JP2003209859A - Stereoscopic image photographing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a stereoscopic image photographing apparatus capable of effectively improving control of lens performance in a stereoscopic image photographing system. <P>SOLUTION: The photographing apparatus controls optical systems 105, 106 on the basis of video information obtained via the optical systems 105, 106 capable of attaining exposure control and focus control. The apparatus includes: a field identification means 112 capable of identifying left and right images; a processing means for separating the left and right video information items depending on an output of the field identification means 112 and respectively processing the separated video information items individually; and a control means 13 for controlling the optical systems 105, 106 on the basis of each obtained processing result. The processing means includes: a video information left and right separation means 131; an exposure arithmetic means 132, and a discrimination means 133. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to performance improvement in a stereoscopic image (so-called 3D) photographing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional example, the basic configuration of a stereoscopic image capturing system will be described with reference to FIG. The stereoscopic image capturing system described here is a field time division method, and
It is based on a method of distributing an image corresponding to one eye and an image corresponding to one eye to an odd field and an even field of an interlaced video system such as TSC.

The optical system unit 11 is separated into right and left on the object side, and liquid crystal shutters 102 _R ,
The action of 102 _L operates so that only one of the light fluxes 101 _R and 101 _L is transmitted. The light fluxes are combined into one light flux by the action of the mirrors 103 _R , 103 _L and 104 on the way, and after passing through the diaphragm means 105, the optical system 1
An image is formed on the image pickup surface of the image pickup element 107 such as a CCD by 06 and others.

At a certain timing, only one of the left and right light flux reaches the image pickup surface. The video signal output from the image sensor 107 is converted into a digital signal 109 by the AD conversion circuit 108 and transmitted to each processing circuit described later.

Reference numeral 110 is a signal processing circuit of the camera, and the processed signal is finally converted into a video signal 111 of a standard such as NTSC or DV and output to the outside of the stereoscopic image pickup system. Reference numeral 112 is a synchronizing signal generating circuit,
The necessary synchronization signal is supplied to the D conversion circuit 108 and the signal processing circuit 110. A luminance signal extraction circuit 113 extracts and outputs the luminance information 116 included in the video signal. Reference numeral 114 denotes a focus signal extraction circuit, which extracts and outputs focus information 117 included in the video signal. The outputs of the extraction circuits 113 and 114 are the lens control unit (microcomputer) 1
3 to control several states of the lenses of the optical system 106.

The flow of exposure control signals will be described as an example. The brightness information 116 is evaluated by the exposure evaluation unit 139. When the evaluated exposure is larger than the reference value (overexposure), the iris driving circuit 118 is driven in the negative direction to control the iris motor 120 in the closing direction. Conversely, if the exposure is smaller than the reference value (underexposed),
The iris driving circuit 118 is driven in the positive direction to control the iris motor 120 in the opening direction. As a result, the exposure is always kept constant.

To briefly explain the flow of focus control signals, the drive circuit 119 of the focus motor 121 is drive-controlled so that the value of the focus information 117 is always kept at the maximum value.

[0008]

In such a structure,
In the case of stereoscopic video shooting, there are the following problems. That is, in the case of shooting that is not a normal stereoscopic image, the image information that is sequentially output is based on the image that has passed through the only optical system.
Continuity is maintained. However, when the objective optical system is separated and is switched for each field, extremely different video signals may be alternately output.

For example, a high-luminance object such as a light source is hidden behind the main subject, and the object may not be visible from the left side but may be visible from the right side. In the conventional control method, the exposure is tilted to the under side due to the influence of the high-luminance object in the right image. In addition, when only the main subject can be seen from the left side, but a distant high-contrast object is seen from the right side, the conventional control method pulls the focus far away due to the high-contrast object in the right image. It may happen.

In view of the above situation, it is an object of the present invention to provide a stereoscopic image capturing apparatus capable of effectively improving control of lens performance in a stereoscopic image capturing system.

