JPH0490284A - Image pickup element device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a picture with high resolution by arranging plural solid-state image pickup means to an optical path in response to number of the solid-state image pickup means while the location is deviated respectively by a distance equivalent to division of unit picture elements into a prescribed number and outputting a video signal from a binarizing means. CONSTITUTION:CCDs 18, 22 consist of elements of a same size and same number of picture elements and arranged so that their position are deviated by a half of the picture element on an optical path from an object 10. The video signal outputted from the CCDs 18, 22 is fed respectively to an adder circuit 36, in which the signals are added. Thus, the adder circuit 36 adds two video signals deviated by 1/2. picture element each. A binarizing circuit 38 binarizes the sum video signal fed from the adder circuit 36 by using a prescribed threshold level. Since a displayed picture is displayed by a signal binarized as shown in figure 7, the picture with high resolution similar to a picture as if the picture were picked up by using CCDs having number of picture elements as shown in figure 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an imaging device, and more particularly to an imaging device with high resolution suitable for inspection equipment and the like.

Background technology CCD (charge coupled device)
As is well known, a solid-state imaging device using e) is a device that receives light from an object and outputs a video signal according to the received light, and uses this to convert the optical signal from the object into an electrical signal. The image of the subject can be displayed on a display device such as a CRT, or the output signal can be sent to a printer to obtain a hard copy. Further, the output image data can be recorded on a recording medium.

Such a photographing device 6 may be used, for example, in an inspection device to output a video signal representing an image of an object to be inspected, thereby displaying an image of the object to be inspected on a display device, and inspecting the object to be inspected. It is being said. In such inspections, the resolution of the displayed image is proportional to the number of pixels of the COD. Therefore, in order to obtain a high-resolution image, C
It is necessary to use DD.

However, since it is difficult to obtain a CCD with a large number of pixels, for example, if high resolution is required over a wide area, multiple CCD cameras may be connected in a straight line to increase the number of pixels. By configuring a single screen, high resolution was obtained. However, when trying to further increase the resolution, the imaging range becomes narrower as the resolution increases.
If the reprint pitch of the CD camera is below, it becomes impossible to output continuous images of the object to be inspected from the connected CCD cameras, and it becomes impossible to display the images on a single screen.

When it is desired to display images of such a wide range of objects to be inspected on a single screen, there is a problem in that it is difficult to obtain high-resolution images.

OBJECTS It is an object of the present invention to provide an imaging device that eliminates the drawbacks of the prior art and can obtain high-resolution images without narrowing the imaging range.

According to the present invention, an imaging device includes a half mirror means for dividing light received from a subject into a plurality of optical paths, and a half mirror means for splitting light from the subject into a plurality of optical paths by the half mirror means. A plurality of solid-state imaging means that receive light and output video signals according to the light from the subject, an adding means that adds the video signals output from the plurality of solid-state imaging means, and a video signal added by the adding means to a predetermined value. The plurality of solid-state imaging means are positioned relative to each other by a distance obtained by dividing the unit pixel of the solid-state imaging means into a predetermined number according to the number of solid-state imaging means. The binarization means outputs a high-resolution video signal according to the number of solid-state imaging means, which are arranged in a staggered manner in the optical path.

Further, according to the present invention, the inspection device includes the above-mentioned imaging device, and further includes display means for displaying the video signal output from the z-value conversion means, and displays an image of the subject on the display means. The object is inspected using the following methods.

Embodiments of the imaging device according to the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which an imaging device according to the present invention is applied to an inspection device.

The device has an optical lens 12. The optical lens 12 is
Subject to be inspected! 0, and optically focuses the light to form an image of the subject 10 on the light receiving surfaces of CCrJs 18 and 22, which will be described later. A half mirror 14 is arranged on the optical path of the optical lens 12 at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the optical path. Half mirror! A light amount adjusting filter 20 is placed on the optical path behind the mirror 4, and a light lid adjusting filter 16 is placed on the optical path reflected by the half mirror 14.
each is placed. The half mirror 14 has a transmittance of 1/2 in this embodiment. Half of the light from the optical lens 12 passes through the half mirror 14,
The light enters the light amount adjustment filter 20. On the other hand, one half of the light from the optical lens 12 is reflected by the half mirror 14 and enters the light amount adjustment filter 16.

