Patent ID: 6987534

Claim:
A brightness adjusting apparatus for adjusting a brightness balance of a pair of images outputted from a stereoscopic camera having a first camera imaging a reference image and a second camera imaging a comparison image, comprising: an adjusting means for adjusting said brightness balance by varying a gain; a distance data calculating means for finding a pixel block having a brightness correlation with a pixel block of said reference image in said comparison image and for calculating a distance data based on a city block distance between both pixel blocks; a distance data assigning means for assigning said distance data to said pixel block of said reference image; a first evaluation window establishing means for establishing a first evaluation window composed of a plurality of pixel blocks in said reference image; a parallax calculating means for calculating a parallax based on said distance data; a second evaluation window establishing means for establishing a second evaluation window composed of a plurality of pixel blocks in said comparison image based on said parallax; a first evaluation value calculating means for calculating a first evaluation value representing a magnitude of an entire brightness of said first evaluation window; a second evaluation value calculating means for calculating a second evaluation value representing a magnitude of an entire brightness of said second evaluation window; and a correcting means for correcting said gain so as to reduce the difference between said first evaluation value and said second evaluation value.