JP2007336422A - Image photographing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily photograph a high-precision panoramic image. <P>SOLUTION: A panoramic image photographing device 1 includes an imaging element 2 which images a subject, an image memory 3 which stores image data from the imaging element 2, a display unit 4 composed of LCDs etc., a moving vector generating circuit 5 which generates moving vectors between frames, and a control circuit 6 which controls the image memory 3 according to vector information from the moving vector generating circuit 5, and when the control circuit 6 decides that the device 1 has moved laterally by one picture (a certain quantity) based upon the vector information, the circuit 6 stores the image data from the imaging element 2 in the image memory 3. The device 1 performs such an operation during panning as well. After a panoramic image is photographed, the device puts together a plurality of pieces of image data stored in the image memory 3 to automatically generate a panoramic image. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image photographing apparatus that creates a panoramic image from an image signal created by imaging a subject with an imaging element such as a CCD.

  In a conventional image capturing apparatus, there is a prior art disclosed in Patent Document 1 as a representative technique. In this technique, a plurality of images are photographed and a panoramic image is created by combining the plurality of images. When shooting the second and subsequent images, the right edge of the last image shot on the display is displayed as an overlay on the left edge of the display, so the shutter button is pressed when the subject overlaps the overlay display. Thus, a continuous image is obtained.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-266561

  Since the conventional image creating apparatus creates the panoramic image as described above, it takes time to superimpose the images to be captured on the second and subsequent images on the overlay display displayed on the left end of the display unit.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image photographing apparatus capable of reducing the photographing time by automatically photographing and storing a panoramic image. .

  An image capturing apparatus according to the subject of the present invention includes an image sensor that images a subject, a motion vector generation circuit that generates a motion vector between frames as vector information based on image data from the image sensor, and the motion vector generation circuit And a control circuit that monitors the vector information output from the image capturing apparatus, and after the movement of the image capturing apparatus is started, the control circuit causes the image capturing apparatus to move in a predetermined direction based on the vector information while the movement is continued. Each time it is determined that the camera has moved a certain amount, the image pickup device takes an image of the subject.

  Hereinafter, various embodiments of the subject of the present invention will be described in detail along with the effects and advantages thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  According to the subject of the present invention, since the vector information is monitored and the subject is automatically imaged when it is determined that it has moved a certain amount in a predetermined direction (for example, the horizontal direction or the vertical direction) It is possible to automatically take a panoramic image without pressing the shutter button each time.

(Embodiment 1)
The image capturing apparatus according to the present embodiment creates a panoramic image by automatically capturing and saving a panoramic base image (divided image) while capturing a wide range of moving images to be panoramic. That is, the image capturing apparatus according to the present invention monitors the motion vector of the image data and can automatically capture the second and subsequent images, so that the time for overlaying the subject can be saved, so the panorama image capturing time can be reduced. I can do it. Details of the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a panoramic image photographing apparatus according to the present embodiment. Referring to FIG. 1, a panoramic image photographing apparatus 1 is basically: (1) an image sensor (for example, comprising a CCD or CMOS sensor) 2 for imaging a subject; (2) image data output from the image sensor 2; (3) a display unit (for example, composed of an LCD or an organic EL display) 4 for displaying image data read from the image memory 3, and (4) image data output from the image sensor 2. Motion vector generation circuit 5 for generating motion vectors between frames, (5) Control of writing / reading of image data to / from image memory 3 and automatic photographing based on vector information (motion vector information) output by motion vector generation circuit 5 And (6) a shutter button 7 to be pressed during panoramic image shooting.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the positional relationship between the subject and the panoramic image photographing apparatus 1. An example in the present embodiment corresponds to a case where one panoramic image is created from images of three screens by panning from the left side to the right side of the drawing.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for creating a panoramic image in the present embodiment.

  Next, a method of connecting one QVGA (320H × 240V) size image and shooting one panoramic image will be described with reference to FIGS.

  When the photographer first issues a panoramic image shooting instruction (step S1), one frame of QVGA size image data output from the image sensor 2 is displayed on the display unit 4 through writing and reading operations to the image memory 3. It is displayed (step S2). When the photographer determines the image A to be placed on the left side of the panoramic image while viewing the image displayed on the display unit 4 and presses the shutter button 7 (step S3), the control circuit 6 senses this, Image data captured by the image sensor 2 driven by the circuit 6 is stored in the image memory 3 (step S4).

  Next, the photographer pans the panorama image photographing apparatus 1 from the left side to the right side (step S5). At this time, the control circuit 6 monitors the vector information (motion vector information) generated and output by the motion vector generation circuit 5, and based on the vector information, the panorama image photographing apparatus 1 is displayed horizontally for one screen. If it is determined that it has moved by 320 pixels (a certain amount of movement in the case of QVGA) (step S6), an image for one screen corresponding to the second image B is automatically taken (control circuit). 6 automatically drives the driving circuit (not shown) of the image sensor 2 based on the built-in application software to store the image data of the second image B in the image memory 3. (Step S7).