The light amount adjustment filters 16 and 20 are half mirrors 1
Adjust the amount of light sent from CGo 18 and 22.
This is a filter to optimize the amount of light incident on the.

CC:D 18 and 22 are imaging devices that receive light from the subject 10 and convert an optical image of the subject 10 from an optical signal to a video signal.
1B and 22 are composed of elements of the same size and the same number of pixels, and are 2
The positions are shifted by one-tenth of a pixel. That is, the image of the subject 10 captured by the CCU 22 and the image of the subject 10 captured by the CCU 22 are one-half of one pixel of the pixels constituting these CODs.
The position is shifted by the length of .

Note that when obtaining a color image video signal (not shown), color filters are arranged on the surfaces of the CODs 18 and 22, and a color separation circuit (not shown) separates, for example, RGB.
is separated into video signals of each color component.

The video signals output from CCDs 1873 and 22 are
Each is sent to an adder circuit 36. The adder circuit 36 is CC
Add the video signal from D18 and the video signal from COD 22. Therefore, the adder circuit 36 adds two video signals shifted by 1/2 pixel. The output of the adder circuit 38 is input to the binarization circuit 38. The binarization circuit 38 binarizes the added video signal sent from the addition circuit 3G using a predetermined threshold. The output from the binarization circuit 3 is sent to the CRT 40. The CRT 40 is
Display the image of O. The operator looks at the image displayed on the CRT 40 and inspects the object IO.

Next, the operation of this device will be explained with reference to the example of the signals shown in FIG.

Light from the object 10 to be inspected is focused by an optical lens 12 and separated by a half mirror 14. Half mirror 1
The light transmitted through 4 is incident on the light amount adjustment filter 2o,
After the light intensity is adjusted, an image is taken by the COD 22. On the other hand, the light reflected by the half mirror 14 enters the light amount adjustment filter 16, and after adjusting the light amount, the light is
Imaged by OD 18.

When capturing an image as shown in FIG. 2 (1), (C
:D Since 18 and 22 are arranged with their positions shifted by 1/2 pixel, the images captured by these are as shown in FIG. 2 (2) and (3).

In these figures, one section separated by a vertical line is C
Figure 2 (2) showing one pixel of CU 18 and 22.
When images as shown in (3) are incident on the CCDs 18 and 22, video signal outputs as shown in FIG. 2 (4) and (5) are obtained from the CODs 18 and 22, respectively.

These outputs (4) and (5) are sent to an adder circuit 36 and added together to obtain a signal as shown in FIG. 2 (6).

The signal shown in FIG. 2(c) output from the adder circuit 3G is sent to the binarization circuit 38, where it is binarized using the threshold value S shown in FIG. 2(6), and the signal shown in FIG. 2(7) is A binary signal as shown is obtained. This binary signal is sent to the CRT 40 and displayed as an image of the subject 10. The displayed image is the second
Since it is displayed using a 24a signal as shown in Figure (7), a high-resolution image similar to that captured by a CCD with the number of pixels shown in Figure 2 (8) can be obtained. CGo with the number of pixels shown in Figure 2 (2) and (3)
CC with twice the number of pixels compared to 1B and 22
It has the same effect as when using D.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment in which the imaging device according to the present invention is applied to an inspection device.

In this embodiment, the half mirror 14 has a transmittance of 2/3, and the half mirror 24 has a transmittance of 1/2. Further, three light amount adjustment filters 1B, 20.26 and three CC01B, 22.28 are arranged. $1 half mirror 14
The light reflected by
The transmitted light is sent to the second half mirror 24. The light reflected by the second half mirror 24 is incident on the CD 2B via the light M adjustment filter 26, and the light transmitted through the second half mirror 24 is input to the CcD 22 via the light amount adjustment filter 20. 2 incident angles 6 m 3 pieces 17
1) CCD 1B, 22.28cm, is arranged in the optical path with the position shifted by 1/1013 pixel.

