JP2002330450A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging apparatus that can simply and surely conduct stereoscopic photographing and solve a problem of recording an unnecessary image. SOLUTION: The imaging apparatus is provided with an imaging optical system 101, an imaging device 105 that applies photoelectric conversion to an object image formed by the imaging optical system, imaging means 107, 108 that obtains an image signal of the object image based on an output from the imaging device, a detection means 119 that detects mounting of a stereoscopic adaptor, which is mounted onto an input section of the imaging optical system to separate the object image into a plurality of parallel object images having a prescribed parallax, and a mode setting means 112 that selects a stereoscopic photographing mode where stereoscopic photographing is available or an ordinary photographing mode where ordinary single eye photographing is available. The imaging device is configured such that when the detection means detects the mount of the stereoscopic adaptor, the mode setting means sets the stereoscopic photographing mode.

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 more particularly to an image pickup apparatus capable of obtaining a multi-view stereo image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image is photographed and recorded including three-dimensional information.
A variety of proposals have been made for a method of reproducing and observing this. Among them, the twin-lens stereo system can be configured simply and inexpensively, and can achieve a great effect. The two-lens stereo system records two images having parallax corresponding to the viewpoints of the left and right eyes, and presents the two images to the left and right eyes.

[0003] In the twin-lens stereo system, various presentation systems have been proposed. For example, when performing simultaneous observation by a large number of people on a large screen, a polarization projection system using polarizing glasses or a shutter. A time-sharing presentation method using glasses is used. However, all of these require a large and expensive system, and thus are rarely used except for special business purposes.

[0004] Therefore, for personal use,
Although there is a restriction that only one person can observe at the same time,
The method using a stereo pair image, which is the most basic and classical method, is still widely used today as a method capable of observing a clear image at extremely low cost.

[0005] In the stereo pair image system, an L image corresponding to a left-eye viewpoint image and an R image corresponding to a right-eye viewpoint image are usually arranged in parallel with a slight gap therebetween to form one image. Make up. A system in which a stereo adapter is attached to a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera is known as the easiest photographing device for obtaining this stereo pair image. One standard horizontal position image (horizontal 3: vertical 2) is divided vertically into two. Therefore, each image, that is, the stereoscopic image to be observed, has a vertical position (horizontal aspect ratio of about 3: 4).
It is generally that. In the present specification, an image in which the LR2 images are spatially juxtaposed (on the image plane) to form one image is referred to as a stereo pair image.

This stereo pair image does not require any special system for recording, printing, transmission, printing, etc., and can be directly stereoscopically observed if appropriate conditions are satisfied (the left and right images are fused without using a special device). It is expected that the more imminent the media mix such as the spread of the Internet and digital cameras, the more immortal value will be reviewed and its use continued.

Therefore, the present applicant attaches a stereo adapter to a normal monocular imaging optical system, and based on a plurality of parallax images obtained by this, an SPM (Stereo Pear in Multimedia) as an electronic stereo pair image. Generate
This is converted into an electronic image file SGM (St
An imaging device for recording as "ereoGram in Multimedia" has already been proposed (Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-259489).

[0008]

However, when an adapter is mounted in the above-mentioned image pickup apparatus, the optical image itself is in a special state by the adapter.
Normal photography cannot be performed. If shooting is performed as it is without shifting to a state where stereo shooting should be performed at this time, not only stereo shooting but also normal shooting cannot be performed, resulting in a problem that unnecessary images are recorded. .

As another problem, in photographing using a simple fixed mirror (or prism) as a stereo adapter, as shown in FIG. 6, when the zoom is performed, the left and right imaging areas move. Thus, there is a problem that stereoscopic imaging becomes impossible. That is, the images captured from the two viewpoints corresponding to the left and right eyes by the adapter can capture a common subject at a specific zoom position (focal length), so that suitable stereo shooting can be performed (FIG. 6). (See FIG. 6A.) If the focal length changes, the left and right visual fields shift in opposite directions, and it becomes impossible to image a common subject (FIG. 6).
(B) and (c)). Therefore, proper stereo shooting cannot be performed, and if the shooting is performed as it is, neither stereo shooting nor normal shooting can be performed, so that there is a problem that an unnecessary image is recorded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an imaging apparatus capable of easily and reliably performing stereo photography and solving a problem of recording useless images. It is intended to provide.

