Automatic focusing apparatus

Claim 2

An automatic focusing apparatus comprising: a photographing optical system for forming an optical image of an object; an image pickup element for converting the optical image formed by said photographing optical system into an electrical signal; driving means for changing a relative position between said photographing optical system and said image pickup element; means for reading the electrical signals obtained at different relative positions as image signals while the relative position is changed by said driving means; frequency extracting means for extracting frequency components of the same specific frequency bands from the image signals sequentially read by said reading means; means for converting the frequency components extracted by said frequency extracting means to a signal having positive values; focusing signal generating means for adding the positive values to generate a focusing signal having values; and in-focus position operating means for selecting a predetermined signal value from the plurality of signal values of the focusing signal, for calculating the in-focus position by using the selected signal value, for calculating a defocus amount from the in-focus position, and for outputting a drive signal corresponding to the defocus amount to said driving means.

Claim 3

An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising filtering means for filtering the focusing signal generated by said focusing signal generating means to obtain a filtering signal from which a high-frequency component is eliminated, and for outputting the filtering signal as the focusing signal to said in-focus position operating means.

Claim 4

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image pickup element accumulates a charge for a predetermined charge accumulation time and outputs the accumulated charge as the electrical signal, and further comprising image signal correcting means for dividing the frequency components from said frequency extracting means by the charge accumulation time of said image pickup element and outputting a result signal to said focusing signal generating means.

Claim 5

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said focusing signal generating means comprises an integrator.

Claim 6

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said in-focus position operating means calculates an in-focus position by performing an interpolation operation using a maximum value of the focusing signal generated by said focusing signal generating means and said signal values among which the maximum value is interposed.

Claim 7

An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said filtering means comprises: a first-stage delay element which receives the focusing signal output from said focusing signal generating means, a plurality of delay elements connected in series with said first-stage delay element, a plurality of multipliers for multiplying outputs from said plurality of delay elements with a predetermined filter coefficient and outputting products, and an adder for adding the products obtained by said multipliers and outputting a sum signal.

Claim 8

An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said filtering means comprises: a plurality of multipliers including preceding-stage and succeeding-stage multipliers for multiplying the input focusing signals with a predetermined filter coefficient and for outputting products, a plurality of delay elements for delaying the products from said preceding-stage multipliers by predetermined delay periods, to generate delay outputs, and a plurality of adders for sequentially adding the delay outputs from said delay elements to the products of said succeeding-stage multipliers.

Claim 9

An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said filtering means comprises: a FIFO memory for sequentially receiving the focusing signals and sequentially outputting the focusing signals in an input order, means for calculating differences between the focusing signals output from said FIFO memory and the input focusing signals and outputting the differences, and adding means for accumulating the quotients from said calculating means.

Claim 10

An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein assuming that a signal level as a signal value of the focusing signal is plotted along a Y-axis, that a moving direction of said photographing optical system is plotted along an X-axis, that first and second points, between which a maximum value of the focusing signal is inserted, and which are spaced by a distance l, and defined in the Z-axis as Va and Vb, respectively, and that third and fourth points, between which the maximum value of the focusing signal is inserted and which are spaced by a distance l and are defined in the X-axis are as Vc and Vd, said in-focus position operating means calculates a line m parallel to the X-axis and crossing a line segment VaVc obtained by connecting the first and third points and a line segment VbVd obtained by connecting the second and fourth points; assuming that an intersection between the line m and the line segment VaVc is given as C1 an that an intersection between the line m and the line segment VbVd is given as C2, said in-focus position operating means sets a Y-axis position of the line m such that a distance L2 between the intersection C1 and the first point Va is equal to a distance Ll between the intersection C2 and the second point Vb; and said in-focus position operating means calculates a middle point M of a line segment C1C2 on the line m as the in-focus position.

Claim 11

An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said in-focus position operating means performs an interpolation operation as follows: ##EQU9## where the α represents the in-focus position, a signal level of a signal value of the focusing signal is given as a Y-axis, a moving direction of said photographing optical system is given as an X-axis, the g(X m ) is the maximum value of the focusing signal, a corresponding position on the X-axis is given as X m , signal values, among which the maximum value of the focusing signal is interposed, are given as g(X m-1 ) and g(X m+1 ), and an X-axis interval of the three signal values is given as ΔX.