  Subsequently, the photographer pans the panoramic image photographing apparatus 1 (step S8). During the panning, the control circuit 6 continues to monitor the vector information from the motion vector generating circuit 5, and based on the vector information, the panoramic image photographing apparatus. If it is determined that 1 has moved in the horizontal direction by one screen (a certain amount of movement) (step S9), an image for one screen corresponding to the third image C is automatically shot and shot. The data of the third image C is stored in the image memory 3 (step S10). At this point, the control circuit 6 determines that panoramic image shooting has been completed, and the panoramic image shooting apparatus 1 receives the three shot image data in the image memory 3 in accordance with an instruction from the control circuit 6. By synthesizing (step S11), a panorama image of 960H × 240V size can be obtained. As a method for synthesizing the image data in the image memory 3, for example, a synthesis processing circuit is separately provided between the image memory 3 and the display unit 4, and the synthesis processing circuit is controlled by the control circuit 6. The image data composition processing may be executed and stored, or the control circuit 6 has application software for executing image data composition processing for three images, and the application software The panorama image data obtained after the synthesizing process may be temporarily stored in the memory provided separately or in the image memory 3. Alternatively, each time the second and subsequent image data captured in the image memory 3 is stored, the previous image data is synthesized in the image memory 3 by software processing at the time of the storage. Also good.

  In this embodiment, an example of panning from the left side to the right side is shown. However, the control circuit 6 moves the panoramic image photographing apparatus 1 toward the left or right according to the vector information generated and output by the motion vector generation circuit 5. It is also possible to create a panoramic image by panning leftward by determining whether or not the image is present.

  In the example of FIGS. 1 to 3, “a certain amount of movement” is set for one screen. Therefore, when the image size is QVGA (320H × 240V), the movement of 320 pixels in the horizontal direction (lateral direction) is recognized from the vector information from the motion vector generation circuit 5 and shooting is performed. However, image sizes include Sub-QCIF (128H × 96V), QCIF (176H × 144V), CIF (352H × 288V), VGA (640H × 480V), SXGA (1280H × 960V), UXGA (QVGA). 1600H × 1200V), 3M (2048H × 1536V), 4M (2304H × 1728V). That is, according to the present invention, the “certain movement amount” detected from the vector information of the motion vector generation circuit 5 can be changed according to the image size to be photographed.

  The image capturing apparatus according to the present invention detects a motion vector in the horizontal direction (lateral direction) and performs image capturing. However, the image capturing apparatus detects the motion vector information in the vertical direction (vertical direction) and performs image capturing. It is also possible to configure an image photographing device. When shooting is performed by detecting motion vector information in the vertical direction, the image capturing apparatus according to the present invention can detect the vertical direction when the image size is QVGA (320H × 240V), for example, from the motion vector information of the motion vector generation circuit 5. Thus, shooting is performed by detecting that the pixel has moved by 240 pixels.

  Furthermore, the image capturing apparatus according to the present invention creates a panoramic image by automatically capturing and saving a panoramic base image (divided image) during capturing a wide range of moving images to be panoramic. It is not indispensable to shoot a movie when creating a video. For example, when still image shooting is selected, the first still image is shot, and when a predetermined amount of movement is detected (in the case of QVGA, the horizontal direction is 320 pixels and the vertical direction is 240 pixels), the second sheet is detected. It is also possible to create a panoramic image by taking a subsequent still image.

  While the embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed and described in detail above, the above description exemplifies aspects to which the present invention can be applied, and the present invention is not limited thereto. In other words, various modifications and variations to the described aspects can be considered without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  The image photographing apparatus according to the present invention can be used for a terminal device such as a digital still camera or a camera-equipped mobile phone as an application example.

It is a block diagram which shows typically the structure of the panorama image production apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the position of a panoramic image production apparatus, and the position of a to-be-photographed object. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the panoramic image creation in Embodiment 1 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Panorama image imaging device, 2 Image sensor, 3 Image memory, 4 Display part, 5 Motion vector generation circuit, 6 Control circuit, 7 Shutter button.

Claims (1)

An image capturing device,
An image sensor for imaging a subject;
A motion vector generation circuit that generates a motion vector between frames as vector information based on image data from the image sensor;
A control circuit for monitoring the vector information output by the motion vector generation circuit,
Each time the control circuit determines that the image capturing device has moved a certain amount in a predetermined direction based on the vector information after the image capturing device starts moving, the image sensor It is characterized by shooting a subject.
Image shooting device.

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