Patent ID: 8199246
Filing Date: 2012-06-12
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image capturing apparatus for capturing an image of a subject, comprising: an optical system that causes a light receiving section of the image capturing apparatus to receive, in substantially the same spread, light from respective positions lying within a predetermined range of positional relation with respect to the image capturing apparatus, and has different optical transfer functions for light from different positions lying within the predetermined range of positional relation with respect to the image capturing apparatus; a process parameter storage that stores each process parameter for correcting the effect of an optical transfer function exerted on the captured image, in association with a condition related to a positional relation between a subject and the optical system, where the condition is to be satisfied in performing correction using the process parameter; a positional information obtaining section that obtains positional information indicating a positional relation between a subject and the optical system; and a process parameter selecting section that selects a process parameter that is stored in the process parameter storage in association with a condition that the positional relation indicated by the positional information obtained by the positional information obtaining section satisfies; and wherein the positional information obtaining section receives a signal representing an instruction from a user in relation to a positional relation between a subject and the optical system, and obtains the signal as the positional information, the process parameter storage stores each process parameter for correcting the effect of the optical transfer function exerted on the captured image, in association with a condition related to an instruction obtained in capturing an image, where the condition is to be satisfied in performing correction using the process parameter, and the process parameter selecting section selects a process parameter that is stored in the process parameter storage in association with a condition that the instruction obtained by the positional information obtaining section satisfies, wherein the optical system causes the light receiving section to receive, in substantially the same spread, light from respective positions lying within a predetermined range of distance from the optical system, and has different optical transfer functions for light from different positions lying within the predetermined range of distance from the optical system, the process parameter storage stores each process parameter for correcting the effect of the optical transfer function exerted on the captured image, in association with a condition related to the distance from the optical system, where the condition is to be satisfied in performing correction using the process parameter, the positional information obtaining section obtains distance information indicating a distance between a subject and the optical system, and the process parameter selecting section selects a process parameter that is stored in the process parameter storage in association with a condition that the distance indicated by the distance information obtained by the positional information obtaining section satisfies; and further comprising: an image processing section that corrects the effect of the optical transfer function exerted on the captured image, by using the process parameter selected by the process parameter selecting section, wherein the optical system has different optical transfer functions for light from positions lying within a predetermined range of distance from the optical system and having different distances from the optical system in an optical axis direction of the optical system and different positional relations with respect to the optical axis of the optical system, the process parameter storage stores each process parameter for correcting the effect of the optical transfer function exerted on each of image regions within the captured image, in association with a condition related to a distance of a subject captured in the image region in the optical axis direction, and with a condition related to a position of the image region in the captured image that corresponds to the positional relation with respect to the optical axis of the optical system, the positional information obtaining section obtains, for each image region, a distance between a captured subject and the optical system and the position of the image region in the captured image, as the positional information, the process parameter selecting section selects, for each image region, a process parameter that is stored in the process parameter storage in association with conditions that the distance from the optical system and the position of the image region obtained by the positional information obtaining section satisfy, and the image processing section corrects, for each image region, the effect of the optical transfer function exerted on the image region, by using the process parameter selected by the process parameter selecting section.