| US 7,538,814 B2 | ||
| Image capturing apparatus capable of searching for an unknown explanation of a main object of an image, and method for accomplishing the same | ||
| Takashi Igarashi, Kanagawa (Japan); and Ayumu Isomura, Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to FUJIFILM Corporation, Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Filed on Feb. 17, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/59,662. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 2004-044296 (JP), filed on Feb. 20, 2004; and application No. 2004-372353 (JP), filed on Dec. 22, 2004. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0189419 A1, Sep. 01, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. H04N 5/232 (2006.01); H04N 5/222 (2006.01); H04N 5/76 (2006.01); G03B 3/10 (2006.01); G06K 9/46 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 348—349 [348/211.3; 348/231.3; 348/333.03; 396/121; 382/203] | 19 Claims |

| 1. An image capturing apparatus comprising:
an image capturing module for capturing an image, said image capturing module comprising an optical system that varies a focal
length which is a distance from the image capturing apparatus to a focused object;
a display module for displaying the captured image captured by said image capturing module;
a main object selecting module for selecting a main object in the captured image, said main object selecting module comprising:
a repeatedly capturing module for capturing the image repeatedly while said optical system varies the focal length;
a focal length acquiring module for acquiring a focal length at which a best focused image can be taken for each region comprised
in the image on the basis of the image captured by said repeatedly capturing module;
a main object distance acquiring module for acquiring a main object distance, which is a distance to the main object, on the
basis of each focal length of each region acquired by said focal length acquiring module; and
a region selecting module for selecting a region apart by the main object distance in the image; and
a frame display module for displaying a frame, which surrounds the main object, over the captured image on the display module,
said frame surrounding the region selected by said region selecting module;
wherein said main object distance acquiring module acquires a focal length for which a value of a sum multiplied by a distance
weight of each focal length is the biggest as the main object distance, the sum having a value of a sum of areas of regions
having the same focal lengths multiplied by predetermined weights of regions, respectively.
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