Patent Document

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 101148231, filed on Dec. 19, 2012, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0002]    1. Technical Field 
         [0003]    The present disclosure relates to image processing, and in particular, relates to an image processing apparatus and image refocusing method for performing an image refocusing process to different view images. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0005]    In recent years, an image capturing module having multiple functions has become a highly noticed equipment for technology development, Also, interest in “Light Field” technology has increased among the potential image processing technologies. A plenoptic camera, which is implemented by using light field technology, may be capable of capturing stereoscopic images and performing all-in-focus and digital focusing processes. An image can be implemented by performing the all-in-focus processing in the plenoptic camera. In addition, the focusing position of output images can be alternated freely by performing the digital focusing process in the plenoptic camera. Also, the plenoptic camera may rearrange the captured images to generate images of different views. Accordingly, the plenoptic camera is a device to obtain images of different views effectively when the plenoptic camera is being used for stereoscopic image capturing. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    A detailed description is given in the following embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
         [0007]    In an exemplary embodiment, an image processing apparatus is provided. The image processing apparatus comprises: an image capturing unit, comprising: a primary lens; a lens array comprising multiple sub-lenses arranged in a direction perpendicular to a light axis of the primary lens; and an image sensor configured to receive lights of a scene passing through the primary lens and the lens array, and output a raw image having information of different views; and an image processing unit configured to rearrange the raw image from the image sensor to obtain multiple different view sub-images, and perform a refocusing process to at least one specific view sub-image of the different view sub-images corresponding to a specific view to generate multiple refocused view images, wherein a first focusing position of the refocused view images is different from a second focusing position of the at least one specific view sub-image. The processing unit further outputs the refocused view images to a stereoscopic display device. 
         [0008]    In another exemplary embodiment, an image refocusing method for use in an image processing apparatus is provided. The image processing apparatus comprises an image capturing unit and an image processing unit. The method comprises the following steps of: receiving lights of a scene via the image capturing unit to output a raw image having information of different views; rearranging the raw image from the image sensor to obtain multiple different view sub-images; performing a refocusing process to at least one specific view sub-image of the different view sub-images corresponding to a specific view to generate multiple refocused view images, wherein a first focusing position of the refocused view images is different from a second focusing position of the at least one specific view sub-image; and outputting the refocused view images to a stereoscopic display device. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]    The present disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
           [0010]      FIG. 1A  is a schematic diagram of an image processing apparatus  100  according to an embodiment of the disclosure; 
           [0011]      FIG. 1B  is a schematic diagram of an image capturing unit  110  according to an embodiment of the disclosure; 
           [0012]      FIGS. 1C˜1E  are diagrams illustrating the procedure for obtaining different view sub-images from the raw image according to an embodiment of the disclosure; 
           [0013]      FIGS. 2A and 2B  are diagrams illustrating sampling images by using the image capturing unit  110  according to an embodiment of the disclosure; 
           [0014]      FIGS. 3A˜3E  are diagrams illustrating the operations of a digital focusing process in the image processing unit  120  according to an embodiment of the disclosure; 
           [0015]      FIGS. 4A˜4C  are diagrams illustrating stereoscopic displaying of the image processing unit  120  according to the first embodiment of the disclosure; 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is a diagram illustrating the image enlarging process of the raw image having information from different views according to the second embodiment of the disclosure; 
           [0017]      FIGS. 6A˜6C  are diagrams illustrating stereoscopic displaying of the image processing unit according to the third embodiment of the disclosure; and 
           [0018]      FIG. 7  is a flow chart illustrating the image refocusing method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0019]    The following description is of the best-contemplated mode of carrying out the disclosure. This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the disclosure and should not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the disclosure is best determined by reference to the appended claims. 
