JPH03217174A - Imaging device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an imaging device that captures a wide-angle image having a size exceeding an imaging surface using an imaging element such as a COD.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 4, this type of imaging device includes an imaging lens 10 that forms an image of a subject 9;
C fixedly mounted on the imaging plane of subject 9 by
It is composed of an image sensor 11 such as a CD.

The imaging accuracy in such an imaging device is determined by the imaging element 11.
This is determined by the number of light-receiving pixels arranged two-dimensionally on the top, and there is a limit to the number of pixels that can be formed on a fixed-sized imaging surface.
An imaging device has also been proposed in which the number of pixels is increased by equalization by moving a piezoelectric element in the Y direction (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-2Ll7).
Publication No. 77).

On the other hand, as another imaging device for obtaining high-precision image information, for example, as shown in FIG. An apparatus has been considered in which a plurality of image sensors 11, for example, 16 image sensors 8 are two-dimensionally arranged as shown in the figure, so as to cover the entire wide-angle imaging plane.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in an imaging device in which a plurality of imaging elements are two-dimensionally arranged so as to cover the entire wide-angle screen, a drive circuit is required for each imaging element. The circuit configuration is complicated and expensive, and there is also the problem that image information at the boundary of the image sensor is missing.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an imaging device that uses an existing imaging device to obtain a wide-angle image with high precision. .

[Means for Solving the Problems] First, the present invention uses an imaging device in which light-receiving pixels are arranged in a two-dimensional manner, and an image is formed on a wide-angle imaging plane having a size exceeding the imaging plane of the imaging device. The target is an imaging device that captures images.

In the present invention, for such a wide-angle imaging device,
A plurality of image sensors are arranged at least every other image sensor in each of the horizontal and vertical directions on the wide-angle image forming surface, and the plurality of image sensors are moved on the wide-angle image forming surface by a two-dimensional moving means. The wide-angle image is formed by capturing an image while moving the image sensor so as to fill the gap where the image sensor is not placed, and storing and synthesizing the image information obtained through the movement of the plurality of image sensors by the two-dimensional moving means in the storage means. It is designed to store images on a surface.

[Function] According to the imaging device of the present invention having such a configuration, the subject image formed on the wide-angle imaging plane is widened by two-dimensional scanning of at least every other imaging device. A single wide-angle image can be obtained by scanning to cover the entire wide-angle imaging plane and combining them in memory, so there is no need to provide a light-receiving element to cover the entire wide-angle imaging plane. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a high-definition, wide-angle image without increasing the cost or complicating the circuit configuration by minimizing the number of image sensors and driving circuits used.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, ▪ is an imaging lens, which forms a wide-angle subject image on an imaging plane on which imaging elements are arranged. Here, the wide-angle object image means an object image whose size exceeds the imaging surface of an imaging device such as a CCD, and specifically, the reduction ratio of the imaging lens 1 is lower than that of the conventional device shown in FIG. This is achieved by keeping it low.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a moving stage, which is moved in the X-axis direction (horizontal direction) by rotation of a stage drive shaft 5a by a drive motor 4a, and in the Y-axis direction (vertical direction) by rotation of a stage drive shaft 5b by a drive motor 4b. will be moved to Drive motor 4
a and 4b are driven by the stage drive circuit 6 according to a predetermined control sequence.

On the movable stage 2, image sensors using CCD or the like are distributed, and in this embodiment, there are four image sensors 3a.
．． 3b, 3c, and 3d are arranged every other time in each of the horizontal and vertical directions. Here,
Arranging the image sensors every other means that the image sensors 3a to 3
This means that they are arranged every other time based on the vertical and horizontal widths of the effective imaging range in d, and does not mean that they are arranged every other time based on the external dimensions determined by the element substrate or package.

The wide-angle imaging plane of the imaging lens 1 is located on the imaging plane of the imaging elements 3a to 3b, and therefore each of the imaging elements 3a to 3d captures a part of the subject image formed on the wide-angle imaging plane. will be imaged.