[0011]

An image pickup apparatus according to the present invention comprises an image pickup optical system, an image pickup device for photoelectrically converting a subject image formed by the image pickup optical system, and a subject based on an output of the image pickup device. An image pickup means for obtaining an image signal of an image; and a detection for detecting that a stereo adapter is attached to the input unit of the image pickup optical system to separate an object image into a plurality of parallel object images having a predetermined parallax. Means, and a mode setting means for selectively setting a stereo shooting mode capable of stereoscopic shooting or a normal shooting mode for performing normal single-eye shooting, wherein the mounting of the stereo adapter is detected by the detecting means Preferably, a stereo shooting mode is set by the mode setting means.

Further, an image pickup apparatus according to the present invention, an image pickup optical system, an optical zoom means for changing an image forming magnification of the image pickup optical system, and a photoelectric conversion of a subject image formed by the image pickup optical system. An image sensor, imaging means for obtaining an image signal of a subject image based on an output of the image sensor, and mounting the subject image on an input unit of the imaging optical system to convert the subject image into a plurality of parallel subject images having a predetermined parallax. Detecting means for detecting that the stereo adapter to be separated is mounted, and zoom control means for setting the imaging magnification of the optical zoom means to a predetermined value when the mounting of the stereo adapter is detected by the detecting means And characterized in that:

Further, an image pickup apparatus according to the present invention, an image pickup optical system, an optical zoom means for changing an image forming magnification of the image pickup optical system, and a photoelectric conversion of a subject image formed by the image pickup optical system. An imaging element, an imaging unit for obtaining an image signal of a subject image based on an output of the imaging element, and a mode for selectively setting a stereo imaging mode capable of stereoscopic imaging or a normal imaging mode for performing normal single-eye imaging And a zoom control unit that sets an imaging magnification of the optical zoom unit to a predetermined value when a stereo shooting mode is set by the mode setting unit.

In the imaging device, a predetermined trimming process is performed on the image signal of the subject image, so that a plurality of monocular images constituting a multi-view stereo image are formed in an imaging region of the imaging device. Image frame setting means for setting a plurality of image frames corresponding thereto, and a structured stereo image according to a predetermined stereo image handling format based on a plurality of monocular images obtained corresponding to the plurality of image frames And a zoom command input means for issuing a zoom command, and when a zoom command is issued by the zoom command input means,
It is preferable that the size of the image frame set by the trimming process is changed based on the zoom command.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Configuration of Imaging Apparatus) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an electronic camera according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a photographing lens system including various lenses; 102, a lens driving mechanism for driving the lens system 101; 103, an exposure control mechanism including a diaphragm and a shutter of the lens system 101; 104, an optical low-pass filter; Filter system 105, CCD color image sensor 105,
106, a CCD driver for driving the image sensor 105; 107, a pre-processing circuit including an A / D converter;
Reference numeral 108 denotes a digital process circuit for performing color signal generation processing, matrix conversion processing, and other various digital processing, 109 denotes a card interface, 110 denotes a memory card such as a CF, and 111 denotes an LCD image display system.

In the figure, reference numeral 112 denotes a system controller (CPU) for comprehensively controlling each unit, 113 denotes an operation switch system including various switches such as a release switch and a zoom switch, and 114 denotes an operation state and a mode state. , A lens driver 115 for controlling the lens driving mechanism 102, a strobe 116 as a light emitting unit, and 117 an exposure control mechanism 10.
3 and an exposure control driver 118 for controlling the flash 116, and a non-volatile memory (EEPROM) 118 for storing various setting information and the like.

