Image capturing apparatus provided with image processor

Abstract

An image capturing apparatus capable of performing a suitable illuminance nonuniformity correction by setting a suitable γ-characteristic every block even in the case that the size of a character image projected on a sensing surface changes according to an image capturing magnification, and capable of extracting a boundary area between a white board portion and a background portion and applying a suitable image processing to this boundary area during the illuminance nonuniformity correction for a picked image, and capable of image capturing a representation such as characters drawn on a white board in such a manner that an obtained image is clear and easy to see by suitably performing an illuminance nonuniformity correction even in the case of color image capturing, and capable of detecting a regularly reflected light with high accuracy and can thereby securely prevent an error of obtaining an image of low quality by image capturing, and capable of preventing an error in flash-image capturing a representation such as characters drawn on a white board under insufficient illumination light and effectively perform an illuminance nonuniformity correction.

1 - 41 . (Cancelled)  
     
     
         42 . An image capturing apparatus comprising: 
 a color image pickup device which photoelectrically picks up a light image of an object to generate image data of three primary color components;    a white level calculator which calculates a white level for an image of each color component based on image data of its color component;    a γ-characteristic setter which sets a γ-characteristic for an image of each color component to convert image data of its color component above the calculated corresponding white level to a white saturation level; and    a γ-characteristic corrector which corrects image data of each color component in accordance with the set γ-characteristic.    
     
     
         43 - 58 . (Cancelled)  
     
     
         59 . A method for processing image data of three primary color components generated by a color image pickup device, the method comprising the steps of: 
 calculating a white level for an image of each color component based on image data of its color component;    setting a γ-characteristic for an image of each color component to convert image data of its color component above the calculated corresponding white level to a white saturation level; and    correcting image data of each component in accordance with the set γ-characteristic.    
     
     
         60 - 63 . (Cancelled)