] For this reason, two cameras, a video camera using visible light and an infrared video camera, are prepared, and when an animal is imaged with the infrared video camera, recording of an image of the animal is started with the video camera using visible light. It is also conceivable to do so.

[0008]

However, if an infrared video camera and a visible light video camera are used as described above, the optical axes of the two cameras are different, and it is difficult to accurately capture the corresponding image. There were challenges.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and it is an object of the present invention to capture a visible light image and an invisible light image on the same optical axis.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image pickup apparatus, comprising: an invisible light irradiating unit for irradiating an object with invisible light; and a separating unit for separating visible light and invisible light from incident light. And a visible light receiving means for receiving the separated visible light; an invisible light receiving means for receiving the separated invisible light; and an output means for outputting an image signal output from the visible light receiving means and the invisible light receiving means. And characterized in that:

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image capturing method comprising: irradiating an invisible light to a subject with an invisible light; separating the visible light and the invisible light from the incident light; A visible light receiving step of receiving light, an invisible light receiving step of receiving the separated invisible light, and an output step of outputting an image signal obtained as a result of receiving the visible light receiving step and the invisible light receiving step. It is characterized by having.

In the image pickup apparatus according to the first aspect and the image pickup method according to the eighth aspect, visible light and invisible light are separated from incident light. Then, the separated visible light and invisible light are respectively received, and corresponding image signals are output.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In order to clarify the correspondence between each means of the invention described in the claims and the following embodiments, each means is described. When the features of the present invention are described by adding the corresponding embodiment (however, an example) in parentheses after the parentheses, the result is as follows. However, of course, this description does not mean that each means is limited to those described.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image pickup apparatus for irradiating an invisible light to a subject with an invisible light irradiating means (for example, FIG.
Infrared irradiation device 21), separating means (for example, the cold mirror 11 of FIG. 1) for separating visible light and invisible light from incident light, and visible light receiving means (for receiving the separated visible light) For example, the CCDs 15, 16, 17 in FIG.
And invisible light receiving means (for example, CCD 14 in FIG. 1) for receiving the separated invisible light, and output means (for example, in FIG. 1) for outputting image signals output from the visible light receiving means and the invisible light receiving means. And an encoder 18).

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the image pickup apparatus further includes processing means (for example, the processing apparatus 2 in FIG. 1) for processing image signals output from the visible light receiving means and the invisible light receiving means. And

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an image pickup apparatus according to the present invention. This image pickup device basically includes an image pickup section 1 and an infrared irradiation device 21. The infrared irradiator 21 includes an infrared generator 31 and a slit light generator 32. The infrared ray generating device 31 generates an infrared ray and makes it enter the slit light generating device 32. The slit light generation device 32 irradiates the infrared light incident from the infrared light generation device 31 directly to the subject, or converts the infrared light into slit light corresponding to a predetermined pattern, and irradiates the subject with the slit light. I have.

Light from a subject is incident on the cold mirror 11 in the imaging section 1. The cold mirror 11 separates infrared light and visible light as invisible light from the incident light, reflects the infrared light,
4. Cold mirror 1
The visible light transmitted through 1 is incident on the dichroic mirror 12. Dichroic mirror 1
2 reflects a red light component from the incident visible light,
The dichroic mirror 13 is incident on the CCD 15 and transmits a component having a shorter wavelength than the red component.
Is made to enter.

The dichroic mirror 13 reflects a long-wavelength green component of the incident visible light, and
6, and a blue component having a shorter wavelength than the green component is transmitted and made incident on the CCD 17.

Each of the CCDs 14 to 17 generates an image signal corresponding to the incident light, and outputs the image signal to the encoder 18. The encoder 18 converts the input image signal into a D /
The data is A-converted, further encoded into a predetermined code, and output to the processing device 2 composed of, for example, a personal computer. The processing device 2 processes the input image data, and outputs the image data to the monitor 3 for display.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
For example, a description will be given of a processing operation when this image pickup apparatus is used in a monitoring system.

First, in step S1, a process for capturing an infrared image is executed. That is, the infrared ray generator 31 of the infrared ray irradiator 21 generates infrared rays.
In this case, the slit light generation device 32 irradiates the infrared light emitted from the infrared light generation device 31 toward the subject (to the position to be monitored) as it is (not as slit light).