In the electronic camera of this embodiment, the system controller 112 performs overall control, and controls the exposure control mechanism 103 and the CCD driver 106 to drive the CCD image pickup device 105 for exposure (charge accumulation). ) And read out the signal, take it into the digital process circuit 108 via the pre-process circuit 107, perform various signal processing, and record it on the memory card 110 via the card interface 109. . The CCD image sensor 105 is, for example, an interline type having a vertical overflow drain structure.

The basic configuration up to this point is the same as that of a conventional general electronic camera, but in this embodiment, in addition to this, the operation switch system 113 has a normal mode (normal shooting mode) and a stereo mode. A mode changeover switch for changing the mode (stereo shooting mode) is provided. Further, the system controller 112 includes an image frame setting unit for setting a trimming area of an imaging area, an SPM synthesizing unit for synthesizing an SPM image from a monocular image, and an SGM generating unit for generating JPEG image data from an SPM image. Part is provided. Further, an adapter detection unit 119 for detecting the presence or absence of the mirror type stereo adapter described below is provided.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which a mirror type stereo adapter 200 detachable from the camera body 100 is mounted on the camera body 100.

The adapter 200 has mirrors 201 and 202 arranged at positions apart from each other by parallax, and mirrors 203 and 204 for guiding the light reflected by the mirrors 201 and 202 to the camera side. You. The light incident on the left-eye corresponding mirror 201 of the adapter 200 is imaged on the left region L of the image sensor 105 via the mirror 203 and the photographing lens system 101, and the light incident on the right-eye corresponding mirror 202 is Shooting lens 1
An image is formed on the right region R of the image sensor 105 via the 01 system.

The switching between the normal mode and the stereo mode is performed by the above-mentioned mode switch.
The detection can be performed automatically by detecting that the adapter 200 is attached to the camera body 100 by the adapter detection unit 119. That is, even when the normal mode is selected by the mode changeover switch, when the adapter 200 is attached to the camera body 100, the adapter is detected by the adapter detection unit 119, and
The stereo mode is forcibly set.

Although the method of detecting the mounting of the adapter 200 is arbitrary, the detection can be performed by the following method, for example.

The first method is to provide a mechanical switch (electrical contact switch) at an appropriate position in the lens barrel of the photographing lens system 101 and to operate when an adapter is attached.
This is a method for detecting the mounting of the adapter. The second method is
An open contact made of anisotropic conductive rubber is provided at an appropriate position of the lens barrel of the photographing lens system 101, and when the adapter is mounted, the contact is made conductive by a conductive portion (such as a metal plate) provided at a corresponding position of the adapter. This is a method of detecting the mounting of the adapter.

As described above, when the adapter is attached, the stereo mode is automatically set, so that stereo shooting can be performed easily and reliably, and unnecessary images are recorded. Can be solved.

Further, the electronic camera of the present embodiment has a zoom lens in the taking lens system 101 as an optical zoom means, like a normal electronic camera, and can perform zoom photography in the normal mode. However, when the stereo mode is set, the optical zoom is prohibited (the electronic zoom can be performed as described later), and the zoom position is fixed at a predetermined position. The predetermined position is a position where the photographing ranges of the left and right images are equal, and is given in advance at the time of design. In the present embodiment, the predetermined position is the wide end. That is, the angle of the adapter is set so that the range of the left and right images is equal at the wide end.

As described above, when the stereo mode is set by the attachment of the adapter or the mode changeover switch, the zoom position is fixed at the predetermined position.
The range of the left and right images is set appropriately. Therefore, stereo photography can be performed simply and reliably, and the conventional problem of recording useless images can be solved.

(Operation of Imaging Apparatus) The operation of the imaging apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described below.

When the normal mode is selected by the mode changeover switch of the operation switch system 113 and the adapter 200 is not attached to the electronic camera body 100, the normal mode is set by the system controller 112 and the release operation ( By the trigger operation, the imaging process is performed in the same manner as in the normal (monocular) camera.

