Image sensing device

An image forming device comprising:

• an optical unit;
• a two-dimensional image sensor which captures an image projected thereon by said optical unit to generate image data;
• a direction control unit comprising a drive mechanism for driving a housing accommodating said optical unit and said two-dimensional image sensor in a predetermined direction to a predetermined angle, to thereby control the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit;
• an image combining unit which combines a plurality of images captured by said two-dimensional image sensor to form a composite image of a target image;
• an image plane format setting unit which sets the target image sensing range to be captured;
• and
• an operation control unit which calculates the number of images captured by said two-dimensional image sensor and the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit capturing said images from a target image sensing range set by said image plane format setting unit, and controls said direction control unit, said two-dimensional image sensor, and said image combining unit based on said calculation results.

An image forming device comprising:

• an optical unit;
• a two-dimensional image sensor which captures an image projected thereon by said optical unit;
• a direction control unit which controls the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit;
• an image combining unit which combines a plurality of images captured by said two-dimensional image sensor to form a composite image of a target image;
• and
• an operation control unit which controls said direction control unit, said two-dimensional image sensor, and said image combining unit,
• wherein said operation control unit controls said direction control unit to sequentially move the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit toward the center of each area of a target image divided into a plurality of areas, so as to capture the image of each area by said two-dimensional image sensor, and captures an a separate image near the adjacent area of at least two mutually adjacent areas among the areas of said divided target image as a reference image, and combines a plurality of captured images by said image combining unit while referring to said separate reference image to produce a composite image of the entire target image.

A method for sensing an image, comprising the steps of:

• projecting an image on a two-dimensional image sensing device by means of an optical unit having at least two focal lengths;
• selecting either a standard image sensing mode or a high resolution image sensing mode;
• setting the focal length of said optical unit at a first focal length, and capturing the entire image via said sensing device when said standard image sensing mode is selected by said mode selector;
• and
• when the high resolution image sensing mode is selected, capturing a reference image of the entire target image sensing range with the focal length of said optical unit set at said first focal length, and setting the focal length of said optical unit at a second focal length longer than said first focal length, sequentially moving the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit toward the center of each area of a target image capture range which has been divided into a plurality of areas, capturing the image of each said area via said sensing device, and combining said plurality of captured images with reference to said reference image to produce a high resolution composite image of the entire target image.

A method for forming an image, comprising the steps of:

• capturing an image projected on a two-dimensional image sensing device by an optical unit;
• sequentially moving the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit toward the center of each area of a target image divided into a plurality of areas, so as to capture the image of each area by said two-dimensional image sensing device;
• capturing a separate image near the adjacent area of at least two mutually adjacent areas among the areas of said divided target image as a reference image;
• and
• combining a plurality of captured images while referring to said separate reference image to produce a composite image of the target image.

An image forming device comprising:

• an optical unit having at least two focal lengths;
• a focal length control unit which changes the focal length of said optical unit;
• a two-dimensional image sensor which captures an image projected thereon by said optical unit to generate image data;
• a direction control unit which controls the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit;
• an image combining unit which combines a plurality of images captured by said two-dimensional image sensor to form a composite image of a target image;
• an image plane format setting unit which sets the target image sensing range to be captured;
• and
• an operation control unit which controls said focal length control unit, said direction control unit, said two-dimensional image sensor, and said image combining unit based upon a target image capturing range set by said image plane format setting unit to produce an image plane exceeding the image sensing region at a first focal length on the short focal length side.

A method for forming an image, comprising the steps of:

• projecting an image on a two-dimensional image sensor by means of an optical unit having at least two focal lengths;
• setting a target image sensing range to be captured;
• setting the focal length of said optical unit;
• controlling the direction of the optical axis of said optical unit based on said target image sensing range;
• capturing each of said images in said target image sensing range;
• and
• combining the images captured by said two-dimensional image sensor to produce an image plane exceeding the image sensing region at a first focal length on a short focal length side.