Patent ID: 9118901
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An imaging apparatus for shooting a subject at two or more different viewpoints to obtain a right viewpoint image and a left viewpoint image, or multi-viewpoint images, with parallax that are to be merged together into a 3D image, comprising: a monitor for displaying an image to be taken upon shooting; an input processor for inputting an indispensable output area specified by a user referring to the image to be taken as displayed on the monitor, with the area being wanted by the user to be included in the 3D image outputted; and a control processor for causing said monitor to display i) a mergeable area where the left and right viewpoint images can be merged together into a 3D image, ii) an adjacent area out of mergence where the left and right viewpoint images cannot be merged together into the 3D image due to an amount of parallax between the right viewpoint image and the left viewpoint image, and iii) the indispensable output area to be indicated in the image to be taken, wherein, when said indispensable output area is so specified by the user as to overlap both said mergeable area and said area out of mergence, said control processor performs automatic zooming for scaling down said image to be taken such that the zoom is reduced so that the indispensable output area is reduced on the monitor to be entirely within the mergeable area of the monitor and completely out of said area out of mergence that is unable to be included in the 3D image due to the amount of parallax between the right viewpoint image and the left viewpoint image.