A camera rig including one or more stereoscopic camera pairs and/or one or more light field cameras are described. Images are captured by the light field cameras and stereoscopic camera pairs are captured at the same time. The light field images are used to generate an environmental depth map which accurately reflects the environment in which the stereoscopic images are captured at the time of image capture. In addition to providing depth information, images captured by the light field camera or cameras is combined with or used in place of stereoscopic image data to allow viewing and/or display of portions of a scene not captured by a stereoscopic camera pair.

An environment may be displayed from a viewpoint. According to one method, volumetric video data may be acquired depicting the environment, for example, using a tiled camera array. A plurality of vantages may be distributed throughout a viewing volume from which the environment is to be viewed. The volumetric video data may be used to generate video data for each vantage, representing the view of the environment from that vantage. User input may be received designating a viewpoint within the viewing volume. From among the plurality of vantages, a subset nearest to the viewpoint may be identified. The video data from the subset may be retrieved and combined to generate viewpoint video data depicting the environment from the viewpoint. The viewpoint video data may be displayed for the viewer to display a view of the environment from the viewpoint selected by the user.

A light-field camera system such as a tiled camera array may be used to capture a light-field of an environment. The tiled camera array may be a tiered camera array with a first plurality of cameras and a second plurality of cameras that are arranged more densely, but have lower resolution, than those of the first plurality of cameras. The first plurality of cameras may be interspersed among the second plurality of cameras. The first and second pluralities may cooperate to capture the light-field. According to one method, a subview may be captured by each camera of the first and second pluralities. Estimated world properties of the environment may be computed for each subview. A confidence map may be generated to indicate a level of confidence in the estimated world properties for each subview. The confidence maps and subviews may be used to generate a virtual view of the environment.

A depth map generation unit 22 generates a depth map that generates the depth map from images obtained by picking up a subject at a plurality of viewpoint positions by an image pickup unit 21. On the basis of the depth map generated by the depth map generation unit 22, an alignment unit 23 aligns polarized images obtained by the image pickup unit 21 picking up the subject at the plurality of viewpoint positions through polarizing filters in different polarization directions at the different viewpoint positions. A polarization characteristic acquisition unit 24 acquires a polarization characteristic of the subject from a desired viewpoint position by using the polarized images aligned by the alignment unit 23 to obtain the high-precision polarization characteristic with little degradation in temporal resolution and spatial resolution. It becomes possible to acquire the polarization characteristic of the subject at the desired viewpoint position.

A stereoscopic video playback device is provided that processes original stereoscopic image pairs taken using parallel-axis cameras and provided for viewing under original viewing conditions by scaling and cropping to provide new viewing condition stereoscopic video on a single screen.

An imaging device includes a multifocal main lens having different focal distances for a plurality of regions, an image sensor having a plurality of pixels configured of two-dimensionally arranged photoelectric converting elements, a multifocal lens array having a plurality of microlens groups at different focal distances disposed on an incident plane side of the image sensor, and an image obtaining device which obtains from the image sensor, a plurality of images for each of the focal distances obtained by combining the multifocal main lens and the plurality of microlens groups at different focal distances.

An image pickup element includes a pair of light-receiving elements that are configured to receive light from an object and are disposed for each lens among two-dimensionally arranged lenses, one of the light-receiving elements outputting a pixel signal forming one captured image in a pair of captured images having parallax for displaying a stereoscopic image of the object, and the other of the light-receiving elements outputting a pixel signal forming the other captured image in the pair of captured images, and wiring that is disposed between the light-receiving elements and is configured to transmit an input signal or an output signal of the light-receiving elements. Light leaking from one picture element to an adjacent picture element is blocked by the wiring layer, thereby preventing a reduction in resolution and in the stereoscopic effect of a stereoscopic image.

Embodiments of the present application disclose various methods and an apparatus for controlling light field capture. One method for controlling light field capture comprises: determining, at least according to at least one sub-lens that affects imaging of a first region in a sub-lens array of a light field camera, at least one first sub-lens to be adjusted, the first region being a part of a scene to be shot; determining an object refocusing accuracy of a light field image section captured by the first sub-lens in a light field image of the scene to be shot; adjusting, according to the object refocusing accuracy, a light field capture parameter of the first sub-lens; and performing, based on the light field camera after being adjusted, light field capture on the scene to be shot. The solution can achieve differentiated distribution of refocusing accuracies of various light field image sections that correspond to different regions of the scene to be shot, thereby better satisfying a user's actual application demands.

The invention describes a multi-aperture device for detecting an object region having at least two optical channels for detecting a first sub-region of the object region and at least two optical channels for detecting a second sub-region of the object region. The optical channels for detecting the first and second sub-regions are arranged in an interlaced manner in a one-row structure, wherein the first and second sub-regions overlap at least partly.

An optoelectronic multiscopic image display and/or capture device, including a support, an array of optoelectronic circuits resting on the support, and lenses covering the optoelectronic circuits. Each optoelectronic circuit includes a number N of photosensors capable of capturing a pixel or pixels of an image of a scene according to different viewpoints and/or number N of display circuits capable of displaying a pixel or pixels of an image of a scene according to the different viewpoints, N being a natural number greater than or equal to 3.