TWI390973B - Image capture device, autofocus module and the method using the same - Google Patents

Description

Autofocus method and module and image capturing device using the same

The invention relates to an image capturing technology, in particular to an image capturing device, an automatic focusing module, and an auto focusing method capable of adjusting a viewing range as the object moves.

When shooting a dynamic image, a camera such as a video recorder, a camera, or a computer for a computer can track the subject by directly driving the camera or moving the camera by a mechanical hinge. The focus frame is a fixed range. The disadvantage is that when the subject moves too fast or too close to the camera, the subject will leave the focus frame, causing the shooting effect to be less than expected by the user.

As shown in the first figure, the general imaging device 1 is mounted on the stand 2, and the shooting direction of the imaging device 1 can be controlled by a control handle 3. The focus frame of the imaging device 1 is displayed as shown in FIG. 2A. When the subject moves too fast, as shown in the second B picture, half of the subject is in the focus frame and half is outside the focus frame, and the quality of the shot must depend on the user's operation skills.

In recent years, there has been a photographic device that automatically detects the dynamics of a subject, which is fixed on a rotating shaft device, can detect the movement of the object, and controls the rotating shaft to drive the entire photographic device to rotate, and along with the subject The change automatically adjusts the optical focus.

Although the above-mentioned photographing apparatus can overcome the deficiencies of the user's operation skills in the prior art, the photographing apparatus incorporated in the hinge apparatus cannot be applied to a photographing apparatus which can be easily obtained by a general user. First of all, the above-mentioned photographic equipment must drive the rotation of the shaft and optical focus, and the power required is very large. Generally, the battery capacity of the camera device that is carried around is impossible to load; in addition, the cost of the above photographic equipment and the shaft device is very high, except for the hardware. It is also necessary to have a complicated electromechanical control system; in addition, both the camera and the hinge device are prefabricated as the same device or assembled, and the user wants to use the automatic tracking target function to shoot, and must carry a large number of devices, so It is difficult to spread to general users.

Therefore, how to improve the above shortcomings about dynamic shooting is a topic that needs to be considered today.

An object of the present invention is to provide an auto focus module capable of automatic framing, an auto focus method, and an image capture device to solve the problem that a subject is separated from a focus frame to prevent the object from being in the focus frame or The image of the target in the focus frame is incomplete.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an autofocus module, an autofocus method, and an image capture device that save power and cost.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an autofocus module, an autofocus method, and an image capture device that are convenient for general user operations.

In order to achieve the above and other objects, the present invention provides an autofocus module, which is disposed in an image capturing device. The image capturing device has an image sensing module configured to have a first viewing range, and the image capturing device captures The auto focus module corresponding to the first view range includes: a framing operation unit, configured to calculate a size of a second framing range according to a target size in the image corresponding to the first framing range The second framing range is smaller than the first framing range and includes at least the target object; a motion detecting unit coupled to the framing operation unit for detecting the moving direction of the target in the second framing range; The processing unit is coupled to the motion detecting unit to adjust the position of the second viewing range within the first viewing range according to the moving direction of the target to keep the target within the second viewing range. The present invention further provides an image capturing device, which is suitable for photography and photography, and includes the image sensing module, the auto focus module, and the display unit, wherein the auto focus module and the image capturing unit and the display unit respectively Coupling.

The present invention further provides an autofocus method, the method comprising: setting a first framing range, locking a target in the first framing range, and generating a second framing range according to the target size by the autofocus module; The image of the two framing range is magnified by the digital zoom and displayed on the display unit, and then the target is moved. If the target is in the moving state, the second framing range moves with the moving direction of the target, so that the target remains at the first position. Within the scope of the second view.

Thereby, the second framing range is moved by following the movement of the object, so that the purpose of dynamic framing without controlling the direction of the image capturing device by the user can be achieved. In this way, the target can be resolved from the viewing range, and the size of the appropriate second viewing range can be obtained according to the size of the target by the framing operation unit.

Moreover, the present invention can save the power required for driving the rotating shaft and the cost of additional equipment as compared with the photographic apparatus having a rotating shaft in the prior art.

Furthermore, the present invention is more portable and popular for users than the photographic apparatus assembled with the shaft device in the prior art.

It can be seen from the above that the autofocus module, the autofocus method, and the image capturing device of the present invention can fully solve the shortcomings of the prior art.

The above summary and the following detailed description are exemplary in order to further illustrate the scope of the claims. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be described in the following description and drawings.

The invention realizes the motion detection of the target object in the image, so that the object can be kept in the viewing range displayed by the display without the user's immediate control of the direction of the image capturing device.

