To make it possible to control an image capturing position and its direction in water easily and flexibly through the use of a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a plurality of rotors. This is solved by an underwater image capturing apparatus including a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a plurality of rotors, a winding machine capable of delivering and winding a string-like member, and an underwater camera capable of capturing images in water, wherein the winding machine is fixed to the miniature unmanned aerial vehicle and the string-like member is connected to the underwater camera.

A computer-implemented method for designing an electro-optical imaging system for estimating the distance of a source includes use of an optical subsystem, a detector subsystem and a digital image processing subsystem. The method includes the modelling of the propagation of radiation from its source through the optical subsystem, the detector subsystem and the digital image processing subsystem; the modelling being based on a spatial model of the source; the method including a joint step of simultaneously designing the optical subsystem and the digital image processing subsystem, the designing step being based at least on one performance metric depending on a comparison between the local estimation of the distance from the source and the actual distance from the source.

A system for generating a depth map for an object in a three-dimensional (3D) scene includes an image capture sensor and a processor. The image capture sensor is configured to capture a plurality of images of the object at a plurality of different focal planes. The processor is configured to calculate a plurality of variance values for a plurality of image locations for each image captured by the image capture sensor. The processor is also configured to determine a peak variance value for the plurality of image locations based on the calculated variance values associated with the same image location for each of the plurality of images of the object at the plurality of different focal planes. The processor is also configured to generate the depth map for the object based on the determined peak variance value for each image location and the plurality of different focal planes.

To make it possible to control an image capturing position and its direction in water easily and flexibly through the use of a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a plurality of rotors. This is solved by an underwater image capturing apparatus including a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a plurality of rotors, a winding machine capable of delivering and winding a string-like member, and an underwater camera capable of capturing images in water, wherein the winding machine is fixed to the miniature unmanned aerial vehicle and the string-like member is connected to the underwater camera.

An image pickup apparatus includes an image capturing unit, an optical system, and a control unit. The control unit causes the image capturing unit to capture images while moving an in-focus position of the optical system to a plurality of positions to form a plurality of images with different in-focus positions, and causes the image capturing unit to capture images with an aperture set to a depth of field deeper than depths of field for the plurality of images with the different in-focus positions to form a reference image. A combining unit compares the reference image to the plurality of images with the different in-focus positions, and combines images using the plurality of images with the different in-focus positions and the reference image based on a result of the comparison.

This application relates to the field of terminals, and provides a camera switching method and an electronic device. The method is applicable to an electronic device. The electronic device includes a camera module. The camera module includes a first camera and a second camera. The method includes: enabling a camera application; displaying a first image, where the first image is captured when the first camera serves as a main camera for image capturing; determining that a first parameter and a second parameter satisfy a first preset condition, where the first parameter indicates distance information between the electronic device and a target object, the first parameter is a parameter from the camera module, and the second parameter indicates a zoom ratio of the electronic device; and displaying a second image, where the second image is captured when the second camera serves as the main camera for image capturing.

A device and method for extended depth of field imaging are provided. The device includes an optical device configured to simultaneously form intermediate images of an object at different distances with a blur effect on at least parts of images of the object, the optical device comprising at least one optical element and at least two pupil zones formed to provide a predetermined distribution of optical powers and aberrations within each of the at least two pupil zones, based on which point spread function is formed, defined by a curve with minimized side peaks compared to a central peak in a given range of object distances, each of the at least two pupil zones corresponding to a respective given range of object distances and a respective given range of field angles, a sensor configured to simultaneously register the intermediate images formed by the optical device from different object distances and at different field angles, and an image processor communicatively connected to the sensor and the optical device, wherein the image processor is configured to process the intermediate images of the object with the blur effect on at least parts of the images of the object registered by the sensor, the intermediate images being processed based on an obtained point spread function over the given range of object distances and field angles, and reconstruct resulting images without the blur effect at output regardless of object distances.

A device and method for extended depth of field imaging are provided. The device includes an optical device configured to simultaneously form intermediate images of an object at different distances with a blur effect on at least parts of images of the object, the optical device comprising at least one optical element and at least two pupil zones formed to provide a predetermined distribution of optical powers and aberrations within each of the at least two pupil zones, based on which point spread function is formed, defined by a curve with minimized side peaks compared to a central peak in a given range of object distances, each of the at least two pupil zones corresponding to a respective given range of object distances and a respective given range of field angles, a sensor configured to simultaneously register the intermediate images formed by the optical device from different object distances and at different field angles, and an image processor communicatively connected to the sensor and the optical device, wherein the image processor is configured to process the intermediate images of the object with the blur effect on at least parts of the images of the object registered by the sensor, the intermediate images being processed based on an obtained point spread function over the given range of object distances and field angles, and reconstruct resulting images without the blur effect at output regardless of object distances.

An image pickup apparatus includes: an image pickup device; a body portion; an attitude detection portion configured to detect an attitude of the body portion; an image stabilization portion configured to correct image blur; an image stabilization control portion configured to calculate an amount of correction for the image stabilization portion; and a control portion including an image processing portion configured to generate one piece of composite image data from a group of continuously picked-up images; wherein the image stabilization control portion sets a reference angle at a time of picking up image data picked up first in the group of continuously picked-up images, and drives the image stabilization portion so that the reference angle corresponds to inclination of each image at a time of picking up image data picked up for a second time and after.

A digital image processing, in particular to the method of producing the output image with extended depth of field from a group of source images of the same scene, captured with a shift of depth of field. The method of producing the output image with extended depth of field form a group of at least two source images of substantially the same scene captured with a shift of depth of field, comprises determining focus measures of source image pixels; generation of a depth map with elements comprising source image indices; smoothing of the depth map in a way that the degree of smoothing of source image indices it contains is inversely proportional to the corresponding focus measure values; producing an output image using the smoothed depth map. A computer system that implements said method, and a computer readable medium comprising program instructions allowing for implementing said method.