1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image pickup device. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image pickup device suitable for capturing concurrently a plurality of images that are different in angle of view.
Priority is claimed on four Japanese Patent Applications No. 2005-166923, filed Jun. 7, 2005, No. 2005-166924, filed Jun. 7, 2005, No. 2005-166925, filed Jun. 7, 2005, and No. 2005-166926, filed Jun. 7, 2005, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
All patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles, and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will hereby be incorporated by reference in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art to which the present invention pertains.
Image input apparatuses such as a video camera and a digital camera have widely used a zooming function that adjust a focal distance of lenses for magnification and reduction of an image of an object. The adjustment of the focal distance is made in accordance with a distance to the object and/or an angle of view of the object. Typical types of the zooming function may be classified into an optical zooming and an electronic zooming. The optical zooming can be realized by moving lenses mechanically. The electronic zooming is to electronically magnify the image of the object, wherein a portion of an image that has been outputted from an image sensor is utilized and new pixels are interpolated between the existent pixels.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, No. 10-233950 discloses a conventional technique for inputting electronically zoomed image. FIG. 31 is a view illustrating a conventional technique for inputting electronically zoomed image. As shown in FIG. 31, an optical system is provided, which has a fixed focal distance. The optical system is used for input of an image of an object. The optical system has a function of compressing a peripheral region of the input image. A light receiving element is further provided, which is adapted to receive the image from the optical system. The light receiving element has a generally uniform density of pixels. The image received by the light receiving element has a distortion. This distortion image is corrected and transformed to generate a zoomed image with the same resolution in an active region thereof. Such optical system can be utilized to obtain an image that has a center portion with less deterioration of quality and a peripheral portion with substantive deterioration of quality for both wide angle image and telescopic narrow angle image.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds