Patent ID: 7092019

Claim:
An image capturing apparatus for capturing a plurality of images with different amounts of exposure to compose said images into a single composite image, said image capturing apparatus comprising: integrating means for integrating pixel values for each pixel train in the horizontal direction to produce an array in the vertical direction, and for integrating pixel values for each pixel train in the vertical direction to produce a data array in the horizontal direction, for each of said plurality of images; misregistration amount detecting means for detecting the amounts of misregistration of respective images except for a reference image using feature points of images, said reference image selected from said plurality of images, with respect to said reference image; wherein the misregistration amount detecting means comprises a feature point extracting means for extracting feature points from said reference image and respective images except for said reference image, respectively; wherein said feature point extracting means extracts feature points in said reference image and feature points in each of the images except for said reference image based on the respective data arrays in the vertical and horizontal directions; misregistration correcting means for correcting the misregistration of the respective images except for said reference image with respect to said reference image based on said misregistration amounts; and image composing means for composing said reference image and all of the respective misregistration corrected images except for said reference images.