Image processing apparatus, and method, for providing special effect
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorTatsuo Makii
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image processing apparatus includes an image obtaining unit configured to perform an image obtaining operation to obtain a plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time, a storage unit configured to temporarily store each of the plurality of frames of image data obtained by the image obtaining unit during the image obtaining operation, and an arithmetic operation control unit configured to perform an image combination process using the plurality of frames of image data sequentially stored in the storage unit during the image obtaining operation to generate combined-image data, the combined-image data being used as data used for display.
Claims18
An image processing apparatus, comprising:
- an image obtaining unit configured to perform an image obtaining operation to obtain a plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time;
- a storage unit configured to temporarily store each of the plurality of frames of image data obtained by the image obtaining unit during the image obtaining operation;
- and
- an arithmetic operation control unit configured to perform an image combination process using the plurality of frames of image data stored in the storage unit during the image obtaining operation to generate combined-image data, the combined-image data being used as data used for display,
- wherein the arithmetic operation control unit assigns a high weighting coefficient to at least a first frame of the frames of image data and a low weighting coefficient to at least a second frame of the frames of image data and then combines at least the weighted frames of the image data to generate the combined-image data,
- wherein the at least first frame to which the high weighting coefficient is assigned and the at least second frame to which the low weighting coefficient is assigned are each determined from the frames of image data based on a selection of a flash effect desired in the combined-image data, and
- wherein the image combination process is performed when a live-image combination mode has been selected by a user via a screen displaying an image of a corresponding long-time exposure effect.
An image processing method, comprising:
- obtaining a plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time;
- temporarily storing each of the plurality of obtained frames of image data;
- performing an image combination process using the plurality of sequentially stored frames of image data to generate combined-image data,
- wherein the image combination process includes assigning a high weighting coefficient to at least a first frame of the frames of image data and a low weighting coefficient to at least a second frame of the frames of image data and then combining at least the weighted frames of image data to generate the combined-image data, the at least first frame to which the high weighting coefficient is assigned and the at least second frame to which the low weighting coefficient is assigned being determined from the frames of image data based on a selected flash effect desired in the combined-image data;
- and
- outputting the combined-image data as data used for display,
- wherein the image combination process is performed when a live-image combination mode has been selected by a user via a screen displaying an image of a corresponding long-time exposure effect.
A processor encoded with a computer program for executing an image processing method, the image processing method comprising:
- obtaining a plurality of frames of image data having continuity in time;
- temporarily storing each of the plurality of obtained frames of image data;
- performing an image combination process using the plurality of sequentially stored frames of image data to generate combined-image data,
- wherein the image combination process includes assigning a high weighting coefficient to at least a first frame of the frames of image data and a low weighting coefficient to at least a second frame of the frames of image data and then combining at least the weighted frames of image data to generate the combined-image data, the at least first frame to which the high weighting coefficient is assigned and the at least second frame to which the low weighting coefficient is assigned being determined from the frames of image data based on a selected flash effect desired in the combined-image data;
- and
- outputting the combined-image data as data used for display,
- wherein the image combination process is performed when a live-image combination mode has been selected by a user via a screen displaying an image of a corresponding long-time exposure effect.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.