[0011]

A stereoscopic image capturing apparatus of the present invention is configured to control the optical system based on image information obtained via an optical system capable of exposure control and focus control. A field sequential recording type three-dimensional image capturing apparatus, wherein field identification means capable of identifying left and right images and left and right video information are separated by the output of the field identification means, and the separated video information is individually separated. And a control means for controlling the optical system based on the obtained processing results.

Further, in the stereoscopic image pickup apparatus of the present invention, the processing means includes a left / right separation means for image information, an exposure calculation means, and a determination means for determining suitability with respect to an exposure reference value.

Further, the stereoscopic image pickup apparatus of the present invention is a field sequential recording system configured to control the optical system based on image information obtained through the optical system capable of exposure control and focus control. A stereoscopic image capturing apparatus of a method, in which left and right video information is selected, and left and right video information is selected by the output of the field identification means, and only one of the selected video information is processed. And a control unit that controls the optical system based on the obtained processing result.

Further, in the stereoscopic image pickup apparatus of the present invention, the processing means includes a left / right selecting means of image information, an exposure calculating means, and a judging means for judging suitability with respect to an exposure reference value.

Further, according to the stereoscopic image photographing method of the present invention, a stereoscopic image according to a field sequential recording system in which the optical system is controlled based on image information obtained through an optical system capable of exposure control and focus control. A method of photographing, in which left and right images are identified, left and right image information is separated by the field identification output, the separated image information is individually processed, and the above-described processing results are used based on the obtained processing results. It is characterized by controlling the optical system.

Further, in the three-dimensional image capturing method of the present invention, when the image information is processed, the image information is separated into right and left, an exposure calculation is performed for each image information, and the suitability with respect to the exposure reference value is determined. And

Further, according to the stereoscopic image photographing method of the present invention, a stereoscopic image according to a field sequential recording system in which the optical system is controlled based on image information obtained through an optical system capable of exposure control and focus control. A shooting method, in which the left and right images are identified, the left and right image information is selected by the field identification output, only one of the selected image information is processed, and based on the obtained processing result, It is characterized by controlling the optical system.

Further, in the stereoscopic image capturing method of the present invention, when the image information is processed, left and right of the image information are selected, an exposure calculation is performed for each image information, and suitability with respect to the exposure reference value is determined. And

The storage medium of the present invention is a computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as each of the above means. Further, the storage medium of the present invention is a computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for causing a computer to execute each of the above procedures.

According to a typical aspect of the present invention, the left and right video signals are separated and each is treated independently. That is,
The signal sequences of the left and right video signals are separately sorted, and the left is processed as the left signal sequence and the right is processed as the right signal sequence. Then, the final result is derived based on each processing result.

In the above case, the determination is made automatically,
Alternatively, the photographer can manually select either the left side or the right side.

[0022]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of a stereoscopic image capturing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, substantially the same members as those in the conventional example (FIG. 4) are designated by the same reference numerals. Particularly in the present invention, the internal configuration of the lens controller 13 is different.

The optical system unit 11 is divided into right and left on the object side, and liquid crystal shutters 102 _R ,
The action of 102 _L operates so that only one of the light fluxes 101 _R and 101 _L is transmitted. The light fluxes are combined into one light flux by the action of the mirrors 103 _R , 103 _L and 104 on the way, and after passing through the diaphragm means 105, the optical system 1
An image is formed on the image pickup surface of the image pickup element 107 such as a CCD by 06 and others.

At a certain timing, only one of the left and right light flux reaches the image pickup surface. The video signal output from the image sensor 107 is converted into a digital signal 109 by the AD conversion circuit 108 and transmitted to each processing circuit described later.

Reference numeral 110 is a signal processing circuit of the camera, and the processed signal is finally converted into a video signal 111 of a standard such as NTSC or DV and output to the outside of the stereoscopic image pickup system. Reference numeral 112 is a synchronizing signal generating circuit,
The necessary synchronization signal is supplied to the D conversion circuit 108 and the signal processing circuit 110.

The sync signal generation circuit 112 further outputs a field identification signal 115 so that it can identify whether the current video signal is the right one or the left one. The field identification signal 115 is also used as a control signal for controlling opening / closing of the liquid crystal shutters 102 _R and 102 _L. This is one of the most important signals for field-sequential time-division type stereoscopic image capturing.

