Imaging apparatus and method having enhanced moire reduction

An image inputting apparatus including, an optical system for gathering incident light from a subject, a solid state imaging device, and an image shifting device for shifting an optical path incident upon the solid state imaging device, the image shifting device being capable of acquiring a first image with a first resolution determined by a pixel number rating of the solid state imaging device and a second image with a second resolution being higher than the first resolution, the second image being produced by synthesizing a plurality of images resulting from image shifting of predetermined amounts,

• the image inputting apparatus comprising:
• moving vector-operating means for operating a moving vector based on at least two frames of image information inputted to the solid state imaging device at a predetermined interval;
• moire-removing means for removing moire-related image information from the incident image and for controlling the image shifting device to lower a spatial frequency of oscillation of the image;
• and
• control means for cooperating with the moving vector-operating means when the first image with the first resolution is inputted to activate the moire-removing means when the moving vector is smaller than a predetermined amount, or to deactivate the moire-removing means when the moving vector is larger than the predetermined amount.

An image inputting apparatus including, an optical system for gathering incident light from a subject, a solid state imaging device, and an image shifting device for shifting an optical path incident upon the solid state imaging device, the image shifting device being capable of acquiring a first image with a first resolution determined by a pixel number rating of the solid state imaging device and a second image with a second resolution being higher than the first resolution, the second image produced by synthesizing a plurality of images resulting from image shifting of predetermined amounts,

• the image inputting apparatus comprising:
• movement-detecting means for detecting movement of the image inputting apparatus;
• moire-detecting means for removing moire-related image information from the incident image and for controlling the image shifting device to lower a spatial frequency of oscillation of the image;
• and
• control means for responding to an output of the movement-detecting means when the image with a first resolution is inputted, and for activating the moire-removing means when the amount of movement of the image inputting apparatus is smaller than a predetermined amount, or deactivating the moire-removing means when the amount of movement of the image inputting apparatus is larger than the predetermined amount.

A method of inputting image data comprising the steps of:

• gathering light from a subject to acquire a first image having a first resolution;
• shifting an optical path incident upon a solid state imaging device to capture a plurality of images of the subject;
• synthesizing the plurality of images through a correlation function to produce a second image from the plurality of images, the second image having a second resolution higher resolution than the first resolution;
• transforming unreduced moire data in any of said images into reduced moire data;
• comparing the unreduced moire data to the reduced moire data to detect the presence or absence of moire distortion;
• and
• controlling a moire-distortion reducer to remove or reduce the moire data of one of said images if the presence of moire distortion is detected in the comparing step such that moire-distortion reduction occurs, as needed, to improve power consumption.