US 6,778,210 B1 · Image pickup apparatus with blur compensation

Abstract

An image pickup apparatus including: CCD image pickup device; a preprocess circuit for generating image signals based on output of the image pickup device; a CCD driver for controlling charge accumulation time at the image pickup device; a pickup image generating section for generating one pickup image signal by means of addition of a plurality of image signals obtained by rendering a plurality of times of consecutive exposure by controlling the CCD driver; a blur correcting section for, in generation of the pickup image, adding a plurality of image signals after compensated for relative motion among said plurality of image signals; and an image blur detecting section for detecting relative motion information among the plurality of image signals on the basis of said plurality of image signals, wherein compensation processing at the blur correcting section is performed on the detection result at the image blur detecting section.

Claims14

Dependent claims

An image pickup apparatus comprising:

an image pickup device;
image signal generation means for generating image signals based on output of the image pickup device;
accumulation time control means for controlling charge accumulation time at said image pickup device;
pickup image generation means for generating one pickup image signal by adding together a plurality of image signals obtained by rendering a plurality of consecutive exposures by controlling the accumulation time control means;
blur corrected static image taking control means for, if an exposure time longer than a predetermined value is set, dividing the exposure time into a plurality of exposure time periods each equal to or shorter than said predetermined value and for setting each of the divided exposure time periods respectively as the exposure time of each of said plurality of consecutive exposures,
motion information detection means for detecting relative motion information among the plurality of image signals based on said plurality of image signals;
and
motion compensation means for compensating relative motion among said plurality of image signals based on the detection result at said motion information detection means,
wherein said pickup image generation means adds together the plurality of image signals compensated for motion by said motion compensation means.

6 more elements

An image pickup apparatus capable of obtaining image signals of a plurality of consecutive frames with respect to one image object, said image pickup apparatus comprising:

determination means for determining whether or not a set exposure time is longer than a camera shake limit exposure time;
setting means for, if determined as longer than the camera shake limit exposure time, setting said exposure time to a charge accumulation time by which image signals of a plurality of consecutive frames can be obtained;
blur detection means for detecting relative amount of blur among image signals respectively for the plurality of consecutive frames obtained with respect to one image object;
operation means for operating vectors concerning the object image between the respective image signals among said plurality of consecutive frames on the basis of said detected blur amount and for operating amount of shift and direction thereof of the respective image signals on the basis of the vectors;
and
image generation means for generating one pickup image signal by adding together the plurality of image signals based on result of said operation.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Image pickup apparatus with blur compensation

Life of this patent

Image pickup apparatus with blur compensation

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14