Patent ID: 8139149

Claim:
A still image acquisition device that corrects fluctuation of images caused by shakes of an imaging device having an image sensor to convert a subject image by incident light through an optical lens to an electrical signal thereby to obtain images and that acquires a still image from corrected hand shake-corrected images, the still image acquisition device comprising: a fluctuation detection unit for detecting a horizontal or a vertical fluctuation generated in the imaging device; light refraction means arranged on an optical path up to the image sensor, for refracting the light into an arbitrary direction; hand shake control means for controlling a refraction direction of the light by the light refraction means so as to cancel the fluctuation detected by the fluctuation detection unit; control amount detection means for detecting control amounts of the light refraction means controlled by the hand shake control means; hand shake angle calculation means for calculating a hand shake angle in either a horizontal direction or a vertical direction from the control amounts detected by the control amount detection means; storing means for storing: a plurality of hand shake-corrected images read out by the image sensor within a predetermined period, information specifying respective imaging times of the plurality of hand shake-corrected images; and the hand shake angle in either the horizontal direction or the vertical direction calculated by the hand shake angle calculation means in a storage unit, in coordination with each other; acquisition reference time decision means that decides an acquisition reference time when receiving a command signal requiring an acquisition of the still image, the still image according to: a first time when the absolute value of the hand shake angle of the horizontal direction or the vertical direction calculated by the hand shake angle calculation means is zero or a minimum value, or a second time when the absolute value of the hand shake angle in either the horizontal direction or the vertical direction stored in the storage unit is zero or a minimum value; and in case of deciding the second time as the acquisition reference time, a still image processing unit that acquires, as the still image, the hand shake-corrected image read out by the image sensor immediately after or before the acquisition reference time decided by the acquisition reference time decision means, the hand shake-corrected image being stored in the storage unit.