JP2022073568A - Lens for panoramic photographing and digital camera for panoramic photographing - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a technology for arranging a large diameter lens enabling the especially high quality imaging at an appropriate distance in the lens for performing panoramic stereoscopic photographing.SOLUTION: Disclosed is a lens for panoramic photographing which is constituted by arranging two or more wide-angle lenses 10, 20 having at least a viewing angle of more than 180 degrees. At least one side of the circumferential corner parts 11, 21 of a front lens of each wide-angle lens is cut off by right-angled straight lines 12, 22 in the arrangement direction along a predetermined arrangement direction, and linear cut-off parts are arranged adjacent to each other.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a panoramic photography lens that captures a panoramic image with parallel lenses having a wide viewing angle, and a digital camera provided with the same.

Conventionally, there has been known a technique that enables stereoscopic viewing by taking two photographs with slightly different angles using two lenses and viewing them simultaneously with both eyes. It is said that the oldest product called a stereoscope was sold in the middle of the 19th century, which enabled stereoscopic viewing.

After a long era of film photography, many 3D cameras that shoot simultaneously with two lenses have been sold even after the transition to digital cameras, and 3D content is also provided on TV and movies.

For example, the Vuze XR 3D VR & 360 Camera manufactured by human-eyes disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1 is equipped with two fisheye lenses and has a mode of taking a 360-degree image back-to-back and a three-dimensional panorama with the optical axis oriented in parallel. It offers a digital camera that can be switched to a mode for taking images. The stereoscopic panoramic image can be either a still image or a moving image, and a VR (virtual reality) image can be seen by using VR goggles that display each image in both eyes.

As a related patent document, Patent Document 1 discloses a panoramic imaging system including a plurality of separate imaging systems, each characterized by a visual field.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2020-173461

Internet URL: https://www.humaneyes.com/products/vuze-xr-camera Searched October 1, 2020

It has been known for a long time that two lenses corresponding to both eyes are arranged in parallel as in the conventional technique, but when trying to arrange lenses with a wide viewing angle in order to obtain a VR image in addition to a stereoscopic image, the lens Due to the large diameter, it may not be possible to separate an appropriate distance.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for arranging a large-diameter lens which is a lens for performing panoramic stereoscopic photography and which enables particularly high-quality imaging at an appropriate distance.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides the following panoramic lens.
That is, it is a panoramic photography lens composed of two or more wide-angle lenses having a viewing angle of at least 180 degrees, and the circumferential corners of the front lens of each wide-angle lens are arranged along a predetermined arrangement direction. It is characterized in that it is cut off in a straight line perpendicular to the arrangement direction, and the straight cut-off portions are arranged adjacent to each other.

In the second embodiment, the panoramic shooting lens is for shooting a panoramic stereoscopic image, the outer diameter of the wide-angle lens is 50 mm or more, and the front lens of the two horizontally arranged wide-angle lenses It is preferable to cut off the circumferential corner portion in a vertical straight line so that the distance between the centers of the wide-angle lens is 50 mm to 80 mm.

The third embodiment is a digital camera for panoramic photography used for generating a panoramic image, in which two or more wide-angle lenses having a viewing angle of at least 180 degrees and arranged behind the wide-angle lens. It is provided with a digital image pickup element and an image processing means for processing image data captured by the digital image pickup element and outputting or storing the image data in a predetermined image format. It is also possible to provide a digital camera for panoramic photography in which the circumferential corner portion of the front lens is cut off in a straight line perpendicular to the arrangement direction, and the straight cut-off portions are arranged adjacent to each other.

According to the present invention, a panoramic photography lens capable of arranging two or more wide-angle lenses at an appropriate distance for panoramic photography while using a large-diameter wide-angle lens and a norama photography using the same. Provides a digital camera for.

It is explanatory drawing of the lens for panoramic photography which concerns on this invention. It is a layout drawing of the lens for panoramic photography and the digital image pickup element which concerns on this invention. This is an example of an image taken by a panoramic lens.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to examples shown in the drawings. The embodiment is not limited to the following.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a panoramic photographing lens according to the present invention. The wide-angle lens targeted by the present invention is a so-called fisheye lens having a viewing angle of 180 to 250 degrees. Entaniya Fisheye HAL (registered trademark), a product sold by the applicant, manufactured by Intaniya Co., Ltd., provides an ultra-wide-angle lens compatible with a large digital image sensor (image sensor).