         [0020]      FIG. 1A  is a schematic diagram of an image processing apparatus  100  according to an embodiment of the disclosure.  FIG. 1B  is a schematic diagram of an image capturing unit  110  according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The image processing apparatus  100  may comprise an image processing unit  120  and an image processing unit  120 . In an embodiment, the image capturing unit  110  is configured to retrieve raw images having information from different views simultaneously, and the captured raw images may have a first object and a second object located at different depths. The image processing unit  120  is configured to rearrange the raw images from the image capturing unit  110  to obtain multiple different-view sub-images. Then, the image processing unit  120  may perform a refocusing process to at least one specific view sub-image of the different-view sub-images, thereby generating a refocused view image, and then output the refocused view image to a stereoscopic display device. The details of the aforementioned image processing procedure will be described later. 
         [0021]    For example, the image capturing unit  110  may be a plenoptic camera, which comprises a primary lens  112 , a lens array  114 , and an image sensor  116 . The lens array  114  may comprises multiple sub-lenses (e.g. M*N sub-lens), which are arranged in a direction perpendicular to a light axis  150  of the primary lens  112 , as illustrated in  FIG. 1B . The image sensor  116  may comprise a plurality of light-sensitive pixels (e.g. m*n light-sensitive pixels, wherein the amount of the sub-lenses may be different from that of the light-sensitive pixels). Alternatively, the image sensor  116  may comprise a plurality of sub-image sensors (e.g. O*P sub-image sensors), wherein each sub-image sensor has a plurality of light-sensitive pixels, and the amount of light-sensitive pixels of each sub-image sensor may be different. There is a corresponding region of light-sensitive pixels in the image sensor  116  to receive lights passing through each sub-lens in the lens array  114 . When lights from the scene to be captured pass through the primary lens  112  and the lens array  114 , images captured of different views will be emitted to the image sensor  116 , thereby obtaining a raw image having information from different views. 
         [0022]      FIGS. 1C˜1E  are diagrams illustrating the procedure for obtaining different view sub-images from the raw image according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to  FIGS. 1A˜1C , the image processing unit  120  may rearrange the raw image from the image capturing unit  110  to obtain multiple view sub-images, as illustrated in  FIGS. 1D and 1E . When retrieving a specific view sub-image from the raw image in  FIG. 1C , pixels in the same location of each 2×2 block can be retrieved and combined into the specific view sub-image. For example, if pixels in the “x” location of each view sub-images in  FIG. 1C  are retrieved, the retrieved pixels can be combined into a side view sub-image, as illustrated in  FIG. 1D . If pixels in the “•” location of each view sub-images in  FIG. 1C  are retrieved, the retrieved pixels can be combined into a center view sub-image, as illustrated in  FIG. 1E . 
         [0023]      FIGS. 2A and 2B  are diagrams illustrating sampling images by using the image capturing unit  110  according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to  FIGS. 1A ,  1 B and  2 A, when the image capturing unit  110  is used to capture an object A and an object B in a scene and the image capturing unit  110  focuses on the object A, a raw image having information from different views can be obtained. The raw image may be the image received by the image sensor  116 . The image processing unit  120  may rearrange the raw image from the image capturing unit  110 , thereby obtaining a view sub-image set comprising multiple sub-images, as illustrated in  FIG. 2B . 
