HK1114571B - Image pickup system and method - Google Patents

Description

Camera system and method

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a camera system, and more particularly, to a camera system and method capable of performing vibration compensation by integrating data sensed by an angular velocity sensor.

Background

With the recent trend of thin and light digital cameras and the characteristic that digital pictures taken by the digital cameras can be easily viewed and processed in related devices, such as computer systems, the digital cameras have become one of the necessities of modern life.

There is a problem of hand shock in all cameras, especially in digital cameras that are thin and light. Because the stability of the user holding the digital camera is not sufficient, the user often shakes the camera at the moment of pressing the shutter due to shaking when holding the digital camera by the hand or the force applied by fingers pressing the shutter, so that a blurred image is captured. Therefore, techniques for preventing hand shock are generally provided in general digital cameras.

In U.S. patent 2005/0031326 and two known japanese patent applications, jp H08-136962 and jp H11308521, a position sensor is used to sense the movement of an image sensing unit, and a gyroscope (Gyro) sensor is used to sense the angular velocity, and a processor of a digital camera can estimate a correction value according to the sensed data and use a driving device to move the correction lens set for compensation, thereby solving the problem of image blurring caused by camera vibration. However, the disadvantage of using the driving correction lens set to correct the vibration is: if the correction lens group has an excessive movement, the lenses are likely to collide with each other.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a camera system, which comprises a first sensor, a second sensor, a third sensor and a fourth sensor, wherein the first sensor is used for sensing the inclination angle change of a camera device and generating first sensing data; the second sensor is used for sensing the position movement of the image sensing unit in the camera device and generating second sensing data; the driving device is coupled with the image sensing unit; and the processing module receives the first sensing data and the second sensing data, and comprises a phase compensation unit for calculating phase compensation data according to the first sensing data, and the processing module integrates the first sensing data and sums the integrated first sensing data, the phase compensation data and the second sensing data to calculate control information so that the driving device adjusts the position of the image sensing unit according to the control information.

In the camera system of the present invention, the first Sensor is a Gyro Sensor (Gyro Sensor).

In the camera system of the present invention, the second Sensor is a hall Sensor (hall effect Sensor).

In the imaging system of the present invention, the first sensing data is an angular velocity signal of the imaging device.

In the camera system of the present invention, the second sensing data is a position signal of the image sensing unit.

In the camera system of the present invention, the processing module further includes: a first integrator for integrating the first sensing data; a combination unit for summing the integrated first sensing data, the phase compensation data and the second sensing data; a first proportional-integral-derivative controller for receiving the summed data from the combining unit and generating a first message as the control message according to the summed data.

In the camera system of the present invention, the processing module further includes at least one analog/digital converter for converting the first sensing data and the second sensing data into digital data, respectively.

In the camera system of the present invention, the processing module further includes: a second proportional-integral-derivative controller coupled to the second sensing data for generating a second information; and a selection unit coupled to the first and second pid controllers for outputting the first or second information as the control information.

In the camera system of the present invention, the selection unit outputs the first information or the second information according to the instruction of the user.

The invention also provides another camera system, which comprises a gyroscope sensor, a gyroscope module and a control module, wherein the gyroscope sensor is used for sensing the inclination angle change of the camera device and generating an angular velocity signal of the camera device; hall sensor, which is used to sense the position movement of image sensing unit in the camera device and generate the position signal of the image sensing unit; the processing module comprises a first integrator for integrating the angular velocity signal; the combination unit is used for processing the position signal and the integrated angular velocity signal; a proportional-integral-derivative controller for receiving the data processed by the combination unit and generating control information according to the processed data; the driving device controller is used for generating a corresponding control signal according to the control information; and the driving device is coupled to the image sensing unit and used for receiving the control signal and adjusting the position of the image sensing unit according to the control signal.

