Patent ID: 8797394

Claim:
A face image capturing apparatus comprising: a projector that projects light onto a projection region including a face of an occupant in a vehicle; an image capture controller that settles an image capturing condition to capture a predetermined capture region that includes the face of the occupant; an image capturing portion that performs image capturing to capture the predetermined capture region including the face based on the image capturing condition settled by the image capture controller; an environment light detection portion that detects environment light radiated to the vehicle or the occupant; an operation mode determination portion that performs a mode determination to determine an operation mode from a first and a second operation mode, the first operation mode taking place when a light intensity of the environment light detected by the environment light detection portion is greater than a predetermined light intensity threshold, the second operation mode taking place when the light intensity of the environment light detected by the environment light detection portion is not greater than the predetermined light intensity threshold; a light emission pattern setup portion that settles a light emission pattern for a light source of the projector based on the operation mode determined by the operation mode determination portion; and a projector controller that controls the projector to activate the light source based on the light emission pattern settled by the light emission pattern setup portion; wherein when the operation mode is specified as the second operation mode taking place when the light intensity of the environment light detected by the environment light detection portion is not greater than the predetermined light intensity threshold, the light emission pattern setup portion settles the light emission pattern to include an exposure-synchronous emission and an exposure-asynchronous emission, the exposure-synchronous emission being a pulse light emission that is synchronous with an exposure time interval of the image capturing portion, the exposure-asynchronous emission being a light emission pattern that is asynchronous with the exposure time interval of the image capturing portion.