Patent ID: 8599268
Filing Date: 2013-12-03
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image capturing apparatus having an object tracking function, the image capturing apparatus comprising: an image capturing unit that obtains a frame image constituting a moving image made by successively photographing images containing an object; an image signal processing unit that partitions the frame image obtained by the image capturing unit into a plurality of blocks and calculates for each of the blocks thus obtained luminance information, color information, contrast information, and a motion vector quantity from a previous frame; a motion detection unit that detects a movement of the image capturing apparatus itself; a focal length calculating unit that calculates a focal length of the image capturing apparatus corresponding to a zooming operation; a grouping unit that groups the blocks into each of image areas presumed to be the image area of a same object based on the luminance information and the color information calculated by the image signal processing unit; a moving amount calculating unit that calculates a moving amount of an object contained in each of the image areas grouped by the grouping unit based on the motion vector quantity calculated by the image signal processing unit, the movement of the image capturing apparatus itself detected by the motion detection unit, and the focal length of the image capturing apparatus calculated by the focal length calculating unit; a contrast value calculating unit that calculates a contrast value of each of the image areas grouped by the grouping unit based on the contrast information calculated by the image signal processing unit; and a tracking object selecting unit that selects an object contained in the image area of a highest contrast value calculated by the contrast value calculating unit as a tracking target object out of objects each having a moving amount calculated by the moving amount calculating unit exceeding a given reference value.