BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a device for multi-channel capturing of a total field of view, to a supplementation device for supplementing an existing camera, to a multi-aperture imaging device, and to methods of producing a device and multi-aperture imaging device described herein. The present invention further relates to a symmetric channel arrangement to different fields of view.

Conventional cameras each exhibit an imaging channel which images the entire object field. Other cameras include several imaging channels so as to image the total field of view by several partial fields of view. For correct stitching of images (sowing together and/or joining) for a total field of view having objects which exhibit different distances from the camera, a depth map of the captured total field of view may need to be calculated. If stereoscopic capturing is used for this purpose, a perspective of the (artificial, central) reference camera may need to be synthesized. This may result in occultation or occlusion problems since some objects may be covered up along a line of vision. For outputting a preview and/or a video, image processing, e.g. by means of stitching, may be performed, which requires a large amount of calculation expenditure.

Therefore, what would be desirable is a concept of providing high-qualitative images which do not exhibit the above-mentioned disadvantages.

SUMMARY

According to an embodiment, a device may have: an image sensor; an array of optical channels, each optical channel having an optic for projecting a partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor, a first optical channel of the array being configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, and a second optical channel of the array being configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view; and a calculating unit configured to acquire image information of the first and second partial fields of view on the basis of the imaged partial fields of view, and to acquire image information of the total field of view, and to combine the image information of the partial fields of view with the image information of the total field of view so as to generate combined image information of the total field of view; wherein the device is configured to acquire the image information of the total field of view having a first degree of scanning, to acquire the image information of the first or second partial field of view having a second degree of scanning, which is larger than the first degree of scanning, and to provide the combined image information of the total field of view having a third degree of scanning larger than the first degree of scanning; or wherein the calculating unit is configured to subdivide the image information of the total field of view and the image information of the partial fields of view into image blocks and to associate, block by block, image information, which is contained within a first image block of the total field of view, with matching image information of a second image block of the first or second partial fields of view so as to increase, by combining the first and second image blocks, a degree of scanning of the image information of the total field of view in the combined image information.

According to another embodiment, a supplementation device may have an inventive device and be configured to be coupled to a camera so as to acquire therefrom the image information of the total field of view.

According to another embodiment, a multi-aperture imaging device may have: an image sensor; and an array of optical channels, each optical channel having an optic for projecting at least one partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor; a first optical channel of the array being configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, a second optical channel of the array being configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view, and a third optical channel being configured to fully image the total field of view; wherein the device has a calculating unit configured to acquire image information of the first and second partial fields of view on the basis of the imaged partial fields of view, and to acquire image information of the total field of view on the basis of the imaged total field of view, and to combine the image information of the partial fields of view with the image information of the total field of view so as to generate combined image information of the total field of view; and the calculating unit is configured to subdivide the image information of the total field of view and the image information of the partial fields of view into image blocks and to associate, block by block, image information, which is contained within a first image block of the total field of view, with matching image information of a second image block of the first or second partial fields of view so as to increase, by combining the first and second image blocks, a degree of scanning of the image information of the total field of view in the combined image information; or wherein the device is configured to acquire image information of the total field of view having a first degree of scanning from the sensor, to acquire the image information of the first or second partial field of view having a second degree of scanning, which is larger than the first degree of scanning, from the sensor, and to provide the combined image information of the total field of view having a third degree of scanning larger than the first degree of scanning.

According to another embodiment, a multi-aperture imaging device may have: an image sensor; and an array of optical channels, each optical channel having an optic for projecting at least one partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor; a first optical channel of the array being configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, a second optical channel of the array being configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view, and a third optical channel being configured to fully image the total field of view; wherein an image format of the total field of view corresponds to a redundancy-free combination of the imaged first partial field of view and the imaged second partial field of view.

According to another embodiment, a method of providing a device may have the steps of: providing an image sensor; arranging an array of optical channels, so that each optical channel has an optic for projecting at least one partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor, so that a first optical channel of the array is configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, and so that a second optical channel of the array is configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view; and arranging a calculating unit such that same is configured to acquire image information of the first and second partial fields of view on the basis of the imaged partial fields of view and to acquire image information of the total field of view and to combine the image information of the partial fields of view with the image information of the total field of view so as to generate combined image information of the total field of view; and such that the device is configured to acquire the image information of the total field of view having a first degree of scanning, to acquire the image information of the first or second partial field of view having a second degree of scanning, which is larger than the first degree of scanning, and to provide the combined image information of the total field of view having a third degree of scanning larger than the first degree of scanning; or such that the calculating unit is configured to subdivide the image information of the total field of view and the image information of the partial fields of view into image blocks and to associate, block by block, image information, which is contained within a first image block of the total field of view, with matching image information of a second image block of the first or second partial fields of view so as to increase, by combining the first and second image blocks, a degree of scanning of the image information of the total field of view in the combined image information.