When the adapter 200 is mounted on the electronic camera body 100 or when the stereo mode is selected by the mode changeover switch, the stereo mode is set by the system controller 112.

When the stereo mode is set, the zoom position of the zoom lens is fixed at a predetermined position (wide end). By performing a trigger operation with the adapter 200 fixed, shooting is performed. Then, the following processing is performed on the image signal read from the entire area of the imaging area.

First, an image frame setting unit included in the system controller 112 causes the digital process circuit 108
Is trimmed. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the screen is vertically divided into two, and the left half is assigned to the L image and the right half is assigned to the R image (100% trimming). In addition,
Although it is possible to use 100% trimming, in the present embodiment, the width is limited to 90% and the vertical and horizontal balance is adjusted in order to prevent the overlap and vignetting shown in FIG. 5 from appearing in the image. For this purpose, the vertical width trimmed at the same rate is assigned to the L and R images, respectively. In the present embodiment, this 90% trimming is used as the wide reference in the electronic zoom state.

When a zoom command T (tele) is performed by an electronic zoom operation using the zoom switch of the operation switch system 113, for example, 1/3 of the wide reference.
With (30% trimming) as the limit (tele standard), the trimming range is continuously reduced. Also, zoom command W
When (wide) is performed, the trimming range is continuously increased up to the wide reference. Performing such an electronic zoom operation involves a certain degree of image quality (resolution) degradation, but enables zooming in stereoscopic imaging.

After performing the trimming process, an SPM image is generated in the digital process circuit 108 by the SPM synthesizing unit included in the system controller 112. That is, the L and R images obtained by the above-described trimming processing are combined as shown in FIG. 4, and one image (SP
M image). At this time, the boundary area or even SP
A frame line having a width of one to several pixels (for example, R
= G = B = 0 (black) so that it is visually clear that the image is an SPM image.

The SPM image is transmitted to the system controller 11
2 is converted into JPEG image data to which the stereo data is added as a header. That is, it is preferable to compress the image information during recording and transmission, and any method can be used at that time, but the most standard known JPEG compression is used. At this time, for example, stereo information is assigned to a predetermined tag in the user information area of the header section. The basic information to be recorded includes whether or not the image is a stereo image (the default is a stereo image), the number of images in the case of a stereo image (the default is 2), the arrangement of each monocular image (the existence area including the number of vertical and horizontal pixels). ) Is included.

With such information, the camera itself or another device can separate and reproduce each original monocular image by reading the information (the number of images and the arrangement information after the images are expanded). Can be cut out according to the above). Such an SGM is a file in which all image data of one stereo image and necessary stereo data other than the image data are used as one file, that is, one handling unit. is there. That is, since it is an indispensable unit of handling when used on a general-purpose PC or transmitted on the Internet, there is no problem that only a part of the unit is erroneously recorded, transmitted, or erased.

However, in the present invention, structured stereoscopic images may be broadly defined. Therefore, other than the above example, the SGM may be configured such that the image data is divided into a plurality of files. It is self-evident that effects such as reduction in size and weight and avoidance of problems when using the adapter can be similarly obtained regardless of the SGM format. Note that the above-described trimming (cutting out each of the L and R images from one captured image frame) is indispensable for configuring such a multiple file format SGM.

Next, the generated SGM is recorded on the memory card 110 via the card interface 109 by the recording means in the digital process circuit 108 which operates according to the instruction of the system controller 112.

The card on which the SGM is recorded can be used by replacing it with a slot of a general-purpose PC, for example. The camera body also has an input / output port, and can input and output the generated SGM through a wired or wireless connection. It is also possible to input and output SGM via a card (card interface).