         [0024]      FIGS. 3A˜3E  are diagrams illustrating the operations of a digital focusing process in the image processing unit  120  according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to both  FIGS. 1A and 3A , objects  301 ,  302  and  303  are located in the object space  310 , and the objects  301 ,  302  and  303  are located at different distances in front of the image capturing unit  110 . For example, lights from different views in the object space  310  may pass through the lens plane  320  and then be focused on the film plane, thereby forming an image on the film plane  330 . That is, after lights from different views in the scene (i.e. object space  310 ) pass through the lens array  114  (located between primary lens (lens plane  320 ) and film plane  330 ), the lights may be received by the image sensor  116  (i.e. image plane  330 ), thereby obtaining a raw image having information from different views. The raw image may be processed by the image processing unit  120  to obtain the view sub-images  340 ,  350  and  360 , as illustrated in  FIG. 3B , wherein the view sub-image  350  can be regarded as a center view image. It should be noted that since view sub-images  340 ,  350  and  360  are images captured from different views in the object space  310 , the horizontal locations (i.e. and/or vertical locations) of the objects  301 ˜ 303  in the view sub-images  340 ˜ 360  may vary due to different view angles, as illustrated  FIG. 3B . Specifically, when the image processing unit  120  performs a digital focusing process on the view sub-images  340 ˜ 360 , the image processing unit  120  may overlap the view sub-images  340  and  350  together, thereby obtaining a refocused view image  370 , as illustrated in  FIG. 3C . Note that only the object  302  is completely overlapped in the refocused view image  370  in  FIG. 3C . Due to different view angles being used, the locations of the objects  301  and  303  in the view sub-images  340  and  350  may be different, respectively. 
         [0025]    Further, the objects  301 ˜ 303  are located at different depths from the primary lens  112 . When one of the objects (e.g. the object  302 ) is digitally refocused, only pixels having the same depth with the refocused object are clear. Other pixels at different depths may be slightly blurred since the view sub-images from different views are overlapped. In addition, the image processing unit  120  may overlap the view sub-images  350  and  360  together to obtain a refocused image, or overlap all the view sub-images  340 ˜ 360  together to retrieve another refocused image (not shown). That is, the image processing unit  120  only focuses on the object  302  in the embodiment. The image processing unit  120  may further perform interpolation to different view sub-images to obtain refocused images or corresponding different view sub-images with an increased amount of pixels. 
         [0026]    In another embodiment, if the image processing unit  120  performs focusing on the object  303 , the image processing unit  120  may regard the view sub-image  350  as a reference image, and perform a shifting process to the view sub-image  340  in a horizontal direction and/or vertical direction relative to the view sub-image  350 , thereby completely overlapping the object  303  with both the view sub-images  340  and  350  to obtain a refocused view image  380 , as illustrated in  FIG. 3D . Similarly, the image processing unit  120  may also overlap the view sub-images  350  and  360 , or overlap all the view sub-images  340 ˜ 360  together to obtain another refocused view image (not shown). That is, the image processing unit  120  only focuses on the object  303  in the embodiment. The image processing unit  120  may further perform interpolation to different view sub-images to obtain refocused images or corresponding different view sub-images with an increased amount of pixels. In yet another embodiment, if the image processing unit  120  performs focusing on the object  301 , similar methods described in the aforementioned embodiments can be used. That is, the view sub-image  350  may be regarded as a reference image, and other view sub-images can be shifted relative to the view sub-image  350 , so that the object  301  is completely overlapped with each view sub-image to generate a refocused view image  390 , as illustrated in  FIG. 3E . In the aforementioned embodiments of  FIGS. 3A˜3E , it is appreciated that the refocusing process executed by the image processing unit  120  may be the image processing unit  120  performing a shifting and addition process to the view sub-images around a specific view sub-image to obtain the refocused view image. 
         [0027]    It should be noted that, the aforementioned shifting and addition process may regard an object (e.g. the object  302  in  FIG. 3B ) as a reference, and different view sub-images are shifted, so that the object is completely overlapped with each view sub-image. Then, the portions other than the object (e.g. objects  301  and  303  in  FIG. 3B ) in each view sub-image are added, and thus the added portions may be slightly blurred. For example, the object  302  is regarded as a reference in  FIG. 3C , and thus only the object  302  is clear in the refocused view image  370 . Similarly, the object  303  is regarded as a reference in  FIG. 3D , and thus only the object  303  is clear in the refocused view image  380 . The object  301  is regarded as a reference in  FIG. 3E , and thus only the object  301  is clear in the refocused view image  390 . 
