Optical image input/output apparatus for objects having a large focal depth

Claim 2

An image input/output apparatus including an optical image forming system, comprising: focusing means for performing in-focus operations on a plurality of different object planes; image inputting means for inputting a plurality of images focused on the different object planes by said focusing means; weighting coefficient calculating means for calculating a weighting coefficient by which to most equalize degraded conditions of the image on each of said object planes in an image which is formed by weighting and adding said plurality of input images based on characteristics of the optical image forming system, and a focusing condition set by said focusing means when said plurality of images are input by said image inputting means; weighting and adding means for weighting all of said images input by said image inputting means by said weighting coefficient calculated by said weighting coefficient calculating means, and for adding up the weighted images; and spatial frequency filtering means for spatial-frequency-filtering the images having been weighted and added by said weighting and adding means so as to recover spatial frequency components having been degraded by said weighting and adding.

Claim 3

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said focusing means comprises: means for changing an in-focus object plane position; and

Claim 4

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said inputting means comprises means for performing band-pass filtering, and said focusing means comprises means for selecting a range in which the in-focus object plane position is changed on the basis of an output from said means for performing band-pass filtering.

Claim 5

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said focusing means comprises means for measuring a distance from an imaging portion to an object to be photographed, and means for selecting a range in which the in-focus object plane position is changed on the basis of distance measurement data from said distance measuring means, and said recovery processing means comprises means for performing recovery processing on the basis of the distance measurement data.

Claim 6

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said focusing means comprises: means for selecting a range in which the in-focus object plane position is changed; and means for setting non-equidistant object plane positions within the range selected by said selecting means.

Claim 7

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said inputting means is arranged such that a plurality of imaging devices are located on a plurality of different image planes to simultaneously input a plurality of images focused on the plurality of different object planes.

Claim 8

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recovery processing means comprises means for prestoring an image spatial frequency filter in consideration of spatial frequency characteristics of said inputting means.

Claim 9

An image input/output apparatus for inputting/outputting image information, in an optical image formation system, comprising: focusing means for performing in-focus operations on a plurality of different object planes; inputting means for inputting a plurality of images focused on the different planes by said focusing means in units of different wavelength regions; Fourier-transforming means for Fourier-transforming each of the images input by said inputting means; weighting and adding means for weighting said images input by said inputting means by at least one preselected value and for then adding the plurality of weighted images in units of different wavelength regions, said weighting and adding means including means for weighting and adding each of said fourier-transformed images; and recovery processing means for performing recovery processing by spatial frequency filtering of an image obtained by adding the images by said weighting and adding means; and synthesizing means for multiplying said inverse Fourier-transformed images with each image subjected to a division by an image obtained by adding the input images and for synthesizing the resultant images into one image.

Claim 10

An image input/output apparatus for inputting/outputting image information, in an optical image formation system, comprising: focusing means for performing in-focus operations on a plurality of different object planes; inputting means for inputting a plurality of images focused on the different planes by said focusing means in units of different wavelength regions; Fourier-transforming means for Fourier-transforming each of the images input by said inputting means; weighting and adding means for weighting said images input by said inputting means by at least one preselected value and for then adding the plurality of weighted images in units of different wavelength regions, said weighting and adding means including means for weighting and adding each of said fourier-transformed images; and recovery processing means for performing recovery processing by spatial frequency filtering of an image obtained by adding the images by said weighting and adding means; and synthesizing means for multiplying said inverse Fourier-transformed images with each image subjected to a division by an image obtained by adding the input images and for synthesizing the resultant images into one image.

Claim 11

An image input/output apparatus for inputting/outputting image information, comprising: focusing means for performing in-focus operations on a plurality of different object planes; inputting means for inputting a plurality of images focused on different object planes by said focusing means; weighting and adding means for weighting a plurality of images focused on the different object planes by said focusing means by at least one preselected value and adding them up, comprising: imaging means for electrically converting a light image; color separating means for separating an output from said imaging device in units of three primary colors; first logarithmic compression circuit means for logarithmically compressing an output from said color separating means in units of three primary colors; and inverse logarithmic compression circuit means for performing inverse logarithmic compression of a signal from said first logarithmic compression circuit means; recovery processing means for performing recovery processing by spatial frequency filtering of an image obtained by adding the images by said weighting and adding means said recovery processing means comprising: a matrix conversion circuit for performing linear matrix conversion of an output from said inverse logarithmic compression circuit means; second logarithmic compression circuit means for logarithmically compressing an output signal from said matrix conversion circuit means; and color signal synthesizing means for synthesizing a color signal by using an output signal from said second logarithmic compression circuit means and the output signal from said first logarithmic compression circuit means.

