Television – Camera – system and detail – With single image scanning device supplying plural color...
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-06
2002-09-10
Christensen, Andrew B. (Department: 2612)
Television
Camera, system and detail
With single image scanning device supplying plural color...
C348S272000, C348S342000, C348S345000, C348S360000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06449013
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
FIG. 1
is a block diagram which illustrates a digital electronic camera.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, reference numeral
200
represents a digital electronic camera, and
201
represents a recording medium, such as a memory card. In the digital electronic camera
200
, reference numeral
1
represents a shutter
1
also serving as a diaphragm,
2
represents an optical low pass filter, and
3
represents a drive circuit for each mechanical portion. Reference numeral
4
represents an image pickup device for converting light reflected by an object into an electric signal,
6
represents a timing signal generating circuit (hereinafter called a “TG”),
5
represents an image pickup device drive circuit for amplifying a signal transmitted by the timing signal generating circuit to a level which permits the image pickup device to be driven,
7
represents a pre-processing circuit comprising a CDS circuit for eliminating noise included in the output from the image pickup device
4
and a circuit for non-linearly amplifying the output before the output is A/D converted,
8
represents an A/D converter,
11
represents an image pickup signal processing circuit,
12
represents a signal process controlling CPU for controlling the image pickup signal processing circuit,
13
represents a CPU for controlling the mechanical portion and a control portion,
14
represents a control display portion for indicating displays for aiding operations of a user and states of the camera, and
15
represents a control portion for controlling the camera from outside. Reference numeral
18
represents a recording medium I/F (interface) for establishing the connection between the digital electronic camera
200
and the recording medium
201
.
FIG. 2
is a diagram which illustrates the image pickup signal processing circuit
11
. Reference numeral
101
represents a color separating circuit for separating the output signal from the image pickup device into color signals,
102
represents a color matrix circuit for deducing R, G and B signals from the color-separated signals,
103
represents a WB correction circuit for correcting the levels of the R, G and B signals in accordance with the color of a light source of light that irradiates the object,
104
represents a color difference signal deducing circuit for deducing color difference signal R-Y and B-Y from the corrected R, G and B signals,
105
represents a low-frequency brightness signal correction value deducing circuit for deducing a signal for correcting the color component ratio of the brightness signal from the corrected R, G and B signals,
106
represents a color-modulated-portion trapping circuit for removing a color modulation signal that overlaps the image pickup signal,
107
represents a horizontal aperture circuit for highlighting the horizontal outline,
108
represents a vertical aperture circuit for highlighting the vertical outline,
109
represents an adder for adding the signals, and
110
represents a subtractor.
FIG. 3
is a diagram which illustrates the configuration of color filters of the image pickup device
4
.
FIG. 4
is a diagram which illustrates the operation timing of the image pickup device
4
and output signals from the image pickup device
4
.
Referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
, the conventional digital electronic camera will now be described.
When a photographer controls the control portion
15
, the camera starts the photographing operation. In accordance with an intention of the photographer, a lens system (not shown) is controlled by the mechanical portion controlling CPU
13
and the mechanical system drive circuit
3
. At this time, photographing conditions and so forth are displayed on the control portion
15
so that the state of the camera is provided to the photographer. Furthermore, a light measuring circuit (not shown) measures the brightness of the object. In addition, the diaphragm value and the shutter speed of the shutter
1
also serving as a diaphragm are deduced by the mechanical portion controlling CPU
13
. In accordance with the control value deduced by the mechanical portion controlling CPU
13
, the shutter
1
also serving as a diaphragm is operated by the mechanical system drive circuit
3
. Thus, the image of the object is exposed to light and light reflected by the object is made incident upon the image pickup device
4
through a photographing lens (not shown) and the shutter
1
. The shutter
1
, at this time, limits the quantity of light incident on the image pickup device
4
. In a case where an interlace reading CCD is employed as the image pickup device, the shutter
1
prevents an adverse influence of incident light on the signal charge. The image pickup device
4
is operated in response to a drive signal obtained by amplifying the output from the timing signal generating circuit
6
by the image pickup device drive circuit
5
. The timing signal generating circuit
6
is controlled by the signal process controlling CPU
12
. The output from the image pickup device
4
thus operated is supplied to the pre-processing circuit
7
. The pre-processing circuit
7
performs a CDS (Correlated Double Sampling) process and a process for forming the picked up image into a non-linear shape for the purpose of effectively using the dynamic range of the A/D converter. The output denoting the pickup image is converted into a digital signal by the A/D converter
8
, the digital signal being then supplied to the image pickup signal processing circuit
11
. The image pickup signal processing circuit
11
performs a predetermined brightness signal process and a color signal process to be described later. Then, a process for converting the processed signal into a predetermined format (not shown) is performed, and the processed signal is recorded on the recording medium
20
through the I/F
18
for the recording medium.
The image pickup signal processing circuit
11
receives the output signal transmitted from the image pickup device thus A/D converted. The image pickup device has a color filter configuration as shown in
FIG. 3
in which Mg (magenta), G (green), Y
1
(yellow) and Cy (cyan) are disposed on each pixel. For example, field
1
is made to be an ODD field and field
2
is made to be an EVEN field. The two fields are read while interlacing one line and two lines are simultaneously read. Thus, the output from the image pickup device is formed into a signal obtained by linear-sequentially forming dot sequential signals (Mg+Y
1
) and (G+Cy) and dot sequential signals (G+Y
1
) and (Mg+Cy). The foregoing state is shown in FIG.
4
. Referring to
FIG. 4
, (
1
) shows a vertical synchronizing signal, (
3
) shows a transference pulse for transferring each pixel signal to the vertical shift register in a case where the interline CCD is used and (
4
) shows the output signal from the CCD. In the image pickup signal processing circuit
11
, the image signal is, by the color separating circuit
101
, is separated into color signals c
1
(a line sequential signal of (Mg+Y
1
) and (G+Y
1
)) and c
2
(a line sequential signal (G+Cy) and (Mg+Cy)). The separated signals are linearly coincided by the color matrix circuit
102
and are converted into pure color signals R
0
, G
0
and B
0
by matrix calculations before they are supplied to the WB correction circuit
103
. In the WB correction circuit
103
, the color temperature of light source light that irradiates the object is corrected in response to a WB control signal supplied from the signal process controlling CPU
12
. The corrected RGB signals are used to cause the color difference signal deducing circuit
104
to deduce the color difference signals R-Y and B-Y. The low-frequency brightness signal correction value deducing circuit
105
deduces correction signal YL in accordance with the RGB signals, the correction signal YL being used to correct the ratio of color components that
Nakazato Saburo
Suzuki Masao
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