Patent ID: 7864231
Filing Date: 2011-01-04
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An imaging apparatus comprising: an imaging unit comprising an image sensor in which plural light receiving elements are arranged in a matrix; a defective information storage unit configured to hold position information of a defective light receiving element in the image sensor, wherein the position information of the defective light receiving element is obtained from an imaging result in a status where light is blocked and an imaging result in a status where light is uniformly irradiated, and based on said imaging results, position information of a pixel with a darkness abnormality and a position of a pixel with a brightness abnormality are obtained and combined together to obtain defective position coordinates of the defective light receiving element; an imaging region moving unit configured to change an imaging region from a first imaging region corresponding to a desired imaging target region to a second imaging region, wherein the second imaging region is determined in such a manner that a position of a defective pixel corresponding to the defective light receiving element in an image of the second imaging region does not coincide with that in an image of the first imaging region; an imaging control unit configured to control the imaging unit and the imaging region moving unit in such a manner that a first imaging operation of picking up the image of the first imaging region and a second imaging operation of picking up the image of the second imaging region are performed in a single imaging operation; and a defective pixel correcting unit configured to correct defective pixel information created due to the defective light receiving element in image information obtained by the first imaging operation, with the use of pixel information obtained by the second imaging operation corresponding to a position of the defective pixel information in the image information obtained by the first imaging operation, according to the position information of the defective light receiving element held in the defective information storage unit, wherein: the light receiving elements in the image sensor are arranged with intervals ‘a’ in an X axis direction and intervals ‘b’ in an Y axis direction, an imaging target moves at a speed Vx, Vy in the X axis direction and the Y axis direction, respectively, and a time interval ‘s’ between the first imaging operation and the second imaging operation satisfies: