Entries |
Document | Title | Date |
20080198240 | ERROR REDUCTION IN IMAGE SENSORS - A vignetting-type chromatic error, particularly found in image sensors having pixel dimensions of a few microns, may be corrected by applying to each color channel a gain factor which increases with the radial position of the pixel. The gain factor may be also controlled based upon ambient color temperature | 08-21-2008 |
20080204572 | Proximity-Based System and Method for Reducing Gain Imbalance in a Bayer Pattern and Digital Camera Employing the Same - A proximity-based system for, and method of, reducing Gr-Gb gain imbalance and a digital camera incorporating the system or the method. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a sensor configured to provide a input Bayer pattern array containing amplitudes corresponding to Gr and Gb cells and (2) a processor coupled to the sensor and configured to (2a) compute for at least some of the Gr and Gb cells: closeness measures for pluralities of adjacent, same-type cells, weights for pluralities of adjacent, opposite-type cells based on the closeness measures and weighted averages of the pluralities of the adjacent, opposite-type cells based on the weights and (2b) use the weighted averages to form an output Bayer pattern in which the Gr-Gb gain imbalance is reduced. | 08-28-2008 |
20080204573 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND METHOD - It is an object of this invention to reduce image sensing errors due to wrong white balance control using wrong color temperature information in an image sensing device capable of performing white balance control using a color image signal from an image sensing device. In order to attain the above object, when the color in the vicinity of the locus of a blackbody cannot be extracted in detection of a color temperature in a color image signal, color temperature information is corrected on the basis of a piece of color temperature information output from a calorimetric sensor, thereby controlling the white balance of a color image signal output from an image sensing element. The number of achromatic data extracted from the color image signal is counted. The color temperature is calculated by weighting a color temperature obtained from the color image signal and that obtained from the calorimetric sensor in accordance with the count, thereby performing white balance control. | 08-28-2008 |
20080211925 | White balance correction apparatus and method - A specific target included in an image is detected by a specific target detection unit based on a specific target evaluation value representing likeliness of the specific target. Using a first white balance correction value calculation unit for obtaining a first white balance correction value for the region of the image other than the specific target, a second white balance correction value calculation unit for obtaining a second white balance correction value for the specific target region, and a white balance correction value comparison unit for making a comparison between the first and second white balance correction values, white balance in the region other than the specific target is corrected using the first white balance correction value, and white balance in the specific target region is corrected using the second white balance correction value, if the white balance correction values are different from each other. | 09-04-2008 |
20080225135 | Imaging Device Element - characteristic are improved. An imaging device having a hybrid RGBYC color filter using a primary color system RGB filter and a complementary color system YC filter is composed. Four G filters that directly relate to resolution and that is close to a luminance signal that human eyes sense are arrayed in a checker shape so that the number of the G filters is four times larger than the number of filters of each of the other colors. An array shown in FIG. | 09-18-2008 |
20080231726 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IMAGE COLOR CORRECTION IN A PORTABLE DEVICE - A method and apparatus for image color correction in a portable device. A device | 09-25-2008 |
20080239094 | Method of and apparatus for image denoising - An image denoising system and method of implementing the image denoising system is described herein. Noise is decomposed within each channel into frequency bands, and sub-band noise is propagated. Denoising is then able to occur at any node in a camera pipeline after accurately predicting noise that is signal level-dependent, frequency dependent and has inter-channel correlation. A methodology is included for estimating image noise in each color channel at a sensor output based on average image level and camera noise parameters. A scheme is implemented for detecting a peak-white image level for each color channel and predicting image level values for representative colors. Based on a noise model and camera parameters, noise levels are predicted for each color channel for each color patch and these noise levels are propagated to the denoising node. A three dimentional LUT correlates signal level to noise level. Then, a denoising threshold is adaptively controlled. | 10-02-2008 |
20080246856 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND IMAGING METHOD - An imaging apparatus includes one or a plurality of optical filters, an image sensor, an imaging signal processing part, a detecting part, and a control part. The one or the plurality of optical filters are selectively arranged in a path of an optical system for obtaining imaging light. The image sensor is provided for converting the imaging light obtained through the optical system into an imaging signal. The imaging signal processing part is provided for subjecting the imaging signal from the image sensor to a color-temperature correction processing. The detecting part is provided for detecting a type of the one or the plurality of optical filters arranged in the optical system. The control part is provided for adjusting a color temperature that is set at the imaging signal processing part to a color temperature defined for each filer detected by the detecting part. | 10-09-2008 |
20080252748 | SYSTEM AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM FOR AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCING - Systems and computer-readable medium are disclosed for automatic white balancing of an input image. Accordingly, the system includes a cast detector configured to receive and classify an input image based at least in part on a selection of constituent pixels of the input image. The cast detector is further configured to select the constituent pixels based on a computed reliability of each of the constituent pixels to convey at least one characteristic of a capture illuminant. The system further includes a cast balancer. The cast balancer is configured to perform white balancing of the input image based on the classification of the input image by the cast detector. The cast balancer is further configured to identify the capture illuminant based on at least one characteristic represented by each of the selected constituent pixels. | 10-16-2008 |
20080266417 | White balance adjusting device, imaging apparatus, and recording medium storing white balance adjusting program - A white balance adjusting device includes a dividing unit which divides an image to be processed into plural small areas, a calculating unit which calculates evaluation values of each small area based on color information of the image, a judging unit which judges whether to use the evaluation values of a small area of attention for white balance calculation based on a relationship between the evaluation values of the small area of attention and the evaluation values of small areas adjacent to the small area of attention among the evaluation values of the plural small areas, and a calculating unit which performs white balance calculation based on a judgment result of the judging unit. Therefore, color failure is suppressed and white balance adjustment can be performed properly. | 10-30-2008 |
20080278600 | Camera Apparatus - It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera apparatus that can take images over a long period of time while automatically controlling, in white balance, the images. The camera apparatus comprises image providing means | 11-13-2008 |
20080278601 | Efficient Determination of an Illuminant of a Scene - An aspect of the present invention reduces computational complexity in determining a illuminant of a scene of interest by selecting only a subset of illuminants from several more potential illuminants, and searching for a current illuminant for a present image frame in only the subset of illuminants. Computational complexity may be reduced due to the searching in fewer illuminants. The subset of illuminants are selected according to various aspects to enhance the probability that the closest matching potential illuminant is accurately determined. The features can be used in image capture devices (ICDs) such as video cameras. | 11-13-2008 |
20080278602 | CAMERA - A camera includes an optical system, an image sensor, a white balance correction section, an original image processing section, a geometric setting section which sets a desired geometric transformation for the original picture signal, a geometry converter which generates a geometrically converted picture signal based on the geometric setting made by the geometric setting section, an edge component extractor, an edge signal generator, and an image synthesizer which synthesizes the geometrically converted picture signal and signal at the edges to generate a picture signal. The edge signal generator performs geometrical transformation of the edges of the image based on the geometric setting and is parameter-controlled based on a geometry parameter computed from a coefficient to emphasize edges for controlling the enhancement at the edges amount for the edges of the image and magnification to zoom an image calculated based on the geometric setting. | 11-13-2008 |
20080297620 | Reducing Computational Complexity in Determining an Illuminant of a Scene - In an embodiment, computational complexity of estimating the actual illuminant of a scene is reduced by examining only a subset of the pixel values generated for a received image frame. In another embodiment, number of rotations of color values is minimized by selecting an area which contains the color cue values of a color in an original/unrotated coordinate space and has boundaries which parallel the axis of the original coordinate space, and rotating a color value only if the color value is within the selected area. In another embodiment, such an area is used in conjunction with a histogram-based approach to determine the actual illuminant. | 12-04-2008 |
20080303918 | COLOR CORRECTING FOR AMBIENT LIGHT - An apparatus and method are described for adjusting the color balance of a display. According to the method, a sensor of the apparatus detects the color temperature of ambient light. A controller of the apparatus adjusts the color balance of the emissive display based on the detected color temperature of ambient light. | 12-11-2008 |
20080303919 | IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE AND CAMERA MODULE USING THE SAME - An image pickup device includes a signal processing unit which processes a signal generated by separating a luminous signal into wavelength components of two or more colors by use of a sensor unit including two-dimensionally arranged pixels to which a wavelength separating unit for separating light wavelengths is arranged at a front face of a photoelectric converting element which converts the luminous signal condensed by an optical lens unit into electric signals, wherein the optical lens unit includes at least one optical lens having different focusing positions in accordance with the wavelengths of the luminous signal, and the signal processing unit includes an outline signal generating unit which extracts an outline signal from an output signal of the sensor unit. | 12-11-2008 |
20080309790 | WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT DEVICE AND WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD - To determine white balance convergence in a reliable manner, a white balance adjustment device for adjusting white balance of an input image supplied sequentially in time is provided. The white balance adjustment device comprises first and second integrating units. Each of the integrating units corrects a color component of a preceding input image based on mutually different correction parameter values. The integrating units respectively compute first and second integration values by integrating corrected color components. The first and second values to be used to correct the color component of a subsequent input image are determined by a correction parameter determining unit. The correction parameter determining unit changes the first and second values according to magnitude relationship between the first and second integration values and a benchmark value of the integration value. An image which has undergone the white balance adjustment is generated by correcting the color component of the image with a third value established between the first and second values. | 12-18-2008 |
20090002516 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, SHOOTING CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing unit configured to capture an image of a subject to obtain an image signal; a display unit configured to display an image based on the image signal and a specific index; an instruction-receiving unit configured to receive a specific instruction; and a control unit configured to perform control such that, in a case where a specific mode is set, when an auto-focus point is designated using the instruction-receiving unit, it is determined whether the face of a subject is located at the auto-focus point, and then if it is determined that the face of the subject is located at the auto-focus point, auto-focusing, auto-exposure, and auto-white-balance suitable for the position of the face are performed. | 01-01-2009 |
20090002517 | Color Correction Device, Color Correction Method, Dynamic Camera Color Correction Device, and Video Search Device Using the Same - A color correction device ( | 01-01-2009 |
20090002518 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An image processing apparatus and method capable of improving illuminant estimation accuracy and performing a stable white balance correction. A specific subject detection unit detects a specific subject having a specific color from assigned image data. A specific chromaticity calculation unit calculates a specific chromaticity from data representing the specific color of the specific subject. Then, a standard chromaticity that approximates to the calculated specific chromaticity is determined from standard chromaticities. A chromaticity difference calculation unit calculates one or more sets of chromaticity difference information representing a chromaticity difference from the determined standard chromaticity to the calculated specific chromaticity. A white chromaticity correction unit obtains one or more white chromaticities corresponding to the selected one or more standard light sources and corrects the one or more white chromaticities by referring to the one or more sets of chromaticity difference information. | 01-01-2009 |
20090002519 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND IMAGING APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An appropriate white balance coefficient is calculated using an evaluation value of a specific chromaticity or an imaging condition, in addition to face area detection information, in the following manner. A first white balance coefficient is calculated by a first white balance coefficient calculation unit based on a color image, and a second white balance coefficient is calculated by a second white balance coefficient calculation unit based on a specific subject of the color image. Then, a third white balance coefficient is calculated by a white balance combining unit by weighting the first white balance coefficient and the second white balance coefficient based on an evaluation result of a specific chromaticity evaluation unit or an imaging condition of an imaging condition control unit. | 01-01-2009 |
20090009624 | Automatic white balance control system, automatic white balance module, and method thereof - The present invention discloses an automatic white balance control system, an automatic white balance module, and a method thereof. The automatic white balance (AWB) control system calculates a distance value from a coordinate related to the image to a reference point in a color space coordinate system for each image. If the median or mean of the distance values is greater than a threshold value, an automatic white balance operation will be performed. The system dynamically adjusts the threshold value to prevent a blinking caused by the automatic white balance. The white balance module selects an image block of a higher image sharpness to perform a gain adjustment to prevent a monochromatic block from misjudging a white balance gain. | 01-08-2009 |
20090021602 | AUTO WHITE BALANCE CORRECTION VALUE CALCULATION DEVICE, METHOD, PROGRAM, AND IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE - A normal AWB (auto white balance) correction value is calculated based on inputted image data. Further, a face area is identified from the inputted image data and a face AWB correction value is calculated based on image data in the face area. Then, first feature data and second feature data are extracted from the inputted image data and image data in the face area, respectively. A total AWB correction value is calculated in accordance with at least one of the face AWB correction value and the normal AWB correction value based on a comparison result of the first feature data and the second feature data. Thus, an erroneous correction can be prevented in an AWB correction using a face detection function. | 01-22-2009 |
20090027514 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND METHOD - A digital still camera has a CCD image sensor, and picks up an image to produce an image signal. Colorimetric sensors have a sensor outer surface oriented in a measuring direction being different from a direction of an optical axis of the CCD image sensor, and colorimetrically measure ambient light. Lighting color temperature of the ambient light is determined according to a result of colorimetry. Image color temperature of the image is retrieved according to the image signal. A gain for each of color components is determined according to the lighting color temperature and the image color temperature. The color components of the image signal are amplified with the gain, to adjust white balance. Also, a camera body accommodates the CCD image sensor and the colorimetric sensors. The sensor outer surface is positioned on at least one of an upper surface and a lateral surface of the camera body. | 01-29-2009 |
20090027515 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An image pickup apparatus includes: an image pickup unit capturing a subject; an image generation unit performing image processing by different parameter values of a same parameter on an original image captured by the image pickup unit, and generating a plurality of images; and a multi-window display unit displaying the plurality of images generated by the image generation unit or the original image and the plurality of images generated by the image generation unit. The parameter is exposure correction or white balance. | 01-29-2009 |
20090033762 | Color photographing apparatus - A proposition is to provide a color photographing apparatus capable of reducing the failure probability of white balance adjusting. For this purpose, the color photographing apparatus includes a discriminating unit calculating an accuracy of a shooting scene belonging to a specific group having a similar illumination color based on a feature vector of the shooting scene and a discriminant criterion preliminarily calculated by supervised learning, and a calculating unit calculating an adjusting value of the white balance adjusting to be performed on an image shot in the shooting scene based on the calculated accuracy and the image. | 02-05-2009 |
20090040333 | MEDICAL IMAGING APPARATUS - When a safety switch is ON in step S | 02-12-2009 |
20090040334 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, WHITE BALANCE CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image pickup apparatus capable of, when adjusting the white balance in development processing, eliminating the need for performing integration processing and calculation processing for white balance adjustment even when white balance is set to an arbitrary mode, thereby significantly reducing the processing time. In the image pickup apparatus, a calculation unit is adapted to, in a case where an integration parameter to be set in an integration unit is identical with or close to an integration parameter stored in a storage unit, calculate a white balance control value using a white balance integration value read out from the storage unit, without performing calculation processing using a white balance integration value acquired by an integration unit. | 02-12-2009 |
20090040335 | WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT DEVICE, IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE, WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - A natural white balance is achieved in images that are captured while emitting a flash. A WB adjustment portion is provided with a mixture ratio calculation portion that estimates a mixture ratio of an external light component and a flashed light component that are present in an image that is captured with emitting a flash, from the image obtained that is captured while emitting a flash and an image signal that is obtained without emitting a flash, an external light WB coefficient determination portion that determines an WB coefficient for the external light, a flashed light WB coefficient setting portion that sets a WB coefficient for the flashed light, and a WB processing portion that continuously performs WB processing on the image captured while emitting a flash by using the mixture ratio as an interpolation ratio. | 02-12-2009 |
20090040336 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND METHOD - A digital still camera has a CCD image sensor, which includes an active pixel area for image pickup of an image to produce image data. A black pixel area is disposed outside the active pixel area, and produces black pixel data. The image pickup apparatus includes an amplifier for adjusting white balance of the image data. A smear detection unit detects a smeared portion of a smear phenomenon in the image according to the black pixel data. A tone correction unit reduces chroma of the image in a predetermined hue area according to a smear level of the smear phenomenon determined from the black pixel data, to carry out color correction of the smeared portion for the image data after adjusting the white balance. | 02-12-2009 |
20090046171 | NON-LINEAR COLOR CORRECTION - A method for imaging includes defining a set of one or more color correction parameters having values that vary over a predefined color space. For each of the pixels in an input image, the location of the respective input color is determined in the color space, and a value of the one or more color correction parameters is selected responsively to the location. The respective input color is modified using the selected value so as to produce a corrected output color of the pixel in an output image. | 02-19-2009 |
20090066805 | VIDEO CAMERA - An image sensor has an imaging surface irradiated with an optical image of an object scene, and repeatedly generates an object scene image. A CPU repeatedly determines whether or not a specific variation exceeding a reference is generated in the object scene captured by the image sensor, in parallel with a generating process of the object scene image by the image sensor. When a determination result is updated from a negative result to an affirmative result, the CPU waits for an elapse of a designated period, then, determines presence or absence of a generation of a flicker, and executes a flicker countermeasure process, as needed. | 03-12-2009 |
20090066806 | Image processing device, image processing method, and image processing program | 03-12-2009 |
20090073281 | IMAGE SENSOR - An image sensor includes a plurality of pixels having a plurality of color sensitivity characteristics and a mixing portion for mixing charges stored in a plurality of the pixels having the same color sensitivity characteristic provided adjacent to a plurality of the pixels having the same color sensitivity characteristic. | 03-19-2009 |
20090073282 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND IMAGING METHOD - First YUV data produced from a pixel output in which one RAW-RGB data is read out from an SDRAM and is compensated in a dynamic range expansion compensating section of a YUV converting section and second YUV data produced from a pixel output which is equal to or more than a predetermined saturation level without performing a compensation process in the dynamic range expansion compensating section are loaded in a YUV compositing section, and then third YUV data is produced by compositing brightness data taken out from the first YUV data and color difference data taken out from the second YUV data. | 03-19-2009 |
20090079846 | AUTO WHITE BALANCE SYSTEM FOR IMAGE SENSOR AND AUTO WHITE BALANCE METHOD - An exemplary auto white balance system for an image sensor includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, a memory, a setting determining unit, and a white balance unit. The GPS receiver is configured for receiving signals from a satellite, and calculating its position and local time using signals received from at least four satellites. The memory is configured for storing a number of white balance settings. The setting determining unit is configured for determining which one of the white balance settings is suitable for the current ambient light conditions based on the received signal of the global positioning system receiver. The whit balance unit is configured for adjusting the color temperature of a current image captured by the image sensor using the determined white balance setting. | 03-26-2009 |
20090102943 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS - An image processing apparatus includes a spectrum estimation unit for estimating a spectrum for each pixel from multiband image data comprising image data in multiple different wavelength ranges; a memory for storing spectral data suitable for each of multiple different shooting modes; and a conversion unit for determining a shooting mode of the multiband image data and converting the spectrum into band data with different spectral characteristics using the spectral data stored in the memory, the spectral data suitable for the determined shooting mode. | 04-23-2009 |
20090102944 | COLOR SIGNAL PROCESSING CIRCUIT, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND COLOR SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD - The color signal processing circuit includes a first calculation unit generating an R/G value, a second calculation unit generating a B/G value, and a position specifying unit specifying, based on the R/G and B/G values, a position expressed as a color temperature of the light of a light source in a color coordinate system defined by R/G and B/G coordinate axes as the position of the light source. The color signal processing circuit further includes a pull determining unit determining a displacement amount between the light source position specified and a position of a target point on a blackbody radiation curve defined in the color coordinate system, sets gain values for the R, G, B color signals for achieving a white balance based on the displacement amount, and supplies the gain values to white balance amps amplifying the R, G, B color signals, and carries out white balance processing. | 04-23-2009 |
20090115869 | PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS AND PHOTOGRAPHING METHOD - Disclosed is a photographing apparatus of interlace transferring type comprising a photographing device which carries out transfer of electrification of all pixels stored in the photographing device by dividing into a plurality of fields when transferring the electrification, which has a plurality of color filters and which includes a color signal of at least RGB or YeCyMgG in the transfer data of each field for transferring the electrification, an extraction unit for extracting characteristic data of an image from transferred data before processing for the image is started, a generating unit for generating control value carrying out correction of image based on the extracted characteristic data, and a photographing processing unit for processing the image by use of a control value formed by said characteristic data. | 05-07-2009 |
20090115870 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM RECORDING IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus includes: interpolation G calculating units that calculate a plurality of types of G interpolation candidates G | 05-07-2009 |
20090147098 | IMAGE SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COLOR CORRECTION WITH AN ILLUMINANT-DEPENDENT COLOR CORRECTION MATRIX - An image sensor apparatus is disclosed. The image sensor apparatus includes an image sensor for generating pixel data corresponding to a scene under a scene illuminant. The image sensor apparatus also includes a memory for storing color correction information corresponding to a subset of candidate illuminants. A color correction module in the image sensor apparatus derives an illuminant-dependent color correction matrix based on the color correction information corresponding to the subset of candidate illuminants and applies the illuminant-dependent color correction matrix to the pixel data to generate a color corrected digital image. | 06-11-2009 |
20090147099 | METHOD OF PERFORMING AUTO WHITE BALANCE IN YCBCR COLOR SPACE - There is provided a method of performing auto white balance including: setting a plurality of sections of a whole range of a value of each of Y, Cb, and Cr in the YCbCr color space, according to a size of each value; calculating an accumulated Y, Cb, and Cr value of pixels included in each of the plurality of sections; determining effective sections according to the number of the pixels included in each of the plurality of sections; calculating a mean Y, Cb, and Cr value of pixels included in all of the effective sections by using the accumulated Y, Cb, and Cr value of each of the effective sections; calculating a mean RGB value by converting the mean Y, Cb, and Cr value into an RGB color space; and determining an RGB color gain of a Bayer image outputted from an image sensor by using the mean RGB value. | 06-11-2009 |
20090147100 | CAMERA CONTROL APPARATUS, CAMERA CONTROL METHOD, AND CAMERA SYSTEM - A camera control apparatus comprises a processor adapted to control a display to display a plurality of sensed images respectively obtained from a plurality of cameras and a transmitter adapted to transmit a command to control another camera to execute color adjustment based on an image signal of a reference region of an image of a reference camera of the images displayed as a list by the processor. | 06-11-2009 |
20090153696 | Chromatic aberration correction apparatus, image pickup apparatus, chromatic aberration amount calculation method, and chromatic aberration amount calculation program - The invention relates to a chromatic aberration correction apparatus. A judgment unit judges whether a selected pixel of interest is a white overexposure pixel or not on the basis of white overexposure pixel distribution information that is held in a white overexposure distribution information memory. A white overexposure pixel judgment is made for each of pixels that make up an image. A reader reads, for each selected pixel of interest that is judged as a white overexposure pixel by the judgment unit, chromatic aberration amount distribution information for a certain area that is determined on the basis of the selected pixel of interest out of a chromatic aberration distribution information memory. An adder adds each chromatic aberration amount contained in the chromatic aberration amount distribution information that is read by the reader to a value of the corresponding position in the storage area of a chromatic aberration amount memory. | 06-18-2009 |
20090160968 | CAMERA USING PREVIEW IMAGE TO SELECT EXPOSURE - A digital camera comprises an image sensor for providing initial sensor image data and final sensor image data; a lens for exposing the image of a scene onto the image sensor; an exposure control system for adjusting an exposure level of a final image on the image sensor in response to a scene type; and a processor for processing the initial sensor image data to select one of a plurality of scene types, and to process the final sensor image data in response to the scene type. | 06-25-2009 |
20090160969 | Image capturing apparatus - An image capturing apparatus can use a reading time from an image sensor efficiently. To achieve the object, the image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing unit which separates a color image of a subject being captured by an image sensor having pixels of colors into three or more fields and outputs said three or more fields successively, and an image processing unit which generates a low-resolution image which is lower in resolution than the color image obtained by the image capturing unit, based on output of one or more fields among said three or more fields, said one or more fields being able to extract color information of all the colors, wherein the image processing unit starts generation of the low-resolution image in a period in which fields other than said one or more fields for generating the low-resolution image are read. | 06-25-2009 |
20090167891 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS - In an image capturing apparatus, a hue shift is prevented. A digital camera has a gray level correction function. Image data obtained with a CCD | 07-02-2009 |
20090167892 | WHITE BALANCE CONTROL DEVICE AND WHITE BALANCE CONTROL METHOD - A first white balance correction value is computed by detecting white pixels from an image. A determination is made as to whether or not a corrected image signal in the face region falls into a second color signal region surrounding a first color signal region that represents a skin color if white balance of the image signal in the face region is corrected based on the first white balance correction value. When it is determined that the corrected image signal of the face region falls into the second color signal region, a second white balance correction value for correcting the image signal is computed based on relationships between the corrected image signal of face region and the first color signal region. The computed second white balance correction value is modified based on information obtained when the image was captured. | 07-02-2009 |
20090174790 | Digital photographing apparatus and method for controlling the same - A digital photographing apparatus which, when operating in a manual mode for externally manipulating and setting photographing variables, determines when a photo is to be taken, and if photographing conditions are changed from those which occurred when photographing variables were set, notifies a user of the change so that a photo can be taken with desired photographic variables. A method of controlling a digital photographing apparatus to perform these operations is also provided. | 07-09-2009 |
20090174791 | Image processor, image processing method and recording medium - A correction signal capturing section of a skin color correction processing section of an image processor captures WB-corrected R | 07-09-2009 |
20090180000 | IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM AND CAMERA INCLUDING THE SAME - An image processing system is configured to include an imaging system which has a CCD to capture an image of a subject and outputs as pixel data an image signal of the subject output from the CCD, a conversion buffer memory which temporarily stores the pixel data according to each pixel position, a database which stores correction information for each pixel, and a corrector circuit which performs correction processing on each pixel data stored in the conversion buffer memory based on the correction information stored in the database, and sequentially outputs the corrected pixel data. In the image processing system, the correction information in the database is changed in accordance with a change in a magnification of the imaging system. | 07-16-2009 |
20090180001 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGING APPARATUS, METHOD AND PROGRAM - An image processing apparatus includes a tone conversion section configured to execute luminance tone compression on an entered image by use of a predetermined conversion curve; a linear matrix processing block configured to execute correction based on matrix operation on an image entered via the tone conversion section; and a hue and saturation adjustment block configured to execute hue and saturation conversion processing based on a set parameter on an image entered via the linear matrix processing block. The apparatus further includes a brightness decision block configured to determine whether brightness of the image to be processed is lower than a certain brightness level; and a control block configured to control a combination of the operations to be processed by the processing section and blocks on the basis of setting of a tone conversion function of the tone conversion section and a decision result obtained by the brightness decision block. | 07-16-2009 |
20090180002 | WHITE BALANCE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND PROCESSING METHOD THEREOF - Disclosed herein is a white balance processing apparatus comprising white balance processing means for effecting white balance processing on an image to be taken, color histogram processing means for effecting histogram processing by color components in accordance with the image to be taken processed of white balance by the white balance processing means, and display means for displaying histograms by color components obtained by the color histogram processing means. | 07-16-2009 |
20090195670 | Image processing device, image processing method and program product - An image processing device that reproduces under a second observation condition an appearance of a color of a subject as perceived under a first observation condition, includes: a characteristic quantity calculation unit that calculates a characteristic quantity related to a state of visual perception adaptation under an observation condition that is at least one observation condition of the first observation condition and the second observation condition, by taking into consideration information related to an illuminating light source used under another observation condition in addition to information related to an illuminating light source used under the one observation condition; and a color conversion unit that executes color conversion to convert the first image data to second image data to be used to reproduce, under the second observation condition, the appearance of the color of the subject as perceived under the first observation condition, based upon the characteristic quantity having been calculated. | 08-06-2009 |
20090207271 | Image Processor Correcting Color Misregistration, Image Processing Program, Image Processing Method, and Electronic Camera - An image processor captures image data which include at least correction object color components and reference color components and has one kind of color component per pixel. The image processor acquires or detects information about positional shifts of the correction object color components and corrects positional shifts of correction object color components. In this correction, image structures lost from correction object color components are compensated for by image structures extracted from reference color components. | 08-20-2009 |
20090207272 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH TWO IMAGE SENSORS - An electronic device for producing an image of an object is disclosed. The electronic device may include a black-and-white camera having a first sensor area configured to receive luma data pertaining to the object. The first sensor area may correspond to a first pixel array, the luma data associated with the first pixel array. The electronic device may also include a color camera having a second sensor area configured to receive chroma data pertaining to the object. The second sensor area may correspond to a second pixel array. The chroma data may be associated with the second pixel array. The electronic device may also include first logic configured to correlate pixels in the first pixel array with locations on the second sensor area. | 08-20-2009 |
20090207273 | IMAGING APPARATUS, WAVEFORM SIGNAL DISPLAY METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - An imaging apparatus with an automatic adjustment function, such as a white balance adjustment function, enables a result of such adjustment to be checked easily using a vector display. A waveform generation unit | 08-20-2009 |
20090207274 | Apparatus and method for adjusting white balance in a digital imaging device - A method and apparatus for adjusting a white balance in a digital imaging device. The method including the steps of: analyzing a histogram of an image to which a white balance algorithm is to be applied; classifying the image, to which the white balance algorithm is to be applied, according to color distribution determination criteria; and the white balance algorithm is applied to the image in a customized manner based on results of the classification based on color distributions. The apparatus includes an image sensor unit for photographing a subject and for creating an original image; and an image processing unit for finding an achromatic color region through estimation of a color temperature of the original image, for extracting a white point of the achromatic color region, and for adjusting a white balance of the original image. | 08-20-2009 |
20090207275 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD THEREFOR - An image sensing apparatus comprising: a CCD, optical system for forming an image on the CCD; A/D converter for converting an image signal outputted by the CCD to a digital signal; color interpolator for performing color interpolation on the digital signal converted by the A/D converter and generating image data on R, G and B color planes; color space converter for converting RGB color space to YUV colorimetric system; and median filter for reducing pseudo color components, generated by the color interpolator, by controlling color difference signals U and V. By cutting high frequency components of the signal, filtered by the median filter, then thinning out YUV signals and performing JPEG compression, pseudo color components generated by color interpolation can be reduced. | 08-20-2009 |
20090213243 | Shading compensation device, shading compensation value calculation device and imaging device - A shading compensation device which compensates for shading which differs for respective colors. A pixel counter counts co-ordinate positions of image data which is supplied from a black level correction section. A relative position calculation section compares the image data with compensation value tables and calculates relative co-ordinate positions of pixels which are objects of processing. A compensation value interpolation section refers to the compensation value tables, which are stored for the respective colors in a compensation value table memory, and interpolates shading compensation values for the relative co-ordinate positions calculated by the relative position calculation section. A multiplier multiplies the image data which is the objects of processing with the new shading compensation values obtained by the interpolation processing. Thus, shading-compensated image data is generated. | 08-27-2009 |
20090219408 | ELECTRONIC CAMERA - An electronic camera is provided with: a gain information calculator for calculating gain information indicating a gain of a color information signal in a predetermined aperture state based on a gain of a color information signal obtained by performing a white balance adjustment using an object image signal; a storer for storing the gain information calculated by the gain information calculator, a detector for detecting a difference between an aperture state at a time of photographing and a predetermined aperture state; a corrector for correcting the gain information stored by the storer based on the difference detected by the detector; and an adjustor for adjusting the color information signal at a time of photographing by using the gain information corrected by the corrector. | 09-03-2009 |
20090231461 | IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE PROVIDING COLOR ADJUSTMENT AND COLOR ADJUSTMENT METHOD THEREOF - A digital still camera (DSC) includes an encoder, a display panel, and a color adjustment unit. The encoder is configured to encode an image signal in the DSC into a first preview image. The display panel is configured to display the first preview image to allow determination of the need for color adjustment. The color adjustment unit is configured to adjust the color of the image signal in response to a user input made based upon the determination. The adjusted image signal is also encoded by the encoder as a second preview image displayed by the display panel in real time to allow determination of the need for further adjustment, or to store the adjusted image signal. | 09-17-2009 |
20090231462 | IMAGE-PICKUP APPARATUS AND WHITE-BALANCE CONTROL METHOD PROVIDED THEREFOR - The present invention allows for selecting a predetermined chromatic color for extraction from among a plurality of chromatic colors based on the result of identification of acquired photographing information. When the value of a white extraction area of the photographing information is smaller than a first threshold value, it is determined whether the value of the area of the selected predetermined chromatic color is greater than or equal to a second threshold value. If the value of the predetermined chromatic-color area is determined to be greater than or equal to the second threshold value, white balance is controlled by bringing the value of the predetermined chromatic-color area near to a predetermined target color value. | 09-17-2009 |
20090237525 | IMAGE PICK-UP APPARATUS, AN IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND AN IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, WITH APPROPRIATE COLOR SPACE CONVERSION - An image pick-up apparatus includes an image pick-up device, a storage media which stores an image picked up by the image pick up device, a color space converter which converts a color space of the image; a storage media reader which reads out the image from the storage media, an external display interface, a coefficient determiner which determines a coefficient for color conversion based on comparison between a resolution of the image read out by the storage media reader and a resolution of a display which is connected to the external display interface, and a display controller which outputs the image of which color is converted by the color space converter based on the coefficient for color conversion to the display. | 09-24-2009 |
20090244316 | AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE CONTROL - A system for performing automatic white balance (AWB) control in which the limited white area (200) is clearly defined by a formula which fits exactly to the black body radiator curve (202) in at least two domains, the formula being a function of those two domains. The function is then offset to the left and/or right to define the limited white area (200) around the black body radiator curve (202). No calibration at the time of manufacture is required, and no permanent memory to store respective parameters and measurements for automatic white balancing is necessary. The resultant limited white area (200) can be used provided a color matrix is employed beforehand, in order to transform the color space of the image sensor to a known color space. In this known color space, the exact location of the black body radiator curve is known, and therefore the above-mentioned formula can be used to form the LWA detection region around it. | 10-01-2009 |
20090251561 | System and method for adaptive local white balance adjustment - The disclosure describes embodiments of an apparatus comprising an image sensor including a pixel array having a plurality of pixels and an automatic white balance (AWB) circuit coupled to the pixel array. The AWB circuit is used to determine a local white balance component for each pixel, determine a global white balance component for each pixel, and apply a white balance adjustment to each pixel, the applied white balance adjustment comprising a combination of the local white balance component and the global white balance component. The disclosure also describes embodiment of a process including receiving image data from each pixel in a pixel array, determining a local white balance component for the image data from each pixel, determining a global white balance component for the image data from each pixel, and applying a white balance adjustment to the image data from each pixel, the applied white balance adjustment comprising a combination of the local white balance component and the global white balance component. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed. | 10-08-2009 |
20090251562 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image capturing apparatus includes: a subject image signal generating unit that generates a subject image signal from incident light forming a subject image; a luminance signal and color difference signal generating unit that generates a luminance signal and a color difference signal from the subject image signal; a color difference signal accumulative adding unit that accumulatively adds the color difference signals with lapse of time and outputs an accumulatively added color difference signal; and a signal output unit that outputs the luminance signal generated by the luminance signal and color difference signal generating unit and the accumulatively added color difference signal output by the color difference signal accumulative adding unit. | 10-08-2009 |
20090256928 | Method and device for detecting color temperature - A method for detecting color temperature and an apparatus thereof are disclosed. According to the present invention, the apparatus for detecting color temperature converts RGB color information, generated by interpolating an image signal sequentially inputted in units of pixel from an image sensor, to a three-dimensional coordinate value of luminance, R-G color difference information, and B-G color difference information, and then renews the added value per color, if included in a filtering zone corresponding to a characteristic curve of the image sensor. Then, an average value per color is generated in units of frame, and the compensation rate per color is determined such that the average value per color becomes identical to each other. With the present invention, accurate colors can be displayed by detecting the color temperature of the current light source and correcting the distorted color information. | 10-15-2009 |
20090256929 | COLOR PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND METHOD THEREFOR - A first image obtained by capturing white paper placed under an illuminant having known illuminant information using an image capturing device is input together with identification information of the illuminant, and illuminant information of the illuminant having the known illuminant information is obtained together with the identification information of the illuminant. A table is generated by associating a chromaticity of the first image with the obtained illuminant information based on the identification information. A second image obtained by capturing the white paper placed under an illuminant having unknown illuminant information using the image capturing device is input, and illuminant information of the illuminant having the unknown illuminant information is estimated from a chromaticity of the second image by referring to the table. | 10-15-2009 |
20090256930 | COLOR PROCESSING APPARATUS AND COLOR PROCESSING METHOD - A color processing apparatus for evaluating the gradation characteristic of a color conversion table that is used to convert signal values in input color space into signal values in output color space and has a plurality of grid points includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire signal values in the output color space corresponding to four adjacent grid points in the input color space through the color conversion table, a calculation unit configured to calculate a property of a tetrahedron formed by the signal values in the output color space, and an evaluation unit configured to evaluate a gradation characteristic of the color conversion table based on the property of the tetrahedron. The property of the tetrahedron may be the volume of the tetrahedron or the surface area of the tetrahedron. | 10-15-2009 |
20090268051 | Image processing apparatus, imaging apparatus, image processing method and program recording medium - A high luminance point detecting section of an image processing apparatus detects a high luminance point of the captured image. A chroma extracting section sets a first area in the captured image with the high luminance point serving as a reference point and extracts a first chroma by using color information of the first area. Further, the chroma extracting section sets a second area at a position more apart from the high luminance point than the first area in the captured image and extracts a second chroma by using color information of the second area. A color bleeding estimating section estimates intensity of color bleeding appearing in the captured image based on a value of the first chroma relative to the second chroma. | 10-29-2009 |
20090268052 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - In an image pickup apparatus, image data obtained by an image pickup unit is subjected to predetermined image processing, and an image is displayed on an electronic viewfinder screen based on the image data that has undergone the image processing. A specified color is determined based on color information included in a predetermined region of an image that is currently being displayed on the electronic viewfinder screen, and image processing parameters are produced so that color conversion is carried out on the image while eliminating color components of colors other than the determined specified color. | 10-29-2009 |
20090290043 | Sub-Pixel Array Optical Sensor - Improving the dynamic range of captured images is disclosed by using sub-pixel arrays to capture light at different exposures and generate color pixel outputs for an image in a single frame. Each sub-pixel array can include multiple sub-pixels. The sub-pixels that make up a sub-pixel array can include red (R) sub-pixels, green (G) sub-pixels, blue (B) sub-pixels, and in some embodiments, clear sub-pixels. Those sub-pixel arrays having clear sub-pixels effectively have a higher exposure level and can capture low-light scenes (for dark areas) better than those sub-pixel arrays without clear sub-pixels. Each sub-pixel array can produce a color pixel output that is a combination of the outputs of the sub-pixels in the sub-pixel array. Each sub-pixel in a sub-pixel array can have the same exposure time, or in some embodiments, individual sub-pixels within a sub-pixel array can have different exposure times to improve the overall dynamic range even more. | 11-26-2009 |
20090295938 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE WITH AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE - The purpose of the present invention is to provide sophisticated AWB technologies. According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a technology for adjusting a white balance of a frame of image data including a plurality of color elements. This technology is characterized by comprising: dividing the frame into a plurality of blocks including a plurality of pixel data; judging, for each of all of or a part of the blocks, whether the block is likely to be grey or not, and; deciding gains for adjusting a white balance using the blocks judged as being likely to be grey. | 12-03-2009 |
20090295939 | IMAGING DEVICE - An Imaging device has an Image sensor with a mosaic color filter array comprising three or four color elements. The color elements are arrayed such that each color element is opposite a pixel in said image sensor. The imaging device further has a color-transform a processor that carries out a color-transform process on a color signal in each pixel to generate a single color-transform signal in each pixel; and a color interpolation processor that interpolates at least one missing color-transform signal in each pixel using color-transform signals from surrounding pixels. The color-transform processor interpolates at least one missing color signal in each pixel using color signals generated over adjacent pixels, and multiplies the originally generated color signal and the interpolated color signal by color-transform coefficients to generate the single color-transform signal. | 12-03-2009 |
20090303344 | RECORDING MIDIUM OF DIGITAL PHOTO FILE AND METHOD OF GENERATING DIGITAL PHOTO FILE - A recording medium of a digital photo file and a method of generating a digital photo file are presented. An electronic device generates several pieces of thumbnails with different uses according to a content of a photo data, and embeds the thumbnails in a single image file, thereby forming the digital photo file. The digital photo file is characterized in that several pieces of photo contents with different uses are included in the same file, for photo printing, computer photo editing, photo rapid previewing, and playing in an electronic apparatus with an excellent photo quality and browsing speed. | 12-10-2009 |
20090303345 | DIGITAL STILL CAMERA AND IMAGE CORRECTION METHOD - To be capable of correcting a captured image to an image desirable to a user only by using a digital still camera. | 12-10-2009 |
20090309994 | Tone Correcting Method, Tone Correcting Apparatus, Tone Correcting Program, and Image Equipment - A face detecting unit detects presence/non-presence of a face and its position from an input image or its reduced image. A parameter calculation control unit calculates a correction parameter according to the presence/non-presence of the face. When the face is detected, a face area correction parameter calculating unit calculates a correction parameter having characteristics such that as a representative luminance value is larger, the image becomes darker, and as smaller, the image becomes brighter based on a boundary luminance level. When a face is not detected, a standard correction parameter calculating unit | 12-17-2009 |
20090309995 | Automatic white balance using non-uniform averaging - The specification disclosed embodiments of an apparatus comprising an automatic white balance (AWB) circuit coupled to a pixel array to transform red, green, and blue color data obtained from each pixel into x and y chromaticity values for each pixel, determine a distance between the Planckian locus and the x and y chromaticity values for each pixel, determine a weight for each pixel based on the distance between its x and y chromaticity values and the Planckian locus, determine red, green, and blue adjustments for each pixel using its weight, and apply a white balance adjustment to the red, green and blue values obtained from each pixel. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed. | 12-17-2009 |
20090309996 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND PROGRAM - In an image processing apparatus which can always provide an excellent processed image, an analysis unit analyzes condition information representing a condition at a time when an image is obtained and being included in image information, and determines an algorithm of an image correction process for the image based on the analyzed result. | 12-17-2009 |
20090316018 | Image Signal Processing Method and Image Signal Processing Device - It is possible to improve a response of a dynamic range expansion processing. The present image signal processing method includes a first step (ST | 12-24-2009 |
20090316019 | TONE ADJUSTMENT METHOD FOR DIGITAL IMAGE AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS USING THE SAME - A tone adjustment method for a digital image and an electronic apparatus using the same are presented. The method includes steps. A digital image is loaded. A detail image layer and a primary image layer are generated according to the digital image. A tone mapping procedure is performed on the primary image layer, for generate a tone mapping layer. A detail gain lookup table is loaded and then a corresponding gain is looked up according to each pixel value in the primary image layer, for generate a detail gain adjustment layer. A detail gain control procedure is performed and then a detail gain adjustment is performed on the detail gain adjustment layer and the detail image layer, for generate a gain correction layer. The gain correction layer and the tone mapping layer are combined, and then a combined layer is output, thereby completing the tone adjustment for the digital image. | 12-24-2009 |
20090322900 | WIRELESS DATA TRANSMITTING METHOD - A wireless data transmitted method is disclosed. Firstly, a carrier block is displayed. Then, color of the displayed carrier block is modulated in accordance with data to be transmitted. The data is transmitted by capturing an image of the displayed carrier block. The captured carrier block is recognized and the color thereof is calibrated. Finally, the transmitted data is obtained by demodulating the color of the captured carrier block. | 12-31-2009 |
20100007765 | Spectral improvement of digital camera color images - Systems and methods for modifying a color image of a scene are provided. The systems and methods involve illuminating at least a portion of the scene with a light having a known spectral power distribution, and detecting a finite number of spectral components of light received from the scene under such illumination. The detected values of spectral components of light received from the scene are used to modify the color image or rendition of the scene. | 01-14-2010 |
20100013952 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING GAIN OF COLOR SIGNAL - An apparatus for controlling gain of color signal includes an auto white balance algorithm applying unit determining a white estimation region from an input image, and calculating a first color signal gain for correcting an average color signal level of pixels of the white estimation region to white, a pixel determining unit determining a form of each pixel according to brightness and color using the color signal level of the each pixel of the input image, and a color signal gain determining unit determining a color signal gain to be applied to the each pixel according to the form of the each pixel of the input image as any one of the first color signal gain, a second color signal gain determined by the color signal level of the each pixel for correcting the each pixel to white and a unit gain. | 01-21-2010 |
20100020192 | METHOD OF CONTROLLING AUTO WHITE BALANCE - There is provided a method of controlling auto white balance that can be appropriately used for a camera of an electric device that uses a wide-angle or a super wide-angle lens. A method of controlling auto white balance according to an aspect of the invention may include: converting a color space of an input image from an RGB color space into a YCbCr color space; dividing the input image into a plurality of divided regions; selecting a predetermined number of divided regions in order determined by mean values of Y of pixels included in the plurality of divided regions; comparing a predetermined threshold value with the number of pixels having values of Cb and Cr within a predetermined Cb-Cr range among the pixels included in the selected divided regions in order to determine a white area; and calculating auto white balance gains by using mean values of Y, mean values of Cb, and mean values of Cr of the pixels included in each of the selected divided regions when the number of pixels within the predetermined Cb-Cr range is greater than the threshold value. | 01-28-2010 |
20100020193 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WHITE BALANCE - A method and apparatus for white balancing. The method comprising estimating the color temperature of at least a portion of the image, wherein the color temperature estimation algorithm is based on computing histogram correlations of at least a portion of at least one reference image and at least a portion of at least one target image, and correcting the white balance of at least a portion of the image utilizing the estimated color temperature. | 01-28-2010 |
20100026835 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - Using correction values obtained based on image signals outputted from an image sensing unit by controlling the image sensing unit in the first mode, in which image signals are read out from a first photoelectric conversion element group arranged in a first region of an image sensing plane, the image signals outputted from an image sensing apparatus by controlling the image sensing unit in the second mode, in which image signals are read out from a second photoelectric conversion element group arranged in a second region that is smaller than the first region of the image sensing plane, are subjected to a white balance process. | 02-04-2010 |
20100026836 | Imaging Apparatus and Imaging Method - It is an object of the present invention to provide an imaging apparatus and an imaging method which enable various functions using face detection to be individually controlled in accordance with scene recognition results and which achieve more favorable imaging and image processing. To achieve the object, in an aspect of the present invention, information on a photographic scene is acquired to recognize the scene and to detect whether or not a face exists in the photographic scene, and various controls are performed based on the scene recognition result and the face detection result. That is, when performing various controls using face detection such as face frame display, face AE, face AF, face AWB, face tonal correction, and the like, it is now possible to individually control how such controls are to be performed based on a scene recognition result and achieve more favorable imaging and image processing in accordance with the scenes. | 02-04-2010 |
20100033595 | WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT APPARATUS AND WHITE BALANCE COEFFICIENT CALCULATION METHOD - A white balance adjustment apparatus which is input image data acquired by an imager element to adjust a balance among color signals of the image data of a present frame includes an evaluation acquisition unit configured to acquire a plurality of groups of color signal data at each pixel position, as evaluation values, from the image data of the present frame and image data of at least one previous frame which is acquired before the present frame. The evaluation value acquisition unit includes an overlap area detection unit configured to detect image areas overlapping with each other between the image data of the at least one previous frame and the image data of the present frame. The evaluation values to be acquired from the image data of the at least one previous frame are selectively acquired in response to a detection result from the overlap area detection unit. | 02-11-2010 |
20100039528 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE CORRECTING IMAGE DATA, IMAGE SENSOR AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing device of an example of the invention comprises a section which acquires a gain value obtained by an automatic white balance process executed on image data to be processed, a section which, based on the gain value, determines a correction color matrix coefficient having a property of correcting a change in an appearance caused by a color temperature corresponding to the gain value, and a section which, based on the correction color matrix coefficient, performs a color adjustment on the image data obtained by the automatic white balance process. | 02-18-2010 |
20100053366 | Device and method for image processing, program, and imaging apparatus - An image processing device includes a white balancing unit configured to perform white balancing on an image signal within a pull-in frame defined by the color temperature of a light source to output the resultant signal, and a control unit configured to, when the white balancing unit performs white balancing on an image signal obtained by capturing an image of a subject illuminated by light emitted from a light emitting device, adjust a region of the pull-in frame on the basis of color information of a light emission signal output from the light emitting device. | 03-04-2010 |
20100066857 | Methods, systems and apparatuses for white balance calibration - Methods, systems and apparatuses for white balance calibration. A calibration correction matrix is specifically calibrated for each individual imager, thereby providing improved automatic white balance performance. The individual imager calibration corrects for variation of the spectral response among different imagers. The calibration correction matrix is placed before the gray checker module, which analyzes the chromaticity of the image pixels and supplies resulting statistics to the automatic white balance decision engine for use in automatic white balance operations. The calibration correction matrix may be implemented as a 3×3 matrix. | 03-18-2010 |
20100073510 | IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND EXPOSURE CONTROL METHOD - An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit configured to capture an image of an object to obtain an image signal, a detection unit configured to set a detection area in a captured image based on the image signal obtained by the imaging unit and calculate a detection value from an image signal in the detection area, an exposure adjustment unit configured to perform exposure adjustment, a control unit configured to control the exposure adjustment unit so that the detection value becomes equal to a predetermined value, and a presentation-image detecting unit configured to detect a presentation image presented by an image presentation device from the captured image on the basis of a difference in luminance in the captured image. When the presentation-image detecting unit detects the presentation image, the detection unit sets the detection area in a location different from a location of the detected presentation image. | 03-25-2010 |
20100073511 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to an image processing apparatus that generates control information related to the generation of image data executed in shooting processing, and generates component information of a special effect, for example, such as a film grain, based on the control information. | 03-25-2010 |
20100079614 | IMAGE CORRECTION APPARATUS, IMAGE CORRECTION METHOD AND STORAGE MEDIUM FOR IMAGE CORRECTION PROGRAM - An image correction apparatus comprises an image capture unit configured to capture image data, a separator unit configured to separate the image data into luminance data and color-difference data, a conversion unit configured to convert the color-difference data into a set of amplitude values in a spatial frequency domain, a light-source state detector configured to detect a light-source state when the image capture unit captures the image data, a correction unit configured to correct the set of amplitude values based on the light-source state so that a predetermined amplitude value is decreased, an inverse-conversion unit configured to inversely convert the set of the amplitude values which is corrected by the correction unit to produce corrected color-difference data, and a corrected image generator configured to generate corrected image data from the corrected color-difference data and the luminance data. | 04-01-2010 |
20100079615 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image processing method comprises obtaining a color input image obtained by taking an image using an optical system | 04-01-2010 |
20100091132 | IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE AND IMAGE PREPROCESSING METHOD THEREOF - An image capturing device and the image preprocessing method thereof. The image preprocessing technique receives digital image consisting of luma data and chrominance data, integrates the chrominance data of adjacent rows to generate integrated chrominance data, buffers the luma data and the integrated chrominance data in a group of line buffers, and generates pre-processed chrominance data by making adjacent rows share the same integrated chrominance data. The luma data from the line buffer group form an image with the pre-processed chrominance. The image may be displayed on a display. | 04-15-2010 |
20100091133 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD - An image processing apparatus may include an image frame determiner to determine one standard image frame and at least one reference image frame using light field data about a scene, a point spread function determiner to determine a point spread function based on sub-pixel displacement between the standard image frame and the at least one reference image frame, an image interpolator to interpolate the standard image frame into a high-resolution standard image frame having a higher resolution than the standard image frame, and an image restorer to restore a high-resolution image by updating the high-resolution standard image frame using the generated high-resolution standard image frame, the point spread function, and the at least one reference image frame. | 04-15-2010 |
20100097491 | Compound camera sensor and related method of processing digital images - In one embodiment, a light sensor includes four cell arrays, one for each color of the Bayer pattern, and four lenses each focusing the light coming from the scene to be captured on a respective cell array. The lenses are oriented such that at least a second green image, commonly provided by the fourth cell array, is both horizontally and vertically shifted (spaced) apart by half a pixel pitch from a first (reference) green image. In a second embodiment, the four lenses are oriented such that the red and blue images are respectively shifted (spaced) apart by half a pixel pitch from the first or reference green image, one horizontally and the other vertically, and the second green image is shifted (spaced) apart by half a pixel pitch from the reference green image both horizontally and vertically. | 04-22-2010 |
20100103280 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND IMAGING OPERATION PROCESSING METHOD - An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging portion that obtains an imaging video signal; an enlargement processing portion that extracts a partial range from a picture frame range of the imaging video signal and applies video enlargement processing; a first detection portion that obtains a detection value for an automatic processing capability of a first type using the picture frame range before enlargement as a subject; a second detection portion that obtains a detection value for an automatic processing capability of a second type using a picture frame range of the imaging video signal after enlargement by the enlargement processing portion as the subject; a control portion that controls operations of the automatic processing capabilities of the first and second types according to the detection values; and one or plural processing portions that execute the automatic processing capabilities of the first and second types under control of the control portion. | 04-29-2010 |
20100103281 | AUTO-FOCUS TECHNIQUE IN AN IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE - Multiple sets of pixel values representing a captured image of a scene are received, with each set representing an image captured with a corresponding degree of focus. An image processor may identify a region of interest in the captured image, automatically determine the configuration parameters for a lens assembly to provide a desired degree of focus for the region of interest, and generate signals to configure a lens assembly. In an embodiment, the region of interest is a face, the desired degree of focus of the face is determined by computing a rate of variation of luminance of pixels representing the face, and the desired degree is the degree of the image having the maximum degree of focus. | 04-29-2010 |
20100110223 | HEAD SEPARATED CAMERA AND CAMERA HEAD - A camera head ( | 05-06-2010 |
20100110224 | ELECTRONIC CAMERA - Disclosed herein is an electronic camera for generating an image having a wide dynamic range by synthesizing two image pickup signals of different exposure amount generated by using an electronic shutter function and means for shutting off light, shading of image pickup signals resulting from difference in charge accumulating time among the pixels of image pickup device due to operation from opened state to closed state of the means for shutting off light being corrected by a shading correction means to form a synthesized image without an occurrence of false color due to shading. Also provided is an electronic camera generating two image pickup signals of different exposure amount by two shots of picture taking each using a flash emission in combination, at least one of an electronic shutter of image pickup device and means for shutting off light, as well as an emission of the flash emission means, being controlled to equalize between the two shots of picture taking ratio of exposure by normal light excluding light from the flash emission means and ratio of emission amount by the light from the flash emission means so that the two image pickup signals can be readily generated as having a predetermined exposure amount ratio in every part of a frame of picture even when a flash emission is used in combination. | 05-06-2010 |
20100123793 | IMAGER FOR DETERMINING A MAIN SUBJECT - An imager for capturing an image is provided having a face detector, a mouth detector, a sound detector, and a subject detector. The face detector detects a face in an image. The mouth detector detects the state of a mouth that is on the face detected by the face detector. The sound detector detects the ambient sound of the imager. The subject detector determines which face is the main subject on the basis of the state of its mouth at the time that the sound detector detects ambient sound. | 05-20-2010 |
20100123794 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CAPTURING AND REPRODUCING AN IMAGE OPTIMIZED FOR CHARACTERISTICS OF A REPRODUCING APPARATUS - A system for capturing and reproducing an image may include a digital image processor which captures an image, acquires characteristics of a reproducing apparatus, processes the captured image according to the characteristics of the reproducing apparatus to obtain an optimal image, and transmits the optimal image to the reproducing apparatus. The system may also include the reproducing apparatus which may then display the optimal image and a connection unit which transmits and receives data including the characteristics of the reproducing apparatus and the optimal image between the digital image processor and the reproducing apparatus. | 05-20-2010 |
20100128142 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - An image processing apparatus comprises a white balance setting unit that performs a setting of white balance correction processing on an image data, a white balance correction unit that performs white balance correction processing corresponding to the setting by the white balance setting unit on each of a plurality of RAW image data obtained in a photography operation, and an image synthesizing unit that generates synthesized image data by synthesizing a plurality of image data subjected to the white balance correction processing. | 05-27-2010 |
20100134649 | SIGNAL PROCESSOR - A signal processor capable of extracting evaluated values used for automatic control more appropriately, including: a feature detection unit which detects a feature change position of any target pixel and its peripheral pixels in an input picture signal; a hold unit which holds the position information; a region creation unit which creates a region by excluding the held positions from an evaluated value extraction region; and an evaluated value extraction unit which extracts evaluated values in accordance with the region; wherein unnecessary portions different in feature from the periphery are extracted in accordance with any pixel unit by detection of the feature change position so that the feature change position is excluded from the evaluated value extraction region. | 06-03-2010 |
20100149372 | IMAGE DATA PROCESSING WITH MULTIPLE CAMERAS - Pictures can be taken with multiple (e.g., two) cameras, and the statistics associated with any of those pictures can be used to correct (e.g., color balance) any of the other pictures. Generally speaking, first image data captured by a first camera is accessed (e.g., retrieved from memory). Similarly, second image data captured by a second camera is accessed. The first image data and second image data are acquired at or about the same time using the first and second cameras together (e.g., at the same location, so that each camera is subject to the same light source). The first image data can then be processed (e.g., color balanced) using information that is derived using the second image data. | 06-17-2010 |
20100149373 | Apparatus and method of reproducing color - A color reproduction apparatus may include a white balance performing unit to perform white balance with respect to an image obtained from a sensor using a white balance gain, an image restoring unit to restore an RGB image from the white-balanced image by interpolating a color filter array image, a first color corrector to correct a color distortion caused by a light source by applying first correction data, and a second color corrector to correct a color distortion caused by a characteristic of a sensor by applying second correction data. | 06-17-2010 |
20100149374 | GAIN CALCULATING DEVICE - A more preferable WB gain is calculated during strobe illuminated photography. When a WB gain for an image captured through strobe illuminated photography is calculated, the degree of contribution of strobe light is first estimated. When the degree of contribution is estimated, the image is first divided into a plurality of blocks, and typical brightness values and typical color values of the respective blocks are determined (S | 06-17-2010 |
20100157091 | SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSOR - A solid-state image sensor has a plurality of pixels, a read-out circuit and a signal processing section. The plurality of pixels includes a plurality of first pixels, a plurality of second pixels, a plurality of third pixels and a plurality of fourth pixels. The signal processing section includes a color acquisition section, a first judgment section configured to determine whether or not the white data value W in the target pixel block is smaller than a predetermined first set value, and a white color correction section configured to perform correction processing of the white color data value W in the target pixel block based on the following Expression (1) when the judgment result of the first judgment section is NO, and to output the white data value W by itself without performing the correction processing based on the Expression (1) when the judgment result of the first determination section is YES; | 06-24-2010 |
20100157092 | GENERATING A COLOR CHARACTERIZATION MODEL FOR AN INPUT IMAGING DEVICE - A method of generating a color characterization model for an input imaging device includes capturing a target having plural patches using the input imaging device to produce plural digital values in a device-dependent color space, the plural digital values having corresponding target measurements in a color characterization set. The method further includes determining if any of the plural digital values are collinear with each other, and removing, in a case where it is determined that digital values are collinear with each other, at least one of the collinear digital values and corresponding target measurements from the color characterization data set. In addition, the method includes generating the color characterization model for the input imaging device based on the plural digital values and corresponding target measurements remaining in the color characterization set. An apparatus for generating a color characterization model for an input imaging device is also provided. | 06-24-2010 |
