Abstract: An image capturing device which continuously captures images having high sensitivity and high resolution and synthesizes the continuously-captures images when lighting is very dark or when a luminance value of an object is small, the image capturing device including: an image capturing unit which receives light from the object and generates an image in which the object is captured; a continuously-captured-image synthesizing unit which generates a synthesized continuously-captured image in which the object is captured, by synthesizing two or more images temporally continuously captured by the image capturing unit; and a parameter setting unit which sets a shutter speed at which each of the two or more images is captured, according to the luminance value of the object and a speed of the object.

Abstract: An image pickup device includes an image pickup element; a lens optical system including a focus lens; a driving section for driving one of the image pickup element and the focus lens so as to change a distance between the image pickup element and the focus lens; a displacement control section configured to output an instruction to the driving section to control displacement of the image pickup element or the focus lens which is driven, based on a prescribed displacement pattern; and a synchronization section configured to control the displacement control section based on timing for exposing the image pickup element.

Abstract: An image processing device includes: a first band limiting unit that reduces noise included in an input image; and a restoring unit, wherein the restoring unit has a difference calculating unit that calculates a difference between the input image and a noise-reduced image, a predicted noise obtaining unit that obtains a predicted noise amount to be included in the input image, a correction signal generating unit that generates a correction signal for correcting the noise-reduced image and controlling an absolute value of the difference between the input image and the noise-reduced image within a range of the predicted noise amount, and an image synthesizing unit that corrects the noise-reduced image based on the correction signal.

Abstract: The present invention has an object to provide an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of, when reducing a blur in an input image, (i) reducing noise included in the input image and (ii) restraining degradation of the image caused by noise processing from being emphasized by image restoration processing. An image processing apparatus (100) for reducing a blur in an input image includes: a noise processing unit (10) which performs noise processing that reduces noise to the input image, to generate a noise-processed image; and a restoration processing unit (20) which performs image restoration processing that reduces a blur to the noise-processed image, the noise processing unit (10) performing the noise processing based on a characteristic of the image restoration processing.

Abstract: An image capturing apparatus includes: an imaging device which receives incident light through an optical system, and converts the received light into image data of an image; a memory which stores the image data converted; a motion detecting unit which detects a motion of the image capturing apparatus during an exposure period; an image generating unit which generates an image indicating the detected motion; and a display control unit which causes the display unit to display the generated image.

Abstract: An image processing device extracts, in an image block selection section 226, a plurality of image block pairs from a degraded image and a provisional restored image, each of the image block pairs being formed by two image blocks at identical coordinates in the degraded image and the provisional restored image, and estimates a point spread function (PSF) for each of the image block pairs. From among the estimated PSFs, a PSF which is estimated to be close to a true PSF is selected as a candidate PSF. The estimation of the PSF is carried out on a block-by-block basis, whereby the amount of computation required for the estimation of the PSF can be reduced. Also, the estimation method used is not disturbed by an image block which includes noise, and therefore, a PSF which is close to the true PSF can be estimated.

Abstract: An image processing device (36) which performs blur correction on an input picture captured through a follow shot of a subject, and includes: a blur estimation unit (32) which estimates a direction and size of a blur in each of a plurality of regions in the input picture; a clustering unit (33) which performs clustering of the regions based on a similarity of the regions in at least one of the estimated direction and size of the blur; a subject region identification unit (34) which identifies at least one cluster corresponding to the subject, from among a plurality of clusters obtained through the clustering; and a blur correction unit (35) which performs blur correction on a region belonging to the identified cluster, based on the estimated direction and size of the blur.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus is provided which includes: a feature calculation unit which calculates feature quantities of respective pixels included in an input image; a reliability level obtaining unit which obtains reliability level information indicating reliability levels of respective depth values indicating depths of the respective pixels; and a depth correction unit which corrects the depth values included in input depth information, using the reliability levels and the feature quantities, to generate output depth information.

Abstract: This image processor 10 includes: an input interface 11 that receives first and second images, on one of which the position of the subject has shifted in a particular direction from the position on the other; a color image generating section 13a that generates a color image in which the pixel values of respective pixels of the first and second images are used as the values of first and second colors, respectively; a decision section 13b that calculates an index value indicating the degree of color shift between the first and second colors in the color image and that determines, based on the index value, whether or not the first and second images match each other; and an image moving section 13c that performs, if the decision has been made that the first and second images do not match each other, the processing of making the second image closer to the first image by replacing the pixel value of each pixel of the second image with the pixel value of a pixel that is adjacent to the former pixel in the particular

Abstract: An image sensor 2 includes: a photoelectric conversion layer 1d including a plurality of photosensitive cells; a reflective layer 1c that reflects light that has been transmitted through the photoelectric conversion layer 1d; a micro lens layer 1a that includes a plurality of micro lenses that are arranged between the photoelectric conversion layer 1d and the reflective layer 1c; and a transmitted light controlling layer 1b that is arranged between the photoelectric conversion layer 1d and the reflective layer 1c and that is able to change optical transmittance in accordance with an instruction given by a controller. The micro lens layer 1a is arranged so that light that has been transmitted through one of the photosensitive cells and then reflected from the reflective layer 1c is incident on the same photosensitive cell again.

