Patent ID: 8106954

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: an illumination unit operable to illuminate a subject with illumination light; an imaging unit operable to switch an illumination state of the illumination unit within a predetermined time and obtain a first image signal in a state without the illumination light and a second image signal in a state with the illumination light; an illumination light element obtaining unit operable to obtain an image signal of an image formed with an element of the illumination light by reducing an element of the first image signal from the second image signal; a reflectance estimation unit operable to reduce illumination variations from one of the first image signal, the second image signal, and the image signal of the image formed with the illumination light element by converting a luminance value Ki of a target pixel using an input and output characteristic that differs depending on an average luminance value AKi of vicinity pixels of the target pixel, and estimate a reflectance of the subject corresponding to the target pixel and thereby obtain a reflectance indicative signal; and a distance information estimation unit operable to reduce an element of the reflectance indicative signal from the image signal of the image formed with the illumination light element, and estimate distance information about a distance to the subject corresponding to the target pixel and thereby obtain a distance information indicative signal.