20100165142 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD FOR THE ELECTRONIC DEVICE - An electronic device and a white balance adjustment method for the electronic device installed with a camera unit are provided. The camera unit is installed with a light sensor and a digital signal processor (DSP). The light sensor senses light that strikes the electronic device, to determine a source of the light, and acquires illumination parameters of the light source. The DSP adjusts white balance settings of the camera unit according to the illumination parameters, and converts an image of an object captured by a charge coupled device into a user recognizable image. The user recognizable image is displayed on a display device of the electronic device. | 07-01-2010 |
20100165143 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A CAMERA MODULE TO COMPENSATE FOR THE COLOR SPECTRUM OF A WHITE LED - A method and an apparatus enabling use of a light source emitting a spectrum of light not following characteristics of a blackbody source of light with a camera module programmed for use with light sources following characteristics of blackbody sources of light, wherein a white-balance patch is transmitted to the camera module to cause the camera module to accept color coordinates representing a point on a chromaticity chart that partly defines a region of color coordinates on the chromaticity chart into which color coordinates of the light source fall and to which color coordinates of a reference white color derived by a white-balance routine of the camera module are constrained. | 07-01-2010 |
20100177210 | METHOD FOR ADJUSTING WHITE BALANCE - A white balance adjustment method is disclosed, in which a plurality of input pixels are transformed into a digital component color space, a hue region of each of the color-space transformed input pixels is determined, and a transformation matrix is determined according to the determined hue region. | 07-15-2010 |
20100188524 | IMAGING DEVICE AND IMAGING METHOD - An imaging device is provided which includes a hue value setting portion that sets at least one hue value from among a plurality of hue values, a color component region detection portion that detects a region having a color component that includes the set hue value, from image data of a photographic subject, and a color component region display portion that, based on the image data of the photographic subject, converts, of the photographic subject, the detected region having the color component to a first color, converts regions other than the detected region having the color component to a second color different from the first color, and displays the photographic subject on a display portion. | 07-29-2010 |
20100188525 | Perfecting the Effect of Flash within an Image Acquisition Devices Using Face Detection - Within a digital acquisition device with a built in flash unit, the exposure of an acquired digital image is perfected using face detection in the acquired image is provided. Groups of pixels that correspond to plural images of faces are identified within a digitally acquired image, and corresponding image attributes to the group of pixels are determined. An analysis is performed of the corresponding attributes of the groups of pixels. It is then determined to activate the built-in flash unit based on the analysis. An intensity of the built-in flash unit is determined based on the analysis. Alternatively based on similar analysis, a digital simulation of the fill flash is performed on the image. | 07-29-2010 |
20100194915 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING COLOR VALUES PROVIDED BY A CAMERA SENSOR - In a method suitable for processing colour values provided by a camera sensor comprising pixels of different colours, values of a first colour at positions of pixels of a second and a third colour are interpolated ( | 08-05-2010 |
20100194916 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND PROGRAM - An apparatus includes an image capture unit which includes an image sensor in which pixels for photoelectrically converting an object image are two-dimensionally arrayed in correspondence with color filters of a plurality of colors, and generates an image signal, a reducing unit which reduces the image signal output from the image capture unit to generate a reduced image, an image processing unit which performs development processing for the reduced image to obtain a first developed image containing luminance components and color difference components and performs development for the image signal output from the image capture unit to obtain a second developed image containing luminance and color difference components, an enlargement unit which enlarges the first developed image to the same size as that of the second developed image, and a composition unit which performs composition of the second developed image and an enlarged image. | 08-05-2010 |
20100194917 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND LIVE-VIEW IMAGE DISPLAY METHOD THEREOF - A digital camera has a live-view image shooting mode in which a process of shooting a subject, generating image data from imaging signals acquired by the shooting, and displaying a live-view image based on the image data on a display section is repeatedly performed. The digital camera includes a solid-state imaging device | 08-05-2010 |
20100194918 | Methods and Systems for Automatic White Balance - A method for calibrating automatic white balance (AWB) is provided that includes using a plurality of references for AWB that include color temperature references, wherein an AWB failure is detected in an image, generating a scene prototype reference based on the image, and adding the generated scene prototype reference to the references for AWB. A method for calibrating AWB is provided that includes selecting an image as a scene prototype, wherein the selected image was captured by a second imaging sensor different from a first imaging sensor, transforming the selected image into a scene prototype image for the first imaging sensor, generating a scene prototype reference using the scene prototype image for the first imaging sensor, and adding the generated scene prototype reference to references for AWB that include color temperature references. | 08-05-2010 |
20100201840 | IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - A first WB correction coefficient for modifying a tint of an image captured in an auxiliary light non-emission condition to a tint of a peripheral light of the auxiliary light non-emission condition is set by a first WB correction coefficient setting unit, and a second WB correction coefficient for modifying the tint of an image captured in an auxiliary light emission condition to the tint of the auxiliary light non-emission condition is set by a second WB correction coefficient setting unit. The tint of the image captured in the auxiliary light emission condition is then modified to the tint of the auxiliary light non-emission condition by an image processing unit on the basis of the first WB correction coefficient and the second WB correction coefficient. | 08-12-2010 |
20100201841 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFECTIVELY PERFORMING A WHITE BALANCE PROCEDURE FOR ELECTRONIC CAMERAS - A system and method for effectively performing a white balance procedure for electronic cameras includes a neutral density diffusion light filter assembly adapted to be attached over the lens of a camera-type device equipped with an electronic device that captures image data using an image sensor device. Alternatively, the diffusion filter could be inserted internally in association with the lens assembly or built into the camera body as an external window associated with an independent image sensor device. The diffusion filter acts as an illuminance integrator of broad light acceptance angle to document light conditions (incident or reflective) that exist at the time an image is captured, thereby enabling a white balance operation at point of capture and production of a computer-generated image with little or no colorcast and requiring minimal (if any) subsequent manual color adjustment. | 08-12-2010 |
20100208097 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Both a high signal-to-noise ratio and wide dynamic range of the output video signal of a one-CCD color television camera are realized. An image signal processing apparatus of an imaging device using a solid-state image sensor in which different color filters are arranged includes an amplifying unit which amplifies color signals from the solid-state image sensor with a predetermined amplification factor, a separating unit which separates the color signals amplified by the amplifying unit into individual color signals, a white balance adjusting unit which subjects the separated color signals to white balance adjustment, a level detecting unit which detects a saturation level from the color signals subjected to the white balance adjustment depending on the amplification factor of the amplifying unit, a correction signal generating unit which generates correction signals from the other color signals than the color signal from which the saturation level is detected by the level detecting unit, and a first adding unit which adds the correction signals to the color signals subjected to the white balance adjustment. | 08-19-2010 |
20100208098 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit to acquire image data, an integration unit to calculate a white balance integration value, a first calculation unit to calculate a still image white balance control value, a second calculation unit to calculate a histogram white balance control value, and a histogram processing unit. The second calculation unit calculates the histogram white balance control value by converting a white balance control value which is used in white balance processing on the image data acquired by the imaging unit in an electronic view finder (EVF) mode to the still image white balance control value, and the histogram processing unit adjusts color balance of the image data acquired by the imaging unit using the calculated histogram white balance control value and performs the histogram processing in parallel with calculation of the white balance integration value. | 08-19-2010 |
20100208099 | IMAGING DEVICE AND IMAGING METHOD - An imaging device is configured to include an optical system which captures an image of a subject, an image sensor which converts the image captured by the optical system into an electric signal, a classifying unit which classifies the captured image into a plurality of areas according to brightness information and color information, a white balance correcting unit which set different white balance correction coefficients for the plurality of areas; and a white balance correction coefficient adjusting unit which adjusts a difference in the white balance correction coefficients for the plurality of areas to be within a first predetermined range. | 08-19-2010 |
20100214433 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE - The present invention is an image processing device that certainly restores a non-linearly corrected image. A processing unit 4 restores a non-linearly corrected original image or an original image without being non-linearly corrected from a non-linearly corrected initial image data which has been fluctuated like deterioration and was non-linearly corrected by a predetermined way. The processing unit 4 repeats processing using any of fluctuation-factor information data which becomes a factor of fluctuating an image, the initial image data which is non-linearly corrected and the initial image data without being non-linearly corrected which is not non-linearly corrected and obtained by performing inversely non-linear correction against the non-linearly corrected initial data. The processing unit gradually generates any one of the non-linearly corrected initial data and comparison data which is approximated to the initial image without being non-linearly corrected and gradually approximates the energy of the non-linearly corrected initial data to zero. The processing unit performs basic processing of forming the original image data or the non-linearly corrected original image data. | 08-26-2010 |
20100214434 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING WHITE BALANCE OF DIGITAL IMAGE - A method and an apparatus are provided for adjusting white balance of a digital image. An input image is converted into a YCbCr color space. White pixels of the converted input image are detected by determining whether each pixel of the converted input image is included in a preset region of the YCbCr color space. A gain of each channel is calculated from averages of R, G and B values of the detected white pixels. White balance adjustment is performed by applying the calculated gain of each channel to each pixel of the input image. | 08-26-2010 |
20100214435 | Adjusting auto white balance - Techniques, systems and apparatus are described for adjusting auto white balance (AWB). An AWB adjusting device includes a map setting unit to perform map-setting on a number of light-source boxes that is at least M times greater than a number of registers by performing map-switching. M is an integer greater than or equal to 2. The AWB adjusting device includes a pixel counting unit for counting a number of white pixels of a standard image contained in each light-source box with map-setting. The AWB adjusting device includes a light-source selection unit to select a light source based on a maximum light-source box selected from the number of light-source boxes having a greatest number of the white pixels. The AWB adjusting device includes a balance gain applying unit to calculate a red gain and a blue gain based on a mapping value of the maximum light-source box to adjust AWB. | 08-26-2010 |
20100214436 | METHOD OF ADJUSTING WHITE BALANCE OF IMAGE, RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING PROGRAM FOR PERFORMING THE METHOD, AND APPARATUS APPLYING THE METHOD - A white balance adjusting apparatus and method generate a display image by performing display image signal processing to an input image, specify an area of the display image, output at least two sample images by applying at least two types of correction gains to the area of the display image, and apply the correction gain that is applied to one of the at least two sample images to the input image. Accordingly, a white subject does not have to be searched for to adjust white balance, and an image having a color sensitivity desired by the user can be obtained by performing white balance on colors other than white. | 08-26-2010 |
20100214437 | DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE APPARATUS, AND RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING RECORDED THEREON A PROGRAM FOR EXECUTING THE METHOD - Provided are a digital image processing apparatus and a method of controlling the apparatus, and more particularly, is a digital image processing apparatus which embodies a focusing screen digitally instead of optically, and a method of controlling the apparatus. The digital image processing apparatus includes: a lens; a photographing device obtaining data of an original image from light which has passed through the lens; and a digital signal processor performing a blurring treatment on the original image obtained from the photographing device and displaying the original image. | 08-26-2010 |
20100220211 | PHOTOGRAPHING SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING COLOR CORRECTION OF AN IMAGE OF A SUBJECT USING SPECTROSCOPIC INFORMATION OF THE SUBJECT - A photographing system for photographing a subject includes a color information detecting section for detecting color information of the subject, a color image capturing section for capturing a color image of the subject, and a color correcting section for performing color correction of a color image captured by the color image capturing section from corresponding position information of the color information detecting section and the color image capturing section, so as to enable highly accurate color correction. | 09-02-2010 |
20100225779 | Method and Device to extend camera battery life - The battery power consumption in a camera is adjustable based on the level of camera activity determined from formation on scene changes. Information can be gathered from statistical data on auto-white balance, auto-exposure and auto-focusing calculations, or from scene movement and camera movement. When the activity level is low, the viewfinder frame rate can be reduced, the accuracy of analog-to-digital conversion in the camera can be reduced, and the entire camera operation can be slowed down. | 09-09-2010 |
20100225780 | WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT APPARATUS, WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD, RECORDING MEDIUM STORING WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT PROGRAM AND IMAGING APPARATUS - A white balance adjustment apparatus comprises an area estimation unit that estimates at least one light, source color estimation area for estimating a light source color in a photographed image, a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance of the light source color estimation area in a depth direction of the photographed image as the distance of the light source color estimation area, a chromaticity calculation unit that calculates a chromaticity of the light source color estimation area, and a white balance adjustment value calculation unit that calculates a white balance adjustment value on the basis of the distance of the light source color estimation area and the chromaticity of the light source color estimation area. | 09-09-2010 |
20100225781 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGING DEVICE - A pixel-interpolation processing unit generates a sensitivity level value of an insufficient color component according to interpolation processing of image signals. A sensitivity level value of an insufficient color component in a pixel of attention is calculated, according to an arithmetic operation corresponding to an acquired color component of the pixel of attention, by assuming a geometric figure including sensitivity level values of acquired color components as vertexes. As the geometric figure, the same figure is used irrespectively of which color component the acquired color component is. | 09-09-2010 |
20100231745 | IMAGING DEVICE AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD - The present invention provides an imaging device that generates, for, each of a red color, a green color, and a blue color, an image signal having pixels arranged adjacent to each other in a two-dimensional array, including a red color imaging element that senses incident light to output a red color signal ( | 09-16-2010 |
20100231746 | IMAGING DEVICE AND IMAGING METHOD - An imaging device is configured to include a dividing unit which divides a generated image into blocks, a white balance evaluation value acquiring unit which acquires color information and a white balance evaluation value of each block, a classifying unit which combines the blocks into areas based on the color information, a correction coefficient calculating unit which calculates a white balance correction coefficient for each of the areas, a white balance setting unit which sets the calculated white balance correction coefficient for each of the areas, and a green area determining unit which determines whether or not each of the blocks is a green area based on the color information. The white balance setting unit sets a different white balance correction coefficient for a block determined as a green area from the one set for the area including the block in question. | 09-16-2010 |
20100231747 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FOCAL LENGTH-SPECIFIC COLOR ENHANCEMENT - A method of controlling a digital photographing device, the method including analyzing the color distribution of an input image, determining an enhancement color from the input image according to a predetermined criterion based on the analyzed color distribution, and enhancing the enhancement color in the input image. The predetermined criterion may be that a color distributed at a ratio higher than a predetermined ratio is determined as the enhancement color. The predetermined enhancement color may further depend on the focal length of the image. | 09-16-2010 |
20100238316 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CLASSIFYING IMAGES - An image classification apparatus and method for Automatic White Balance (AWB) are provided. An input image is divided into blocks including pluralities of pixels. A hue value and a chroma value are calculated for each of the blocks. A color-changed block is detected by calculating, for each one of the blocks, differences between the hue and chroma values calculated for all blocks adjacent to the one of the blocks and the hue and chroma values calculated for the one of the blocks. A hue variance and a chroma variance are calculated for the entire input image if a number of the detected color-changed blocks is greater than or equal to a first threshold. The input image is determined as a non-monochromatic image, if the hue variance is greater than or equal to a second threshold or the chroma variance is greater than or equal to a third threshold. | 09-23-2010 |
20100238317 | WHITE BALANCE PROCESSING APPARATUS, METHOD FOR PROCESSING WHITE BALANCE, AND WHITE BALANCE PROCESSING PROGRAM - A white balance processing apparatus including: an image data obtaining unit for obtaining image data on the basis of a photographed image; a light source condition determination unit for determining a condition of a light source in imaging as an outdoor light source in the case where subject luminance of the image data is relatively high, while determining a condition of a light source in imaging as an indoor light source in the case where the subject luminance of the image data is relatively low; and a white balance adjustment unit for determining a color to be converted into an achromatic color on the basis of color information of a pixel in the image data to adjust white balance of the image data, the color to be converted being selected from colors including a more bluish color with respect to the case that the condition of the light source is determined as an outdoor light source in the case where the determined condition of the light source is an indoor light source. | 09-23-2010 |
20100245616 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGING DEVICE, COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing device captures a normal light image of an observed region via a plurality of color filters having different spectral characteristics, respectively, generates a uniform image having low contrast by extracting each picture signal corresponding to a picture signal in a wavelength band for which light absorption characteristic of a contrast region in the observed region becomes low, and corrects each picture signal of a fluorescence image of the observed region by using the uniform image. | 09-30-2010 |
20100245617 | AUTOMATED WHITE BALANCING IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - A method for improving white balance measurement for digital cameras or the like uses color reference articles for placement within a scene coordinated with a digital camera capable of automatically recognizing the color reference supplied by the article. The reference articles comprise a signaling device (such as an RFID chip, an LED that emits in a specified and unique spectral area, or a watermark) that allows the digital camera to pinpoint the location of the reference article, its color value, size, and other information needed to use the reference article for color balancing. The digital camera receives the signal from the reference article and uses it for white balancing. | 09-30-2010 |
20100245618 | WHITE BALANCE CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHOD - An apparatus includes an evaluation acquisition unit, a chromaticity value calculation unit, a weight coefficient calculation unit, a histogram analysis unit, an appearance at a light source calculation unit, a white balance coefficient calculation unit, and a white balance operating unit. the evaluation acquisition unit acquires color signal values from image data. The chromaticity value calculation unit calculates chromaticity values from the color signal values. The weight coefficient calculation unit extracts a signal value as a lightness value, and calculates a weight coefficient determined by the lightness value. The histogram analysis unit calculates the center position of a histogram, a histogram multiplication value and a histogram dispersion value. The appearance at a light source calculation unit calculates an appearance at a light source for each color temperature. The white balance operating unit executes a white balance operation with respect to the image data using a white balance coefficient. | 09-30-2010 |
20100259638 | IMAGING TERMINAL HAVING COLOR CORRECTION - There is provided an imaging terminal comprising a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array having a first subset of pixels provided by color pixels having color filter elements and a second subset of pixels provided by monochrome pixels without color filter elements. The terminal can be operative to capture a frame of image data including monochrome image data representative of light incident on the monochrome pixels and color image data representative of light incident on the color pixels. The terminal can be operative to activate a color correction processing module that utilizes the monochrome color image data. | 10-14-2010 |
20100259639 | AUTOMATIC BACKLIGHT DETECTION - In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes receiving image data at an auto white balance module and generating auto white balance data. The method further includes detecting a backlight condition based on the auto white balance data. An apparatus to automatically detect a backlight condition is also disclosed. | 10-14-2010 |
20100265356 | Image processing method, image processing apparatus, image capturing appartus and image processing program - There is described an image processing method, which makes it possible to continuously and appropriately corrects excessiveness or shortage of light amount in the flesh-color area. The image processing method includes: a light source condition index calculating process for calculating an index representing a light source condition of the captured image data; a correction value calculating process for calculating a correction value of the reproduction target value, corresponding to the index representing the light source condition; a first gradation conversion condition calculating process for calculating a gradation conversion condition for the captured image data, based on the correction value of the reproduction target value; an exposure condition index calculating process for calculating an index representing an exposure condition of the captured image data; and a second gradation conversion condition calculating process for calculating a gradation conversion condition for the captured image data, corresponding to the index representing the exposure condition. | 10-21-2010 |
20100265357 | GENERATION OF SIMULATED LONG EXPOSURE IMAGES IN RESPONSE TO MULTIPLE SHORT EXPOSURES - Simulating a long exposure-time image from a sequence of short exposure-time images captured at slightly different times. The sequence of images is combined in a temporal integration process to create a long exposure image that simulates the output from a still camera, steadied by a tripod, whose light-sensitive material has been exposed to the same scene from the time of the beginning of the first input image of the sequence to the last image of the input sequence. The method overcomes limitations of hand-held video and image recording devices, allowing the user to easily create effects normally associated with high-end digital still cameras under expert control. | 10-21-2010 |