         [0028]      FIGS. 4A˜4C  are diagrams illustrating stereoscopic displaying of the image processing unit  120  according to the first embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to the embodiment of  FIG. 2 , when the image processing unit  120  outputs images to the stereoscopic display device, appropriate processes should be done to the different view images for stereoscopic displaying (e.g. left view image and right view image) in advance. For example, the image processing unit  120  may rearrange the raw image, which has information from different views, from the image capturing unit  110  to different view sub-images (e.g. view sub-images  410  and  420 ). As illustrated in  FIG. 4A , when the image processing unit  120  takes the view sub-image  410  as a reference image for calculating the right view image, the image processing unit  120  may set a region (e.g. 4×3 different view sub-images up/down/left/right to the view sub-image  410 ), and perform a digital focusing process to the view sub-images in the region to generate the right view image. Reference can be made to the embodiments of  FIGS. 3A˜3E , for the details of the aforementioned procedure. Similarly, when the image processing unit  120  is calculating the appropriate parallax required for a stereoscopic image, the view sub-image  420  can be taken as a reference image for calculating the left view image. Meanwhile, the image processing unit  120  may set another region (e.g. 4×3 different view sub-images left/right to the view sub-images  420 ), and perform a digital focusing process to the view sub-images in the region to generate the left view image. Reference can be made to the embodiments of  FIGS. 3A˜3E , for the details of the digital focusing process. 
         [0029]    In addition, the image processing unit  120  may receive an external control signal (e.g. from the stereoscopic display device, the image capturing device, or other devices, such as a personal computer) for refocusing on an object at different depths. For example, the image capturing unit  110  may focus on the object A in the beginning, and thus the left view image  440  and the right view image  430  to be generated by the image processing unit  120  may focus on the object A, as illustrated in  FIG. 4B . When the image processing unit  120  receives an external control signal to perform a digital refocusing process, the output left view image  460  and the right view image  450  may refocus on the object B, as illustrated in  FIG. 4C . 
         [0030]      FIG. 5  is a diagram illustrating the image enlarging process of the raw image having information from different views according to the second embodiment of the disclosure. The differences between the embodiment in  FIG. 5  and that of  FIGS. 4A˜4C  may be that the raw image in  FIG. 5  may be pre-processed by the image processing unit  120 , such as performing a scaling process to the raw image, so that the amount of pixels in the scaled raw image may become larger or smaller in comparison with that of the raw image before the scaling process. Thus, the resolution of the generated left view image and the right view image may match the required input image resolution of the stereoscopic display device, wherein well-known image scaling techniques (e.g. bilinear interpolation or bi-cubic interpolation) can be used in the aforementioned scaling process to perform pixel interpolation or extrapolation. For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the image processing unit  120  may enlarge the view sub-image set  510  in the horizontal direction and vertical direction by 1.67 times that of the height and width of each view sub-image to generate an enlarged image  520 . Given that there are 3×3 pixels in the image sub-set  512  of the view sub-image set  510 , the image sub-set  522  in the corresponding location of the enlarged image  520  may comprise 5×5 pixels. It should be noted that the aforementioned embodiment merely describes the enlarging process of an image sub-set in the corresponding location. For those skilled in the art, it is appreciated that the aforementioned enlarging process can be also applied to other image sub-sets at other corresponding locations, and the image enlarging ratio can be adjusted freely. Subsequently, the image processing unit  120  may select a respective view sub-image (e.g. view sub-images  530  and  540 ) from the enlarged image  520  as a reference image for the left view image and the right view image, and perform a digital focusing process to the different view sub-images within a region of the two reference images, thereby generating the refocused left view image and the refocused right view image. Reference can be made to the embodiments of  FIGS. 3A˜3E , for the details of the digital focusing process. 
