Image analysis – Applications – 3-d or stereo imaging analysis
Reexamination Certificate
1995-07-31
2001-05-22
Mehta, Bhavesh (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Applications
3-d or stereo imaging analysis
C348S047000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06236748
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound-eye image pickup device utilizing an imaging optical system including plural image sensor devices and plural lenses.
2. Related Background Art
For the purpose of generating a wide panoramic image or a high definition image, there is recently proposed a compound-eye image pickup device provided with plural image pick-up systems, each composed of an imaging optical system and an image sensor device and adapted to take the image of a common object, whereby a synthesized image is generated from image signals obtained from the image sensor devices.
For obtaining a panoramic image, there is known a method of simultaneously taking plural images in an object field with plural image pickup systems, then extracting a same object present in different images and connecting the images based on the relative positional information of said object in the images, thereby generating a synthesized panoramic image.
Also for obtaining a high definition image, there is known a method of extracting a same object present in different images in a similar manner as in the panoramic image formation, and effecting interpolation based on the relative positional information of said object in the images, thereby generating anew a high definition image. An image pickup device based on the above-mentioned principle is provided, as shown in
FIG. 1
, with a left-hand side image pickup system
10
L and a right-hand side image pickup system
10
R which are used to take the image of an object
11
, and a left image I
L
obtained by the left-hand side image pickup system
10
L and a right image I
R
obtained by the right-hand side image pickup system
10
R are subjected in an image processing unit
12
, to extraction of corresponding points and synthesis, whereby an output image I
out
of a higher definition in comparison with the case of taking the object with a single image pickup system.
However, the above-mentioned method of obtaining the synthesized panoramic image by extracting the same object present in different images and connecting the different images based on the relative positional information of the object in the images has been associated with a drawback of requiring a very long time in acquiring the relative positional information mentioned above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In consideration of the foregoing, a first object of the present invention is to provide a compound-eye image pickup device in which the range for searching said relative positional information is limited to a partial region of the image, based on the information on the arrangement of the image pickup device and the image taking parameters.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a compound-eye image pickup device in which the above-mentioned searching range is set, in consideration of the individual difference, for example in the image pickup parameters, of the plural image pickup systems, to a region not affected by the individual difference plus an additional region in consideration of an error resulting from the individual difference.
The above-mentioned objects can be attained, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, by a compound-eye image pickup device comprising plural image pickup systems, search means for searching mutually corresponding pair points from plural images obtained from the image pickup systems, and search range determination means for determining the range to be searched by said search means from image pickup parameters of the plural image pickup systems.
Also according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, said search range determination means is adapted to set the search range by selecting a range determined from the image pickup parameters as a basic range and adding a marginal range based on the individual difference of the plural image pickup systems.
A third object of the present invention is, in effecting matching operation for synthesizing plural images, to enable determination of corresponding points in the entire area, where the corresponding points can exist, in a reference image, and to enable calculation of similarity in the entire area of the image to be searched, thereby improving the precision of extraction of corresponding points.
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Iijima Katsumi
Kondo Toshiaki
Mori Katsuhiko
Yano Kotaro
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Mehta Bhavesh
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