Abstract: Based on image data including a whole image 91, a specified region 91a defining a part of the whole image 91, and character data 91b corresponding to the part of the whole image within the specified region 91a, an image is displayed or printed that has the character data 92b arranged near to an extracted image 92a obtained by extracting from the whole image 91 the part thereof within the specified region 91a.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus is provided with: a partial image data generator for generating a plurality of partial image data pertaining to a plurality of partial images of an object respectively, one partial image being partially overlapped another partial image in a boundary portion; a boundary image data generator for generating boundary image data pertaining to the boundary portion based on image data pertaining to the respective overlapped portions; and an image synthesizer for synthesizing the plurality of partial image data by way of the generated boundary image data to generate image data pertaining to a single image of the object.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to obtain an image capturing apparatus having a function capable of setting a focus position in a subject not only in a position in the center of a frame, with improved operability on confirmation of a focus state after an AF area is moved. In a digital camera as an example of the image capturing apparatus, an AF cursor CR on a display screen moves horizontally/vertically to change the focus point by an operation input of a four-way switch by the user. Interlockingly with the movement of the AF cursor CR, a live view AF process is executed with respect to the changed focus point. An image on the screen of the display is updated after the live view AF process, thereby displaying an image of the subject focused in the position of the designated AF cursor CR on the screen of the display.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an image capturing apparatus having a function capable of setting a focus position in a subject not only in the center of a screen, thereby improving its operability on checking of a focus state in a checking mode. At the time of reviewing a captured image, the whole captured image is not displayed on a display but, to make the user easily check a focus state, a part of the captured image is enlarged and the enlarged image is displayed in the full screen on the display. In this case, according to an image capturing pixel mode, magnification M of an image is automatically changed. For example, in a very high resolution mode of 1600×1200, the magnification M is 8. In a high resolution mode of 800×600, the magnification M is 4. In a standard mode of 640×480, the magnification M is 3.2.

Abstract: An image taking system is provided with a digital camera capable of arbitrarily designating an AF position of the subject by moving an AF cursor displayed on a liquid crystal display (LCD), and a remote controller capable of remotely operating the digital camera. On this remote controller, the position of the AF cursor displayed on the LCD of the digital camera can be changed by operating a four-button switch. Since the user can designate the AF position without touching the digital camera by operating the remote controller, position designation can be performed precisely.

Abstract: In a digital camera, an AF position can be designated by an AF cursor which is displayed on a liquid crystal display (LCD) and moves according to an operation input by the operator. At the time of recording captured image data into a memory card, information of the AF position in a whole image and an enlargement display magnification which is separately set is recorded in association with the image data. Thus, at the time of reproducing the recorded image, based on the information of the AF position and the enlargement display magnification in the memory card, desired enlargement display around the AF position as a center can be performed. As a result, convenience of the digital camera is improved.

Abstract: In an image taking apparatus in which a plurality of different types of image are previously defined to correspond to different sets of shooting conditions so that the type of an image to be taken is determined according to the shooting conditions under which the image is going to be taken, different types of image are discriminated more precisely than ever. After the type of the image is determined, the shooting conditions are still monitored so that, if a change is detected therein, the type of the image is re-determined. The type of the image is re-determined either when there has been even a slight change in the shooting conditions or when the shooting conditions have changed out of a predetermined range, and either when a change in the shooting conditions has persisted for a predetermined period of time or when the shooting conditions have become stable after a change therein.

Abstract: An automatic focusing device capable of preventing the subject to be brought into focus from falling outside the AF block due to a light image shift, comprising: an automatic focusing controller for calculating an optical physical quantity within an automatic focusing block as which an area in image data is specified, and determining the degree of focus of the image data; and a light image shift occurrence determiner for predicting or detecting the occurrence of a light image shift, wherein the automatic focusing controller changes the size of the automatic focusing block when the light image shift occurrence determiner predicts or detects the occurrence of a light image shift.

Abstract: An electronic camera adopts an image pickup and optical system of a mirror scan type in which a mirror for scanning is disposed at a forward side of a taking lens. A line image sensor relatively scans an object while rotating the mirror to perform photographing. When controlling the exposure, the taking lens is moved synchronously along with rotation of the mirror to adjust the focal position thereof each time a slender sub-image of the object is picked up by the CCD. Driving the taking lens to focus the sub-image each time of scanning the sub-image enables picking up an entirety of the object image perfectly in a focused state.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatic focusing evaluating the significance for realizing in-focus state from the image component of each focus evaluation area, improving the precision of automatic focusing control by performing the calculation by use of a larger number of pixels for an area with a higher significance, and enabling a prompt automatic focusing control, is provided with: area image extractor for extracting an area image from each of a plurality of areas set in the image; area identifier for identifying, from among the plural areas, a high-precision evaluation target area based on an image characteristic of each of the image areas obtained from the plural areas; evaluation value calculator for obtaining, for the high-precision evaluation target area among the plural areas, an evaluation value associated with focus state of the taking lens by use of a larger number of pixels than for the other areas; and controller for driving the taking lens to an in-focus position based on the evaluation value.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus automatically determines the photographing mode and displays on a display a kind of the photographing mode with the image of the subject.

