Depth-of-field control apparatus and image pickup apparatus having the same therein

A depth-of-field control apparatus used with an image pickup apparatus for a television provided with at least one camera lens and at least one image pickup device, said control apparatus comprising:

• means for changing a focal point or length position of said camera lens;
• means for producing a new image signal by composing image signals corresponding to a plurality of picture images different in focal point or length position, said image signals being obtained using said means for changing a focal point or length position;
• and
• means for controlling said image composition means,
• said control means including:
• means for detecting individual powers of said image signals correspond to the plurality of picture images;
• means for comparing the individually detected powers for each minute area of the image signals with each other;
• means for detecting an area included in one of said image signals corresponding to the plurality of picture images, the individual colors of said detected area being similar to each other;
• and
• means for producing a compensated signal for images composition in accordance with a selection of an image signal with the highest power produced by said power comparing means and by the color information detected by said area detection means so that the compensated signal of the selected image signal remains the same within a continuous image area of the same color.

A depth-of-field control apparatus used with an image pickup apparatus for a television provided with at least one camera lens and one image pickup device, said control apparatus comprising:

• focal length changing means for performing a cyclic change of focal length of the camera lens among a plurality of focal length positions in synchronism with an integer multiple of a vertical scanning period of said television so that an image signal which sequentially indicates a plurality of picture images at respective focal length positions is outputted from the image pickup device;
• a plurality of image memories respectively storing the plurality of picture images sequentially outputted from the image pickup device;
• means for composing a new image signal indicating a composite picture image having an increased depth-of-field from said plurality of picture images read out from the image memories and for outputting the new image signal of the composite picture image in synchronism with the vertical scanning period of said television;
• and
• means for obtaining motion information of an object from a signal outputted from the image pickup device and for deactivating said focal length changing means when the motion information obtaining means detects the motion of said object,
• wherein the composing means stops composing the new image signal indicating the composite picture image of the increased depth-of-field and outputs an image signal indicating an image at a focal length position during the time period that the means for obtaining motion information detects the motion of the object.