Reference numeral 113 is a luminance signal extraction circuit, which extracts and outputs the luminance information 116 included in the video signal. 1
A focus signal extraction circuit 14 extracts and outputs focus information 117 included in the video signal. Extraction circuit 113,
The output of 114 is transmitted to the lens control unit (microcomputer) 13 and controls some states of the lenses of the optical system 106.

The flow of exposure control signals will be described as an example. The brightness information 116 is first divided into a right signal and a left signal by the left / right separating means 131. The left signal is processed by the exposure calculation means 132 _L , and the right signal is processed by the exposure calculation means 132 _R. Both calculation results are supplied to the next determination means 133.

The determination means 133 of this embodiment makes the following determination to determine the final evaluation value. First, when the left and right calculated values are relatively similar, the average value of the two calculated values is used as the final evaluation value. If the calculated values are significantly different, it is determined that a high-luminance object is present on the side with the larger calculated value, and only the smaller calculated value is adopted as the final evaluation value.

The control method is basically the same as the above-mentioned method (conventional example). When the final evaluation value is larger than the reference value (overexposure), the iris drive circuit 118 is driven in the negative direction. , The iris motor 120 is controlled in the closing direction. On the contrary, when the exposure is smaller than the reference value (underexposure), the iris driving circuit 118 is driven in the positive direction to control the iris motor 120 in the opening direction. As a result, the exposure is always kept constant.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing how the image information is processed in time series in the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes a raw state of the video information supplied from the camera (luminance information 116 and focus information 117 in FIG. 1). By separating this by the identification signal 115 (see FIG. 1), the signal sequence 21 _L on the left side only and the signal sequence 21 _R on the right side only are obtained. These are the same as the signal flow of the image viewed from only one optical system except that the period is doubled, and unnecessary (on the opposite side) information is eliminated.

Next, as a concrete example, the video information is a luminance signal, and a detailed signal flow in the case of exposure control will be shown. The left and right luminance signals are first input to the comparison unit 201, the magnitude relationship is determined, and the determination output 202 is output. The determination output 202 is supplied to the selection means 203, and the smaller one of the left and right luminance signals is selected and output (204).

On the other hand, the left and right luminance signals are averaged by the averaging means 205.
Outputs the average value (206). Further, for the left and right luminance signals, the absolute value of the difference value is output (208) by the difference means 207. This output 208 is the comparison means 2
The value is compared with a comparison value 209 (a difference value at which the left and right signals can be regarded as substantially the same) by 10, and this determination output 211 is supplied to the selection means 213.

In the selecting means 213, the minimum value of the output 204 is selected when the left-right difference is large, and the average value output 206 is selected when the difference is small. Finally, these selected values are output (214) as final evaluation values.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example in the second embodiment. In the configuration shown in FIG. 3, only the configuration of the lens control unit 13 shown in FIG. 1 is changed, and only the lens control unit will be described here. Since the other parts are substantially the same as those in FIG. 1, description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 3, the lens controller 33 uses the field identification signal 115 and the brightness information 116 as input signals,
A control signal for the iris drive circuit 118 is used as an output signal. Further, a selection signal 330 for manually selecting either left or right is input.

The selection signal 330 is the output of the slide switch and can be manually set by the photographer. It is possible to select to perform lens control using the right or left signal. By this selection signal 330, the field identification signal 115 becomes a positive logic signal or a negative logic signal in the selection means 339, and the switch means 331 transmits the right or left signal of the luminance information 116 to the next stage. ing.

That is, when the selection signal 330 is "1", only the right luminance information is transmitted, and the selection signal 330 is "0".
In the case of, only the left luminance information is transmitted. The transmitted brightness information is calculated by the exposure calculation unit 332, and the exposure determination unit 333 determines whether the exposure is proper. And
The iris control operation similar to that described in the first embodiment is performed.