Abstract: A digital camera is provided with a plurality of image-pickup modes to carry out an optimal controlling process in accordance with an image-pickup scene. With respect to mode selection settings, a switching can be made between a manual selection setting in which the user manually selects an image-pickup mode and an automatic selection setting which automatically discriminates each image-pickup scene, and selects a suitable image-pickup mode. In the case of the automatic selection setting in the mode selection setting, a limited value in comparison with a parameter value relating to the image quality set at the time of the manual selection setting is set as the parameter. As a result, even in the case of a misdiscrimination in an image-pickup scene, it is possible to provide a flawless image as the resulting image, and consequently to prevent serious degradation in the image quality.

Abstract: An automatic focusing device capable of focus detection so that the in-focus state can be adequately realized, even if the magnification changes or a camera shake occurs. The sum total of the absolute values of the differences between two pixels in an evaluation area is calculated, the sum total of the square values of the differences between the two pixels in the evaluation area is calculated, and the evaluation value is obtained based on the sum total of the absolute values of the differences and the sum total of the square values of the differences to obtain the in-focus position of the taking lens.

Abstract: A color discriminating apparatus is provided with: a luminance calculator for calculating luminance information of a picked up color image based on image data of each of a plurality of color components constituting the color image; a color information calculator for calculating color information of the color image based on image data; a first discriminator for discriminating, based on calculated color information, which the color image is chromatic or achromatic; a second discriminator for discriminating, based on calculated luminance information, which the color image is black or white when the color image is discriminated to be achromatic; and a third discriminator for discriminating, based on the calculated color information and the calculated luminance information, which of a plurality of predetermined colors the color image agrees with when the color image is discriminated to be chromatic.

Abstract: In an inventive electronic camera, when a recording button is pressed down, the name of a moving picture file corresponding to a moving picture to be recorded and the name of a folder in which this moving picture is to be saved are set, and recording of the moving picture file is started or continued. As a start button is pressed down to photograph a still picture during recording of the moving picture file, the name of a still picture file is set, an instruction is given to store the still picture file in the same folder as the moving picture folder is saved, and a connection information including a frame number of the moving picture corresponding to this still picture file is generated or renewed.

Abstract: Disclosed is an image processing apparatus capable of storing composite image data and reconstruction information of original image data used for computing operation to generate the composite image data in a state where both of the data is always associated with witch other. The format of a composite image file is divided into a tag area, a captured image recording area, and a thumbnail image recording area in which attribute information, a composite image, and a thumbnail image are recorded, respectively. Further, in the tag area, reconstruction information of the original image data used for computing operation to generate the composite image data is recorded. The reconstruction information has a pattern in which original image data is recorded as it is, a pattern in which differential data between the original image data and composite image data is recorded, and a pattern in which differential data between the original image data and another original image data is recorded.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to subject an image file outputted from a digital camera to an adding process on a personal computer without deteriorating the image quality. An image processing program installed in a personal computer reads a plurality of original image data to which a &ggr; correction process is effected in a digital camera, performs an inverse &ggr; correction process on each image data and generates a plurality of linear image data. Further, after performing an interpolation process on each linear image data, it performs a synthesis process including an adding process to generate synthesized image data. The synthesized image data is subjected to a &ggr; correction process and stored in a hard disk as a synthesize image file.

Abstract: An electronic camera is provided with an image pickup device for photoelectrically picking up a light image of an object to generate image data, an oblique angle information provider for providing information on an oblique angle between a sensing surface of the image pickup device and a surface of the object, a distance detector for detecting a distance to the object, and a corrector for correcting, based on the provided oblique angle information and the detected distance, the generated image data so as to produce a pseudo object image whose surface resides on a plane parallel with the sensing surface of the image pickup device.

Abstract: An image acquired by an image sensor is recorded, and the blur amount of the recorded image is changed in accordance with a blur amount determined beforehand.

Abstract: An image taking apparatus includes an image pick-up element which picks up a plurality of images different in photographing condition, an image memory which temporarily stores the plurality of images picked up by the image pick-up element, an image-number-specifying device which specifies the number of images to be used for creating a composed image among the plurality of images stored in the image memory, and an image composer which creates a composite image by composing images of the number of images specified by the image-number-specifying device.