According to another embodiment, a method of providing a multi-aperture imaging device may have the steps of: providing an image sensor; and arranging an array of optical channels, so that each optical channel has an optic for projecting at least one partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor, and so that a first optical channel of the array is configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, so that a second optical channel of the array is configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view, and so that a third optical channel is configured to fully image the total field of view; such that the device has a calculating unit configured to acquire image information of the first and second partial fields of view on the basis of the imaged partial fields of view, and to acquire image information of the total field of view on the basis of the imaged total field of view, and to combine the image information of the partial fields of view with the image information of the total field of view so as to generate combined image information of the total field of view; and the calculating unit is configured to subdivide the image information of the total field of view and the image information of the partial fields of view into image blocks and to associate, block by block, image information, which is contained within a first image block of the total field of view, with matching image information of a second image block of the first or second partial fields of view so as to increase, by combining the first and second image blocks, a degree of scanning of the image information of the total field of view in the combined image information; or such that the device is configured to acquire image information of the total field of view having a first degree of scanning from the sensor, to acquire the image information of the first or second partial field of view having a second degree of scanning, which is larger than the first degree of scanning, from the sensor, and to provide the combined image information of the total field of view having a third degree of scanning larger than the first degree of scanning.

According to another embodiment, a method of providing a multi-aperture imaging device may have the steps of: providing an image sensor; and arranging an array of optical channels, so that each optical channel has an optic for projecting at least one partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor, and so that a first optical channel of the array is configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, so that a second optical channel of the array is configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view, and so that a third optical channel is configured to fully image the total field of view; such that an image format of the total field of view corresponds to a redundancy-free combination of the imaged first partial field of view and the imaged second partial field of view.

A finding of the present invention consists in having recognized that the above object can be achieved in that image information, e.g. a resolution of a total field of view, may be increased by combining same with image information of partial fields of view of the same total field of view, that, however, the image information of the total field of view is already present as, and may be used as, coarse information, and that the occurrence of occultation artifacts may be avoided by using the overall image information.

In accordance with an embodiment, a device includes an image sensor and an array of optical channels. Each optical channel includes an optic for projecting (imaging) a partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor. A first optical channel of the array is configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, and a second optical channel of the array is configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view. The device includes a calculating unit configured to obtain image information of the first and second partial fields of view on the basis of the imaged partial fields of view. The calculating unit is further configured to obtain image information of the total field of view, e.g. from a further device, and to combine the image information of the partial fields of view with the image information of the total field of view so as to generate combined image information of the total field of view. By combining the image information of the partial fields of view and of the total field of view, one obtains high-quality combined image information since there is a large amount of image information. In addition, the image information of the total field of view enables exerting an influence at a small amount of preprocessing expenditure since it may be displayed to a user without partial images having to be stitched.

In accordance with a further embodiment, a supplementation device includes such a device and is configured to be coupled to a camera so as to obtain therefrom the image information of the total field of view. This enables supplementing already existing cameras, which may possibly be mono-cameras, by additionally imaging the partial fields of view, so that high-quality combined image information of the total field of view is obtained. At the same time, the image of the camera may be utilized for exerting an influence on image processing since the information regarding the total field of view already exists at least in a coarse manner.

In accordance with a further embodiment, a multi-aperture imaging device includes an image sensor, an array of optical channels, each optical channel including an optic for projecting at least one partial field of view of a total field of view onto an image sensor area of the image sensor. A first optical channel of the array is configured to image a first partial field of view of the total field of view, a second optical channel of the array being configured to image a second partial field of view of the total field of view, and a third optical channel being configured to fully image the total field of view. This enables both obtaining image information regarding the total field of view and, additionally, obtaining image information regarding the partial fields of view of the same total field of view, so that image areas of the partial fields of view are scanned several times, which enables, e.g., a stereoscopically generated depth map and, thus, high-quality image generation. At the same time, there is the information regarding the total field of view in addition to the information regarding the partial fields of view, which enables the user to exert an influence without any previous image processing having been performed.

Further embodiments relate to a method of producing a device for multi-channel capturing of a total field of view and to a device for providing a multi-aperture imaging device.

The embodiments mentioned enable avoiding or reducing occultation since the main line of vision of image of the total field of view and of the combined image information of the total field of view is unchanged and is supplemented by the images of the partial fields of view.

