Patent ID: 7872679
Filing Date: 2011-01-18
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup device that contains an image pickup element, said image pickup device generating an image signal by using the image pickup element; a defect-information-storing unit that stores defect information relative to a defective pixel in the image pickup element, said defective pixel resulting in an offset of a pixel signal generated for each pixel, said offset having a larger amount thereof than a predetermined amount; a compensation-signal-generating unit that generates a compensation signal for each defective pixel based on the offset of the pixel signal relative to the defective pixel indicated by the defect information; a first compensation unit that compensates for the pixel signal relative to the defective pixel indicated by the defect information with applying the compensation signal to the pixel signal; a second compensation unit that compensates for the pixel signal relative to the defective pixel indicated by the defect information without applying the compensation signal to the pixel signal; and a compensation-switching unit that switches between a first signal compensated by the first compensation unit and a second signal compensated by the second compensation unit based on a comparison result of a signal level of the compensation signal with a signal level of a predetermined compensation-switching reference signal and sets the switched signal as the image signal in which the pixel signal relative to the defective pixel is compensated, the compensation-switching unit sets the first signal compensated the first compensation unit as the image signal in which the pixel signal relative to the defective pixel is compensated when a signal level of the compensation signal does not exceed a signal level of the predetermined compensation-switching reference signal and the compensation-switching unit sets the second signal compensated by the second compensation unit as the image signal in which the pixel signal relative to the defective pixel is compensated when a signal level of the compensation signal exceeds a signal level of the predetermined compensation-switching reference signal.