JPH0946578A - Image pickup device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce an output data quantity of an image picked up by a high resolution even when an image size is not decreased nor a transfer frame rate is reduced. SOLUTION: The image pickup device is provided with an optical axis shift section 101, a CCD 2 as an image pickup means picking up an image with high resolution, a high-order bit acquisition section 106 as a bit number reduction means reducing number of bits per picture element of image data obtained by using the image pickup means, and number of bits per picture element of the image data obtained by image pickup with high resolution is reduced and the resulting data are outputted. Thus, even when the image data quantity is increased through image pickup with high resolution, the increase in the output data quantity of the image pickup device is suppressed and even when output data of the image pickup device is transferred to, e.g. a computer or the like, it is not required to reduce a size of an image to be transferred or to reduce a transfer frame rate of the image to reduce the transfer time.

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 is particularly suitable for use in an image pickup apparatus capable of switching between normal resolution image pickup and high resolution image pickup.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A schematic structure of a conventional high resolution camera is shown in FIG. In the figure, 101 is an optical axis displacement portion, 10
2 is a CCD, 103 is a memory control unit, 104 is a memory,
Reference numeral 105 denotes an image signal conversion unit, 107 denotes a data transmission unit, 10
Reference numeral 8 is an overall control unit.

Further, 1 and 2 are incident lights, 3 and 4 are image data, 5 is luminance / color difference data or RGB data (hereinafter, simply referred to as luminance / color difference data), 7 is transmission data, and 8 is optical axis displacement amount. Information, 9 is address shift amount information,
Reference numeral 11 is control information.

Next, the operation of the high resolution camera configured as described above will be described. Incident light 1 is transmitted through the optical axis displacement portion 101.
At, the optical axis is subtly displaced by the displacement amount indicated by the optical axis displacement amount information 8 supplied from the overall control unit 108, and then enters the CCD 102. At this time, the address shift amount information 9 corresponding to the optical axis displacement amount information 8
Is given from the overall control unit 108 to the memory control unit 103, and the shift amount is added to the address of the memory 104.

The image data 3 obtained by the image pickup by the CCD 102 is written in the address of the memory 104 which is added according to the address shift amount information 9 by the memory control unit 103. The above operation is repeated a plurality of times by changing the optical axis displacement amount information 8 and the address shift amount information 9.

After the above-described operation is repeated as many times as necessary to obtain a high resolution image, the image data 4 is read from the memory 104 by the memory control unit 103 and supplied to the image signal conversion unit 105. It Image data 4
Is converted into luminance / color difference data 5 by the image signal conversion unit 105, converted into transmission data 7 by the data transmission unit 107, and transmitted to another device such as a computer (not shown).

Next, the principle of optical axis displacement in the optical axis displacement section 101 will be described with reference to FIG. When the light incident from the left side of FIG. 3 enters a parallel plate having a higher refractive index than that in the air, the exit angle is smaller than the incident angle. Further, when light is emitted from the parallel flat plate into the air, the emission angle is larger than the incident angle, on the contrary. As a result, a slight displacement occurs on the optical axis.

The amount of optical axis displacement is determined by the inclination of the parallel plate. Therefore, in the optical axis displacing unit 101, the parallel plate is tilted by at least one of the horizontal direction and the vertical direction by a predetermined amount, so that at least the x-axis (horizontal direction) and the y-axis (vertical direction) of the image captured by the CCD 102 are obtained. It is possible to shift the optical axis by 0.5 pixel with respect to either of the above.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a correspondence relationship between the image data 3 obtained by the image pickup by the CCD 102 and the image data 4 stored in the memory 104. Here, FIG.
4A shows the pixel array of the CCD 102, and FIG. 4B shows the pixel array in the memory 104.

In the image data taken by the pixels X1 to X12 of the CCD 102 shown in FIG. 4A, when the optical axis displacement amount is zero in both the x axis and the y axis, the memory shown in FIG. 4B. Stored in the pixel areas A1 to A12 of 104, x
When the pixel is shifted by 0.5 pixel in the axial direction, the memory 10
4 are stored in the pixel areas B1 to B12.

