Image capture apparatus with a color property control function and image capture program
AssigneeCasio Computer Co., Ltd.
InventorYoshiyuki Kato
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Color temperature is calculated on the basis of image data captured by a CCD. An appropriate exposure value is calculated on the basis of a brightness component of the image data. It is determined whether or not LEDs should emit auxiliary lights to obtain the appropriate exposure value. When it is determined that the LEDs are required to emit, light quantity of the combined light to be emitted by the LEDs is calculated. The light quantities of the respective LEDs are set such that the emission ratio of the LEDs corresponds to the calculated color temperature. The LEDs emit the lights at the set light quantities. The captured image is adjusted based on the calculated color temperature.
Claims13
An image capture apparatus comprising:
- an image capture unit configured to capture an image of an object and output image data;
- a light emitting unit comprising light emitting elements configured to respectively emit lights of different colors;
- an obtaining unit configured to obtain a color property of a light source irradiating the object;
- a first calculation unit configured to calculate an appropriate exposure value based on a brightness component of the image data output from the image capture unit;
- a second calculation unit configured to calculate a combined light quantity to be emitted by the light emitting elements based on the appropriate exposure value calculated by the first calculation unit;
- a first emission controller configured to control the light emitting unit based on the combined light quantity calculated by the second calculation unit and such that a color of the lights of different colors emitted by the light emitting elements matches the color property of the light source obtained by the obtaining unit;
- a white balance unit configured to perform a white balance adjustment such that a white balance of the image data output from the image capture unit is adjusted based on the color property of the light source obtained by the obtaining unit;
- and
- a control unit configured to:
- store image data subjected to the white balance adjustment by the white balance unit into a storage unit when the combined light quantity calculated by the second calculation unit is smaller than a quantity of an external light, and
- store the image data output from the image capture unit into the storage unit without being subjected to the white balance adjustment by the white balance unit when the combined light quantity calculated by the second calculation unit is not smaller than the quantity of the external light.
A computer readable recording medium having a computer program stored thereon that is executable by a computer of an image capture apparatus which comprises an image capture unit configured to capture an image of an object and output image data and a light emitting unit having light emitting elements configured to respectively emit lights of different colors, said program controlling the image capture apparatus to perform functions comprising:
- capturing the image of the object and outputting the image data;
- obtaining a color property of a light source irradiating the object;
- calculating an appropriate exposure value based on a brightness component of the image data output from the image capture unit;
- calculating a combined light quantity to be emitted by the light emitting elements based on the calculated appropriate exposure value;
- controlling the light emitting unit based on the calculated combined light quantity and such that a color of the lights of different colors emitted by the light emitting elements matches the obtained color property of the light source;
- and
- performing a white balance adjustment such that a white balance of the image data output from the image capture unit is adjusted based on the obtained color property of the light source;
- wherein when the calculated combined light quantity is smaller than a quantity of an external light, controlling to store image data subjected to the white balance adjustment based on the obtained color property of the light source into a storage unit;
- and
- wherein when the calculated combined light quantity is not smaller than the quantity of the external light, controlling to store the image data output from the image capture unit into the storage unit without subjecting the image data to the white balance adjustment based on the obtained color property of the light source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.