Video signal processing apparatus for processing correlative video signals obtained from a plurality of imaging devices

Claim 1

A video signal processing apparatus comprising: a first video signal input system comprising a solid-state image pickup device, including an optical system and a solid-state image pickup element, for generating a first video signal of a first image, an A/D conversion circuit for converting said first video signal into first quantized data, and a video RAM for inputting said first quantized data; a second video signal input system comprising a solid-state image pickup device, including an optical system and a solid-state image pickup element, for generating a second video signal, an A/D conversion circuit for converting said second video signal into second quantized data, a correction addition means for adding correction data to said second quantized data and outputting corrected quantized data, and a video RAM for inputting said corrected quantized data, which second image originates substantially from the same direction as the first image recorded in the first video signal input system; a video signal processing section for reading said first quantized data and said corrected quantized data from said first and second video signal input systems; histogram extracting circuitry for extracting a density histogram of each of said first and second video signals within a predetermined period of time on the basis of said first and second quantized data; a deviation amount computing means for computing a deviation amount of a distribution of the density histogram of said second video signal from that of said first video signal; and means for correcting said second quantized data by calculating said correction data on the basis of said deviation amount and for outputting said correction data to said correction addition means, wherein density variations of said first and second video signals due to characteristics variations between said first and second video signal input systems are absorbed to automatically correct the characteristics variations.

Claim 13

A method for adjusting variations in video signals obtained from a plurality of imaging devices, comprising the steps of: orienting and operating said imaging devices to obtain substantially simultaneous images of substantially the same subject, inputting and quantizing a first video image from a first of said imaging devices into a first video signal input system as first quantized data; inputting and quantizing a second video image from a second of said imaging devices into a second video signal input system as second quantized data; extracting a first and a second density histogram from each of the first and second quantized data, respectively; computing a deviation amount of the distribution of the density histogram of the second quantized data from that of the first quantized data; and correcting the second quantized data on the basis of the computed deviation amount.

Claim 14

A method for adjusting variations in video signals obtained from a plurality of imaging devices, comprising the steps of: orienting and operating said imaging devices to obtain substantially simultaneous images of substantially the same subject, inputting and quantizing a first video image from a first of said imaging devices into a first video signal input system as first quantized data; inputting and quantizing a second video image from a second of said imaging devices into a second video signal input system as second quantized data; extracting a first and a second density histogram from each of the first and second quantized data, respectively; computing a deviation amount of the distribution of the density histogram of the second quantized data from that of the first quantized data; and correcting the second quantized data on the basis of the computed deviation amount.