In the camera system of the present invention, the processing module further includes a phase compensation unit for calculating a phase compensation data according to the angular velocity signal and transmitting the phase compensation data to the combination unit, and the combination unit processes the angular velocity signal and the position signal according to the phase compensation data and the integrated angular velocity signal.

The camera system of the present invention further includes at least one analog/digital converter for converting the angular velocity signal and the position signal into digital data, respectively.

The invention also provides a camera shooting method, which comprises the steps of sensing the inclination angle change of the camera shooting device through a first sensor so as to obtain first sensing data; sensing the position movement of an image sensing unit in the camera device through a second sensor so as to generate second sensing data; integrating the first sensed data; calculating a phase compensation data according to the first sensing data; summing the phase compensation data, the integrated first sensing data and the second sensing data to calculate control information; and enabling the driving device to adjust the position of the image sensing unit according to the control information.

In the imaging method of the present invention, the first sensing data is an angular velocity signal of the imaging device.

In the imaging method of the present invention, the second sensing data is a position signal of the image sensing unit.

The image capturing method further includes processing the summed data by a proportional-integral-derivative controller to obtain a first information as the control information.

The image pickup method further comprises processing the second sensing data by another proportional-integral-derivative controller to obtain a second information; and outputting the first information or the second information as the control information.

The image capturing method further includes outputting the first information or the second information according to an instruction of a user.

The camera shooting system and the camera shooting method solve the problem of image blurring caused by camera vibration.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an embodiment of a camera system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the imaging method of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C are waveform diagrams showing the relationship between the angular velocity and the angular acceleration corresponding to the time sensed by the angular velocity sensor;

fig. 4A, 4B and 4C are waveform diagrams showing the relationship between the time sensed by the position sensor and the corresponding position, velocity and acceleration.

Detailed Description

In order to make the aforementioned and other objects, features and advantages of the invention more comprehensible, preferred embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below:

fig. 1 shows an embodiment of the imaging system of the present invention. The camera system of the invention can be a camera device with a hand-shake prevention function, such as a digital camera. As shown, the camera system 100 includes a Gyro Sensor (Gyro Sensor)10, a hall Sensor (hall effect Sensor)20, a processing module 30, a driving device 40, an image sensing unit 50, a high-pass filter 60, and amplifiers 70A and 70B.

The gyroscope sensor 10 may be disposed in the camera device for sensing a tilt angle (inclination) change of the camera device and generating corresponding sensing data, for example, the gyroscope sensor 10 generates an angular velocity signal of the camera device, such as angular velocities (t) at different times (t)) Change (as shown in FIG. 3B), or angular acceleration at different times (t) ((R))) In a variation, as shown in fig. 3C.

The hall sensor 20 may be disposed near the image sensor unit for sensing the position movement of the image sensor unit 50 and generating corresponding sensing data, for example, the hall sensor 20 generates a position signal of the image sensor unit 50, such as the position (p) change at different time (t) (as shown in fig. 4A) or the speed (t) at different time (t) ((r))) Change (as shown in fig. 4B).

The processing module 30 includes analog/digital converters 41A and 41B, an integrator 42, a phase compensation unit 43, a combination unit 44, Proportional-Integral-Derivative controllers (Proportional-Integral-Derivative controllers) 45A and 45B, a selection unit 46, a driving device controller 47, a Pulse Width Modulator (PWM)48, and a General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) 49. The processing module 30 is coupled to the gyroscope sensor 10, the hall sensor 20, and the driving device 40, and is configured to integrate the angular velocity signal, and calculate control information according to the integrated angular signal and the position signal, so that the driving device 40 adjusts the position of the image sensing unit 50 according to the control information.

In the present embodiment, the gyro sensor 10 senses the tilt angle change of the image pickup device and transmits a signal to the high pass filter 60 to eliminate signal drift or other unnecessary signal components. The signal is amplified by an amplifier 70A and then sent to an analog/digital converter (a/D)41A in the processing module 30 for converting the signal sensed by the gyro sensor 10 into a digital sensing signal S1, which is provided to the integrator 42 and the phase compensation unit 43. It is noted that the analog-to-digital converter (A/D)41A, the converted sensing signal S1 is also provided to the phase compensation unit 43 for phase compensation, and the related phase compensation data S3 is provided to the combination unit 44.

