Imaging device, semiconductor integrated circuit, and imaging method

Abstract

An image-capturing device disclosed in the present application includes: an image-capturing element including a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in two dimensions, wherein the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are exposed through successive scanning and electrical signals are read out from the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements through successive scanning, thereby generating an image signal; a lens optical system including a focus lens for collecting light toward the image-capturing element; a driving section for driving one of the image-capturing element and the focus lens so as to change a distance between the image-capturing element and the focus lens; a displacement control section for outputting a command to the driving section so as to control displacement of the image-capturing element or the focus lens to be driven based on a predetermined displacement pattern; and a synchronizing section for controlling the displacement control section based on exposure timing of the image-capturing element, wherein: the predetermined displacement pattern represents a reciprocal displacement of the image-capturing element or the focus lens to be driven over an entire section between a first focus position of the focus lens or the image-capturing element at which focus is at a first object distance in an image-capturing scene and a second focus position of the focus lens or the image-capturing element at which focus is at a second object distance in the image-capturing scene; and the image-capturing element or the focus lens to be driven is reciprocally displaced an integer number of times within an exposure time for one image of the image-capturing scene for each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to dynamic image or continuous still image capture in a flexible DOF (Depth of Field) method used, for example, in depth of field expansion. Background technique [0002] In an imaging device, generally, the following three methods are mainly listed as methods for realizing an extended depth of field (Extended Depth of Field, hereinafter referred to as EDOF). [0003] The first method is a method of uniformizing the blurring of the image in the depth direction by inserting an optical element called a phase plate, performing image restoration processing based on a blurring pattern obtained in advance by measurement or simulation, and obtaining An image with an expanded depth of field (hereinafter referred to as an EDOF image). This method is called wavefront coding (Wavefront Coding) (hereinafter referred to as WFC) (Non-Patent Document 1). [0004] The second method is a method of performing high-precision distance measu...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, as a disadvantage common to WFC, there is a property that the off-axis characteristics of the lens are deteriorated by inserting a phase plate (Non-Patent Document 7)

Specifically, compared with the incident light from the front, for the incident light from other than the front, since exactly the same blur uniform effect cannot be obtained, if the blur pattern on the axis is used for the restoration process when the image is restored, the restoration The image quality outside the optical axis will deteriorate

[0009] Among the above-mentioned three methods, CA has the following disadvantages, that is, due to the characteristics of the method itself that improves the accuracy of distance measurement by inserting a characteristic shaped aperture, there is a discrepancy between the captured image and the image obtained after the restoration process. Disadvantages such as the disappearance of specific frequency components, that is, the deterioration of image quality

In addition, regardless of the shape of the aperture, since the amount of light is reduced compared with the usual shooting method, it is not suitable for shooting in dark places.

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