The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings and drawings, in order to illustrate the embodiments of the invention The effect that can be achieved.

The main technical feature of the present invention is an image capturing device with an autofocus function and a method thereof. Therefore, the following embodiments only propose the necessary system architecture and method steps thereof, but those skilled in the art can clearly understand the following In addition to the components, there are of course other components, and should not be limited to those disclosed in this embodiment.

Please refer to the third figure, which is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an image capturing device of the present invention. As shown in the third figure, the image capturing device 10 of the present invention includes an image sensing module 100, an autofocus module 120, an operating unit 140, a display unit 160, and a storage unit 180. The auto-focusing module 120 is coupled to the image sensing module 100, the operating unit 140, the display unit 160, and the storage unit 180. The storage unit 180 can be a memory card or a flash memory for storing user desires. The image of the captured image.

The image sensing module 100 can include an optical lens and an image sensor. The image sensor can be a charge coupled device or a complementary CMOS image sensor for sensing an image. The image capturing device 10 can capture the image within the maximum sensing range of the image sensing module 100. The user can first set a first viewing range when the initial shooting is taken—that is, the maximum viewing range during the entire shooting process, where the first A range of objects includes a target that can be or have a face.

The auto focus module 120 can be a digital signal processor suitable for use in a webcam for a video recorder, camera or computer. The auto focus module 120 can perform image analysis on the digital image data, and generate a smaller than the first viewing range and at least the second viewing range of the target according to the target size in the first viewing range, and according to the moving direction of the target. Adjust the position of the second view range in the first view range.

The display unit 160 can be a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting diode display, or a plasma display for displaying a picture of the digital image data analyzed by the image of the auto focus module 120, including a first viewing range or a second viewing range. The first view range and the second view range can be displayed on the display unit 160 in a full screen manner, and the user can view the second view range, that is, the first view range and the second view range are displayed on the display unit 160. The image captured by the image capturing device 10.

The operating unit 140 can be a touch screen or button provided on the image capturing device 10 for providing the user as a control interface for controlling the auto focus module 120 and other functions. The user can observe the entire process of capturing the image through the display unit 160. When the user is dissatisfied with the display of the first and second viewing ranges, the user can perform manual adjustment by the operation unit 140, and when the second viewing range is When the screen is approved by the user, it can also be captured by the operation unit 140.

Referring to the third figure, the auto focus module 120 of the image capture device 10 of the present invention may include a framing operation unit 121, a motion detection unit 123, a face detection unit 125, and a processing unit 127. The motion detection unit 123 is coupled to the framing operation unit 121, and the processing unit 127 is coupled to the motion detection unit 123 and the face detection unit 125, respectively.

Please refer to the fourth A to fourth E and the fourth A1 to the fourth E1, and the fourth to fourth E are the pictures displayed by the actual viewing range, that is, the first viewing range. The fourth A1 map to the fourth E1 map are screens displayed by the second framing range after the digital zoom is enlarged from the fourth to fourth E graphs. As shown in the fourth A and fourth A1, the framing operation unit 121 calculates the size of the second framing range according to the target size in the first framing range, that is, at least according to the target size of the image in the actual framing range. The second viewing range includes the target, wherein the aspect ratio of the first viewing range may be built-in preset or adjusted by the user; as shown in the fourth B and fourth B1, the target moves to the left, and the mobile detection The measuring unit 123 detects the moving direction of the target object in the first viewing range, and the processing unit 127 determines whether the target object in the first viewing range has a movement, and adjusts the position of the second viewing range according to the moving direction of the target object, so that the target object Keeping in the second framing range; as shown in the fourth C, D, and fourth C1, D1, when the target moves, the face detecting unit 125 detects a face other than the target, and the processing unit 127 Determining whether a face other than the target is close to the second framing range, and adjusting the size of the second framing range according to the number of faces close to the second framing range, and expanding the second if the number of faces other than the target increases The range of the scene is such that the second framing range includes at least the target object and a person other than the target object; as shown in the fourth E diagram and the fourth E1 diagram, the processing unit 127 determines whether a face other than the target object leaves the second framing range, And reducing the second framing range according to the reduced number of faces in the framing range, so that the second framing range includes at least the target object.

The determination of whether the face other than the target is close to the second viewing range may be detected by the face detecting unit 125 for a face other than the target within a preset range, wherein the preset range is at least the second The range of the framing range and the range around the second framing range, and then the processing unit 127 determines whether the face is in the preset range, the preset range can be built-in preset or the size is adjusted by the user, and the position also follows the second framing range. Moving, whether the target moves or the face moves outside the target, as long as the face other than the detected object enters the preset range, the processing unit 127 determines that the face is close to the second view range; likewise, Determining whether a face other than the target leaves the second viewing range may be that the face detecting unit 125 detects an incomplete face or the face disappears within the preset range, and the processing unit 127 determines that the face is a face. Leave the second view range.