On the other hand, the amplifier 70B is used for amplifying the signal sensed by the hall sensor 20, wherein the amplifier 70B may also be integrated into the hall sensor 20, but is not limited thereto. The output signal of the amplifier 70B is sent to another analog/digital converter (a/D)41B in the processing module 30 for converting the signal sensed by the hall sensor 20 into digital sensing data S2, and sending the sensing data S2 to the combination unit 44 and the pid controller 45B. The pid controller 45B performs integration, differentiation, and summation operations based on the received data to generate corresponding information I2.

In addition, after the sensing data S1 is integrated, the integrator 42 supplies the integrated sensing data S11 to the combining unit 44. The combining unit 44 performs an adding process according to the integrated sensing data S11, the phase compensation data S3 and the sensing data S2 to obtain sum data S4, and transmits the processed sum data S4 to another proportional-integral-derivative controller 45A to generate corresponding information I1.

It is noted that the information I1 and I2 outputted by the PID controllers 45A and 45B are transmitted to the selection unit 46, such as a multiplexer, for example, so that a user can select one of the controllers to perform the relevant control according to different situations. For example, at the time of starting up, the image capturing apparatus 100 may be preset with the selection information I2 as the initial compensation setting of the control information CI, and transmit the initial compensation setting to the driving apparatus controller 47 for performing the compensation process for preventing the shake. And the user can select the information I1 to be converted as the control information CI to be transmitted to the driving device controller 47 according to his own preference for performing the compensation process of preventing hand vibration.

The driving device controller 47 receives the control information CI from the selection unit 46, and transmits the pwm signal AS and the direction control signal DS to the driving device 40 through the pwm 48 and the general-purpose i/o 49, respectively.

The driving device 40 is coupled to the image sensing unit 50, and is configured to receive the pwm signal AS and the direction control signal DS, and to send out a control signal to adjust the position of the image sensing unit 50. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to any type of driving device, for example, the driving device 40 may employ one of a coil driving unit, a piezoelectric actuator (piezo actuator) or a stepping motor to move the position of the image sensing unit 50.

The control signal from the driving device controller 47 may also vary according to the design of the driving device 40, for example, the control signal may be a control voltage output to the driving device 40, and voltages with different pulse frequencies or pulse widths may cause the driving device 40 to adjust the image sensing unit 50 to different degrees.

The image sensor unit 50 may be a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) disposed on a support (not shown) capable of moving up, down, left, and right for capturing images. Generally, the image sensor unit and the movable support frame are collectively referred to as a movable charge coupled device (Shift CCD). In the present embodiment, the movable frame performs a compensation process for preventing hand shake according to the position of the image sensing unit 50 adjusted by the driving device 40, so as to avoid generating a blurred image.

The present invention also provides a camera shooting method, and fig. 2 is a flowchart of the camera shooting method of the present invention.

In step S10, the tilt angle of a camera device is sensed by the gyro sensor 10, and corresponding sensed data is generated, for example, the gyro sensor 10 outputs an angular velocity signal of the camera device 100, such as angular velocities at different times (t), (t)) Change (as shown in FIG. 3B), or angular acceleration at different times (t) ((R))) Change (as shown in fig. 3C). It is noted that the signal sensed by the gyro sensor 10 is transmitted to the high pass filter 60 to remove signal drift or other unnecessary signal components, and then amplified by the amplifier 70A. The amplified signal is further converted into a digital sensing signal S1 by an analog/digital converter (a/D)41A, and is provided to the integrator 42 and the phase compensation unit 43.

