Image Pickup Device Positioning for Defective Pixel Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Image pickup apparatuses with fish-eye lenses face challenges in using effective imaging areas due to defective pixels, which can lead to erroneous corrections and reduced image quality, especially when defective pixels are dense.
Innovation Solution
An image pickup apparatus with a movable image pickup device that adjusts its position based on acquired characteristics and imaging position to minimize defective pixels, using a combination of characteristic detection, imaging position detection, and calculation to determine a target position for optimal image acquisition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If defective pixels are corrected using surrounding pixels, then defective pixel correction is achieved, but erroneous correction occurs at boundary portions and image quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and excludes boundary portions from the correction process. By identifying pixels at boundary portions and excluding them from correction calculations, the system prevents erroneous correction while maintaining correction accuracy for internal pixels. This separation of boundary and internal pixel processing resolves the contradiction between correction reliability and image quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the image pickup device pixels into three categories: internal pixels, boundary pixels, and dense defective pixel regions. By applying different correction strategies to each segment (correcting internal pixels using surrounding pixels, excluding boundary pixels, and handling dense regions specially), the system achieves both reliable correction and high image quality without erroneous corrections.
2Ease of operation
If only part of effective pixels are used for imaging with fish-eye lens, then imaging is achieved, but image quality is suboptimal due to unused high-quality pixel areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically determines the imaging area based on the actual distribution of defective pixels. Instead of using a fixed imaging area, the system identifies high-quality pixel regions by excluding boundary portions and dense defective pixel regions, then dynamically sets the imaging area to utilize the best available pixel areas. This dynamic adjustment enables both imaging capability and optimal image quality.
3Reliability
If defective pixels are densely distributed, then correction complexity increases, but erroneous correction probability increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates dense defective pixel regions from the correction process. By identifying regions where defective pixels are densely distributed and excluding these regions from correction calculations, the system prevents erroneous correction propagation. This extraction approach maintains correction accuracy for non-dense regions while avoiding the complexity and errors associated with correcting dense defective pixel areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial correction action by selectively correcting only those pixels that can be reliably corrected (internal pixels in non-dense regions) while excluding pixels in dense defective regions from correction. This partial approach prevents the excessive complexity and erroneous corrections that would result from attempting to correct all defective pixels uniformly.
Data Source
AI summary
An image pickup apparatus that uses an area of an image pickup device, which has better characteristics, as an imaging area. The image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup optical system having a fish-eye lens. An image pickup device is movable relative to the image pickup optical system, and converts an object image formed through the image pickup optical system to electric signals. A characteristic detection section acquires characteristics of the image pickup device, and an imaging position detection section acquires an imaging position of the object image on the image pickup device. A target position to which the image pickup device is to be moved is determined based on the acquired characteristics of the image pickup device, and the acquired imaging position.