20100265358 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMAGE CORRECTION - A system and method for correcting image data. Embodiments of the present invention provide calibration and image correction to overcome various lens effects including lens shading and lens imperfections. In one embodiment, the correction of image data is performed via utilization of a spline surface (e.g., Bezier surface). The use of spline surfaces facilitates efficient hardware implementation. The image correction may be performed on a per channel and illumination type basis. In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method for determine a spline surface to be used for calibrating an image signal processor to be used in correcting image data. | 10-21-2010 |
20100271503 | Digital Camera Module White Balance Calibration Method and Apparatus Using Only Single Illumination Source Data - A method includes determining white balance calibration color ratios for a plurality of illumination sources by using a representative camera of a given type to establish a set of ratios. Because the ratios are fixed for the given camera type, a plurality of cameras of the type may store the fixed ratios, and calibrate by measuring only the reference illumination source. Later white balancing is achieved by using the measured reference illumination source color ratios and the stored fixed ratios as scaling factors to map from the reference illumination source to any other illumination source. The method includes an off-line advance calibration procedure to obtain the fixed ratios, an on-line per camera calibration procedure to obtain color ratios for the reference source, and subsequent white balancing which uses the fixed ratios/scaling factors and the reference source color ratios. | 10-28-2010 |
20100277610 | Apparatus, Method And Computer Program Product Providing a Light Source With Memory - An apparatus, method and computer program product are provided for a light source having a memory. The method includes: capturing image data in conjunction with use of a light source; obtaining a light source-related parameter from the light source; and performing image processing on the captured image data in order to form an image, wherein the image processing utilizes the light source-related parameter. | 11-04-2010 |
20100283866 | Image input processing apparatus and method - An image input processing apparatus includes: an optical band separating filter; a color filter of a four-color arrangement having an equivalence in which the sum of two colors is equivalent to one other color in the visible light region or the sum of three colors is equivalent to once or twice one other color in the visible light region; an optical sensor section that generates an imaging signal; a data separating section that separates the pixel data of the imaging signal into pieces of pixel data of four colors; an infrared separating section that performs infrared separation by a subtraction using the equivalence among the pieces of pixel data of the four colors after the separation; a first and second integration sections; a camera control processing section that determines which of the integration values from the first and second integrating sections is used. | 11-11-2010 |
20100289918 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus includes: a display unit for displaying color image data acquired by the imaging unit; a colorimetric position acquisition unit for acquiring colorimetric position data corresponding to a colorimetric part selected by a user in the image data displayed on the display unit; a colorimetric position data record unit for recording the colorimetric position data; a light source; a colorimetric unit, provided near the light source, for performing a colorimetric process at a colorimetric instruction from the user, and acquiring colorimetric data as a result of the colorimetric process; a colorimetric data record unit for recording the colorimetric data; and a storage unit for associating the image data displayed on the display unit, the colorimetric position data recorded on the colorimetric position data record unit, and the colorimetric data recorded on the colorimetric data record unit, and storing the data. | 11-18-2010 |
20100289919 | Method and Apparatus for Compensating for Fixed Pattern Noise in an Imaging System - The invention relates to a method and apparatus for configuring an imaging system to compensate for fixed pattern noise, variations in pixel values captured from an image sensor that vary according to a fixed pattern. In a method for configuring an imaging system for compensating an additive term component of fixed pattern noise, a pixel array is exposed to a scene of known radiance and an average white value is determined for each pixel of an array. Each average white value is compared to a predetermined reference value to determine a correction value for each pixel. In a method for configuring an imaging system for compensating both an additive and multiplicative component of fixed pattern noise, a pixel array is exposed to a first scene having a first known radiance, and frames of the scene are captured, and then the array is exposed to a second scene having a second known radiance and frames of the second scene are captured. After first and second average white values are determined for each pixel additive and multiplicative term correction values for each pixel are then determined by solving for a system of equations relating the first and second average white values and first and second scene radiances. Correction values can be utilized to correct pixel values of a frame of image data, and a decoding algorithm for attempting to decode a frame of image data including corrected pixel values can be activated. | 11-18-2010 |
20100302406 | METHOD FOR COMPENSATING IMAGE DATA - A method for compensating image data is adapted for an image sensor. The image sensor has a plurality of photo sensors arranged in an effective region and an optical black region. The method for compensating image data includes a plurality of monochromatic light representative values S | 12-02-2010 |
20100315530 | METHOD FOR PERFORMING DIGITAL PROCESSING ON AN IMAGE SIGNAL OUTPUT FROM CCD IMAGE SENSORS - There is provided a method for performing digital processing on an image signal output from CCD image sensors with a CMYG color filter array, the method including converting a digital CMYG signal of 10 bits each into a first YCbCr signal of 10 bits each, by using color interpolation, converting the first YCbCr signal of 10 bits each into an RGB signal of 8 bits each by using interpolation, performing color correction on the RGB signal of 8 bits each and converting a color-corrected RGB signal of 8 bits each into a second YCbCr signal of 8 bits each in a format which complies with the ITU-601 format, encoding the second YCbCr signal of 8 bits each and converting an encoded second YCbr signal of 8 bits each into an analog video signal, and adjusting automatic exposure and automatic white balance, using the RGB signal of 8 bits each and the second YCbCr signal of 8 bits each. | 12-16-2010 |
20100321521 | Method of automatic white-balance calibration - Provided is a method of automatic white-balance calibration. The method firstly uses a predefined gain. Each color value for pixels of an inputted image is calculated. A number of the placements representing the pixels within each gray region of a color space are then obtained. Next, a new gain is obtained by linearly combining those placements. Further, in order to overcome a possible chromatic aberration on account of the overlapping regions in the color space, the method introduces a specific deletion ratio to delete a portion of placements positioned in the overlapping regions. Therefore the method provides a proper image. Furthermore, users may decide a level of the chromatic aberration by adjusting the predefined gain. | 12-23-2010 |
20100321522 | IMAGING APPARATUS, SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - Output signals (pixel values) output from a sensor unit in which image sensors having six kinds of color filters with different colors are arranged are classified in association with three stimulus values, a color number is reduced by performing addition processing of the output signals (pixel values) in each classification to generate an image signal of three bands, and the generated image signal is used for the preview display so that a photographed image can be checked easily and immediately. | 12-23-2010 |
20100321523 | METHOD, APPARATUS, AND SYSTEM FOR SELECTING PIXELS FOR AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE PROCESSING - A method, apparatus, and system that use a white balance operation. A selecting process is applied to each pixel selected and considered for automatic white balance statistics to determine the distance from the selected pixel to a white curve defined in a white area corresponding to an image sensor. | 12-23-2010 |
20100328487 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS - An image capture apparatus has an image capture unit to capture an object image, an acquisition unit to acquire a developing parameter for image data captured by the image capture unit, an analysis unit to analyze RAW image data generated by the image capture unit, an image composition unit to compose a plurality of RAW image data generated by the image capture unit and generate composite RAW image data, a composition ratio determination unit to determine a composition ratio for a plurality of developing parameters respectively for development of the plurality of RAW image data acquired by the acquisition unit, a parameter composition unit to compose the plurality of developing parameters and generate one composite developing parameter, and a development unit to develop the composite RAW image data using the composite developing parameter. | 12-30-2010 |
20110001841 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND IMAGING METHOD - An imaging apparatus and an imaging method which can obtain an image in which a dynamic range is expanded at one shooting are provided. In a case where a pixel output of a pixel where a specific color separation filter is placed is equal to or more than a predetermined saturation level, based on a pixel output of a pixel which is placed in the vicinity of the pixel where the specific color separation filter is placed, a pixel output for brightness, where the pixel output becomes equal to or more than the predetermined saturation level, of the pixel where the color separation filter of the specific color is placed and the pixel output is equal to or more than the predetermined saturation level is compensated, and thereby a dynamic range of an image sensor is expanded. | 01-06-2011 |
20110001842 | METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING IMAGES - A method suitable for processing a digital image is disclosed. The method comprises, for each picture element of the digital image, processing an achromatic intensity level of the picture element using a first adaptation procedure featuring a first effective saturation function of the achromatic intensity, to provide a first intermediate intensity level. The method further comprises processing the achromatic intensity level using a second adaptation procedure featuring a second effective saturation function of the achromatic intensity, to provide a second intermediate intensity level. The method further comprises combining the first and the second intermediate intensity levels to provide a new achromatic intensity level associated with the picture-element. | 01-06-2011 |
20110001843 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND ELECTRONIC CAMERA - An image processing apparatus comprising: an input visual environment acquisition unit that acquires a shooting scene viewing condition at the time of shooting an image, an output visual environment acquisition unit that acquires a shot image viewing condition, a converting unit that converts the image using a predetermined color appearance model based on the shooting scene viewing condition acquired by the input visual environment acquisition unit and the shot image viewing condition acquired by the output visual environment acquisition unit, and a correction unit that corrects a parameter of the color appearance model used by the converting unit by using at least one of a shooting condition of the image and a scene judging result based on at least one of the image and the shooting conditions of the image. | 01-06-2011 |
20110007181 | Image processing apparatus, method, program and image pickup apparatus - An amplifier gain setting section estimates a light source parameter which relies upon a spectral distribution of an image pickup light source based on an image signal. Then, a first adjustment control value for each color signal when adjustment is to be performed so as to establish a white balance based on the estimated parameter is modulated by an amount corresponding to a follow-up sensitivity toward a second adjustment control value when adjustment is to be performed so that an achromatic subject under a particular reference light source is reproduced as an achromatic subject. The modulated adjustment control value is set to a white balance amplifier. The follow-up sensitivity is set to the amplifier gain setting section in response to an illuminance level estimated from a detection value of the brightness. | 01-13-2011 |
20110019029 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM THEREOF - An image processing apparatus, including: an image obtaining means that obtains an image; a color area detecting means that detects a predetermined color area from the image thus obtained by the image obtaining means; an area specifying means that specifies an area to be adjusted based on saturation and brightness of the color area thus detected by the color area detecting means; and a color adjusting means that adjusts at least one of a hue, the saturation and the brightness of a pixel in the process area thus specified by the area specifying means. | 01-27-2011 |
20110025878 | Determining the Illuminant in a Captured Scene - A method for determining an illuminant in a scene includes, applying, to sampled outputs of a sensor array used to capture the scene, a plurality of color-correction profiles, wherein each color-correction profile corresponds to a particular illuminant, thereby forming a plurality of color-corrected sampled outputs. The method further includes identifying the illuminant in the scene as corresponding to the color-corrected sampled output having the least color variance. | 02-03-2011 |
20110025879 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A CAMERA MODULE TO COMPENSATE FOR THE LIGHT LEVEL OF A WHITE LED - A method and an apparatus enabling use of a light source emitting a light of changing intensity and changing spectrum as a flash with a camera module having a white-balance routine and an exposure routine, wherein an initial value representative of a color spectrum emitted by the light source is transmitted to the camera module, the light source is turned on, and the camera module is signaled to scan a plurality of images of the scene while the light source is turned on, allowing the white-balance and exposure algorithms to be employed with each image scanned to refine the first initial value to refine the degree of compensation employed in correcting a color and a light level in the last one of the images of the plurality of images scanned. | 02-03-2011 |
20110032380 | PRINTING SYSTEM AND METHOD - Color charts each formed from patches corresponding to different colors are uniformly arranged at different positions on a print medium almost equal in size to an object to be photographed by a camera. The printed color charts are photographed by the camera one by one so that one color chart falls within the photographing range of the camera while keeping the distance between the camera and the print medium constant, acquiring photographing data. Under the same conditions, parts of the object are photographed one by one so that a part of the object at the same position as the position of one photographed color chart on the print medium falls within the photographing range of the camera, acquiring photographing data. Color coordinate values are acquired from the photographed color charts. By using the values, the color of the acquired photographing data is converted. The printing apparatus prints the converted data. | 02-10-2011 |
20110037872 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An object is to provide an image pickup apparatus which can improve convenience of white sheet data used for correcting the color of a picked-up image. Each image pickup data is converted into a file by an image filing unit and recorded by a medium-recording unit. Average value data of each color component data for part of the picked-up data is stored in an area different from the image pickup data recording area in each file. | 02-17-2011 |
20110037873 | METHOD AND APPARATUS PROVIDING AUTOMATIC COLOR BALANCING FOR DIGITAL IMAGING SYSTEMS - Pixels from an image are sampled for gray world statistics. To avoid the effect of saturated regions, the pixels are pruned. If a predetermined percentage of the pixels are included in the gray world statistics, color channel gain is calculated and applied to the image. As a result, color balance is achieved in a simple and efficient manner. | 02-17-2011 |
20110043657 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM FOR CORRECTING CHROMATIC ABERRATION - There is a problem in that when magnification chromatic aberration correction is carried out, the difference in reproducibility of high-frequency components, depending on the spatial position, between a color for which position shift correction is not performed and a color for which position shift correction is performed may influence the image quality of an output image. In order to perform magnification chromatic aberration correction, high-frequency components, which are lost due to the position shift correction of a color for which position shift correction is carried out, are extracted from a color for which position shift correction is not carried out, and are added to the color for which position shift correction is carried out. Therefore, the high-frequency components are restored in a pseudo manner. | 02-24-2011 |
20110050948 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE BY DETECTING EFFECTIVE AREA - An automatic white balance adjusting apparatus and method based on detection of an effective area. The automatic white balance adjusting apparatus may detect the effective area by using a color temperature, a luminance, and a correlation, and may adjust a white balance with respect to the detected effective area. | 03-03-2011 |
20110050949 | Color Adjusting Apparatus - A color adjusting apparatus includes a first holder. A first holder holds a plurality of first color adjusting values respectively corresponding to a plurality of representative colors. An adjuster adjusts a color of an original image by referring to the plurality of first color adjusting values held by the first holder. An outputter outputs an image having the color adjusted by the adjuster, toward a display device. A first detector detects a color space adopted by the display device in association with the adjusting process of the adjuster. A first setter sets magnitudes of the plurality of first color adjusting values held by the first holder, to magnitudes corresponding to the color space detected by the first detector. | 03-03-2011 |
20110058063 | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND RECORDING MEDIUM STORING PROGRAM TO EXECUTE THE METHOD - A digital photographing apparatus includes a manual white balance function for adjusting white balance according to a selected light source and a white balance bracketing function for capturing a plurality of images with a single shutter input, a method of controlling the same, and a recording medium storing a program to execute the method, wherein a user may adjust gains of white balance during generation of the plurality of images. | 03-10-2011 |
20110058064 | IMAGING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM AND SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - A line-by-line filter process is performed to extract luminance data and color carrier data from an original image (i.e., a CCDRAW image) obtained from a single-sensor color imaging element, without separating the original image into R, G, and B data corresponding to a Bayer array. A color difference data demodulation process and a median noise removal process are performed with respect to the color carrier data to obtain color difference data. Band limitation filter processes having different characteristics are performed with respect to the luminance data and the color difference data, respectively. Moreover, separate resizing processes are performed with respect to the luminance data and the color difference data, respectively. A modulation process is performed to convert the resized color difference data to color carrier data. A color array reproduction process is performed to recombine the color carrier data and the resized luminance signal. | 03-10-2011 |
20110063474 | WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT SYSTEM FOR SOLID-STATE ELECTRONIC IMAGE SENSING DEVICE, AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING OPERATION OF SAME - A main solid-state electronic image sensing device and a subordinate solid-state electronic image sensing device are included in a digital camera. The light source is estimated from image data obtained from the main solid-state electronic image sensing device, and white balance gain conforming to the estimated light source is calculated for the purpose of white balance adjustment of the image data obtained from the main solid-state electronic image sensing device. In a case where the setting is such that white balance gain regarding image data that has been output from the subordinate solid-state electronic image sensing device conforms to the light source estimated from the image data of the main solid-state electronic image sensing device, the gain is calculated accordingly. In a case where the setting is such that white balance gain regarding image data that has been output from the subordinate solid-state electronic image sensing device conforms to a light source estimated from the image data of the subordinate solid-state electronic image sensing device, the gain is calculated in accordance with this setting. An appropriate white balance gain is performed in accordance with the main and subordinate solid-state electronic image sensing devices. | 03-17-2011 |
20110085052 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An object is to suppress a false color and moire that occur in a high-frequency region. Color interpolation circuits of a color-difference signal generating circuit separate an image signal obtained from an image pickup device, in which a plurality of color filters are arranged in a predetermined pattern and in which pixels corresponding to the respective color filters are provided, into image signals of the respective color filters (R, G1, G2, and B), and perform an interpolation process on the image signals of the respective color filters. Then, a false color determining circuit determines whether a target region is a high-frequency region on the basis of at least any of slopes of image signals of the G1 filter and the G2 filter and a difference between the image signals of the G1 filter and the G2 filter in the target region. | 04-14-2011 |
20110096190 | AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCING FOR PHOTOGRAPHY - Embodiments of the claimed subject matter are directed to methods for automatic white balancing in an image-capture device. In one embodiment, given an estimated illuminant color (e.g., derived from the Gray World method), a more optimal illuminant color can be found by projecting this point to a plot of common illuminants to determine the closest point on the plot of common illuminants. Once the closest point of the plot of common illuminants is derived, the actual image (e.g., pixel) data of the scene is adjusted by the value of the closest point on the plot of common illuminants so that the light is normalized for the scene. | 04-28-2011 |
20110096191 | COLOR-UNEVENNESS INSPECTION APPARATUS AND METHOD - A color-unevenness inspection apparatus includes: an image pickup section picking up an image of an inspection target for a color-unevenness inspection; an image generation section generating an uneven-color image by determining one or more uneven-color regions existing in the picked-up image of the inspection target obtained by the image pickup section, and by classifying unit regions included in each of the uneven-color regions into a plurality of color groups; a calculation section calculating, on the uneven-color regions in the uneven-color image, an evaluation parameter to be used in the color-unevenness inspection; a correction section making a correction to the calculated evaluation parameter in consideration of a difference of color-unevenness visibility between the color groups; and an inspection section performing the color-unevenness inspection, based on a resultant evaluation parameter obtained by the correction. | 04-28-2011 |
20110096192 | IMAGING DEVICE, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING IMAGING DEVICE AND PROGRAM PRODUCT - An imaging device includes an imaging element which obtains an image, and an imaging sensor processing unit which resets an exposure of the imaging element by a feedback control based on an image data obtained by the imaging element. The imaging sensor processing unit continuously executes, by pipeline processing, the following processing of setting an exposure time of the imaging element in a first frame just after start-up of the imaging device, making the imaging element accumulate light with an exposure time set at a former frame in a second frame, and outputting the image data by applying a gain set by the second frame in a third frame. | 04-28-2011 |
20110102630 | IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICES USING DEVICE LOCATION INFORMATION TO ADJUST IMAGE DATA DURING IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSING - Several methods and apparatuses for adjusting image data during image processing based on device specific information (e.g., location, orientation) for image capturing devices are described. In one embodiment, after having powered on the device and placing it in image capture mode, a location function determines location data of the device including a regional location. Next, an image capture function begins execution which captures one or more images of a scene that is before the camera lens. Next, adaptive image signal processing can occur based on the location data. For example, color adjustments (e.g., white balance, hue, saturation), sharpening, and contrast parameters for a given region may be adjusted during the image processing. | 05-05-2011 |
20110102631 | DIGITAL CAMERA AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - A digital camera includes a color shading area detecting unit that detects color shading areas from an entire area of a screen, and a white balance (WB) gain calculating unit that calculates WB gains from available screen areas remaining after excluding the detected color shading areas. | 05-05-2011 |
20110102632 | IMAGE PICK-UP APPARATUS, WHITE BALANCE SETTING METHOD AND RECORDING MEDIUM - In an image pick-up apparatus | 05-05-2011 |
20110109766 | CAMERA MODULE FOR REDUCING SHUTTER DELAY, CAMERA INCLUDING THE SAME, AND METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME - A camera module includes an image sensor configured to convert an optical signal received through a lens into an electrical signal and generate full-size image data, an image signal processing unit configured to calibrate and output the full-size image data, a first memory unit configured to periodically receive and store the full-size image data from the image signal processing unit, a scaling unit configured to scale down the full-size image data received from the first memory unit and periodically output scaled-down image data to a display device, and an encoder configured to receive the full-size image data stored in the first memory unit, convert it into a compressed file in a predetermined format, and output the compressed file upon opening of a shutter. | 05-12-2011 |