Claim 12

An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said in-focus position operating means comprises: a ROM for previously storing an amount of interpolation error included in the in-focus position obtained by the interpolation operation; and correction means for subtracting the amount of error stored in said ROM from the in-focus position obtained by said interpolation operation.

Claim 13

An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said in-focus position operating means includes: means for estimating the noise of the focusing signal; means for obtaining a shape of the focusing signal; and means for determining the maximum value of ΔX from the signal noise and the shape of the focusing signal.

Claim 14

An automatic focusing apparatus comprising: a photographing optical system for forming an optical image of an object; an image pickup element for converting the optical image formed by said photographing optical system into an electrical signal and for nondestructively reading the electrical signal; driving means for changing a relative position between said photographing optical system and said image pickup element; means for nondestructively reading the electrical signals at different relative positions as image signals from said image pickup element while the relative position is changed by said driving means; frequency extracting means for extracting frequency components of the same specific frequency bands from the image signals sequentially read by said reading means; means for converting the frequency components extracted by said frequency extracting means to a signal having positive values; integral-focusing-signal generating means for adding the positive values to generate an integral focusing signal having a plurality of signal values; focusing signal generating means for calculating a difference between the integral focusing signals and outputting a filtered focusing signal; and in-focus position operating means for calculating an in-focus position by using the plurality of signal values of the focusing signal, calculating a defocus amount from the in-focus position, and for outputting a drive signal corresponding to the defocus amount to said driving means.

Claim 15

An automatic focusing apparatus comprising: a photographing optical system for forming an optical image of an object; an image pickup element for converting the optical image formed by said photographing optical system into an electrical signal and for nondestructively reading the electrical signal; driving means for changing a relative position between said photographing optical system and said image pickup element; means for nondestructively reading the electrical signals at different relative positions as image signals from said image pickup element while the relative position is changed by said driving means; frequency extracting means for extracting frequency components of the same specific frequency bands from the image signals sequentially read by said reading means; means for converting the frequency components extracted by said frequency extracting means to a signal having positive values; integral-focusing-signal generating means for adding the positive values to generate an integral focusing signal having a plurality of signal values; focusing signal generating means for calculating a difference between the integral focusing signals and outputting a filtered focusing signal; and in-focus position operating means for calculating an in-focus position by using the plurality of signal values of the focusing signal, calculating a defocus amount from the in-focus position, and for outputting a drive signal corresponding to the defocus amount to said driving means.

Claim 16

An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said converting means comprises a square circuit.

Claim 17

An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said image pickup element accumulates a charge for the charge accumulation time and outputs the accumulated charge as the electrical signal, and further comprising photometric means, coupled to said image pickup element, for measuring a luminance of the object on the basis of the image signals, and means for setting timings for reading the image signals from said nondestructive image pickup element in accordance with the object luminance measured by said photometric means.

Claim 18

An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said timing setting means sets a unit accumulation time corresponding to the timings for reading out the image signals from said nondestructive image pickup element, so that the unit accumulation time is a time for which the accumulated charge of said nondestructive image pickup element is not saturated.

Claim 19

An apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising means for resetting the charge of the nondestructive image pickup element every time the image signal is read when the accumulated charge of said nondestructive image pickup element is saturated within the set unit accumulation time due to a high luminance of the object, and for resetting the accumulated charge of said nondestructive image pickup element when the accumulated charge reaches a threshold value slightly smaller than a saturation value of the accumulated charge if the accumulated charge of said nondestructive image pickup element is not saturated within the unit accumulation time due to a low luminance of the object.

Claim 20

An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said nondestructive image pickup element comprises an area sensor having an area corresponding to an arbitrary portion of the optical image and capable of reading the image signal from the area.

Claim 21

An apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising means for determining the area to be focused from the optical image by using a fuzzy inference, and means for reading the image signal from the area of said area sensor which corresponds to the area to be focused.

Claim 22

An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the fuzzy inference has a first inference having rules whose conditions are a position of said photographing optical system, a signal value of the focusing signal, and a change in signal value of the focusing signal, and a second inference having rules whose conditions are information of a distance between said photographing optical system and the object, and a position of the object.

Claim 23

An apparatus according to claim 19, further comprising means for measuring a luminance of the object from the image signal read from an area of said area sensor which is determined by the fuzzy inference, and means for setting timings for reading the image signals from said area sensor on the basis of the object luminance measured by said photometric means.

Claim 24

An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said converting means comprises an absolute-value circuit.