Picture inputting apparatus using high-resolution image pickup device to acquire low-resolution whole pictures and high-resolution partial pictures

Abstract

A solid state image pickup device has a high-resolution pixel array consisting of a plurality of photo-receptive elements disposed at a high density. A low-resolution whole picture scanning unit outputs low-resolution whole picture data by reading out and scanning the wholeness with the resolution of the pixel array lowered. A high-resolution partial picture scanning unit outputs high-resolution partial picture data by partial readout and scanning with high-resolution of the pixel array kept. A switching unit provides a switching between the low-resolution whole picture scanning unit and the high-resolution partial picture scanning unit within a frame period to thereby output in sequence the low-resolution whole picture data and the high-resolution partial image data at a speed equal to or greater than the video rate. A picture extraction processing unit automatically determines the extracting position of a high-resolution partial picture at the next frame, based on the low-resolution whole picture data, to thereby instruct the high-resolution partial picture scanning unit on the extracting position.