In the above embodiment, the stereo adapter is of a mirror type. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and is applicable to stereo photography using a stereo adapter using an arbitrary image separation optical system such as a prism type adapter. Effective.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist thereof. Further, the above embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining the disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some constituent elements are deleted from the disclosed constituent elements, they can be extracted as an invention as long as a predetermined effect can be obtained.

[0043]

According to the present invention, the stereo photographing mode is set when the adapter is attached, and the magnification of the optical zoom is fixed in the stereo photographing mode. This makes it possible to solve the problem of recording a complicated image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration example of an electronic camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a state when a stereo adapter is attached to the electronic camera according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an L image and an R image assigned by trimming according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the synthesis of an L image and an R image obtained by trimming according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a view showing overlap and vignetting.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a problem of the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 electronic camera body 101 photographing lens system 102 lens driving mechanism 103 exposure control mechanism 104 filter system 105 CCD image sensor 106 CCD driver 107 preprocessing circuit 108 digital processing circuit 109 card interface 110 memory Card 111 LCD image display system 112 System controller 113 Operation switch system 114 Operation display system 115 Lens driver 116 Strobe 117 Exposure control driver 118 EEPROM 119 Adapter detector 200 Stereo adapter 201, 202, 203 , 204 ... Mirror

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 5/225 H04N 5/225 Z 5C061 5/765 5/907 B 5/907 101: 00 // H04N 101 : 00 5/91 LF term (Reference) 2H059 AA09 2H101 EE01 5C022 AA13 AB19 AB27 AC42 AC51 AC69 5C052 AA17 AB09 CC06 CC11 DD02 EE08 GA02 GB06 GC00 GC03 GD03 GE00 GE08 5C053 FA08 GB36 KA01 KA24 KA25 LA02 LA20

Claims (4)

[Claims] An image pickup optical system; an image pickup device for photoelectrically converting a subject image formed by the image pickup optical system; an image pickup means for obtaining an image signal of the object image based on an output of the image pickup device; Detecting means for detecting that a stereo adapter is mounted to separate the subject image into a plurality of parallel subject images having a predetermined parallax by being mounted on the input unit of the optical system; and a stereo shooting mode capable of stereoscopic shooting or Mode setting means for selectively setting a normal shooting mode for performing normal monocular shooting, wherein when the detection means detects the attachment of the stereo adapter, the mode setting means sets a stereo shooting mode An imaging device characterized in that it is configured to: 2. An image pickup optical system; an optical zoom means for changing an image forming magnification of the image pickup optical system; an image pickup device for photoelectrically converting a subject image formed by the image pickup optical system; An imaging unit that obtains an image signal of the subject image based on the output; and a stereo adapter that is attached to an input unit of the imaging optical system to separate the subject image into a plurality of parallel subject images having a predetermined parallax. And a zoom control unit that sets the imaging magnification of the optical zoom unit to a predetermined value when the attachment of the stereo adapter is detected by the detection unit. Imaging device. An image pickup optical system; an optical zoom means for changing an image magnification of the image pickup optical system; an image pickup device for performing photoelectric conversion of a subject image formed by the image pickup optical system; Imaging means for obtaining an image signal of a subject image based on an output; mode setting means for selectively setting a stereo imaging mode capable of stereoscopic imaging or a normal imaging mode for performing normal monocular imaging; and the mode setting means And a zoom control unit that sets an imaging magnification of the optical zoom unit to a predetermined value when a stereo shooting mode is set by the camera. 4. A plurality of monocular images corresponding to a plurality of monocular images constituting a multi-view stereo image in an imaging region of the imaging device by performing predetermined trimming processing on an image signal of the subject image. Image frame setting means for setting a shooting image frame, and generating a structured stereo image according to a predetermined stereo image handling format based on a plurality of monocular images obtained corresponding to the plurality of shooting image frames. A stereo image generating unit; and a zoom command input unit for performing a zoom command. When a zoom command is issued by the zoom command input unit, a size of a photographic image frame set by the trimming process based on the zoom command. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image pickup apparatus is configured to change the value.