An imaging device includes an imaging optical system that includes a first optical system and a second optical system having a common optical axis and having different focal lengths, an imaging element that includes a first sensor group selectively receiving light passing the first optical system and a second sensor group selectively receiving light passing the second optical system, and an image compositing unit that generates a first generated image by performing registration on a plurality of first captured images captured in different states of an optical axis L of the first optical system and by compositing the registrated plurality of first captured images and that generates a second generated image by performing registration on a plurality of second captured images captured in different states of the optical axis L of the second optical system and by compositing the registrated plurality of second captured images.

Method and apparatus for controlling signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in high dynamic range automatic exposure control imaging are disclosed. In the method and apparatus, image data is received and a shadow threshold is determined based on the image data. Further, a respective threshold integration ratio is determined for each merge transition of a plurality of exposures having a respective plurality of exposure times. The threshold integration ratio is determined based on a threshold SNR for the merge transition. In the method and apparatus, an integration ratio for each merge transition is determined based on the shadow threshold and the threshold integration ratios. An output image is generated based on the determined integration ratios for each merge transition.

Provided is a lens apparatus attachable and removable to a camera apparatus, the lens apparatus comprising a communication device configured to transmit, to an external device, information for light amount compensation of image data obtained by image pickup in the camera apparatus, in which the information includes information of a coefficient A.sub.0 of a term of 0-th-order with respect to an image height in a polynomial of n-th-order with respect to the image height, and in which a conditional expression

0.7<A.sub.0(Z)×(Fw/F(Z)).sup.2<1.3

is satisfied where A.sub.0(Z) represents the coefficient A.sub.0 at a zoom state Z, F(Z) represents an effective F-number at the zoom state Z, and Fw represents an effective F-number at a wide angle end.

An information processing apparatus which accepts designation of a first image category from among a plurality of image categories including a visible light image, an infrared light image, and a composite image, accepts designation of a second image category different from the first image category from among the plurality of image categories, displays an image of the accepted first image category in a display region of a display unit, and accepts designation of a region in the image of the first image category displayed in the display region, wherein an image of the accepted second image category is displayed in the accepted region.

An imaging apparatus include an imaging processing unit, a dial operation unit, a boundary setting unit, and a control unit. The imaging processing unit acquires image data having a predetermined image effect. The dial operation unit receives a dial operation to set at least one boundary line in the image data. The boundary setting unit sets the boundary line in the image data in response to the dial operation. The control unit controls the imaging processing unit so that image data having different image effects are obtained in the respective partial regions of the image data that are divided by the boundary line set by the boundary setting unit.

A method includes obtaining multiple spatially-displaced input images of a scene based on image data captured using multiple imaging sensors. The method also includes dividing each of the input images into multiple overlapping sub-images. The method further includes generating multiple overlapping sub-image gain maps based on the sub-images. In addition, the method includes combining the sub-image gain maps to produce a final gain map identifying relative gains of the imaging sensors. An adjacent and overlapping pair of sub-image gain maps are combined by renormalizing gain values in at least one of the pair of sub-image gain maps so that average gain values in overlapping regions of the pair of sub-image gain maps are equal or substantially equal.

An image processing apparatus comprises: an obtainment unit configured to obtain an image captured in accompaniment of an emission of a predetermined light source; a setting unit configured to set a virtual light source to be applied to the image based on a characteristic of the predetermined light source; and a generation unit configured to generate an image for which a shading state of at least one of a plurality of subjects included in the image is changed due to the virtual light source, wherein the setting unit is configured to set the virtual light source so that a difference between a change of a shading state in a first subject due to the predetermined light source and a change in the shading state in a second subject due to the predetermined light source is reduced.

Information on posture data that can be used for processing on a frame basis can be acquired for moving image data to be captured. For the purpose, in an imaging apparatus including an imaging unit that captures an image by an optical system to generate image data, a posture data generation unit that generates posture data of a casing including the imaging unit at a timing corresponding to the image data, a notification unit that performs notification for correlating the image data with the posture data on the basis of a trigger, and a detector that detects the notification by the notification unit are provided.

The invention relates to methods for operating a camera device (4) for a motor vehicle (3). An image sensor (5) of the camera device (4) provides a raw image (R) of an environment (8) of the camera device (4). An image processing device (6) generates an output image (I) from the raw image (R) by means of a spreading function (13) of a histogram spreading (12). The spreading function (13) generates from a respective input pixel value (Li) of each pixel of the raw image (R) each one output pixel value (Lo) of a corresponding pixel of the output image (I). It is the object of the invention to adapt the histogram spreading (12) to the capturing situation. At least one parameter value (S, G) of the camera device (4) depending on a brightness (B1, B2) of the environment (8) is acquired and a limit value (L) for the output pixel values (Lo) is set in the spreading function (13) depending on the at least one acquired parameter value (S, G).

An image processing method applied in an image processing device, which includes an image capturing unit, an image processing unit, an image recognition unit and an exposure adjusting unit, is provided. The image processing method includes the following steps: obtaining a first image by the image capturing unit, generating an average brightness of a dark part of the first image by the image processing unit; recognizing the first image by the image recognition unit; generating a first average brightness of a human face by the image processing unit and generating a first exposure value according to the average brightness of the dark part of the first image, the first average brightness of the human face and a weight array, when the human face is recognized from the first image; and adjusting an exposure of the first image according to the first exposure value by the exposure adjusting unit.