Camera that combines images of different scene depths

Abstract

A camera system capturing two parts of a same scene each at a different focus so that objects at different distances from the camera can be captured in focus. The camera system splits the image into two paths using a splitter and focuses the image of each path separately. The focus for each path can be manual or by autofocus. The parts of the images of the two paths can be combined by abutting them at a boundary or in a zone essentially located between the two parts. The image parts in the zone can be combined by blending using a linear function or a non linear function such as a frequency based function.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A camera, comprising:
 a first image capture path having a first lens to focus a first part of a scene at a first focus;   a second image capture path having second lens to focus a second part of the scene at a second focus; and   a combiner combining the first part of the scene at the first focus with the second part of the scene at the second focus to produce an output image,   wherein the first part of the scene at the first focus is at an adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) position with the second part of the scene at the second focus to produce a visible output image with adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) first and second parts.   
     
     
         2 . A camera as recited in  claim 1 , wherein a camera view of the scene includes a boundary between the first part and the second part and pixels on a first side of the boundary are placed on a first side of the image and pixels on a second side of the boundary are placed on a second side of the image. 
     
     
         3 . A camera as recited on  claim 1 , wherein a camera view of the scene includes a boundary zone of the first part and the second part and pixels in the zone from the first part are blended with pixels in the zone from the second part. 
     
     
         4 . A camera as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the blending is linear. 
     
     
         5 . A camera as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the blending is based on edge frequency. 
     
     
         6 . A camera as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the blending is based a distance from boundary edges. 
     
     
         7 . A camera as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising an image splitter splitting an image path of a view of the scene into the first and second paths. 
     
     
         8 . A camera as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a first autofocus system to focus on a first autofocus position in the first part of the scene for the first image capture path; and   a second autofocus system to focus on a second autofocus position in the second part of the scene for the second image capture path.   
     
     
         9 . A camera as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a third image capture path having third lens to focus a third part of the scene at a third focus; and   the combiner combining the first, second and third parts of the scene at the first, second and third focuses to produce an image.   
     
     
         10 . A camera, comprising:
 a scene lens capturing a view of a scene;   a splitter splitting the view of the scene through the scene lens into first and second paths;   a first autofocus system determining a first focus for a first part of the view;   a second autofocus system determining a second focus for a second part of the view   a first lens focusing the first part of the view of the first path responsive to the first focus;   a second lens focusing the second part of the view of the second path responsive to the second focus;   a first image sensor capturing a first image of the scene through the first lens;   a second image sensor capturing a second image of the scene through the second lens;   a combiner combining the first and second parts of the first and second images into an output image responsive to blending the first and second parts in a predetermined pixel width zone boundary using a frequency blending function; and   a display displaying the output image,   wherein the first part of the view at the first focus is at an adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) position with the second part of the view at the second focus to produce a visible output image with adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) first and second parts.   
     
     
         11 . A method, comprising:
 capturing a first image of a first part of a scene at a first focus;   capturing a second image of a second part of the scene at a second focus; and   combining the first part of the scene at the first focus with the second part of the scene at the second focus to produce an output image,   wherein the first part of the scene at the first focus is at an adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) position with the second part of the scene at the second focus to produce a visible output image with adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) first and second parts.   
     
     
         12 . A non-transitory computer readable storage for controlling a computer storing a process comprising:
 capturing a first image of a first part of a scene at a first focus;   capturing a second image of a second part of the scene at a second focus; and   combining the first part of the scene at the first focus with the second part of the scene at the second focus to produce an output image,   wherein the first part of the scene at the first focus is at an adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) position with the second part of the scene at the second focus to produce a visible output image with adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) first and second parts.   
     
     
         13 . An image, comprising a first part of a scene captured at a first focus combined with a second part of the scene captured at a second focus to produce an output image where the first part of the scene at the first focus is at an adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) position with the second part of the scene at the second focus to produce a visible output image with adjacent (horizontally side-by-side) first and second parts.