Claim 12

An image input/output apparatus for inputting/outputting image information, comprising: focusing means for performing in-focus operations on a plurality of different object planes; inputting means for inputting a plurality of images focused on different object planes by said focusing means; weighting and adding means for weighting a plurality of images focused on the different object planes by said focusing means by at least one preselected value and adding them up, comprising: imaging means for electrically converting a light image; color separating means for separating an output from said imaging device in units of three primary colors; first logarithmic compression circuit means for logarithmically compressing an output from said color separating means in units of three primary colors; and inverse logarithmic compression circuit means for performing inverse logarithmic compression of a signal from said first logarithmic compression circuit means; recovery processing means for performing recovery processing by spatial frequency filtering of an image obtained by adding the images by said weighting and adding means said recovery processing means comprising: a matrix conversion circuit for performing linear matrix conversion of an output from said inverse logarithmic compression circuit means; second logarithmic compression circuit means for logarithmically compressing an output signal from said matrix conversion circuit means; and color signal synthesizing means for synthesizing a color signal by using an output signal from said second logarithmic compression circuit means and the output signal from said first logarithmic compression circuit means.

Claim 13

An image input/output device according to claim 9 wherein: said color separating means includes means for separating colors in units of complementary colors; and said first logarithmic compression circuit means comprises means for compressing colors in units of complementary colors.

Claim 14

An image input/output apparatus including an optical image forming system, comprising: focusing means for performing in-focus operations on a plurality of different object planes; image inputting means for inputting a plurality of images focused on the different object planes by said focusing means; weighting coefficient calculating means for calculating a weighting coefficient for all of said plurality of input images, based on characteristics of the optical image forming system and a focusing condition set by said focusing means when said plurality of images are input by said image inputting means; weighting and adding means for weighting all of said images input by said image inputting means by said weighting coefficient calculated by said weighting coefficient calculating means, and for adding up the weighted images; and spatial frequency filtering means for spatial-frequency-filtering the images having been weighted and added by said weighting and adding means so as to recover spatial frequency components having been degraded by said weighting and adding; said plurality of images focused on the different object planes by said focusing means are input by said image inputting means in units of different wavelength regions; and said weighting and adding means weights the images input by said image inputting means by at least one preselected value and then adds the plurality of weighted images in units of different wavelength regions.

Claim 15

An image input/output apparatus including an optical image forming system, comprising: focusing means for performing in-focus operations on a plurality of different object planes; image inputting means for inputting a plurality of images focused on the different object planes by said focusing means; weighting coefficient calculating means for calculating a weighting coefficient for all of said plurality of input images, based on characteristics of the optical image forming system and a focusing condition set by said focusing means when said plurality of images are input by said image inputting means; weighting and adding means for weighting all of said images input by said image inputting means by said weighting coefficient calculated by said weighting coefficient calculating means, and for adding up the weighted images; and spatial frequency filtering means for spatial-frequency-filtering the images having been weighted and added by said weighting and adding means so as to recover spatial frequency components having been degraded by said weighting and adding; said plurality of images focused on the different object planes by said focusing means are input by said image inputting means in units of different wavelength regions; and said weighting and adding means weights the images input by said image inputting means by at least one preselected value and then adds the plurality of weighted images in units of different wavelength regions.

Claim 16

An image input/output apparatus according to claim 11, wherein: said focusing means comprises means for changing an in-focus object pane position and means for changing the wavelength range of length; said image inputting means for inputting a plurality of images comprises means for providing different in-focus object plane positions and means for providing different wavelength ranges of light; said spatial frequency filtering means comprises a recovery processing means; and said image input/output apparatus further comprises synthesizing means for multiplying a recovered image from said recovery processing means of said spacial frequency filtering means with each image subjected to a division by an image obtained by adding the plurality of input images, and for synthesizing resultant images into one image.

Claim 17

An image input/output apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said spatial frequency filtering means comprises: means for extracting a luminance signal from an image synthesized by said weighting and adding means; luminance signal recovery processing means for performing luminance signal recovery processing by spatial frequency filtering of the thus extracted luminance signal; and synthesizing means for synthesizing the luminance signal recovery processed by said luminance signal recovery processing means, and wherein the images are added in units of wavelength ranges to obtain one image.