Patent ID: 6266086
Filing Date: 2001-07-24
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An imaging apparatus comprising:a solid-state imaging element having thereon a matrix of pixels;an optical element for transferring a subject image to said solid-state imaging element;an image shifting mechanism for relatively shifting said subject image in two dimensions, with respect to said imaging apparatus,wherein said image shifting mechanism includes an X-axis image shifting mechanism for image shifting in a horizontal direction of said solid-state element, and a Y-axis image shifting mechanism for image shifting in a vertical direction of said solid-state element, andwherein each of said X-axis image shifting mechanism and Y-axis image shifting mechanism includes a transparent plane parallel plate, and a driving unit for tilting said transparent plane parallel plate at an angle with respect to an optical axis of said optical element in one of horizontal and vertical directions, respectively;a control circuit for controlling said image shifting mechanism;an image synthesizing circuit for synthesizing a plurality of images shifted by said image shifting mechanism;a moving amount detecting unit for detecting, as a moving amount, a relative movement of said subject image on said solid-state imaging element caused by vibration of said imaging apparatus; anda shift amount generating unit for generating an image shift amount of said subject image, and thereafter generating a first correction image shift amount based on said image shift amount and moving amount, wherein said image shifting mechanism shifts said subject image based upon said first correction image shift amount,wherein said shift amount generating unit divides said first correction image shift amount into a second correction image shift amount and a correction amount based on a predetermined equation, so that said X-axis image shifting mechanism and Y-axis image shifting mechanism shift said subject image based on said second correction image shift amount, said image synthesizing circuit processing an image based on said correction amount.