Please refer to the fifth figure, which is a flowchart of an embodiment of an autofocus method provided by the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the step of the auto-focusing method of the present invention includes the image displayed by the image sensing module 100 by the user through the image displayed by the image capturing device 10 after the image capturing device 10 enters the auto-focus mode. a first framing range (S501), in which a target object is locked in the first framing range (S502), and the target object is, for example, a human face. Then, the framing operation unit 121 calculates a second framing range according to the target size (S503). The second framing range is smaller than the first framing range and includes at least the target object. The second framing range is magnified by the digital zoom and displayed on a display unit 160 for the user to view the shooting image, and the target object may be human or other mobile The animal detecting unit 123 detects the moving direction of the target object in the first viewing range, and then, tracking the target object, and the processing unit 127 determines whether the target object moves (S505), and if the target object is in the moving state, The processing unit 127 adjusts the position of the second framing range according to the moving direction of the target (S507), so that the target is kept within the second framing range; if the target is not moving If the distance between the target and the image capturing device changes, the size of the second viewing range is calculated according to the proportion of the target in the first viewing range, and the processing unit 127 re-adjusts the second viewing range. Size (S503).

When the target object is closer to the image capturing device 10 or the range of the first viewing range is smaller, the proportion of the target in the first viewing range is larger, and the second viewing range is within the first viewing range. The smaller the movable range is; on the contrary, the farther the target is from the image capturing device 10 or the wider the image included in the first viewing range, the smaller the proportion of the target in the first viewing range is. The range in which the second framing range is movable within the first framing range is larger.

During the shooting, the position of the image capturing device 10 remains unchanged, the target in the first viewing range may move or other faces other than the target may move, and the target is opposite to the other faces other than the target. In the change, the face detection unit 125 detects a face other than the target within a preset range of the second framing range, and the processing unit 127 determines whether a face other than the target is close to the second framing range, that is, judging Whether a face other than the target is detected in the first framing range (S509), if it is detected that the other face is close to the second framing range, the processing unit 127 adjusts the number of faces according to the detected face. The size of the second framing range, that is, the more the number of faces detected near the second framing range, the more the second framing range is expanded, so that the second framing range includes at least the target object and the target object close to the second framing range. Person (S511), and the motion detecting unit 123 continuously detects the moving direction of the target, and as the target moves, or the target does not move, other face positions move, and the target and other faces When the position is changed, the processing unit 127 determines whether the number of faces other than the target is changed within the preset range (S513), and if the number of faces other than the target in the second framing range is detected, the number of faces changes. , the second viewing range is adjusted according to the detected number of faces (S511), and if the number of detected faces increases, the second viewing range is expanded; if the number of detected faces is decreased, The second framing range is reduced; if the detected number of faces does not change, the second framing range remains unchanged (S515), and the processing unit 127 determines whether the auto focus mode is stopped (S517), and if the auto focus mode is continued, Returning to judge whether the target moves (S505); if the auto focus mode is stopped, the framing range of the restored focus frame is only the first framing range (S519), that is, the actual framing range that has not undergone the digital zoom.

In combination with the above-described embodiments, it can be seen that the present invention utilizes the movement of the detection target to achieve the purpose of the target range following the target, keeping the target within the framing range, and by judging the face other than the target. Or leave the framing range to dynamically adjust the size of the framing range so that the target and the face other than the target can dynamically enter the framing range. In this way, the image capturing device of the present invention can solve the traditional need for a mechanical moving image capturing device to control the shooting direction, because the target object moves too fast and the target object leaves the viewing range, causing the shooting image to be less than expected. The problem.

The illustrations and descriptions disclosed above are only examples of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone skilled in the art can make various changes and retouching according to the above description, if other The spirit of the present invention and the technical means for not substantially changing the present invention are within the scope of protection covered by the present invention.

Convention:

1. . . Camera

2. . . Tripod

3. . . Control handle

this invention:

10. . . Image capture device

100. . . Image sensing module

120. . . Auto focus module

121. . . Viewing unit

123. . . Motion detection unit

125. . . Face detection unit

127. . . Processing unit

140. . . Operating unit

160. . . Display unit

180. . . Storage unit

S501～S519. . . Autofocus method step

The first figure is a schematic view of a conventional imaging device;

2A and 2B are schematic views of a focusing frame of one of the conventional imaging devices;

3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an image capture device of the present invention;

4A to 4E, and 4A1 to E1 are schematic views of a viewing range of an embodiment of the image capturing device of the present invention; and

The fifth figure is a flow chart of an embodiment of the autofocus method of the present invention.