Abstract: This solid-state image sensor includes an array of photosensitive cells and an array of dispersive elements. The photosensitive cell array is comprised of a plurality of unit blocks 40, each including four photosensitive cells 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d. An optical filter 11a is arranged to cover those photosensitive cells 2a through 2d. A portion of the optical filter 11a that covers the photosensitive cells 2a and 2b is located closer to the imaging area than another portion thereof that covers the photosensitive cells 2c and 2d.

Abstract: An image capture device of the present invention includes: a plurality of image sensors (310a, 310b); an optical element (light entrance section) 315 which is configured to allow incoming light to sequentially impinge on the respective image sensors (310a, 310b) according to a time-coded pattern during the exposure time; a camera shake detection section 345 for detecting camera shake which occurs during the exposure time to generate camera shake information that represents a trajectory of the camera shake; and an image processing section 220 for processing the plurality of images obtained by the plurality of image sensors (310a, 310b).

Abstract: This solid-state image sensor includes an array of photosensitive cells and an array of dispersive elements. The photosensitive cell array is comprised of a plurality of unit blocks 40, each including four photosensitive cells 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d. A condensing element 4c is further arranged to cover the photosensitive cells 2a and 2b and condenses incoming light onto the photosensitive cells 2a and 2b.

Abstract: The grayscale of an input signal is converted without amplifying noise components thereof. A grayscale conversion portion performs grayscale conversion on an input signal IS to create a converted signal TS, a noise reduction degree determining portion determines a noise reduction degree NR that expresses a strength of noise reduction processing to be applied to the converted signal based on the input signal IS and the converted signal TS, and a noise reducing portion executes noise reduction processing on the converted signal TS based on the noise reduction degree NR. By doing this, it is possible to convert the grayscale of the input signal without enhancing the noise.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a storage unit storing a first transform parameter corresponding to a first picture and information about an initial region; a transform parameter calculation unit calculating a second transform parameter according to an image-capture environment for a second picture; and a first picture transform unit transforming at least one of the first and second pictures using the first and second transform parameters. Additionally, a tracking processing unit tracks the images of the target by searching for a region having an amount of characteristics that is close to an amount of characteristics of the initial region; a second picture transform unit transforms the second picture using a third transform parameter having less variation between pictures successively captured than the second transform parameter; and an output unit outputs a search result and a picture obtained through the transformation by the second picture transform unit.

Abstract: Blur correction device (100) includes: a blur information generation unit (203) which generates blur information based on sensor data indicating camera motion; a blur correction unit (204) which corrects blur in a captured image, based on the blur information, to generate a candidate corrected image; an evaluation value calculation unit (205) which calculates an evaluation value indicating a blur correction level for the candidate corrected image; a termination judgment unit (206) which judges whether the blur correction should be terminated, based on a predetermined condition; and a blur information updating unit which updates the blur information, when the blur correction should not be terminated. When the blur information is updated, the blur correction unit (204) corrects the blur, based on the updated blur information, to generate a new candidate corrected image.

Abstract: A kernel estimation section (222) of an image processing device of the present invention is configured such that, when performing estimation of a blur kernel based on a contracted degraded image that has a first resolution, the kernel estimation section performs the estimation based on an initial value of a blur kernel that has a resolution corresponding to the first resolution. Thereafter, when performing estimation of a blur kernel based on a contracted degraded image that has a second resolution that is higher than the first resolution, the kernel estimation section performs the estimation based on an initial value of a blur kernel that has a resolution corresponding to the second resolution.

Abstract: An image-capturing device of the present invention includes an image-capturing element 10 including a plurality of light-sensing cells arranged on an image-capturing surface; an optical system (14, 20) for forming a first image which is in focus on an image-capturing surface 10a in a first state and forming a second image which is out of focus on the image-capturing surface 10a in a second state; and an image processing section 220 for processing a signal obtained from the image-capturing element 10. The image processing section 220 includes a camera-shake blur removing section for generating a restored image obtained by reducing camera-shake blur from an image obtained by the image-capturing element 10 in the second state.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for motion blur and ghosting prevention in imaging system is presented. A residue image is computed by performing spatial-temporal filter with a set of absolute image difference of image pairs from input images. A noise adaptive pixel threshold is computed for every pixel based on noise statistics of image sensor. The residue image and the noise adaptive pixel threshold are used to create a motion masking map. The motion masking map is used to represent motion and non-motion pixels in pixels merging. The pixels merging step is performed to generate an output image by considering the motion pixels where the motion pixels are performed separately. The resulting output image having no or less motion blur and ghosting artifacts can be obtained, even the input images having different degree of motion blur between each of the image, while the complexity is low. It is preferred that the current invention is applied in the Bayer raw domain.

Abstract: An image capture device of the present invention includes: a first image capture element 10A and a second image capture element 10B; and an optical system which is capable of forming a first image which is in focus on an image capture plane of the first image capture element 10A and forming a second image which is out of focus on an image capture plane of the second image capture element 10B. An image processing section 220 processes a signal obtained from the first image capture element 10A and a signal obtained from the second image capture element 10B and produces a restored image from an image obtained by the second image capture element 10B, the restored image having reduced camera shake blur and reduced out-of-focus blur.