When shifted by 0.5 pixel in the y-axis direction, the image data is C1 to C12 in the memory 104.
Stored in the pixel region of the memory 104 and shifted by 0.5 pixels in both directions of the x-axis and the y-axis, D1 to D of the memory 104
It is stored in 12 pixel areas. In this way, the memory 10
4 stores all the image data picked up by the CCD 102 four times, and since the image data is combined by the address shift amount according to the optical axis displacement amount,
A high-resolution image that is twice as wide and long as the image is obtained.

[0012]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the data amount of the high resolution image becomes large as compared with the normal resolution. Therefore, when supplying an enormous amount of output data of such a high-resolution camera to a computer or the like, there is a problem that the transfer time becomes extremely long due to the limitation of the data transfer speed and the like. Also,
The only way to shorten the transfer time is to reduce the size of the image to be transferred or to reduce the transfer frame rate of the image.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and when a high-resolution image is taken, the image size is reduced and the image transfer frame rate is reduced. The object is to enable the output data amount to be reduced even without the need.

[0014]

An image pickup device of the present invention comprises an image pickup means for picking up images at high resolution, and a bit number reduction means for reducing the number of bits per pixel of image data obtained by using the image pickup means. It is characterized by including.

Another feature of the present invention is that any one of the normal mode and the high resolution mode, and an image pickup means having a normal mode for picking up an image at a normal resolution and a high resolution mode for picking up an image at a high resolution. And a bit number reduction unit for reducing the number of bits per pixel of the image data obtained by using the image pickup unit when the high resolution mode is selected by the resolution selection unit. It is characterized by being provided.

Another feature of the present invention is that the number-of-bits reducing means is comprised of means for obtaining the upper several bits from all the bits per pixel.

Another feature of the present invention is that it further comprises bit number selecting means for selecting the number of bits per pixel of the data generated by the bit number reducing means.

[0018]

Since the present invention comprises the above technical means, the number of bits of the image data forming each pixel is reduced and output when the amount of imaged data increases due to high-resolution imaging. It is possible to reduce the output data amount of the entire image.

According to another feature of the present invention, the number of bits per pixel of output data can be arbitrarily selected. For example, per pixel can be adjusted according to the data transfer rate from the image pickup apparatus to the computer. By determining the number of bits of, it is possible to reduce the output data amount of the entire image without degrading the image quality of the image data transferred to the computer as much as possible.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the image pickup apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG.
106 is a high-order bit acquisition unit as a bit number reduction means,
Reference numeral 109 is a resolution selection unit, and 110 is a bit number selection unit. Further, 6 is image data composed of upper bits, and 10 is acquired bit number information. The other reference numerals are the same as those shown in the conventional example of FIG.

The high-order bit acquisition unit 106 acquires the high-order bits of the luminance / color difference data 5 input from the image signal conversion unit 105 from all the bits of the data forming one pixel. In addition, the resolution selecting unit 109 selects either a normal mode for performing imaging at a normal resolution or a high resolution mode for performing imaging at a high resolution in the imaging means configured by the optical axis displacement unit 101 and the CCD 102. belongs to.

When the normal mode is selected by the resolution selection unit 109, the overall control unit 108 sets the optical axis displacement amount information 8 in which the optical axis displacement amount is zero in both the horizontal and vertical directions. And control so that imaging is performed at a normal resolution. On the other hand, when the high resolution mode is selected, the overall control unit 108 supplies different optical axis displacement amount information 8 to the optical axis displacement unit 101 so that the incident light 1
Control is performed so that imaging is performed a plurality of times while delicately shifting the optical axis of.

The bit number selection unit 110 is for selecting the number of bits per pixel of output data in the image pickup apparatus. When an arbitrary number of bits is set using this bit number selection unit 110, the overall control unit 108
Controls the upper bit acquisition unit 106 by supplying the acquired bit number information 10 corresponding to the setting to the upper bit acquisition unit 106.