         [0031]    In the embodiment, after the image processing unit  120  enlarges the view sub-image set  510  in the horizontal direction and vertical direction by 1.67 times that of the width and height of each view sub-image to generate the enlarged image  520 , the image processing unit  120  may further covert the enlarged image  520  into a corresponding format based on the display requirement of the stereoscopic display device (e.g. multi view sub-images in three views or more, such as the view sub-images  530 ˜ 550 , and the corresponding image format). Then, the image processing unit  120  may perform the digital refocusing process to the converted enlarged image according to the received external control signal, and output multiple view images generated by the digital refocusing process to the stereoscopic display device. 
         [0032]      FIGS. 6A˜6C  are diagrams illustrating stereoscopic displaying of the image processing unit according to the third embodiment of the disclosure. Referring to FIGS.  2  and  6 A˜ 6 C, for example, the image processing unit  120  may determine the view sub-images  620  and  610  from the view sub-image set  600  as reference images for the left view image and the right view image, respectively, as illustrated in  FIG. 6A . Then, the image processing unit  120  may perform a digital focusing process to the view sub-images within the regions  625  and  615  to generate the left view image  640  and the right view image  630  (i.e. the refocused view images), as illustrated in  FIG. 6B . However, it is possible that the resolution of the left view image  640  and the right view image  630  does not match the resolution requirement of the stereoscopic display device, and thus the image processing unit  120  may further perform a scaling process on the left view image  640  and the right view image  630  (e.g. enlarging the left/right view images in the horizontal direction and vertical direction for 1.5 times), thereby generating a left view image  660  and right view image  650  which having a resolution matching with the requirement of the stereoscopic display device, as illustrated in  FIG. 6C . Then, the image processing unit  120  may output the left view image  660  and the right view image  650  to the stereoscopic display device. It should be noted that the image capturing unit  110  focuses on the object A in the beginning. After the image processing unit  120  has received an external control signal (e.g. from the stereoscopic display device), the image processing unit  120  may adjust the output left/right view images for focusing on the object B. 
         [0033]      FIG. 7  is a flow chart illustrating the image refocusing method according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In step S 700 , the image capturing unit  110  may receive lights from a scene, and output a raw image having information from different views. For example, the lights from the scenes may pass through the primary lens  112  and the lens array of the image capturing unit  110 , and form the raw image on the image sensor  116 . In step S 710 , the image processing unit  120  may rearrange the raw image from the image capturing unit  110  to obtain multiple different view sub-images. In step S 720 , the image processing unit  120  may perform a digital refocusing process to at least one specific view sub-image having a specific view corresponding to the multiple different view sub-images to generate multiple refocused view images. In step S 730 , the image processing unit  120  may output the multiple refocused view images to a stereoscopic display device. 
         [0034]    It should be noted that the aforementioned embodiments in FIGS.  5  and  6 A˜ 6 C can be combined into the method described in  FIG. 7 . For example, as described in the embodiment of  FIG. 5 , after step S 710 , the image processing unit  120  may perform a scaling process on the different view sub-images to generate enlarged images which match the resolution requirement of the stereoscopic display device. Then, the image processing unit  120  may determine a reference image for the left view image and the right view image from the enlarged image, respectively. The image processing unit  120  may perform a digital focusing process to the different view sub-images within a predetermined range to generate the refocused left view image and the refocused view right image. In addition, in the aforementioned embodiment, after the image processing unit  120  performs the scaling process to the different view sub-images, the image processing unit  120  may further convert the enlarged images to match the requirement of the stereoscopic display device (e.g. view sub-images in three views or more, and a corresponding image format), and then perform a digital refocusing process to the converted enlarged images. That is, the image processing unit  120  may generate a specific amount of different view sub-images and a corresponding image format required in the stereoscopic display device by using the enlarged different view sub-images. Further, as described in the embodiments of  FIGS. 6A˜6C , it is possible that the generated refocused view images do not match the resolution requirement of the stereoscopic display device. Accordingly, the image processing unit  120  may perform a scaling process on the refocused view images to generate a left view image and a right view image that matches the resolution requirement of the stereoscopic display device. 
         [0035]    While the disclosure has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.

Technology Category: h