| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To separate a background from an object regardless of a simple configuration by referencing both images photographed by a 1st image pickup means and a 2nd image pickup means each having an image forming optical system and whose photographing directions are nearly the same where the number of valid pixels of a solid-state image pickup element of the 2nd image pickup means is less than that of the 1st image pickup means so as to detect image depth information of the 1st image pickup means. SOLUTION: A stereo digital camera 1 consists of main and sub lenses 4, 5 respectively having optical axes 6, 7 directing nearly the same photographing direction and an image pickup element 2 and an image pickup element 3 whose pixel number is less than that of the image pickup element 2 and is controlled by a controller 11. The image pickup element 3 detects an area where a difference of an image from that of a desired area in pixels photographed by the image pickup element 2 is least from an image photographed by the image pickup element 3 and depth information of the desired area is detected based on a deviation in positions from both the areas. The image pickup element 3 separates each area into an area corresponding to a background in the image and an area corresponding to a foreground in the image based on the depth information. Thus the object is separated from the background and the foreground with high quality at a low cost and a three- dimensional image can be obtained. |
