Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Akihiro Maenaka

Haruhiko Murata

Yukio Mori

Toshiya Iinuma

Seiji Okada

Toshiyuki Okino

Masao Takuma

Kiyotada Kawakami

Susumu Tanase

Toru Asaeda

Akio Kobayashi

Toshinobu Haruki

Ryuhei Amano

Hidefumi Okada

Shugo Yamashita

Tooru Asaeda

Tooru Yamamoto

Norikazu Tsunekawa

Hirokazu Ide

Hidekazu Uchida

Takeshi Hachiya

Takashi Ikeda

Shigeyuki Okada

Mitsuaki Kurokawa

Haruo Hatanaka

Shigekazu Minechika

Minoru Takahashi

Hideto Fujita

Takahisa Ando

Syugo Yamashita

Satoru Takeuchi

Daisuke Takemori

Makoto Yamanaka

Masahiko Yoshiyama

Toru Yamamoto

Kanzi Ihara

Satoshi Iue

Kanji Ihara

Shuugo Yamashita

An imaging device () includes: an imaging element () which outputs a signal expressing an optical image of an imaging object upon an imaging process; a particular object detection unit () which successively acquires a frame image based on an output signal of the imaging element and detects the position of the particular object contained in the imaging object on the frame image according to the image signal of the frame image; a cut-out unit () which sets in the frame image, a cut-out region smaller than the entire region of the frame image according to the detected position and extracts the image in the cut-out region as a cut-out image; and an image quality compensation unit () which improves the resolution of the cut-out image.

Imaging device and image reproduction device for correcting images

A super-resolution processing portion has a high-resolution image generation portion that fuses a plurality of first input images together to generate a high-resolution image. The first input images are shot at a shutter speed equal to or faster than the super-resolution limit shutter speed, which is the lower-limit shutter speed that enables super-resolution processing to make the resolution of the output image equal to or higher than that of the input images. According to the amount of exposure, one of the following different methods for super-resolution processing is selected: a first method that yields as the output image the high-resolution image; a second method that yields as the output image a weighted added image resulting from weighted addition of the high-resolution image and an image based on an averaged image; and a third method that yields as the output image a weighted added image resulting from weighted addition of the high-resolution image and an image based on a second input image.

Image-shooting apparatus capable of performing super-resolution processing

Provided is an imaging device comprising means for binning by adding up and reading out pixel signals from a plurality of pixels arranged in a first direction and a second direction of a pixel arrangement of an imaging element. The imaging device is provided with first means for changing a combination pattern of added pixel signals on a per-frame basis, and second means for generating image signals for one frame based on added signals from plural frames having different combination patterns.

Imaging device and video signal generating method employed in imaging device

A frame rate converting apparatus includes a pan/tilt determining unit which determines whether an image is in a pan/tilt state on the basis of information related to motion of the image detected by a motion detecting unit for each frame of a moving image, a moving distance setting unit which sets 0 as a moving distance of an image with respect to a frame the image of which is not determined as an image in a pan/tilt state by the pan/tilt determining unit, which calculates a moving distance of an image from the information related to the motion of the image detected by the motion detecting unit with respect to a frame the image of which is determined as an image in a pan/tilt state, and which sets the obtained moving distance as a moving distance of the image, and a prediction image generating unit which generates a prediction image necessary for frame rate conversion on the basis of the moving distance of the image set for each frame by the moving distance setting unit.

Frame rate converting apparatus, pan/tilt determining apparatus, and video apparatus

Assuming that an original pixel adjacent to a first original pixel and opposite to a second original pixel is a third original pixel, and an original pixel adjacent to the second original pixel and opposite to the first original pixel is a fourth original pixel, and letting dbe pixel data on the first original pixel, dbe pixel data on the second original pixel, dbe pixel data on the third original pixel, and dbe pixel data on the fourth original pixel, a first edge component E is calculated on the basis of an equation for operation E=&#x2212;d+d+d&#x2212;din the first step, and a second edge component Es is calculated on the basis of an equation for operation Es=|d+d&#x2212;d&#x2212;d

Image interpolating method

In a motion detecting device, with respect to a target pixel for which detection of motion is going to be performed, the threshold value to be used by comparator circuitsandis varied based on the difference of image data between two pixels vertically adjacent to the target pixel. The comparator circuitcompares the difference, between two fields, of the image data of the target pixel with the threshold value, and the comparator circuitcompares the differences, between two fields, of the image data of the two pixels vertically adjacent to the target pixel with the threshold value. An adder circuitadds together the comparison results with weights assigned thereto, and the detection of motion is performed based on the resulting sum.