The outputs from the three CC018, 22, and 28 are sent to the adder circuit 36 and added together, as in the case described using the signals shown in FIG. 2 in the device shown in FIG.
The digitization circuit 38 converts the data into two values using a predetermined threshold value. As a result, in the case of this embodiment, C
It is possible to obtain the same high resolution as when using a CD.

FIG. 4 shows still another embodiment in which the imaging device according to the present invention is applied to an inspection device.

In this embodiment, the half mirror 14 has a transmittance of 3/4, the half mirror 24 has a transmittance of 2/3, and the half mirror 30 has a transmittance of 1/2 of 2F.
Each is used. In addition, the light amount adjustment filter 1
6.2J32.20 and CCD 18,28°34.
Four pieces of 22 are arranged. In this embodiment, the four CCUs 18.2B and 34.22 are arranged in the optical path with their positions shifted by a quarter pixel from each other.

The outputs from the four CCs;
The digitization circuit 38 binarizes the data using a predetermined threshold value. As a result, in the case of this embodiment, C
A high resolution similar to that obtained using OD can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, a device that obtains a resolution of 2 to 4 times the number of pixels has been described, but the imaging device of the present invention is not limited to one that obtains these resolutions, and may use a desired number of half mirrors and CODs. , by shifting the positions of the CODs from each other according to the number of CCDs, a desired resolution can be obtained. However, if the number of CCDs is increased, the amount of light incident on each COD will be reduced, and the amount of light must be adjusted for the operation of the COD, so it is preferable to set the number of CCDs to 2 to 4.

Further, in the above embodiments, a device applied to an inspection device has been described, but the imaging device according to the present invention is not limited to an inspection device, but can be applied to any imaging device that obtains a high-resolution video signal.

Effects According to the present invention, light from a subject is divided into a plurality of optical paths by a half mirror means, is received by a plurality of solid-state imaging means disposed in the optical path with positions shifted from each other, and is outputted from each solid-state imaging means. The added image signals are added by an adding means and binarized by a binarizing means using a predetermined threshold value.

Therefore, it is possible to obtain an image signal of high resolution compared to the number of pixels of the solid-state imaging means used.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows the imaging device according to the present invention applied to an inspection device.
・Block diagram showing an embodiment; FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of signals output from each part of the device δ shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is another embodiment in which the imaging device according to the present invention is applied to an inspection device. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing still another embodiment in which the imaging device according to the present invention is applied to an inspection device.゛Partial damage to soldiers 12,,,,,optical lens 14.24,30. , , half mirror 18, 22,
28, 34, CCrJ 3B...3. Addition circuit 3B, , , Binarization circuit 40, , , , , IRT

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A half mirror means for dividing light received from a subject into a plurality of optical paths; and a half mirror means for receiving each of the light from the subject divided into a plurality of optical paths by the half mirror means; a plurality of solid-state imaging means that output video signals according to the light of the plurality of solid-state imaging means; an addition means that adds the video signals output from the plurality of solid-state imaging means; and a video signal added by the addition means according to a predetermined threshold value. and binarization means for binarizing, and the plurality of solid-state imaging means are positioned relative to each other by a distance obtained by dividing a unit pixel of the solid-state imaging means into a predetermined number according to the number of the solid-state imaging means. An imaging device, wherein the imaging device is arranged in a staggered manner in the optical path, and outputs a high-resolution video signal from the binarization device according to the number of the solid-state imaging devices. 2, comprising the imaging device according to claim 1;
An inspection apparatus comprising: a display means for displaying the video signal output from the value converting means, and inspecting the object by displaying an image of the object on the display means.