Patent Document ID: 8803965
Application ID: 12972048
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An arithmetically operating device comprising: an image acquiring portion configured to acquire reference and comparative phase difference images of a sample; a dividing portion configured to divide the reference phase difference image and the comparative phase difference image into a plurality of corresponding division regions; a retrieval range setting portion configured to designate a two dimensional array of pixels in a given division region of the reference phase difference image as representative pixels, and to designate a one dimensional array of pixels other than the representative pixels in a corresponding division region of the comparative phase difference image as comparative pixels; a correlation calculating portion configured to calculate correlations between the representative pixels for the reference phase difference image, and the comparative pixels in the comparative phase difference image; and a parallax calculating portion configured to calculate parallaxes for the representative pixels for the reference phase difference image in accordance with the correlations thus calculated; wherein the dividing portion sets the shapes and sizes of the division regions based on difference comparisons between the determined parallaxes of adjacent representative pixels such that if a difference in parallaxes between adjacent representative pixels exceeds a threshold value said adjacent representative pixels may not be included in the same division region, whereas if the difference in parallaxes between adjacent representative pixels is less than the threshold value said adjacent representative pixels may be included in the same division region, and wherein said retrieval range setting portion also sets a sub-comparative pixel array for the comparative phase difference image that is narrower than that set for the comparative pixels in accordance with the parallaxes calculated for the representative pixels in each of the division regions.