Light from a subject (a position to be monitored) is incident on the image pickup unit 1. Of the light incident on the imaging unit 1, infrared light is reflected by the cold mirror 11,
Is incident on. The CCD 14 photoelectrically converts the incident infrared image, converts the image into an image signal, and outputs the image signal to the encoder 18. The encoder 18 encodes the input image signal and outputs it to the processing device 2. For example, when a person is present at a position to be monitored, an infrared image as shown in FIG.

Next, in step S2, the processing device 2
Performs a process of determining the position of the face of the subject. In other words, the infrared image is an image in which the boundary between a high-temperature portion and a low-temperature portion is relatively sharply divided.
Since the temperature of the human face (human body) is higher than that of the surrounding wall or the like, the processing device 2 easily and clearly distinguishes the position of the human face from the image of the surrounding wall or the like from the infrared image. be able to.

Next, the process proceeds to step S3, where the processing device 2
Executes a process for capturing a visible light image. That is,
Of the light from the subject, the visible light is
And is incident on the dichroic mirror 12. The red component of the incident visible light is reflected by the dichroic mirror 12 and is incident on the CCD 15. Also,
The green component and the blue component having shorter wavelengths than the red component pass through the dichroic mirror 12 and
3 is incident. And the dichroic mirror 13
Reflects the green component and makes it incident on the CCD 16, transmits the blue component and makes it enter the CCD 17. CCD1
The image signals of red, green, and blue components output from 5, 16, and 17, respectively, are input to an encoder 18 and encoded. Then, the encoded R, G, B image data is supplied to the processing device 2. This allows
For example, an image of visible light as shown in FIG.

The visible light image shown in FIG. 4 is an image on the same optical axis as the infrared image shown in FIG. 3, so that both images correspond exactly. Therefore,
The processing device 2 proceeds to step S4, and executes a person determination process from the visible light image captured in step S3.
That is, the processing device 2 performs the determination process in step S2,
The image of the visible light corresponding to the pixel determined as the image of the face (human body) is compared with the image of the face in the database registered in advance, and the image captured just is the image of any person. Is determined. Then, for example, if the currently captured image is an image of a person registered on the database, a process such as unlocking the door is performed. If the currently captured image is an image of a person not registered in the database, the image is stored, but the door is not unlocked.

The process of capturing the visible light image in step S3 can be performed at the same timing as the process of capturing the infrared image in step S1.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
An example of processing when combining images will be described. First, in step S11, the processing device 2 executes a process of capturing an infrared image. This processing is similar to the processing in step S1 of FIG. In this way, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, an infrared image of a person with a distant mountain in the background is captured. However, at this time,
The slit light generation device 32 of the infrared irradiation device 21 irradiates the subject with the infrared light generated by the infrared light generation device 31 as slit light having a predetermined pattern. Processing unit 2
When an image based on a predetermined pattern of slit light is captured in this way, for example, based on a time-series space coding method or a scan-type coding method, an image of each pixel of each image from the imaging unit 1 is obtained. Calculate the distance. For the method of calculating the distance, see, for example, “Transactions of IEICE Transactions D
-II Vol. J76-D-II No. 8 pp. Fifteen
28-1535, August 1993 "as a" compact high-speed range finder using a scanning coding method ".

Next, the process proceeds to step S12, where the processing device 2
Executes a process of converting the distance of each pixel from the imaging unit 1 into a histogram. Thereby, for example, a histogram as shown in FIG. 7 is created.

Since the histogram shown in FIG. 7 is a histogram of each pixel of the image shown in FIG. 6, each pixel is a pixel of a person image (foreground) located at a position close to the imaging unit 1 and a pixel located at a position far from the image. It is broadly classified into the image of the mountain located (background). Processing device 2, in step S13, for example, in FIG. 7, an image of a position closer than the distance L _R isolated as foreground pixels, separating the pixel distant from it position as a pixel in the background.