20110109767 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS AND IMAGE CAPTURING METHOD - An image capture apparatus including: an image capturing unit; a light emitting unit; a first image capture controller configured to control the image capturing unit to capture a plurality of images at a first timing; a second image capture controller configured to control the image capturing unit to capture an image under a capturing condition illuminated by the light emitting unit at a second timing that is either directly before or directly after the first timing; an addition combination section configured to positionally align the images captured under control by the first image capture controller and to perform an addition combination on the aligned images to generate a combined image; and a combination section configured to combine the combined image generated by the addition combination section with the image captured under control by the second image capture controller. | 05-12-2011 |
20110115941 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR BALANCING COLOR OF FLASHED IMAGE USING DEPTH ESTIMATION - Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for balancing the color of a flashed image using depth estimation. The apparatus includes a depth value measurement unit, a region identification unit, a color impression estimation unit, and a color balancing unit. The depth value measurement unit measures the depth values of the respective regions of an image to be captured using a camera preview image. The region identification unit identifies the regions of the preview image as a region influenced by camera flash or a region not influenced by camera flash using the depth values measured by the depth value measurement unit. The color impression estimation unit estimates the color impression of actual illumination in the region not influenced by camera flash. The color balancing unit corrects the color of the region influenced by camera flash. | 05-19-2011 |
20110115942 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGING PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An image processing device includes an image correction unit which receives a synthesized image and pseudo color pixel information indicating a pseudo color pixel position included in the synthesized image and executes pixel value correction. The image correction unit selects non-pseudo color pixels as reference pixels from a reference region set in a surrounding region of the pixel to be corrected, sets a similarity weight coefficient in which a large weight is set as a pixel value of the reference pixel that is close to a pixel value of the pixel to be corrected and a pixel position weight coefficient in which a large weight is set as the pixel value of the reference pixel that is near a pixel position of the pixel to be corrected, with respect to the reference pixels, and determines a correction pixel value of the pixel to be corrected by a weighted summation process. | 05-19-2011 |
20110122283 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image capturing apparatus that performs RGB three-band image capturing. Additional band pixels BG and OG having a spectral sensitivity peak wavelength between the B and G bands and between the R and G bands, respectively, are disposed on an image sensor consisting of RGB pixels. A feature quantity in the spectral characteristics of light incident on the sensor is obtained based on pixel values in the additional bands and pixel values in the RGB bands detected by the image sensor, and is applied to image processing of a captured object image. In order to maintain the image capturing resolution, in the image sensor, the number of additional band pixels is smaller than the number of R pixels, the number of G pixels, and the number of B pixels. | 05-26-2011 |
20110122284 | MULTIPLE ILLUMINATIONS AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE DIGITAL CAMERAS - A multiple source automatic white balancing method includes performing a first image processing on a subject image and generating a first processed image; performing a second image processing on the subject image and generating a second processed image; and generating a third processed image by blending the first and second processed images together based on an output of an outdoor weight map function. | 05-26-2011 |
20110122285 | IMAGE PROCESSING FILE SETTING SYSTEM - A system setting an image processing parameter in an imaging apparatus and an information processing apparatus, downloads a parameter file from an external apparatus, and sets in the imaging apparatus an image processing parameter included in the parameter file downloaded from the external apparatus. In the information processing apparatus, image data is processed using the image processing parameter included in the parameter file. Thus, the information processing apparatus and the imaging apparatus can perform image processing using an image processing parameter obtained from one downloaded parameter file. | 05-26-2011 |
20110122286 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND DISPLAY CONTROL METHOD - An image pickup apparatus uses an image pickup device. A manual focus adjusting unit is configured to control a focus lens in response to a user's input operation. An edge detecting unit is configured to detect edge components from an image signal obtained by the image pickup device and to output detection levels of the detected edge components. A color signal replacement unit is configured to replace a signal of a pixel corresponding to the detection level with a predetermined color signal when the detection level satisfies a predetermined condition. A display unit is configured to display an image based on an output image signal from the color signal replacement unit. | 05-26-2011 |
20110128406 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS CAPABLE OF CORRECTING IMAGE QUALITY DEGRADATION DUE TO OPTICAL MEMBER, METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND NONVOLATILE STORAGE MEDIUM - An image pickup apparatus capable of forming a corrected image which does not give a feeling of wrongness to a user. In the apparatus, an image pickup element photoelectrically converts an optical image to output the same as image data. A target correction value is calculated for correcting image quality degradation due to a lens unit, based on lens characteristic information and a status of the lens unit. A system controller sets a rate of change to stepwise make the current correction value closer to the target correction value, and repeatedly calculates the correction value according to the target correction value and the rate of change. The image data is corrected based on the repeatedly calculated correction value. The rate of change is changed depending on the relationship between a preceding value of the correction value calculated in the past and the target correction value. | 06-02-2011 |
20110134275 | SKIN TONE DETECTION IN A DIGITAL CAMERA - Disclosed is a method for processing sensor data in an image processor that implements at least one image enhancement process, the method comprising: a) performing a skin tone detection operation to identify skin tone areas in the sensor data; b) selectively modifying at least one image enhancement process for the identified skin tone areas; and c) applying the at least one modified image enhancement process to the identified skin tone areas. | 06-09-2011 |
20110149109 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONVERTING COLOR OF TAKEN IMAGE - A method for correcting color of an action image taken together with a reference image having a color reference plate includes activating a predetermined correction window for correction of the action image; displaying the action image and at least one correction window for color correction of the action image on the correction window; creating a lookup table, when at least one is selected from references displayed on the correction window, for converting respective pixels in conformity with the selected data; and correcting color of the action image using the created lookup table. | 06-23-2011 |
20110149110 | CAMERA SYSTEM AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Disclosed herein is a camera system including: a camera section including a subband dividing section configured to resolve image data of a color whose pixel positions are alternately shifted from each other into subband images, and a first transmission interface section configured to convert the subband images into a predetermined image signal, and output the image signal via a transmission line; and a camera control section including a second transmission interface section configured to convert the image signal input via the transmission line into the subband images, and an image decompressing section configured to decompress the subband images into the image data and synthesize the subband images into the image data output from the image pickup element. | 06-23-2011 |
20110157410 | AUTO WHITE BALANCE ALGORITHM USING RGB PRODUCT MEASURE - A method and device is provided for adjusting the white balance of a digital image by adjusting the values assigned to the red, green, and blue subpixels of a pixel in the image. The adjustment to the subpixels is determined by identifying pixels in the image that have an RGB product greater than a threshold value, wherein the threshold value is based at least in part on an average of the RGB products of each pixel in the image and a variance between the RGB products of the pixels and the average of the RGB products. | 06-30-2011 |
20110157411 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND IMAGING APPARATUS - The present invention is directed to an image processing apparatus wherein a discrimination whether an input image is a vivid color scene can be made to match a perception or an intention of a human. | 06-30-2011 |
20110157412 | Photographing Apparatus and Method and Recording Medium - A photographing apparatus and method and a recording medium, the photographing apparatus including: an exposure control value calculator for calculating a first exposure control value for a first image obtained by performing non-flash photographing and a second exposure control value for a second image by performing flash photographing based on light received from a subject; a photographing unit for acquiring the first image by performing photographing based on the first exposure control value and acquiring the second image by performing photographing based on the second exposure control value; an exposure control value difference calculator for calculating an exposure control value difference that is a difference between the first exposure control value and the second exposure control value; and a subject brightness calculator for calculating a first subject brightness of the first image and calculating a second subject brightness of the second image. | 06-30-2011 |
20110157413 | Image Pickup Apparatus and Image Pickup Method - An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup unit that acquires a first image without a flash and a second image with the flash; a down-sampling unit that generates a third image by down-sampling the second image; a brightness difference calculator that calculates a brightness difference between the first image and the third image; a flash reflection intensity calculator that calculates a first flash reflection intensity from the brightness difference; and a white balance gain calculator that calculates a white balance gain based on the first flash reflection intensity. An image pickup method includes acquiring a first image without a flash and a second image with the flash, generating a third image by down-sampling the second image, calculating a brightness difference between the first image and the third image, calculating a first flash reflection intensity from the brightness difference, and calculating a white balance gain. | 06-30-2011 |
20110157414 | IMAGE'S CHROMATISM CORRECTION APPARATUS - A reference pixel is specified for a specified pixel whose (luminance) value is below a threshold, for example, in RGB data obtained by an image pickup operation. The reference pixel should be on a straight line passing through the specified pixel and a center of the image and spaced from the specified pixel by a distance depending on a reduction or expansion rate of a blue (B) component image of the optical image corresponding to an optical zoom magnification in the image pickup. Only when the B value of the specified pixel is greater than that of the reference pixel, the B value of the specified pixel is replaced with that of the reference pixel. By expanding or reducing the blue component image alone for the original RGB data, image data is obtained in which the magnification chromatism is corrected. | 06-30-2011 |
20110164145 | AUTOMATIC ILLUMINANT ESTIMATION AND WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT BASED ON COLOR GAMUT UNIONS - A system for estimating an illuminant of a scene that was captured by an input image includes a control system that generates an input gamut that includes the input colors for the input image. Further, the control system compares the input gamut to an illuminant database that includes separate information from a gamut of observable colors for a plurality of possible illuminants to estimate the possible illuminant. Each illuminant can be represented by a separate illuminant gamut. Moreover, each gamut can be organized as a matrix. Additionally, the control system can combine the input gamut with each of the illuminant gamuts to generate a separate union gamut for each of the possible illuminants. The control system can compare the union gamut and the corresponding illuminant gamut for each possible illuminant to estimate the illuminant. After estimating the possible illuminant, the control system performs color correction on the input image. | 07-07-2011 |
20110169980 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGE - Provided is an apparatus and method for obtaining a high dynamic range (HDR) image. The apparatus includes an image sensor generating a first image by applying different exposure times for units of different predetermined regions, an image separating unit separating the first image into images, each of which is composed of regions having an identical exposure time, an image restoring unit restoring the separated images in such a way that each of the separated images has a resolution that is the same as a resolution of the first image, and an image synthesizing unit synthesizing the restored images into a second image. | 07-14-2011 |
20110176028 | IMAGE-CAPTURING DEVICE, IMAGE-CAPTURING METHOD AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING IMAGE-CAPTURING PROGRAM - It is determined that a dynamic range of an image is to be widened when a subject lightness value is equal to or lower than a lightness value upper limit which is greater than a predetermined lightness value provided that at least either the subject lightness value is equal to or greater than the predetermined lightness value or that an image-capturing frame rate is equal to or higher than a predetermined frame rate. When a determination to widen the dynamic range is made, synthetic image data is generated by combining image data in a plurality of frames captured over varying exposure times. Then, the synthetic image data is displayed or recorded. | 07-21-2011 |
20110176029 | Multispectral and Colorimetric Imaging System - Methods and apparatus enable capture of images of a scene in response to various spectral distributions of light, as well as processing of the captured images to adjust them and, in the case of particular sets of spectral distributions, to derive images accurately representing the colors of the scene. | 07-21-2011 |
20110176030 | WHITE BALANCE CORRECTION INCLUDING INDICATIVE WHITE COLOR DETERMINATION BASED ON REGIONS IN A DIVIDED IMAGE - A white balance correction apparatus may include a dividing unit, a white evaluation unit, a white balance correction unit, and a camera orientation discrimination unit. The dividing unit divides an image into a plurality of divided areas. The white evaluation unit determines whether image data within every divided area is indicative of a color white according to white detection regions in a color temperature range defined based on a position of each divided area in the image. The white balance correction unit performs a white balance correction based upon image data determined to be indicative of the color white. The camera orientation discrimination unit discriminates orientation of a camera. In accordance with the discriminated orientation, the white evaluation unit changes a combination of position of each divided area and condition used. | 07-21-2011 |
20110181752 | IMAGING ELEMENT AND IMAGING DEVICE - A signal processing portion is adapted to perform first signal processing appropriate for extracting luminance components and color components from first picture signals mainly containing signal components corresponding to the visible-light region, and second signal processing appropriate for extracting luminance components and color components from second picture signals mainly containing signal components corresponding to the near-infrared region, by changing over therebetween, when extracting luminance components and color components from picture signals which an imaging element outputs, in response to reception light. | 07-28-2011 |
20110187890 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS - An image processing apparatus comprises an estimation unit which estimates, from color distribution information of an image obtained by capturing an object, a depth of water at which the captured object is positioned, and a white balance control unit which performs white balance control along an axis different from a black body radiation axis in accordance with the depth of water estimated by the estimation unit. | 08-04-2011 |
20110187891 | Methods and Systems for Automatic White Balance - A method for automatic white balance (AWB) in a digital system is provided that includes applying predetermined flash red, blue, and green gain values stored in the digital system to white balance a digital image when a flash is used to capture the digital image, and applying computed red, blue, and green gain values to white balance a digital image when the flash is not used to capture the digital image. Another method for AWB is provided that includes computing red, blue, and green gain values for white balancing a digital image, adjusting the computed red, blue, and green gain values with respective predetermined flash red, blue, and green gain adjustment values when the flash is used to capture the digital image, and applying the adjusted red, blue, and green gain values to white balance the digital image. | 08-04-2011 |
20110187892 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, IMAGE CAPTURING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An object of this invention is to perform, for a photographed image, image processing which reflects the intention of the user without photographing again. In order to achieve this object, photographing data from an image sensor is temporarily stored in a memory, and an image of the photographing data as a result of digital development processing is displayed. When it is determined from the displayed image that the parameters of various image processes in digital development processing are not proper for the photographed image, the parameter settings are corrected again. Then, operation of reading out photographing data from the memory and performing digital development processing again is executed a necessary number of times. When an image quality intended by the photographer is obtained, the photographing data is recorded on a recording medium. | 08-04-2011 |
20110199507 | MEDIUM STORING IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM AND IMAGING APPARATUS - A storage medium storing an image processing program in which the image processing program obtains a plurality of images and displacement information indicating a positional displacement between the plurality of images, calculates weighting information for performing weighting processing on the displacement information for each of a plurality of color components, performs the weighting processing on the displacement information for each of the plurality of color components, calculates a pixel value of a color component of a calculation target based on local inflection information of a color component other than the color component of the calculation target and the weighting information after conducting the weighting processing, and generates a composite image based on a calculation result. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce a processing time in image processing which generates, from the plurality of images having the positional displacement, the composite image having a higher resolution than those images. | 08-18-2011 |
20110199508 | IMAGING DEVICE, IMAGING METHOD AND COMPUTER READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM STORING PROGRAM FOR PERFORMING THE IMAGING METHOD - An imaging device includes an imaging element configured to convert light that has entered from an optical system into an electric signal, and to output the electric signal as an imaging signal, a macro shooting determination section configured to determine whether shooting is macro shooting or not, a low color temperature light source determination section configured to determine whether or not the shooting is performed in a lower color temperature light source based on color information, a first white balance correction coefficient calculator configured to calculate a white balance correction coefficient so as to obtain an image in which a color of the low color temperature light source is added, and a second white balance correction coefficient calculator configured to calculate a white balance correction coefficient so as to obtain an image in which the color of the low color temperature light source is not added in the lower color temperature light source and in the macro shooting. | 08-18-2011 |
20110205389 | Methods and Systems for Automatic White Balance - A method for calibrating automatic white balance (AWB) in a digital system is provided that includes capturing an image of a test target under a natural lighting condition, generating a first color temperature reference from the captured image, and outputting AWB configuration data for the digital system, wherein the AWB configuration data comprises the first color temperature reference and a second color temperature reference generated using the test target under simulated lighting conditions. A method for calibrating automatic white balance (AWB) in a digital system comprising a first imaging sensor is provided that includes receiving a reference for AWB that was generated using an image captured using a second imaging sensor, and compensating a histogram reference into a histogram reference for AWB for the first imaging sensor in the digital system based on R, G, B adjustment values from the second imaging sensor to the first imaging sensor. | 08-25-2011 |
20110205390 | SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE AND IMAGING DEVICE - According to one embodiment, a signal processing device includes a high spatial frequency range component evaluation unit configured to evaluate a high spatial frequency range component of each of basic colors for each of divided regions for an image picked up by an image pickup device, the divided regions being obtained by dividing an imaging surface of the image pickup device into a plurality of regions, a subject distance estimation unit configured to estimate a subject distance for each of the divided regions on the basis of the high spatial frequency range component, a filter coefficient generating unit configured to generate a filter coefficient for each of the divided regions on the basis of the subject distance, and a filter operation unit configured to perform a filter operation on the high spatial frequency range component by use of the filter coefficient. | 08-25-2011 |
20110205391 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image sensing apparatus that senses objects and processes image signals obtained from such image sensing includes a white balance correction means that performs white balance correction of the image signals using white balance correction values calculated based on a face area and on other areas contained in the image signals, and a CPU that changes the proportion of image signals of the face area used in calculating the white balance correction values when calculating the white balance correction values based on the image signals. | 08-25-2011 |
20110211089 | Mobile Electronic Device Having Camera With Improved Auto White Balance - An improved mobile electronic device and camera provide an improved auto white balance system where constraints can be imposed the correlated color temperature (CCT) that is employed by the auto white balance system. For instance, if a distance between a subject and the camera is determined to exceed a threshold for closeness, the CCT can be constrained so that it is above a preset CCT that corresponds with sunrise or sunset. Other distance thresholds and the content of an image, as well as the brightness of the image, can be further employed in determining the CCT to employ. | 09-01-2011 |
20110211090 | REGISTER CONFIGURATION CONTROL DEVICE, REGISTER CONFIGURATION CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM FOR IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD - A resister configuration control device which is capable of updating resister configuration values during a non-display period without increasing a circuit scale. A FIFO selector | 09-01-2011 |
20110216219 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - In an image pickup apparatus, image data obtained by an image pickup unit is subjected to predetermined image processing, and an image is displayed on an electronic viewfinder screen based on the image data that has undergone the image processing. A specified color is determined based on color information included in a predetermined region of an image that is currently being displayed on the electronic viewfinder screen, and image processing parameters are produced so that color conversion is carried out on the image while eliminating color components of colors other than the determined specified color. | 09-08-2011 |
20110234842 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE - An image processing device that corrects a pixel value in image data, includes: an input unit that inputs image data having a plurality of color components and including a plurality of pixels each holding one color component; a calculation unit that calculates a maximum value among pixel values of a plurality of same-color neighboring pixels each holding a color component identical to a color component held in a processing target pixel selected from the pixels included in the image data and pixel values of a plurality of different-color neighboring pixels each holding a color component different from the color component held in the processing target pixel, which take up positions closer to the processing target pixel than the plurality of same-color neighboring pixels; and a correction unit that compares a pixel value of the processing target pixel with the maximum value and replaces the pixel value of the processing target pixel with the maximum value if the pixel value of the processing target pixel is greater than the maximum value. | 09-29-2011 |
