US 11,699,215 B2
Imaging device, method and program for producing images of a scene having an extended depth of field with good contrast
Paul Springer, Stuttgart (DE); Zoltan Facius, Stuttgart (DE); and Thimo Emmerich, Stuttgart (DE)
Assigned to SONY CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 16/642,382
Filed by Sony Corporation, Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Sep. 5, 2018, PCT No. PCT/EP2018/073889
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 27, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/048492, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 14, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 17190200 (EP), filed on Sep. 8, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2020/0345215 A1, Nov. 5, 2020
Int. Cl. G06T 5/00 (2006.01); A61B 1/00 (2006.01); H04N 23/50 (2023.01); H04N 23/56 (2023.01)
CPC G06T 5/003 (2013.01) [A61B 1/00009 (2013.01); A61B 1/000095 (2022.02); A61B 1/00186 (2013.01); A61B 1/00193 (2013.01); H04N 23/56 (2023.01); H04N 23/555 (2023.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An imaging device for producing images of a scene, the imaging device comprising:
a first and a second hyperchromatic lens being arranged in a stereoscopic configuration to receive light from the scene;
image sensor circuitry configured to capture a first and second image of the light encountered by the first and the second lens respectively;
processor circuitry configured to:
produce depth information using the captured first and second images of the scene and produce a resultant first and second image of the scene using both the captured first and second image and the depth information;
partition the captured first and second images into regions corresponding to a resolution of the depth information;
obtain for each region of the captured first and second images an image sharpness level for each colour channel using the depth information;
determine for each region of the captured first and second image the colour channel having the highest sharpness level;
produce the resultant first and second image of the scene by transporting for each region of each of the captured first and second images the image sharpness level from the colour channel having the highest sharpness level to the corresponding region in the complementary colour channels for that image; and
perform a depth information propagation calculation to produce depth information having a resolution corresponding to the resolution of the captured first and second images and wherein each region corresponds to a single pixel.