As described above, when the foreground and the background are separated, the process proceeds to step S14, and the processing device 2 executes a process of synthesizing an image. For example, as shown in FIG.
A process of arranging and synthesizing a tree image between the foreground (person) and the background (mountain) is performed. In the image synthesized in this way, the tree is located before the mountain, so part of the image of the mountain behind the tree is processed so as to be hidden by the tree, and part of the image of the tree is Processing is performed so that a part of the image is hidden by an image of a person located earlier.

FIG. 9 shows still another processing example.
The processes in steps S21 to S23 in the flowchart in FIG. 9 are the same as the processes in steps S11 to S13 in FIG. 5, and thus description thereof will be omitted. That is, by these processes, the foreground and the background are separated as in the case of FIG.

Next, the process proceeds to step S24, where the processing device 2
Executes the camera shake correction process based on the background. That is, for example, when an image as shown in FIG. 6 is captured, it is determined whether or not camera shake has occurred by focusing on a mountain as a background. Then, when it is determined that there is a camera shake, a correction process corresponding thereto is performed. As a result, the area ratio between the background and the foreground rarely affects the camera shake correction, and the camera shake can be accurately corrected.

Further, by selecting a process according to the distance to the background, it becomes possible to correct the camera shake more accurately.

In addition, the actual size of the imaged subject can be calculated from the angle of view in the imaging unit 1, the distance between two predetermined points on the screen, and the distance of the two points from the imaging unit 1. it can. As a result, for example, if the actual size of the monitor 3 is known, the subject can be displayed on the monitor 3 in full size. Thus, for example, in television shopping or mail-order sales via the Internet or the like, it is possible to display actual merchandise in full size to the viewer and provide the viewer with more realistic information.

At this time, the photographer does not need to consider the size of the screen seen by the viewer at the time of photographing.

Further, by measuring the distance of each pixel from the image pickup unit 1 more precisely, the three-dimensional shape of the subject can be taken into the processing device 2. Thus, for example, a subject can be displayed in a space of computer graphics or virtual reality.

In the above embodiment, the distance is measured by the time-series space coding method or the scanning coding method. However, the distance can be measured by another method.

As the invisible light, besides infrared rays,
Ultraviolet light can also be used.

In addition, the present invention is applied to the case where the temperature of a subject in a visible light image is measured in real time, the stress is measured, a moving body is efficiently recorded, and a dangerous object is detected. can do.

[0040]

As described above, according to the image pickup apparatus according to the first aspect and the image pickup method according to the eighth aspect, visible light and invisible light are separated from incident light, and each of them is received. Since corresponding image signals are output, it is possible to capture images of visible light and invisible light of the same optical axis.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image capturing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing example of the image capturing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an infrared image.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a visible light image.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating another example of the process of the image capturing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a foreground and a background.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a histogram of a foreground and a background.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining image composition.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating still another processing example of the image capturing apparatus of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 imaging unit, 2 processing device, 3 monitor, 11
Cold mirror, 12, 13 dichroic mirror, 14 to 17 CCD, 18 encoder, 2
1 infrared irradiation device, 31 infrared generator, 32
Slit light generator

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. Invisible light irradiating means for irradiating an object with invisible light, separating means for separating visible light and invisible light from incident light, and visible light receiving means for receiving the separated visible light. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an invisible light receiving unit that receives the separated invisible light; and an output unit that outputs an image signal output from the visible light receiving unit and the invisible light receiving unit. 2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the invisible light irradiating unit irradiates infrared rays as the invisible light. 3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising processing means for processing image signals output from the visible light receiving means and the invisible light receiving means. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processing unit determines a position of a subject from the invisible light image signal. 5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processing unit determines a distance from the invisible light image signal. 6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the processing unit further performs a process of synthesizing an image. 7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the processing unit separates a foreground and a background from an invisible light image, and further performs a camera shake correction process from the foreground image. 8. An invisible light irradiating step of irradiating an object with invisible light, a separating step of separating visible light and invisible light from incident light, and a visible light receiving step of receiving the separated visible light. An image capturing apparatus comprising: an invisible light receiving step of receiving the separated invisible light; and an output step of outputting an image signal obtained as a result of the light received in the visible light receiving step and the invisible light receiving step. Method.