Minolta Company, Ltd.

Yasuhiro Kingetsu

Keizou Ochi

Kenji Nakamura

Manji Takano

Ken Ohta

An object of the present invention is to generate an image which is prevented from being influenced by a movement while suppressing increase in noise components. When a movement is detected during exposure of an image capturing device to light, an image capturing apparatus stops the exposure of the image capturing device and amplifies an image signal obtained with the exposure, thereby compensating exposure shortage. Luminance information is extracted from a captured image, and color information is extracted from a live view image obtained at a timing different from a timing at which the captured image is obtained. By synthesizing the luminance information of the captured image and the color information of the live view image, noise components included in color information are reduced.

Image processing apparatus and method

An image processing apparatus includes a receiving device for receiving image data for an original image; a dividing device for dividing the image data into a plurality of small blocks, each of the small blocks containing a plurality of pixels; a first determining device for determining an attribute of each of the plurality of the small blocks; and a second determining device for determining an attribute of an area that includes the plurality of the small blocks based on the attributes of the small blocks.

Image processor

An image sensing device, such as an electronic camera, has different operating modes that are suited for sensing images of documents and sensing images of landscapes and the like. In the document mode, since information in the document is important, the image sensor is set at a maximum resolution. In the landscape mode, the resolution is varied in accordance with image brightness, to optimize the exposure conditions. Additional image processing is carried out in the document mode to enhance the sensed image and increase the efficiency with which memory is utilized.

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Sakai, Japan

Yasuhiro Kingetsu