Patent ID: 7432975

Claim:
An automatic focusing method in which a photograph region is brought into focus through automatic movement of a focal lens to a focal position in response to a photographing-command signal, the method comprising: dividing the photograph region into a plurality of sub-regions; obtaining focal position values DS FOC and maximum focus values FV MAX for the sub-regions; calculating an average focal position value ADS FOC for the focal position values DS FOC of the sub-regions; calculating an average maximum focus value AFV MAX for the maximum focus values FV MAX of the sub-regions; selecting a first set of sub-regions having focal position values DS FOC that differ from the average focal position value ADS FOC by a value that is equal to or less than a threshold value D TH ; selecting a second set of sub-regions from the first set of sub-regions, sub-regions of the second set having maximum focus values FV MAX that are greater than or equal to an average maximum focus value AFV MAX ; selecting from the second set of sub-regions, a particular sub-region having the shortest focal distance; and moving the focal lens to a focal position corresponding to the focal position value DS FOC of the particular sub-region.