The stage drive circuit 6 drives and controls the drive motors 4a, 4b, and takes the image sensor 3a in the upper left corner as an example.The stage drive circuit 6 drives and controls the drive motors 4a, 4b.For example, taking the image sensor 3a in the upper left corner, the stage drive circuit 6 moves from the illustrated position P1 to the right by the width X1 of the effective imaging surface to a position P2, which is an effective imaging device. The moving stage 2 is driven and controlled so that the image pickup device is positioned in the order of position P3, which is moved down by the surface height Y1, and position P4, which is further moved to the left by the width Xi.

7 is an element drive/processing circuit, and each time the stage control circuit 6 moves the movable stage 2 to positions P1 to P4,
All the image sensors 3a to 3d are driven 6 to obtain image signals due to charge accumulation, which are converted into digital image information after processing and sent to the moving stage 2 of the memory 8.
Store it in an address position that corresponds one-to-one to the above position, and
Two wide-angle images are created by memory synthesis.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 1, a subject image passes through an imaging lens 1 and is formed on four image sensors 3a to 3d distributed on a moving stage 2.

FIG. 2 shows the relationship between the subject 9 and the subject image 9- taken by the imaging lens 1 in FIG. The image of the subject 9 placed on the stage 2 and shown in sections A to P is reduced by the imaging lens 1 and appears on the imaging plane in sections A' to A.
A subject image 9' indicated by P' is projected. When the four image sensors 3a to 3d are driven to capture image signals in the state shown in FIG.
=, F- part of the object image is obtained, and the corresponding memory 8
will be stored at the address location.

The hatched part of the subject image 9' in FIG. 2 is the position of the image sensors 3a to 3d when the movable stage 2 is positioned at position P1 in FIG. 1, and the imaging operation at position P1 is completed. Then, the stage drive circuit 7 drives the drive motors 4a and 4b.
is controlled to move to the next position P2 and similarly perform the imaging operation, and thereafter move to positions P3 and P4 and repeat the imaging operation.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the order in which image information is taken into memory according to the embodiment of FIG. 1.

In Fig. 3, at the initial position, a part 1'' of the subject image 9'',
N-, H-, F'' are the image sensors 3a, 3b, 3c, 3
Read it with d and import it into the memory 8, then move the distance X in the X direction.
Move by 1 (= width of effective imaging range) to O-, M-,
G=, E-, then move in the Y direction by a distance Yl (the height of one effective imaging range) to obtain K-, 1', C-, A
', and finally go back a distance
image signals can be obtained.

According to this embodiment of the present invention, only 4 image sensors are required compared to the 16 image sensors used in the conventional device shown in FIG. Since the configuration of the device is simplified together with the drive circuit by minimizing the number of images, and the effective imaging range of the image sensor is used to partially capture an image, there will be no loss of images due to the boundaries of the image sensor.

In addition, although the above-mentioned embodiment takes as an example the case where four image sensors are arranged in a distributed manner, the number of image sensors can be arbitrarily determined depending on the size of the wide-angle imaging plane.

Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a wide-angle subject image can be read with high precision using the minimum necessary number of existing image sensors.

In addition, by arranging multiple image sensors every other image sensor in the horizontal and vertical directions, the two-dimensional movement distance and range of the image sensor during image reading can be minimized and the movement time can be shortened. The processing time for a single subject image can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an embodiment configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2
The figure is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the subject, the subject image, and the image sensor in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1; FIG. An explanatory diagram showing a capture procedure; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional device; FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional device that captures a wide-angle subject image. Explanation of symbols of main parts 1; Imaging lens 2; Moving stages 3a to 3d, imaging device 4a. 4b; Drive motors 5a, 5b; Stage drive shaft 6: Stage drive circuit 7: Element drive/processing circuit 10 8: Memory 9; Subject 9'; Subject image

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim] An imaging device that uses an imaging device in which light-receiving pixels are arranged in a two-dimensional array to capture an image formed on a wide-angle imaging plane having a size exceeding the imaging screen of the imaging device. a plurality of image sensors arranged at least every other in each of the horizontal and vertical directions on the wide-angle imaging plane; a two-dimensional moving means that captures an image while moving the plurality of imaging elements so as to fill gaps where no elements are arranged; storing and synthesizing image information obtained through the movement of the plurality of imaging elements by the two-dimensional moving means to obtain the wide angle of view; An imaging device comprising: storage means for storing an image on an imaging plane.