Here, the functions of the above-described embodiments are implemented by a computer in an apparatus or system connected to the various devices so that the various devices are operated so as to implement the functions of the above-described embodiments. Computer program (CPU or MPU) of the system or device that supplies the program code of the software for
What was carried out by operating the above-mentioned various devices according to the program stored in is also included in the category of the present invention.

Further, in this case, the program code itself of the software realizes the function of the above-described embodiment, and the program code itself and a means for supplying the program code to the computer,
For example, a storage medium storing such program code constitutes the present invention. As a storage medium for storing the program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-RO.
M, a magnetic tape, a non-volatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

In addition, the computer executes the supplied program code to realize the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the program code operates in the OS (operating system) or other Needless to say, the program code is also included in the embodiments of the present invention when the functions of the above-described embodiments are implemented jointly by application software and the like.

Further, after the supplied program code is stored in the memory provided in the function expansion board of the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or function expansion unit is instructed based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the present invention also includes a case where the CPU or the like included in the above performs a part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the performance of exposure control and focus control by making the most of the characteristics of this type of stereoscopic image pickup system. That is, even if one of the left and right images has an inappropriate image, more appropriate control can be performed according to the information of the other appropriate image depending on the determination method.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a device configuration according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a device configuration according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 optical system unit 13 101 _R , 101 _L light flux 102 _R , 102 _L liquid crystal shutter 103 _R , 103 _L mirror 105 diaphragm means 106 optical system 107 image sensor 108 AD conversion circuit 109 digital signal 110 signal processing circuit 111 video signal 112 sync signal Generation circuits 113, 114 Extraction circuit 115 Field identification signal 116 Brightness information 117 Focus information 118 Iris drive circuit 119 Drive circuit 120 Iris motor 121 Focus motor 131 Left / right separation means 132 _R , 132 _L Exposure calculation means 133 Judgment means 201 Comparison means 202 Judgment Output 203 Selection means 205 Averaging means 207 Difference means 209 Comparison value 213 Selection means

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A stereoscopic image capturing apparatus of a field sequential recording system configured to control the optical system based on image information obtained through the optical system capable of exposure control and focus control. A field identifying means capable of identifying the left and right images, and a processing means for separating the left and right image information by the output of the field identifying means and individually processing the separated image information. And a control unit that controls the optical system based on a processing result. 2. The stereoscopic image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing means includes a left / right separation means for image information, an exposure calculation means, and a determination means for determining suitability with respect to an exposure reference value. 3D image capturing device. 3. A stereoscopic image capturing apparatus of a field sequential recording system configured to control the optical system based on image information obtained via the optical system capable of exposure control and focus control. A field identification means capable of identifying left and right images and a processing means for selecting left and right image information by the output of the field identification means and processing only one of the selected image information are obtained. And a control unit that controls the optical system based on a processing result. 4. The stereoscopic image capturing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processing unit includes a left / right selecting unit of image information, an exposure calculating unit, and a determining unit for determining suitability with respect to an exposure reference value. 3D image capturing device. 5. A stereoscopic image capturing method according to a field sequential recording method, in which the optical system is controlled based on image information obtained through an optical system capable of exposure control and focus control. And the left and right video information are separated by the field identification output, the separated video information is individually processed, and the optical system is controlled based on the obtained processing results. How to shoot stereoscopic video. 6. The stereoscopic image capturing method according to claim 5, wherein when the image information is processed, the image information is separated into right and left, exposure calculation is performed on each image information, and suitability with respect to an exposure reference value is determined. A stereoscopic image capturing method characterized by the above. 7. A stereoscopic image capturing method according to a field sequential recording method in which the optical system is controlled based on image information obtained through an optical system capable of exposure control and focus control, wherein left and right images are captured. The left and right image information is selected by the field identification output, only one of the selected image information is processed, and the optical system is controlled based on the obtained processing result. How to shoot stereoscopic video. 8. The stereoscopic image capturing method according to claim 7, wherein when the image information is processed, left and right of the image information is selected, an exposure calculation is performed for each image information, and suitability with respect to an exposure reference value is determined. A stereoscopic image capturing method characterized by the above. 9. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as the means according to claim 1. 10. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute each procedure according to any one of claims 5 to 8.