Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Koichi Toyomura

Takeshi Hamasaki

Tadashi Nagai

Yoshihiro Morioka

Kenji Matsuura

Takanori Yabuki

Yasutoshi Yamamoto

Masaaki Nakayama

Motonori Ogura

Toshiyuki Nakashima

Masayuki Yoneyama

Shuji Yano

An image-capturing apparatus includes a focus lens that focuses on an object as to form an object image from the object, an image sensor that captures the object image as to produce image data, and a controller that controls the focus lens. The controller determines a tracking range based on a position of a particular object. The controller causes the focus lens to focus on a certain object when the certain object is located in the tracking range. The controller does not cause the focus lens to focus on the certain object when the certain object is located out of the tracking range. The controller determines whether or not the position of the particular object changes. The controller updates the tracking range in response to the position of the particular object if determining that the position of the particular object changes. The controller maintains the tracking range if determining that the position of the particular object does not change.

Image-capturing apparatus

An image capture device includes: first and second shooting sections, each of which is configured to shoot an image of a subject; and a signal processing section configured to generate, based on first and second images that have been shot by the first and second shooting sections, respectively, information indicating the amount of parallax between the first and second images. Based on at least one of the states of the first and second images, a zoom power during shooting, and the tilt of the image capture device during shooting, the signal processing section generates control information indicating the degree of stereoscopic property of a 3D image to be generated based on the first and second images or indicating whether or not the 3D image needs to be output, and records the control information and the information indicating the amount of parallax.

Image device and image processing method for generating control information indicating the degree of stereoscopic property or whether or not 3D image needs to be outputted

An image capture device includes: first and second shooting sections, each of which is configured to shoot an image of a subject; a disparity calculating section configured to generate a depth map based on first and second images that have been shot by the first and second shooting sections, respectively; and an image generating section configured to generate, based on the depth map and the first image, a third image that has as high a resolution as the first image and that forms part of a 3D image. The image generating section is controlled to determine whether or not to generate the third image based on at least one of the states of the first and second images, a zoom power during shooting, and the tilt of the image capture device during shooting.

Image capture device, player, and image processing method

Provided is an image processing device including: a 3D-NR unit that performs, using first image data and second image data obtained by capturing images at temporally different times, 3D noise reduction (NR) processing for reducing noise in the first image data; an edge detection unit that detects an edge strength in an image indicated by the 3D-NR processed image data; and a synthesization unit that determines, based on the detected edge strength obtained by the edge detection unit, a synthesis ratio of the first image data and the 3D-NR processed image data, synthesizes the first image data and the 3D-NR processed image data, using the determined synthesis ratio, and outputs synthesized image data obtained by synthesizing the first image data and the 3D-NR processed image data.

Image processing device and imaging device

An image sensing device free from change in the angle of view between taking moving picture and taking still picture, small in power consumption in moving picture taking, and small in sensitivity drop if the size of the optical system is the same. The image sensing means has exclusive image sensing elements for red (R), green (G), and blue (B), and the three image sensing elements are disposed by shifting the pixels obliquely. Luminance signal generating means generates a first luminance signal of which number of pixels in the horizontal direction is 2 times that of the image sensing device for G, and generates a second luminance signal of which number of pixels in the horizontal direction is 2 times that of the image sensing device for G. Sampling frequency converting means decreases the sampling frequency at a specific ratio, and generates as a third luminance signal. Second memory means stores the first luminance signal and second luminance signal, and issues them alternately in every line. This image sensing device utilizes the output signal of the sampling frequency converting means as a moving picture output, and the output of the second memory means as a still picture output.

Image sensing device

An image mixing circuit usable in a video camera for mixing images with a continuous gradation characteristic in both the luminance signal and color signal is provided according to the present invention. A color separation circuit separates plural image signals into plural luminance signal components and plural color signal components. A control signal generation circuit then generates the control signal needed for image synthesis from the plural image signals. A luminance signal mixing circuit and a color signal mixing circuit then separately mix the respective luminance signal components and color signal components according to the control signal.

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Osaka, Japan

Koichi Toyomura