10. . . Image capture device

100. . . Image sensing module

120. . . Auto focus module

121. . . Viewing unit

123. . . Motion detection unit

125. . . Face detection unit

127. . . Processing unit

140. . . Operating unit

160. . . Display unit

180. . . Storage unit

Claims (19)

An automatic focusing module is disposed in an image capturing device, wherein the image capturing device has an image sensing module configured to have a first viewing range, and the image capturing device captures the first viewing range An image, the auto focus module includes: a framing operation unit, configured to calculate a size of a second framing range according to a target size in the image corresponding to the first framing range, wherein the second framing range a motion detection unit coupled to the framing operation unit for detecting a moving direction of the target in the first framing range; and a processing unit And being coupled to the motion detecting unit, configured to adjust a position of the second framing range within the first framing range according to a moving direction of the target, so that the target is maintained in the second framing range. The autofocus module of claim 1, wherein the image capture device is a video camera, a camera, or a network camera for a computer. The autofocus module of claim 1, further comprising a face detection unit, wherein the target includes at least one face detected by the face detection unit, the face detection unit The multiplex detection detects a face other than the target within a preset range of the second framing range. The autofocus module of claim 3, wherein the processing unit is further configured to determine whether a face other than the target enters or leaves the second viewing range, and adjusts the number according to the number of faces. The size of the second view range. An image capturing device with an auto focus function, comprising: an image sensing module, capturing an image including a target object by a first viewing range; An autofocus module coupled to the image sensing module for generating a second viewing range that is smaller than the first viewing range and including the target according to the target, and according to the target moving direction Adjusting the position of the second framing range in the first framing range to keep the object in the second framing range; and a display unit coupled to the autofocus module for displaying the A framing range or a screen in which the second framing range is enlarged by digital zoom. The image capturing device of claim 5, wherein the autofocus module comprises: a framing operation unit, wherein the size of the second framing range is calculated according to the size of the target; a unit coupled to the framing unit for detecting a moving direction of the target; and a processing unit coupled to the motion detecting unit for adjusting the second according to a moving direction of the target The framing range is within the first framing range to maintain the object within the second framing range. The image capturing device of claim 6, wherein the auto focus module further comprises a face detecting unit, and the target includes at least one face to be detected by the face detecting unit. The face detection unit is multiplexed to detect a face other than the target within a preset range covering the second view range. The image capturing device of claim 7, wherein the processing unit is further configured to determine whether a face other than the target enters or leaves the preset range, and the target is within the preset range. Adjusting the size of the second viewing range by the number of faces other than the object, so that the second viewing range includes at least the target and a face other than the target is detected. The image capturing device of claim 5, further comprising an operating unit coupled to the autofocus module for providing a user to control the autofocus module. The image capturing device of claim 5, wherein the image capturing device further comprises a storage unit coupled to the autofocus module for storing an image of a screen desired by the user. . An automatic focusing method is applied to an image capturing device having an image sensing module. The automatic focusing method includes the following steps: defining a first viewing range by the image sensing module; and in the first viewing range Locking a target; generating a second framing range according to the target size, wherein the second framing range is smaller than the first framing range and includes at least the target; and tracking the target, when the target is in a moving state, And adjusting a position of the second framing range within the first framing range according to the moving direction of the target, so that the target is kept within the second framing range. The autofocus method of claim 11, wherein the target locked in the first viewing range has a face. The autofocus method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether a face other than the target is detected within a preset range covering one of the second viewing ranges. The autofocus method of claim 13, wherein if a face other than the target is detected within the preset range, the second framing range is adjusted according to the detected number of faces The size is such that the second viewing range includes at least the target of the face and a face other than the target detected. The autofocus method of claim 14, further comprising determining whether a number of faces other than the target is detected within the preset range. The autofocus method of claim 15, wherein if the number of faces other than the target is increased within the preset range, the second framing range is expanded to make the second framing range Contains faces other than the target. The autofocus method of claim 15, wherein if the number of faces other than the target is detected within the preset range around the framing range, the second framing range is reduced. The autofocus method of claim 15, wherein if the number of faces other than the target is detected within the preset range, the second view range remains unchanged. The autofocus method of claim 11, wherein the image capturing device has a display unit for displaying the first viewing range or displaying the second viewing range, wherein the first and second viewing ranges are Displayed on the display unit in full screen mode.