Next, the operation of the image pickup apparatus of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. Here, the operation when the high resolution mode is selected by the resolution selection unit 109 will be described.

In FIG. 1, incident light 1 is an optical axis displacement portion 1
In 01, the optical axis is subtly displaced by the displacement amount indicated by the optical axis displacement amount information 8 supplied from the overall control unit 108, and then the light enters the CCD 102. At this time, the address shift amount information 9 corresponding to the optical axis displacement amount information 8 is given from the overall control unit 108 to the memory control unit 103, and the shift amount is added to the address of the memory 104.

The image data 3 obtained by the image pickup by the CCD 102 is written by the memory control unit 103 at the address of the memory 104 added according to the address shift amount information 9. The above operation is repeated a plurality of times by changing the optical axis displacement amount information 8 and the address shift amount information 9.

Then, after the above operation is repeated as many times as necessary to obtain a high-resolution image, the memory controller 103 reads the image data 4 from the memory 104 and supplies it to the image signal converter 105. It Image data 4
Is converted into luminance / color difference data 5 by the image signal conversion unit 105 and then supplied to the higher-order bit acquisition unit 106.

The high-order bit acquisition unit 106 acquires the acquired bit number information 10 supplied from the overall control unit 108 from all the bits forming each pixel of the luminance / color difference data 5 input from the image signal conversion unit 105. By obtaining the upper bits by the number of bits designated by, the image data 6 composed of the upper bits is obtained. The image data 6 composed of the upper bits is converted into transmission data 7 by the data transmission unit 107 and transmitted to another device such as a computer (not shown).

As described above, in the present embodiment, the higher bit acquisition unit 106 reduces the number of bits per pixel of image data, so that the data amount output from the data transmission unit 107 is set to the acquired bit number information 10. It can be reduced proportionally. Therefore, even when the data transfer speed is not sufficiently high, the data can be transmitted at a relatively high speed without reducing the image size or the image transfer frame rate.

In the above embodiment, the case where the upper several bits are acquired from all the bits of each pixel of the image data has been described, but the upper several bits are not necessarily required, and an arbitrary several bits are acquired. It may be configured to do so.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the bit number reducing means for reducing the number of bits per pixel of the image data obtained by the high resolution image capturing is provided, the high resolution image capturing can be performed. As a result, even when the image data amount increases, it is possible to suppress an increase in the output data amount of the image pickup apparatus. Therefore, for example, when the output data of the image pickup apparatus according to the present invention is transferred to a computer or the like, even if the data transfer rate is not sufficiently high, the transfer can be performed by reducing the number of bits per pixel according to the transfer rate. It is not necessary to reduce the size of the transferred image or the transfer frame rate of the image in order to shorten the time.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional high resolution camera.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the principle of optical axis displacement.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a storage example of image pickup data stored in a memory.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 Incident light 3, 4 Image data 5 Luminance / color difference data or RGB data 6 Image data consisting of upper bits 7 Transmission data 8 Optical axis displacement amount information 9 Address shift amount information 10 Acquired bit number information 11 Control information 101 Optical axis Displacement unit 102 CCD 103 Memory control unit 104 Memory 105 Image signal conversion unit 106 Upper bit acquisition unit 107 Data transmission unit 108 Overall control unit 109 Resolution selection unit 110 Bit number selection unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup means for picking up an image with high resolution; and a bit number reduction means for reducing the number of bits per pixel of image data obtained by using the image pickup means. 2. An image pickup unit having a normal mode for picking up an image at a normal resolution and a high resolution mode for picking up an image at a high resolution, and a resolution selecting unit for selecting one of the normal mode and the high resolution mode. And a bit number reducing unit for reducing the number of bits per pixel of image data obtained by using the image capturing unit when the high resolution mode is selected by the resolution selecting unit. 3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bit number reducing unit is configured by a unit that obtains the upper several bits from all the bits per pixel. 4. The bit number selecting unit for selecting the number of bits per pixel of the data generated by the bit number reducing unit, further comprising: Imaging device.