In order to realize bright and high image quality, it is necessary to make the lens a large diameter. For example, in the above HAL200 having a viewing angle of 200 degrees, the lens diameter is 70 mm and the outer diameter including the outer peripheral ring is 75 mm. Further, the HAL220PL corresponding to the 35 mm full-size sensor has an outer diameter of 102 mm.

By the way, it has been well known that two lenses are arranged horizontally to capture an image corresponding to both human eyes in order to capture a stereoscopic image. Furthermore, with the progress of VR technology in recent years, it has become possible to capture panoramic and stereoscopic images by using ultra-wide-angle lenses for each lens. That is, by detecting the orientation of the user's face with a gyro sensor or the like and displaying a stereoscopic image matching the orientation, a stereoscopic image in a desired direction can be viewed.

In the shooting of a stereoscopic image, the distance between the centers of the two lenses is preferably about 65 mm, which is a general distance between both eyes in a general portrait image, but is about 50 mm to 55 mm in the case of a closer subject, and conversely, the subject is far away. In some cases, it is known that a natural stereoscopic image can be obtained by setting the thickness to about 70 to 80 mm.
Therefore, it is necessary to set the optimum distance between the centers of the lenses according to the distance of the subject.

Since the products known so far use a small-diameter fisheye lens, it is not difficult to arrange the lens so that the distance between the centers is 50 to 80 mm, which is suitable for taking stereoscopic images. When such a wide-angle lens having a large diameter is used, the distance between the centers cannot be set to the optimum range even if the circumferences of the lenses are adjacent to each other.

For example, in the case of HAL200, the outer diameter is 75 mm, so the distance between the centers is 75 mm, and in the case of HAL220PL, it is 102 mm. If it cannot be arranged at the optimum center-to-center distance, there is a problem that it leads to a sense of discomfort when stereoscopically viewed.

Therefore, in the present invention, it is proposed that the circumferential corner portion of the front lens of the wide-angle lens is cut off in a straight line perpendicular to the arrangement direction, and the linear cut-off portions are arranged adjacent to each other. FIG. 1 shows a conceptual diagram seen from the front lens direction of the lens.

If the outer diameters of the pair of left and right wide-angle lenses (10) and (20) arranged in the horizontal direction are 80 mm each, the distance L between the centers will be 80 mm if they are arranged adjacent to each other as they are. Therefore, the circumferential corners (11) and (21) of the front lenses of the wide-angle lenses (10) and (20) are cut off at right angles to the arrangement direction, that is, in a straight line in the vertical direction.
The cut-off linear portions (12) and (22) are arranged adjacent to each other.

FIG. 2 is a layout diagram of a panoramic photography lens and a digital image sensor.
In this figure, it is shown from the direction orthogonal to the optical axes (13) and (23) of the wide-angle lenses (10) and (20), and it can be confirmed that the linear portions (12) and (22) are cut off in the figure. ..

Each wide-angle lens (10) (20) is composed of a plurality of lens groups by a well-known optical system, and digital image pickup devices (14) and (24) are arranged at the lower side of the figure, respectively. The images acquired by the respective digital image sensors (14) and (24) are images as shown in FIG. 3 because a wide-angle lens in which a part of the front lens is cut off is used.

In FIG. 3, in the left and right images (30) and (40), missing portions (31), (32), (41), and (42) are generated at both left and right ends corresponding to the cut-off front lens portions. However, when an ultra-wide-angle lens is used, an effective image area (35) can be sufficiently secured, and an adjacent lens is also reflected, so that there is a big problem even if both left and right ends are missing. not.

The present invention pays attention to the characteristics of such an ultra-wide-angle lens, and the linear portion (12) (22) cuts off the circumferential corner portion of the front lens of the wide-angle lens (10) (20) to obtain the optimum center distance. It was found that the distance L can be realized.
The optimum center-to-center distance L is 50 mm to 80 mm, particularly 60 mm to 70 mm, and most preferably about 65 mm.