20110234843 | Signal processing device, signal processing program and electronic camera - The present invention includes a color converting section carrying out color conversion processing and a coefficient correcting section setting a correcting coefficient group to a coefficient group of the color conversion. The coefficient correcting section sets a local area containing a pixel to be processed, and calculates “feature information of the local area” containing at least one of averaged color information, averaged luminance information, and flatness on the basis of the pixel signals of the local area. The coefficient correcting section determines a correcting coefficient group to be used for the pixel to be processed on the basis of the feature information of the local area. With this construction, the present invention suppresses influence of noise when changing the color conversion processing for each pixel. | 09-29-2011 |
20110234844 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE APPARATUS - This invention makes it possible to provide a technique for suppressing a decrease in resolution of a sensed image even when an image sensor on which solid-state image sensing elements with different sensitivities are arranged is used. A demosaic unit obtains a color component of a given pixel, sensed at the first sensitivity, by performing interpolation calculation using color components of pixels each of which is adjacent to the given pixel and is sensed at the first sensitivity. The demosaic unit also obtains a color component of a given pixel, sensed at the second sensitivity, by performing interpolation calculation using color components of pixels each of which is adjacent to the given pixel and is sensed at the second sensitivity. | 09-29-2011 |
20110234845 | AUTO WHITE BALANCE CORRECTION VALUE CALCULATION DEVICE, METHOD, PROGRAM, AND IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE - A normal AWB (auto white balance) correction value is calculated based on inputted image data. Further, a face area is identified from the inputted image data and a face AWB correction value is calculated based on image data in the face area. Then, first feature data and second feature data are extracted from the inputted image data and image data in the face area, respectively. A total AWB correction value is calculated in accordance with at least one of the face AWB correction value and the normal AWB correction value based on a comparison result of the first feature data and the second feature data. Thus, an erroneous correction can be prevented in an AWB correction using a face detection function. | 09-29-2011 |
20110242358 | ELECTRONIC IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND ELECTRONIC IMAGE PICKUP METHOD - An electronic image pickup apparatus comprises a color image pickup element having a plurality of drive modes including at least the first drive mode and the second drive mode. The color-conversion parameter storage section of the apparatus stores the first color-conversion parameter. The color-conversion parameter computing section of the apparatus computes from the first color-conversion parameter the second color-conversion parameter. The computation parameter storage section of the apparatus stores the computation parameter for computing the second color-conversion parameter. The color-conversion section of the apparatus converts the color data acquired by the color image pickup element in the first drive mode according to the first color-conversion parameter and the color data acquired by the color image pickup element in the second drive mode according to the second color-conversion parameter. | 10-06-2011 |
20110249139 | Imaging control device and imaging control method - A imaging control device includes a scene recognition section which recognizes scenes showing a subject by analyzing obtained image data, a display section which displays the obtained image data, an imaging mode selection section which prepares a plurality of imaging modes where a parameter which adjusts image characteristics according to each scene is set in advance and which automatically selects an imaging mode corresponding to the recognized scene from a plurality of imaging modes, a first operation section which generates a first operation signal which locks the imaging mode at a current imaging mode during the operation of automatically selecting the imaging mode, and a second operation section which generates a second operation signal which adjusts a portion of the parameter in a state where the imaging mode is locked, where an adjustment range using the second operation section is within a range limited by the locked imaging mode. | 10-13-2011 |
20110249140 | ELECTRONIC CAMERA - An electronic camera includes an imager. An imager repeatedly outputs an image representing a scene captured by an imaging surface. An adjuster adjusts an imaging condition by referring to any one of a plurality of adjustment references including a specific adjustment reference suitable for outdoors. A controller controls whether or not the referring by the adjuster to the specific adjustment reference should be permitted, with reference to a determined result of whether or not an average luminance of the image outputted from the imager satisfies a first condition and a determined result of whether or not a ratio of an area having a luminance deviating from a predetermined range occupying in the image outputted from the imager satisfies a second condition. | 10-13-2011 |
20110249141 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COLOR CORRECTION OF COLOR DEVICES FOR VARIOUS OPERATING CONDITIONS - Methods and apparatuses for color correction of color device for various operating conditions. In at least one embodiment of the present invention, operating under a current condition, a color correction operation that is derived from color correction operations defined for other conditions is performed on the color data. In another embodiment, a device profile for managing colors for a color device operating under one condition is interpolated from the device profiles for the color device operating under other conditions (e.g., based on the input received from a user interface according to the perception of the user or based on the measurement of a sensor). The interpolation can be based on the input received from a user interface according to the perception of the user or it can be based on the measurement of a sensor or a set of sensors. Various operating conditions for a color device (e.g., a scanner, a camera, a video camera, a printer, a display device such as a CRT monitor or an LCD display panel, a television set, or others) include chromaticity and illumination of ambient light, background color for a display device, characteristics of print media for a printer, humidity, temperature, pressure and ink level for an ink jet printer, the age of a light source for a scanner, and others. | 10-13-2011 |
20110254974 | SIGNAL PROCESSING APPARATUS, SOLID-STATE IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, ELECTRONIC INFORMATION DEVICE, SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD, CONTROL PROGRAM AND STORAGE MEDIUM - A signal processing apparatus is provided, for processing pixel signals corresponding to a plurality of respective pixels, the signal processing apparatus comprising a color matrix section for detecting brightness of the pixel and performs color adjustment on the pixel signals using a color matrix in accordance with the detected brightness of the pixel. | 10-20-2011 |
20110254975 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An image pickup apparatus such as a video camera has the capability of automatic white balance control whereby the white balance is quickly adjusted for any object even just after an operator has turned on a power supply. An image pickup element converts an optical image of an object into an electrical image signal. The image signal is applied to a signal processing circuit and separated into a luminance signal and color signals. The separated color signals or the R and B signals are amplified by gain control circuits under the control of the correction signals supplied by a correction signal computing part, and then applied to a color-difference signal forming circuit which in turn produces color-difference signals (R-Y) and (B-Y). An encoder circuit generates a television signal in the standard form from the above color-difference signals and the luminance signal. In this processing, the white balance is adjusted according to a white balance control signal generated on the basis of information about a state of illuminance onto an object picked up last time and stored in a data storing part. | 10-20-2011 |
20110261224 | Digital camera and storage medium for image signal processing for white balance control - A CCD captures a subject image having passed through a taking lens and an image processing circuit performs various types of image pre-treatment including gamma correction and white balance on image data corresponding to n lines×m rows output by the CCD. The image processing circuit also performs format processing on the data. The data are then compressed at a compression circuit. The white balance adjustment and the like are implemented in line sequence at a line processing circuit which engages in signal processing in pixel sequence in units of individual lines in the output from the CCD. The image data having undergone the pre-treatment are then subjected to format processing prior to JPEG compression, at a block processing circuit that engages in signal processing in units of individual blocks each ranging over an n×m (N>n, M>m) block. In other words, the signal processing is performed in block sequence. | 10-27-2011 |
20110261225 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, METHOD OF DETECTING TRACKING OBJECT, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An image signal processing unit partitions a frame image into a plurality of partitioned blocks and calculates for each partitioned block luminance information, color information, contrast information, and a motion vector quantity. A grouping unit groups the partitioned blocks into an image area of the same object based on the luminance information and the color information of each partitioned block. A moving amount calculating unit calculates a moving amount of an object contained in a grouped image area based on the motion vector quantity of each partitioned block, a detection value of a motion detection sensor, and a focal length calculated by a focal length calculating unit. A tracking object selecting unit selects an object in the image area of the highest contrast value as a tracking target object out of objects each having a moving amount exceeding a threshold value. | 10-27-2011 |
20110267492 | INDOOR/OUTDOOR SCENE DETECTION USING GPS - A digital camera system, comprising: a digital image sensor; an optical system for forming an image of a scene onto the digital image sensor; a global positioning system sensor; a processor-accessible memory system; and a processor. The processor performs the steps of analyzing a signal from the global positioning system sensor to determine whether the digital camera system is indoors or outdoors; capturing an input digital image of the scene using the digital image sensor; processing the input digital image responsive to whether the digital camera system is indoors or outdoors; and storing the processed digital image in the processor-accessible memory system. | 11-03-2011 |
20110267493 | FLUORESCENCE OBSERVATION APPARATUS - A fluorescence observation apparatus of the present invention includes a light source section that can emit a plurality of excitation light beams for exciting a plurality of fluorescent substances and a reference light, an image pickup section that picks up images of a plurality of fluorescent light beams emitted by emitting the plurality of excitation light beams to the plurality of fluorescent substances and reflected light of the reference light, an image generation section that generates image signals corresponding to the plurality of fluorescent light beams and the reflected light of the reference light whose images have been picked up by the image pickup section, and an image processing section that assigns a plurality of fluorescent light images related to image signals corresponding to the plurality of fluorescent light beams and a reference light image related to an image signal corresponding to the reflected light of the reference light to a plurality of color channels respectively and outputs the resulting image as a synthesized image, wherein the image generation section generates an image signal in which the one fluorescent light image and the synthesized image are arranged side by side on a same screen, and the image processing section calculates, when a color tone operation is performed on any one of the plurality of image signals generated by the image generation section, a color tone adjustment coefficient for achieving color tone balance with image signals other than the image signal subjected to the color tone operation and performs color tone calculation processing on the image signals to be assigned to the plurality of color channels using the calculated color tone adjustment coefficient. | 11-03-2011 |
20110267494 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, AND IMAGE-CAPTURING APPARATUS - Disclosed are an image processing apparatus which effectively corrects, by a simple method, color crosstalk that is generated in a captured image by light obliquely entering an image sensor, and a control method thereof. A white-detection area used in white balance processing for a captured image signal is set in accordance with an aperture value used in image capturing. The degree of color crosstalk depends on an aperture value used in image capturing, and the spectral sensitivity characteristic of the image sensor changes depending on the degree of color crosstalk. By setting a white-detection range to correct a change of the spectral sensitivity characteristic depending on the aperture value, color crosstalk can be simply, effectively corrected. | 11-03-2011 |
20110273583 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, CAMERA MODULE AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE - According to one embodiment, a false color mask signal generation circuit generates a false color pixel mask signal to exclude false color component pixels based on an edge component signal from an edge component extraction circuit. A white balance gain calculation circuit calculates a white balance gain from an integrated value calculated by the false color component pixels being excluded based on the false color pixel mask signal. | 11-10-2011 |
20110273584 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Disclosed is an image processing apparatus capable of effectively correcting color crosstalk in moving image capturing by a simple method, and a control method thereof. When the aperture value changes, the current white balance coefficient is corrected, calculating an estimated white balance coefficient corresponding to the changed aperture value. Re-obtainment of a white balance coefficient starts using a frame image captured at the changed aperture value. During a period required to obtain again a white balance coefficient, the estimated white balance coefficient is applied to a frame image to undergo white balance processing. | 11-10-2011 |
20110279702 | Method and System for Providing a Programmable and Flexible Image Sensor Pipeline for Multiple Input Patterns - A method and system are provided in which color channel information may be stored in a multimedia processor. The color channel information may comprise information for each of the color filter positions in a color filter pattern. The color channel information may be stored in a plurality of registers, wherein each register may correspond to a color channel. The color channel information may be dynamically stored in the multimedia processor. Based on the color channel information, a color channel may be assigned to each color filter position. The color channel assigned to a color filter position may be one of red, green, blue, white, cyan, yellow, and/or magenta. When an indication of the color filter pattern is received, the assignment may be based on both the color channel information and the received indication. Pixel values associated with the color filter pattern may be processed based on the color channel assignment. | 11-17-2011 |
20110279703 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING IMAGE BY USING CHARACTERISTIC OF LIGHT SOURCE - An apparatus and method for processing an image of an image signal projected through a digital camera lens are provided. The apparatus includes an image sensor module for transforming an optical signal into an electric signal, to generate and output an image signal, and a light receiving module for detecting a light source. The apparatus also includes a light source characteristic detector for detecting a frequency of the light source, a white balance controller for controlling a white balance, a color corrector for removing interferences of red, green, and blue channels, and a gamma corrector for performing a gamma correction. The apparatus further includes an auto color adjustment controller for identifying a kind of light source based on the frequency of the light source, and controlling a white balance gain of the image signal based on the kind of the light source. | 11-17-2011 |
20110279704 | SENSITIVITY-SETTABLE IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS - An image capture device includes an image pickup unit including a plurality of pixels and photoelectrically converting an object image by the plurality of pixels; a white balance control unit for performing a white balance correction processing on pixel signals from the image pickup unit; and a sensitivity changing unit for changing the sensitivity of photographing, wherein the white balance control unit performs the white balance correction processing such that, as the sensitivity increases, a response to the light source is suppressed. | 11-17-2011 |
20110285870 | COLOR PROCESSING METHOD, PROGRAM THEREFOR, AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - A color processing method which sets viewing conditions easily and properly from shooting conditions added to an image. Shot image data and shooting conditions of the image data are obtained. Input side viewing conditions from the obtained shooting conditions are set. The image data with a color appearance model based on the set input side viewing conditions are converted. | 11-24-2011 |
20110292237 | IMAGE-CAPTURING DEVICE, USER INTERFACE AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVE COLOR BALANCE ADJUSTMENT - There is provided a user interface on a display unit of an image-capturing device for selective color balance adjustment of an image. The user interface allows for an image to be divided into a plurality of regions. A user may select one or more regions on the user interface. The user interface also includes a control unit for adjusting a color balance value for each of the selected regions on the user interface based on user input. The user interface allows for adjustment of the color balance value for different regions of an image prior to the image being written onto a recording medium by the image-capturing device. | 12-01-2011 |
20110292238 | IMAGING SYSTEM, IMAGING APPARATUS, INTERCHANGEABLE LENS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGING SYSTEM, AND PROGRAM - An imaging system includes: an imaging apparatus including a first communication section performing communication with an interchangeable lens, and a first control section making a transmission request of prediction information being state information on a state of a member included in the interchangeable lens and being the state information related to a state of the member after a predetermined time period to the interchangeable lens; and an interchangeable lens including a second communication section performing communication with the imaging apparatus, a calculation section obtaining the state information from the member and calculating the prediction information on the basis of the obtained state information and the predetermined time period, and a second control section controlling transmission of the calculated prediction information to the imaging apparatus. | 12-01-2011 |
20110298944 | ADAPTIVE LENS SHADING CORRECTION - Systems, methods, and devices for applying lens shading correction to image data captured by an image sensor are provided. In one embodiment, multiple lens shading adaptation functions, each modeled based on the response of a color channel to a reference illuminant, are provided. An image frame from the image data may be analyzed to select a lens shading adaptation function corresponding to a reference illuminant that most closely matches a current illuminant. The selected lens shading function may then be used to adjust a set of lens shading parameters. | 12-08-2011 |
20110298945 | COMPENSATION FOR BLACK LEVEL CHANGES - A technique for applying black level compensation to image data is provided. In one embodiment, an image processing system includes a first image processing pipeline configured to receive frames of image data generated by an image sensor and to alter the frames of image data to compensate for black level shift. The image processing system may also include a feed-forward loop having a second image processing pipeline configured to receive at least one of the frames of image data, to process the at least one frame, and to adjust a black level compensation parameter of the first image processing pipeline. Additional methods, systems, and devices relating to black level compensation are also disclosed. | 12-08-2011 |
20110298946 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - An image processing apparatus that performs individual optimum image processing on each of a portion of an image illuminated by a light source and a portion of the image shaded from the light source, an image pickup apparatus, an image processing method, and a computer program are provided. | 12-08-2011 |
20110304744 | CALIBRATING COLOR FOR AN IMAGE - Calibrating color (such as adjusting color balance) for an image may include capturing a set of calibration images of a calibration target. The calibration target includes at least one color reference region illuminated by a light source having a distribution of frequencies that cycles over a fixed time period. The calibration images are captured over a calibration period that is greater than or equal to the fixed time period over which the distribution of frequencies cycles. Each of the calibration images is associated to a time identifier. A color balance adjustment is calculated for each of the calibration images, for forming a time-dependent color spectrum model of the color balance adjustments. The color spectrum model models changes in the light source over the fixed time period. In one embodiment, a subject image of a subject is captured for a determined exposure time. In the subject image, the subject is illuminated by the light source. Exposure time data is associated to the subject image. At least one subject color balance adjustment is calculated for the subject image from the exposure time data and the color spectrum model. | 12-15-2011 |
20110317027 | Image processing apparatus, image taking apparatus, image processing method and image processing program - Disclosed herein is an image processing apparatus including a synthesizing processing section configured to synthesize a plurality of images taken at different exposure times wherein, in processing to synthesize the taken images, the synthesizing processing section acquires a taken-image blending ratio varying in accordance with components selected from the taken images and carries out a blending process on a blend area in which pixels of the taken images are to be blended by applying the blending ratio to the blend area. | 12-29-2011 |
20110317028 | Image processing apparatus, image taking apparatus, image processing method and image processing program - Disclosed herein is an image processing apparatus including a color-flicker detection processing section configured to detect generation of color flickers from a plurality of images taken at different exposure times, wherein the color-flicker detection processing section: acquires a ratio of any specific one of a plurality of color signals of the taken images to another one of the color signals; obtains an evaluation value of the color flickers from the acquired ratio; and determines whether or not the color flickers have been generated on the basis of the magnitude of the evaluation value. | 12-29-2011 |
20120002073 | METHOD OF DYNAMICALLY CHANGING A PARAMETER OF A FRAME - A method of dynamically changing a parameter of a frame is disclosed. An input frame is determined as a special scene or a general scene. A subsequent frame is predicted by changing the parameter of the subsequent frame according to a special-scene operation when the input frame is the special scene, and by changing the parameter of the subsequent frame according to a general-scene operation when the input frame is not the special scene. The predicted frame is determined whether to be a special scene. Accordingly, the parameter of the input frame is changed according to the special-scene operation when both the input frame and the predicted frame are the special scenes; the parameter of the input frame is changed according to the general-scene operation when both the input frame and the predicted frame are not the special scenes; and the parameter of the input frame is maintained without change when only one of the input frame and the predicted frame is the special scene. | 01-05-2012 |
20120008008 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGING METHOD, IMAGING PROGRAM, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - An image processing device includes: an image generating unit that generates third image data on the basis of first image data and second image data different in exposure condition from the first image data; a subject recognizer that recognizes a predetermined subject on the basis of the first image data; and a brightness value condition detector that detects a brightness value condition of an area around the predetermined subject recognized by the subject recognizer in the first image data, wherein the image generating unit generates the third image data on the basis of the detection result in the brightness value condition detector. | 01-12-2012 |
20120008009 | WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT DEVICE, IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE, WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - A natural white balance is achieved in images that are captured while emitting a flash. The white balance of an image is adjusted using a WB adjustment portion and a mixture ratio calculation portion estimating a mixture ratio of an external light component and a flashed light component that are present in an image captured with emitting a flash, from the image obtained that is captured while emitting a flash and an image signal that is obtained without emitting a flash. Further, an external light WB coefficient determination portion determines an WB coefficient for the external light, a flashed light WB coefficient setting portion sets a WB coefficient for the flashed light, and a WB processing portion that continuously performs WB processing on the image captured while emitting a flash by using the mixture ratio as an interpolation ratio. | 01-12-2012 |
20120008010 | ADJUSTMENT FOR OUTPUT IMAGE OF IMAGE DATA - When a memory card is inserted into a slot, the control circuit of a color printer obtains image output control information from a memory card and analyzes it. When auto light source is not set as the light source, the CPU references the reference values and coefficients for the characteristics parameters except for color balance and performs correction, and then adjusts the image data image quality to reflect the post-correction characteristics parameters. As a result, it is possible to automatically adjust the image quality of image data without losing the selectively set output conditions. | 01-12-2012 |
20120013763 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus for applying a color balance correction to input image data, comprises a first highlight color calculation unit which estimates a light source at the time of shooting from pixel values of the image data, converts color values of the image data based on a condition of the estimated light source at the time of shooting, and calculates a first highlight color; a second highlight color calculation unit which calculates a second highlight color from the image data; a third highlight color calculation unit which calculates a third highlight color based on a positional relationship between the first highlight color and the second highlight color on a color space; and a correction unit which attains the color balance correction by converting the pixel values of the image data using the third highlight color. | 01-19-2012 |