Motion detecting device

An image interpolating method for interpolating a pixel at an intermediate position between a first original pixel and a second original pixel adjacent to the first original pixel, comprising a first step of calculating an edge component for judging whether or not an interpolated pixel is positioned in the vicinity of an edge position of original image data, a second step of determining a range where pixel data on the interpolated pixel is settable on the basis of the calculated edge component and pixel data on the first and second original pixels, and a third step of selecting a plurality of sets of opposed pixels between which the interpolated pixel is sandwiched diagonally, and determining, for each of the sets, the pixel data on the interpolated pixel in a case where a correlation value represented by the sum of the absolute values of the differences between the pixel data on the interpolated pixel and pixel data on the opposed pixels is the minimum in the range where the pixel data on the interpolated pixel is settable and the minimum correlation value.

In a contour correcting circuit that generates, on the basis of respective signals for a plurality of pixels including the pixel to be corrected at the center and arranged in a particular direction, a contour correction signal for the pixel to be corrected, there are provided contour component production means for producing a contour component for the pixel to be corrected depending on the gradient of the change among the respective signals for the plurality of pixels arranged in the particular direction; gain calculation means for calculating, on the basis of the level difference between the signal for the pixel to be corrected and the signal for the pixel adjacent in the particular direction to the pixel to be corrected, such a gain for correction that the larger the level difference is, the smaller the gain becomes; multiplication means for multiplying the contour component produced by the contour component production means by the gain for correction calculated by the gain calculation means; and addition means for adding the results of the multiplication by the multiplication means to the signal for the pixel to be corrected, to generate the contour correction signal for the pixel to be corrected.

Contour correcting circuit and contour correcting method

In an image processing device, an edge detecting circuitproduces edge signals that represent edge components present in image signals, and an adder circuitsuperimposes the edge signals on the image signals to produce edge-enhanced image signals. The image signals before edge enhancement are fed to a range setting circuitso that, based on the image signals preceding and following a target image signal that is about to be processed by a clipper, a range in which the data value of the target image signal is allowed to vary is set. Based on the range of data values thus set by the range setting circuit, the clipperclips the data values of the edge-enhanced image data.

Clipping circuit and image processing device employing such a clipping circuit

A perspective image characteristic value is extracted from a 2D input image signal for each of plural parallax calculation regions defined in a one-field screen on a field-by-field basis. Parallax information per predetermined unit area of the one-field screen is generated by using the perspective image characteristic value extracted per parallax calculation region. A first image signal and a second image signal are generated from a signal of the 2D input image signal which resides in each predetermined unit area, the first and second image signals having a horizontal phase difference therebetween based on the parallax information on the predetermined unit area.

Device and method for converting two-dimensional video into three-dimensional video

A left eye image signal and a right eye image signal which constitute a three-dimensional image are produced from a two-dimensional image signal. The horizontal phase of the produced left eye image signal is shifted, and the horizontal phase of the produced right eye image signal is shifted. Character signals are respectively mixed with the left eye image signal and the right eye image signal. A composite image comprising the three-dimensional image and the character signal is displayed on the basis of the left eye image signal with which the character signal is mixed and the right eye image signal with which the character signal is mixed.

Three-dimensional image display device

In the present invention, two-dimensional images are converted into three-dimensional images by producing from a two-dimensional image signal a main image signal and a sub-image signal delayed from the main image signal. A field delay indicating how many fields are there from a field corresponding to the main image signal to a field corresponding to the sub-image signal is changed depending on the speed of the horizontal movement of the main image signal. The upper limit of the field delay is determined on the basis of vertical components of motion vectors detected from the main image signal. The field delay is so determined that it is not more than the determined upper limit.

Method of converting two-dimensional images into three-dimensional images

The present invention relates to a method of converting two-dimensional images into three-dimensional images. In the present invention, a right eye image signal and a left eye image signal between which there is relatively a time difference or a luminance difference are produced from a two-dimensional image signal, thereby to convert two-dimensional images into three-dimensional images. According to the present invention, therefore, it is possible to convert the existing two-dimensional image software into pseudo three-dimensional image software to obtain three-dimensional images.

Display system with 2D/3D image conversion where left and right eye

The present invention relates to a method of converting 2D images into 3D images by producing from a 2D image signal a main image signal and a sub-image signal delayed from the main image signal. In the present invention, a temporary field delay from the main image signal to the sub-image signal is found on the basis of data related to the movement in the current field of the main image signal (a first step). A target field delay is then found on the basis of the temporary field delay found in the first step (a second step). A true field delay used in the succeeding field is found on the basis of the target field delay found in the second step and the true field delay used in the current field (a third step).

A method of converting two-dimensional images into three-dimensional images. When the movement of a main image is fast, a main image signal is written into field memories for each field. When the movement of the main image is slow, the main image signal is written into the field memories at intervals of a predetermined number of fields. An image to be read out as a sub-image from the field memories is determined on the basis of the speed of the movement of the main image.

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Kadoma, Japan

Akihiro Maenaka