Since it is difficult to set the optimum lens-to-lens distance of 50 mm or more for the outer diameter of the wide-angle lens used when capturing a stereoscopic image, it is applied when the wide-angle lens has an outer diameter of 50 mm or more. In particular, when the outer diameter is 70 mm or more, the optimum center-to-center distance of 65 mm cannot be reliably implemented, so that the application of the present invention is particularly effective.

The two wide-angle lenses (10) and (20) may be connected and fixed at the linear portions (12) and (22), or may not be fixed and the distance between the centers may be variable.
As described above, since the optimum center-to-center distance L changes according to the distance to the subject, the distance between the two wide-angle lenses (10) and (20) may be adjusted manually or automatically. The adjustment mechanism is arbitrary, but the distance between the two can be changed by rotating the pinion using, for example, a rack and pinion gear.

In the present invention, a digital camera provided with a wide-angle lens as described above may be provided. Since the configuration of the digital camera is well known, detailed explanation is omitted, but in the digital camera, at least two wide-angle lenses having a viewing angle of more than 180 degrees are arranged, and a digital image sensor and its digital image pickup are arranged behind the wide-angle lens. It has a built-in image processing circuit that processes the image data captured by the element and outputs or saves it in a predetermined image format. Further, the direct conversion data may be saved in a predetermined file or file format by an image processing circuit that directly converts to a panorama.

The raw data taken may be transferred to a computer such as a smartphone, and the processing may be performed by the smartphone or the like. Alternatively, it may be transferred to a server connected by a communication network and processed on the server.

Digital image sensors are well known as CCD image sensors and CMOS image sensors, and the type of element is not limited in the present invention. Further, the image processing circuit is also mounted on a known digital camera, smartphone, or the like, and a well-known technique can be used as appropriate.

In the above embodiment, two horizontal images are arranged side by side in order to capture a stereoscopic image, and the optical axes are arranged so as to face substantially the same direction, but the present invention is not limited to this.

For example, when four panoramic lenses are arranged radially from the center, each panoramic lens needs to be concentrated in the center as much as possible, but as mentioned above, it is not possible with a large-diameter lens. There is a difficult problem.

Therefore, by cutting off both sides of the circumferential corner of the front lens of the wide-angle lens as in the present invention, it is possible to bring the lens closer to the center and suppress the deviation of the center of the viewpoint. Further, the arrangement method is not limited to horizontal, and can be arranged in any direction such as vertical.

10 Wide-angle lens 11 Circumferential corner 12 Linear part 13 Optical axis 14 Digital image pickup element 20 Wide-angle lens 21 Circumferential corner 22 Linear part 23 Optical axis 24 Digital image pickup element

Claims (3)

It is a panoramic shooting lens composed of two or more wide-angle lenses having a viewing angle of at least 180 degrees.
At least one side of the circumferential corner of the front lens of each wide-angle lens was cut off in a straight line perpendicular to the arrangement direction along a predetermined arrangement direction, and the linear cut-off portions were arranged adjacent to each other.
A lens for panoramic photography that is characterized by this. The panoramic shooting lens is for shooting a panoramic stereoscopic image.
The outer diameter of the wide-angle lens is 50 mm or more, and the wide-angle lens has an outer diameter of 50 mm or more.
The first aspect of claim 1, wherein the distance between the centers of the wide-angle lenses is 50 mm to 80 mm by cutting off one side of the circumferential corners of the front lenses of the two horizontally arranged wide-angle lenses adjacent to each other in a vertical straight line. Lens for panoramic photography. A digital camera for panoramic photography used to generate panoramic images.
Two or more wide-angle lenses with a viewing angle of at least 180 degrees,
A digital image sensor located behind the wide-angle lens and
It is provided with an image processing means for processing image data captured by the digital image sensor and outputting or storing the image data in a predetermined image format.
The wide-angle lens
The circumferential corners of the front lens of each wide-angle lens were cut off in a straight line perpendicular to the arrangement direction along a predetermined arrangement direction, and the linear cut-off portions were arranged adjacent to each other.
A digital camera for panoramic photography that features this.

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