TECHNICAL FIELD

The present technology relates to an image pickup control apparatus, an image pickup apparatus, a control method for the image pickup control apparatus, and a non-transitory computer readable medium more specifically, to an image pickup control apparatus including a plurality of solid-state image pickup devices, an image pickup apparatus, a control method for the image pickup control apparatus, and a non-transitory computer readable medium.

BACKGROUND ART

From the past, for simultaneously capturing a plurality of pieces of image data, a compound-eye image pickup apparatus including a plurality of solid-state image pickup devices has been used. For example, there is proposed an image pickup apparatus that captures color image data using a solid-state image pickup device including a color filter, and captures monochrome image data using a solid-state image pickup device including no color filter (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). Here, since incident light is not attenuated by a color filter, the monochrome image data becomes that much brighter than the color image data. This image pickup apparatus simultaneously captures and synthesizes those color image data and monochrome image pickup data.

CITATION LIST

Patent Literature

PTL 1: JP2011-239260

SUMMARY

Technical Problem

According to the technology of the past described above, by synthesizing relatively-bright monochrome image data with color image data, color image data that is brighter than that in a case where the image data is not synthesized can be generated. However, since a processing amount of synthesis processing for synthesizing a plurality of pieces of image data is larger than that in a case of processing one piece of image data, there is a problem that power consumption of the image pickup apparatus is increased as compared to the case where the image data is not synthesized. As the power consumption increases, there is a fear that a lowering speed of a remaining battery amount of the image pickup apparatus and a heat generation amount of the image pickup apparatus will increase, so it is desirable to reduce power consumption.

The present technology has been made in view of the circumstances as described above and aims at reducing power consumption in an image pickup apparatus that captures a plurality of pieces of image data.

Solution to Problem

The present technology has been made to solve the problems described above, and according to a first aspect of the present technology, there is provided an image pickup control apparatus including: a signal processing unit that executes, in accordance with a predetermined control signal, either compound-eye processing for synthesizing a plurality of pieces of image data by carrying out signal processing on each of the plurality of pieces of image data or monocular processing for carrying out the signal processing on any one of the plurality of pieces of image data; and a control unit that supplies the predetermined control signal to the signal processing unit and causes one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing to be switched to the other one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing, on a basis of a result of a comparison between a measured predetermined physical amount and a predetermined threshold value, and a control method therefor. Accordingly, an operation that the processing of the signal processing unit is switched from one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing to the other one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing in accordance with the physical amount can be obtained.

Further, in this first aspect, the predetermined physical amount may be a physical amount that fluctuates in accordance with an image pickup environment. Accordingly, an operation that the processing of the signal processing unit is switched from one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing to the other one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing in accordance with the image pickup environment can be obtained.

Further, in this first aspect, the image pickup control apparatus may further include a temperature sensor that measures a temperature as the predetermined physical amount, and the control unit may cause the compound-eye processing to be switched to the monocular processing in a case where the temperature is higher than the predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, an operation that the processing of the signal processing unit is switched from the compound-eye processing to the monocular processing in a case where the temperature is higher than the threshold value can be obtained.

Further, in this first aspect, the signal processing unit may include processing of measuring a light amount of incident light as the predetermined physical amount and acquiring the light amount as a photometric amount, and the control unit may cause the compound-eye processing to be switched to the monocular processing in a case where the photometric amount is larger than the predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, an operation that the processing of the signal processing unit is switched from the compound-eye processing to the monocular processing in a case where the photometric amount is larger than the threshold value can be obtained.

Further, in this first aspect, the signal processing unit may include processing of measuring a movement amount of a subject as the predetermined physical amount, and the control unit may cause the monocular processing to be switched to the compound-eye processing in a case where the movement amount is larger than the predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, an operation that the processing of the signal processing unit is switched from the monocular processing to the compound-eye processing in a case where the movement amount of the subject is larger than the threshold value can be obtained.

Further, in this first aspect, the plurality of pieces of image data may be images captured in synchronization with predetermined synchronization signals, and the signal processing unit may switch one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing to the other one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing after executing transition processing for performing a synthesis while changing a synthesis ratio every time a predetermined cycle passes. Accordingly, an operation that the processing is switched after gradually changing the synthesis ratio can be obtained.

Further, according to a second aspect of the present technology, there is provided an image pickup control apparatus including: a synthesis processing unit that synthesizes a plurality of pieces of image data and outputs the data as synthetic image data; a transmission unit that executes, in accordance with a predetermined control signal, either single-channel transmission processing for transmitting the synthetic image data together with a single piece of image data as any one of the plurality of pieces of image data via a single communication channel or multiple-channel transmission processing for respectively transmitting the single piece of image data and the synthetic image data via mutually different communication channels; and a control unit that supplies the predetermined control signal to the signal processing unit and causes one of the single-channel transmission processing and the multiple-channel transmission processing to be switched to the other one of the single-channel transmission processing and the multiple-channel transmission processing, on a basis of a result of a comparison between a measured predetermined physical amount and a predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, an operation that one of the single-channel transmission processing and the multiple-channel transmission processing is switched to the other one of the single-channel transmission processing and the multiple-channel transmission processing in accordance with the physical amount can be obtained.

Further, in this second aspect, the image pickup apparatus may further include a scaling processing unit that reduces any one of the plurality of pieces of image data, and the control unit may control the scaling processing unit to change a reduction ratio on the basis of the result of the comparison between the predetermined physical amount and the predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, an operation that the reduction ratio is changed in accordance with the physical amount can be obtained.

Further, in this second aspect, the image pickup apparatus may further include a synchronization control unit that supplies a predetermined synchronization signal, each of the plurality of pieces of image data may be image data that has been captured in synchronization with the predetermined synchronization signal, and the control unit may control the synchronization control unit to change a frequency of the predetermined synchronization signal on the basis of the result of the comparison between the predetermined physical amount and the predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, an operation that the frequency of the synchronization signal is changed in accordance with the physical amount can be obtained.

Further, according to a third aspect of the present technology, there is provided an image pickup apparatus including: a camera module that captures a plurality of pieces of image data; a signal processing unit that executes, in accordance with a predetermined control signal, either compound-eye processing for synthesizing the plurality of pieces of image data by carrying out signal processing on each of the plurality of pieces of image data or monocular processing for carrying out the signal processing on any one of the plurality of pieces of image data; and a control unit that supplies the predetermined control signal to the signal processing unit and causes one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing to be switched to the other one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing, on a basis of a result of a comparison between a measured predetermined physical amount and a predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, an operation that the processing on the image data from the camera module is switched from one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing to the other one of the compound-eye processing and the monocular processing in accordance with the physical amount can be obtained.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present technology, it is possible to achieve an excellent effect that power consumption can be reduced in an image pickup apparatus that captures a plurality of pieces of image data. It should be noted that the effects described herein are not necessarily limited, and any of the effects described in the present disclosure may be obtained.