In step S20, the hall sensor 20 senses the position movement of the image sensing unit 50 in the image capturing apparatus 100 to generate corresponding sensing data, for example, the hall sensor 20 generates a position signal of the image sensing unit 50, such as the position (p) change at different time (t) (as shown in fig. 4A) or the speed (t) at different time (t) ((S))) Change (as shown in fig. 4B). The signal sensed by the Hall sensor 20 is amplified by an amplifier 70B and then passed through an analog/digital converter (A/D)41B for converting the signal sensed by the Hall sensor 20The signal is converted into digital sensing data S2, and the sensing data S2 is transmitted to the combination unit 44 and the proportional-integral-derivative controller 45B.

In step S30, the sensing signal S1 from the analog/digital converter (a/D)41A is integrated by the integrator 42, and the integrated sensing data S11 is provided to the combination unit 44. In addition, the sensing signal S1 from the analog-to-digital converter (a/D)41A is also phase compensated by a phase compensation unit, and the related phase compensation data S3 is provided to the combination unit 44.

In step S40, the integrated sensing data S1, S2 and the phase compensation data S3 are summed by a combination unit 44 to calculate a control information CI. It is further noted that the summed total data S4 from the combining unit 44 is processed via the proportional-integral-derivative controller 45A to derive the information I1, and the sensed data S2 from the analog/digital converter (a/D)41B is processed via the other proportional-integral-derivative controller 45B to derive the information I2. The information I1 and I2 outputted from the pid controllers 45A and 45B are transmitted to the selection unit 46, and the information I1 and I2 are outputted as the control information CI according to different situations. For example, when the camera 100 is turned on, the selection information I2 can be preset as the initial value of the control information CI to perform the compensation process for preventing the shake, and the user can convert the selection information I1 into the control information CI according to his preference to perform the compensation process for preventing the shake.

It is noted that the signal measured by the gyro sensor 10 may be an angular velocity at different times (t) (t)) Change (as shown in FIG. 3B), or angular acceleration at different times (t) ((R))) Varies (as shown in FIG. 3C), and the signals measured by the Hall sensors 20 can be at different times (t)Change in position (p) (as shown in fig. 4A), or velocity (t) at different times (t)) Varying (as shown in fig. 4B), there will be at least three ways to arrive at the summed total data S4 of the combining unit 44 of the present invention.

If the signal measured by the gyro sensor 10 is the angular velocity signal shown in fig. 3B and the signal measured by the hall sensor 20 is the change (i.e., displacement) of the position (p) shown in fig. 4A, the angular velocity signal measured by the gyro sensor 10 is changed into the angular signal shown in fig. 3A by the integrator 42, and then compared (or summed) with the displacement measured by the hall sensor 20 to obtain the sum data S4.

Alternatively, if the signal measured by the gyroscope sensor 10 is the angular acceleration signal shown in FIG. 3C, and the signal measured by the Hall sensor 20 is the velocity (in FIG. 4B)) The angular acceleration signal measured by the gyro sensor 10 is converted into the angular velocity signal of fig. 3B by the integrator 42, and then compared (or summed) with the displacement velocity measured by the hall sensor 20 to obtain the sum data S4.

That is, if the signal measured by the gyro sensor 10 is the angular acceleration signal shown in fig. 3C and the signal measured by the hall sensor 20 is the position (p) change (i.e., displacement) shown in fig. 4A, the angular acceleration signal measured by the gyro sensor 10 is twice integrated by the integrator 42 to become the angular signal shown in fig. 3A, and then compared (or summed) with the displacement measured by the hall sensor 20 to obtain the sum data S4. In step S50, the driving device 40 is caused to adjust the position of the image sensing unit 50 according to the control information CI for performing the compensation process of preventing the hand shake. For example, the driving device controller 47 controls the pulse width modulator 48 and the general purpose input/output terminal 49 according to the control information CI, outputs the pulse width modulation signal AS and the direction control signal DS, and sends out the control signal to adjust the position of the image sensing unit 50.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to any type of driving device, for example, the driving device 40 may employ one of a coil driving unit, a piezoelectric actuator (piezo actuator) or a stepping motor to move the position of the image sensing unit 50. The control signal from the driving device controller 47 may also vary according to the design of the driving device 40, for example, the control signal may be a control voltage output to the driving device 40, and voltages with different pulse frequencies or pulse widths may cause the driving device 40 to adjust the image sensing unit 50 to different degrees.

The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and it is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and any person skilled in the art can make further modifications and variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, therefore, the scope of the present invention should be determined by the claims of the present application.

The symbols in the drawings are briefly described as follows:

10: gyroscope sensor

20: hall sensor

30: processing module

40: drive device

41A, 41B: analog/digital converter

42: integrator

43: phase compensation unit

44: combined unit

45A, 45B: proportional-integral-derivative controller

46: selection unit

47: drive device controller

48: pulse width modulator

49: universal input/output terminal

50: image sensing unit

60: high-pass filter

70A and 70B: amplifier with a high-frequency amplifier

S1-S4, DS, AS: signal

I1, I2, CI: information

100: image pickup system

Claims (15)

1. An image pickup system, characterized in that it comprises;

a first sensor for sensing a tilt angle change of a camera device and generating a first sensing data;

a second sensor for sensing the position movement of an image sensing unit in the camera device and generating a second sensing data;

a driving device coupled to the image sensing unit; and

a processing module for receiving the first sensing data and the second sensing data, wherein the processing module comprises a phase compensation unit for calculating a phase compensation data according to the first sensing data, the processing module integrates the first sensing data and sums the integrated first sensing data, the phase compensation data and the second sensing data to calculate a control information, so that the driving device adjusts the position of the image sensing unit according to the control information.

2. The camera system of claim 1, wherein the first sensor is a gyroscope sensor.

3. The camera system of claim 1, wherein the second sensor is a hall sensor.

4. The image capturing system of claim 1, wherein the first sensing data is an angular velocity signal of the image capturing device.

5. The camera system of claim 1, wherein the second sensing data is a position signal of the image sensing unit.

6. The camera system of claim 1, wherein the processing module further comprises:

a first integrator for integrating the first sensing data;

a combination unit for summing the integrated first sensing data, the phase compensation data and the second sensing data;

a first proportional-integral-derivative controller for receiving the summed data from the combining unit and generating a first message as the control message according to the summed data.

7. The camera system of claim 6, wherein the processing module further comprises at least one analog-to-digital converter for converting the first sensing data and the second sensing data into digital data, respectively.

8. The camera system of claim 6, wherein the processing module further comprises:

a second proportional-integral-derivative controller coupled to the second sensing data for generating a second information; and

a selection unit coupled to the first and second pid controllers for outputting the first or second information as the control information.

9. The camera system of claim 8, wherein the selection unit outputs the first information or the second information according to a user's instruction.

10. An image pickup method, comprising the steps of:

sensing the inclination angle change of a camera device through a first sensor so as to obtain first sensing data;

sensing the position movement of an image sensing unit in the camera device through a second sensor so as to generate second sensing data;

integrating the first sensed data;

calculating a phase compensation data according to the first sensing data;

summing the phase compensation data, the integrated first sensing data and the second sensing data to calculate control information; and

so that a driving device adjusts the position of the image sensing unit according to the control information.

11. The image capturing method according to claim 10, wherein the first sensing data is an angular velocity signal of the image capturing apparatus.

12. The image capturing method according to claim 10, wherein the second sensing data is a position signal of the image sensing unit.

13. The image capturing method according to claim 10, further comprising processing the summed data by a proportional-integral-derivative controller to obtain a first information as the control information.

14. The image capturing method according to claim 13, further comprising processing the second sensing data by another proportional-integral-derivative controller to obtain a second information; and

outputting the first information or the second information as the control information.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising outputting the first information or the second information according to a user's instruction.