20120013764 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus for applying a color balance correction to input image data, comprises a holding unit which holds information indicating a locus of a change in highlight color when a color temperature for image data is changed on a color space; a highlight color calculation unit which calculates a highlight color from the image data; a distance calculation unit which calculates a distance between the highlight color and the highlight color locus held in the holding unit on the color space; a reliability calculation unit which calculates a reliability for a value of the highlight color calculated by the highlight color calculation unit in accordance with the distance calculated by the distance calculation unit; and a color balance correction unit which applies the color balance correction to the image data using the highlight color and the reliability. | 01-19-2012 |
20120013765 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit, a white balance adjustment unit configured to adjust a white balance of image data output from the imaging unit, a determination unit configured to determine brightness of the image data, a filter control unit configured to control a filter in order not to cause light including a predetermined wavelength component incident on the imaging unit, and a control unit configured to, if the determination unit determines that the image data is darker than a predetermined value, execute both of a first mode for amplifying a gain of each color of the image data by the white balance adjustment unit and a second mode for controlling the filter by the filter control unit so as to cause the light including the predetermined wavelength component incident on the imaging unit. | 01-19-2012 |
20120026355 | DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - Provided are a digital image processing apparatus, and a method of controlling the same, the method including inputting a setup image having a first region input via a filter; extracting first color information from the first region; retrieving a stored image; generating a display image by changing colors of the stored image based on the first color information; and displaying the display image. | 02-02-2012 |
20120026356 | LIGHT-EMITTING APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND CAMERA SYSTEM CAPABLE OF CHANGING EMISSION COLOR TEMPERATURE - A light-emitting apparatus which is capable of emitting light at desired emission color temperature even when aged deterioration of a light-emitting unit occurs. The light emitting unit has a plurality of LEDs that emit light in different colors, and is capable of changing emission color temperature of the light-emitting unit by changing the ratio of an amount light emitted by the LEDs. A emission color temperature of the light-emitting unit is set, and the light-emitting unit is flashed based on parameters corresponding to the set emission color temperature. Color temperature data on the image data is obtained based on image data obtained by performing image pickup by flashing the light-emitting unit based on the parameters. The parameters corresponding to the set emission color temperature are corrected based on the color temperature data on the set emission color temperature and the obtained color temperature data. | 02-02-2012 |
20120026357 | IMAGE INPUT DEVICE - Provided is an image input device capable of generating a luminance signal having a high ratio of S/N of an image, and further capable of providing the image with a little uncomfortable feeling even in the night time when the amount of photons is few, wherein, when a visible light luminance signal is relatively low, and an infrared component is predominant in an original image component, for example, correcting color-difference signals with added luminance prevents the color-difference signals with the added luminance from being too high, thereby it becomes possible to perform more natural color reproduction, which is close to original visible light, and gives a little uncomfortable feeling. | 02-02-2012 |
20120033099 | PHOTO-DETECTOR AND METHOD FOR DETECTING AN OPTICAL RADIATION - An image acquisition system comprises a radiation photodetector implementing at least two tunable spectral responses indicating the photodetector sensitivity as a function of the wavelength. The photodetector includes means for receiving at least two configuration signals controlling the tuning of at least part of the shape of the at least two spectral responses. The system comprises a control module for receiving an identification signal indicating the spectral intensity of a source of light, detecting that the source spectral intensity shape in at least one spectrum portion is different from the reference spectral intensity shape in the at least one spectrum portion, and changing a configuration signal in order to change a spectral response shape in the at least one spectrum portion as a function of the difference between the shape of the source spectral intensity and the shape of the reference spectral intensity in the at least one spectrum portion. | 02-09-2012 |
20120033100 | IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE AND IMAGE CAPTURING METHOD - One of objects of the invention is to provide an image capturing device and an image capturing method, which is capable of capturing an image of the target at the proper angle by a simple device configuration. An image capturing device of the present invention includes: a housing; an image capturing unit capturing an image of a target; an image display unit that is capable of displaying the image; a position detection unit detecting a position of the housing; and an image correction unit correcting an original image acquired from the image capturing unit based on the position detected by the position detection unit, when a preview image of the captured image is displayed on the image display unit. | 02-09-2012 |
20120044380 | IMAGE CAPTURE WITH IDENTIFICATION OF ILLUMINANT - Image capture of a scene in which there is an identification of an imaging property of the scene, such as the illuminant or dynamic range of the scene. An imaging assembly has a spectral response which is tunable in accordance with a capture parameter, and first and second different capture parameters are applied to the image sensor. Respective first and second images of the scene are captured. The first and second images of the scene are compared to identify an imaging property of the scene, such as the illuminant or multiple illuminants in respective ones of multiple regions in the scene. In accordance with the property identified for the scene, a third capture parameter is derived, such as to obtain color correction or white balance in accordance with each identified illuminant. The third capture parameter is applied to the image sensor, and a final image of the scene is captured. | 02-23-2012 |
20120057044 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - An image processing method generates first developed image data by correcting first image data with use of a white balance correction value corresponding to flash light, generates second developed image data by correcting the first image data with use of a second white balance correction value corresponding to external light, calculates a combining ratio of each block based on a flash component and an external light component of each of blocks into which the first image data is divided, and combines the first developed image data and the second developed image data according to the calculated combining ratio. | 03-08-2012 |
20120057045 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - The present invention generates first developed image data by correcting image data with use of a first white balance correction value corresponding to a first light source, generates second developed image data by correcting the image data with use of a second white balance correction value corresponding to a second light source, calculates a color evaluation value of each of blocks by adding and averaging color evaluation values of pixels in the image data for each of the divided blocks, calculates a combining ratio based on a difference between the calculated color evaluation value of each of the blocks and a color evaluation value of white under the second light source, and combines the first developed image data and the second developed image data according to the calculated combining ratio. | 03-08-2012 |
20120062763 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND CAMERA MODULE - According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a color mixture correction unit. The color mixture correction unit corrects the mixture of colors caused when an incident light having passed through color filters corresponding to neighboring pixels enters a target pixel. The color mixture correction unit references the signal level of the target pixel and the signal levels of the neighboring pixels. The color mixture correction unit calculates a correction amount corresponding to the signal level of a red pixel which is the neighboring pixel. The color mixture correction unit performs a calculation on the signal level of the target pixel using the correction amount. | 03-15-2012 |
20120069212 | IMAGE CAPTURE WITH ADJUSTMENT OF IMAGING PROPERTIES AT TRANSITIONS BETWEEN REGIONS - Image capture by using an imaging assembly having spectral sensitivities which are tunable in accordance with a capture parameter. First and second capture parameters are applied respectively to first and second regions of a scene, and a preview image is captured and displayed, together with a user interface which permits a user to adjust a transition of the capture parameter at a boundary between the first and second regions. Further preview images may be captured and displayed until the user is satisfied with the appearance of the preview image at the boundary of the first and second regions. A final image is captured using the first and second capture parameters together with any adjustment to the transition of the capture parameters at the boundary between the first and second regions. | 03-22-2012 |
20120086828 | WHITE BALANCE METHOD AND WHITE BALANCE DEVICE - Disclosed are a white balance device and a white balance method. The device comprises a unit used to extract background pixels of an image; a unit used to obtain representative color of background; a unit for determining a global magnification ratio of the background pixels; a unit used to carry out pre-adjustment with regard to original color of each of the background pixels; a unit used to, for each of the background pixels, determine expected final background color of the corresponding background pixel, and then determine an accurate magnification ratio of the corresponding background pixel; and a unit used to, for each of the background pixels, carry out adjustment with regard to the original color of the corresponding background pixel by using the accurate magnification ratio of the corresponding background pixel. | 04-12-2012 |
20120086829 | IMAGE PROCESSING UNIT, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - An image processing unit includes a memory unit, a comparative image generator to generate a comparative image from a non-reference image, an image divider to divide a reference image, a non-reference image, and a comparative image into image blocks of a predetermined size, a motion data calculator to calculate motion data between the reference image and comparative image, an average calculator to calculate an average of pixel output values for each image block of the reference image and the comparative image, a threshold determiner to determine a threshold for synthesis determination according to the average of pixel output values of an image block of the reference image, a synthesis determiner to determine whether or not the image blocks of the reference image and of the non-reference image are suitable for synthesis, and a ratio determiner to determine a synthesis ratio of the image blocks determined as suitable for synthesis. | 04-12-2012 |
20120086830 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, WHITE BALANCE CORRECTION METHOD, AND IMAGING DEVICE - An image processing device of the present invention comprises: an image combining section for combining a plurality of combination image data and generating combined image data; a WB setting section for performing setting for white balance correction processing; an image WB gain calculation section for calculating image WB gain respectively for the plurality of combination image data in accordance with setting of the WB setting section; a combined image WB gain calculating section for calculating combined image WB gain for the combined image data in accordance with information relating to a combination ratio for the image combining section and image WB gain for the respective plurality of combination image data; and a WB correction section for carrying out white balance correction for image data according to the combined image WB gain. | 04-12-2012 |
20120092520 | CROSSTALK FILTER IN A DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING PIPELINE - A technique for applying a crosstalk filter to raw image sensor data in a digital image processing pipeline is disclosed. Raw image sensor data generated by an image sensor, where each pixel in the raw image sensor data includes an intensity value for only a single color channel of a plurality of possible color channels, is processed in the digital image processing pipeline. For each pixel of the raw image sensor data, a corrected intensity value is computed based on intensity values associated with one or more additional pixels of the raw image sensor data that neighbor the pixel. | 04-19-2012 |
20120092521 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS HAVING FUNCTION OF CORRECTING IMAGE BASED ON AMBIENT ILLUMINATION, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus includes: an illumination sensor sensing the intensity of illumination; an image signal processing unit processing an input image signal obtained from an image sensor unit; and a codec unit coding image signal information obtained by the image signal processing unit to obtain a luminance coefficient representing a luminance signal of an image, and adjusting the luminance coefficient according to an ambient intensity of illumination sensed by the illumination sensor. | 04-19-2012 |
20120092522 | IMAGING APPARATUS, METHOD AND PROGRAM - An imaging apparatus displays and records any area in a synthesized image according to user's taste. The synthesized image is displayed based on the set display area and the record area is set to display the synthesized image, so that the display area is compared with the record area to enable easily confirming whether the actually acquired synthesized image satisfies the area desired by the user and assisting recording in an area where a better composition is provided even if the user is unfamiliar with the composition. | 04-19-2012 |
20120098995 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE - An image processing device includes a storage unit, a processing unit, and a memory. The storage unit stores a dither matrix. The memory has instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to function as: an acquiring unit that is configured to acquire an image including a plurality of pixels, each pixel having a color value; an updating unit that is configured to update a color value of at least one pixel by adding a random number to the color value; and a thresholding unit that is configured to convert the updated color value into a binary value by using the dither matrix. | 04-26-2012 |
20120105668 | REGION OF INTEREST EXTRACTION - An example image capture device determines a region of interest using a first image captured while a light source is powered off and a second image captured while a light source is powered on and uses the region of interest to automatically set configurations. In one example, an image capture device includes a controlled light source, an image sensor configured to capture images, and a processing unit configured to cause the image sensor to capture a first image of a scene while the controlled light source is powered off, cause the image sensor to capture a second image of the scene while the controlled light source is powered on, calculate luminance differences between a plurality of regions in the first image and a plurality of collocated regions in the second image, and determine that a region of interest includes those regions for which the luminance differences exceed a threshold. | 05-03-2012 |
20120105669 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus includes an imaging sensor operable to capture a subject image and output image information, a gain setting unit operable to set a value of an output signal amplification gain according to a value of ISO sensitivity for amplifying the image information output from the imaging sensor, a determination unit operable to determine a value of white balance gain to be used for white balance correction according to the value of the output signal amplification gain set by the gain setting unit, and a white balance correcting unit operable to perform white balance correction on the image information output from the imaging sensor based on the value of the output signal amplification gain set by the setting unit and the value of the white balance gain determined by the determination unit. | 05-03-2012 |
20120105670 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGING SYSTEM - An image sensing apparatus includes a pixel array, a first color filter, a second color filter, and a light shielding portion. The amount of electric charges generated in a first pixel after light of a first wavelength enters the first pixel is larger than that of electric charges generated in a second pixel after light of a second wavelength enters the second pixel. The light shielding portion defines the aperture regions of the first and second pixels so as to set the aperture area of the first pixel larger than that of the second pixel. | 05-03-2012 |
20120113294 | CAMERA DEVICE, COLOR CALIBRATION METHOD, AND PROGRAM - A camera device ( | 05-10-2012 |
20120120277 | Multi-point Touch Focus - A camera includes a lens arranged to focus an image on an image sensor and a touch sensitive visual display for freely selecting two or more regions of interest on a live preview image by touch input. An image processor is coupled to the image sensor and the touch sensitive visual display. The image processor displays the live preview image according to the image focused on the image sensor by the lens. The image processor further receives the selection the regions of interest and controls acquisition of the image from the image sensor based on the characteristics of the image in regions that correspond to at least two of the regions of interest on the live preview image. The image processor may optimize sharpness and/or exposure of the image in at least two of the regions of interest. The image processor may track movement of the selected regions of interest. | 05-17-2012 |
20120120278 | IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGING METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM - An imaging apparatus including an imaging unit that captures images of a photographic subject and continuously generates electronic image data; a display unit that displays, at a predetermined display frame rate, images corresponding to the image data generated by the imaging unit; an image processing unit that either performs a first-type special effect operation that can be displayed at the predetermined display frame rate or performs a second-type special effect operation that can be displayed at a faster display frame rate than the predetermined display frame rate; an operation input unit that receives input of a change instruction signal that provides an instruction for changing a combination of image processing operations during a special effect operation performed by the image processing unit; and a control unit that instructs the image processing unit to switch the special effect operation from the first-type special effect operation to the second-type special effect operation. | 05-17-2012 |
20120127334 | ADAPTIVE SPATIAL SAMPLING USING AN IMAGING ASSEMBLY HAVING A TUNABLE SPECTRAL RESPONSE - Image capture using an image capture device which includes an imaging assembly having a spectral response which is tunable in accordance with a capture parameter. A default capture parameter is applied to the imaging assembly, wherein the default capture parameter has high spectral dimensionality. A sample image of a scene is captured. The sample image is analyzed to identify multiple different regions in the scene, wherein each such region shares similar imaging properties that are dissimilar from imaging properties in other regions of the scene. A spectral mask is derived based on the analysis, wherein the spectral mask is derived so as to achieve good image capture tailored to the imaging properties of each different region of the scene. The spectral mask is applied as the capture parameter to the imaging assembly. A final image of the scene is captured and stored. | 05-24-2012 |
20120127335 | IMAGE CAPTURE WITH REGION-BASED ADJUSTMENT OF CONTRAST - Image capture with an image capture device including an imaging assembly having a spectral response which is tunable in accordance with a capture parameter. A first capture parameter is applied to the imaging assembly. A preview image of a scene is captured using the imaging assembly whose spectral response is tuned in accordance with the first capture parameter. A user interface is displayed by which first and second regions of the preview image are designated, and by which a target range is set for contrast between the first and second regions. A second capture parameter is derived for the imaging assembly, by implementing the target range for contrast between the first and second regions. The second capture parameter is applied to the imaging assembly. A second image of the scene is captured by using the imaging assembly whose spectral response is tuned in accordance with the second capture parameter. | 05-24-2012 |
20120127336 | IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGING METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - The present invention provides an imaging apparatus which, when a dynamic range is expanded, even if a subject is irradiated by a plurality of different light sources, can apply adequate white balances to respective light sources. The imaging apparatus captures two images from an image sensor at different exposures when a preview image, which is input from the image sensor but is not captured yet, includes an area which is irradiated by the different light sources and which comprises the different brightnesses. The imaging apparatus then composes a dark area of the one image captured at the over exposure and applied a white balance to and a bright area of the other image captured at the under exposure and applied a white balance to. | 05-24-2012 |
20120127337 | IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE - An image capture device according to the embodiment of the present invention includes an image capture section | 05-24-2012 |
20120147210 | IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE AND SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE - According to the embodiment, a feedback clamp circuit is included, which increases or decreases a clamp parameter so that a black level approaches a target value while controlling a change amount of the clamp parameter, which sets the black level, based on the black level read out from OB pixels. | 06-14-2012 |
20120147211 | AUTO WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT SYSTEM, AUTO WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD, AND CAMERA MODULE - According to one embodiment, an auto white balance adjustment system includes a first color judgment gate generation unit and a second color judgment gate generation unit. The second color judgment gate generation unit defines a color-temperature range subject to a white balance adjustment for each light source. The color judgment gate switch unit switches between the first color judgment gate and the second color judgment gate, as a reference for selecting pixel data used for calculating the white balance gain. | 06-14-2012 |
20120147212 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging optical system having an aperture; an imaging device that outputs an image signal; an electronic shading processing portion that adds an electronic shading to a photographic image corresponding to the image signal; and a control portion which determines whether or not an optical shading can be added to the photographic image based on the imaging condition, the control portion controlling the aperture and adding the optical shading when the optical shading can be added, and the control portion controlling the electronic shading processing portion and adding the electronic shading when it is difficult to add the optical shading. | 06-14-2012 |
20120147213 | White Balance Correction In A Captured Digital Image - A method for correcting white balance in a captured digital image includes storing raw sensor data representative of the captured digital image in a memory and normalizing the raw sensor data by applying an illuminant-independent shading and vignetting correction to the raw sensor data. The method continues with applying a plurality of illuminant-dependent shading and vignetting correction masks to the raw sensor data and comparing the illuminant-dependent shading and vignetting correction result with the illuminant-independent shading and vignetting correction result. | 06-14-2012 |
20120154625 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM RECORDING MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program recording medium are provided. The image processing apparatus includes a color reproduction correction unit for correcting an image signal formed by an imaging element according to a color reproduction matrix; a color reproduction matrix storage unit for storing a registered color reproduction matrix or an inverse matrix of the registered color reproduction matrix for each light source coordinates in a color space; and a color reproduction matrix calculation unit for interpolating inverse matrices of registered color reproduction matrices corresponding to at least two light source coordinates stored in the color reproduction matrix storage unit according to estimated light source coordinates in the color space, which are obtained from the image signal, and calculating an inverse matrix of a result of the interpolation as the color reproduction matrix. | 06-21-2012 |
20120154626 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS FOR IMAGE RESTORATION - The image processing method includes a step of acquiring an input image produced by image capturing using an optical system, an image restoration step of performing an image restoration process on the input image to produce a restored image, the image restoration process using an image restoration filter produced based on an optical transfer function of the optical system, and a color shift detection step of detecting color shift included in the restored image, the color shift corresponding to chromatic aberration of magnification of the optical system. The method further includes a restored image color shift reduction step of performing a color shift reduction process on the restored image to reduce the color shift detected in the color shift detection step. | 06-21-2012 |
20120162464 | DIGITAL IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - A digital image photographing apparatus and a method of controlling the same. The method includes: determining a focal area by a touch; if the touch continues for a first time period, performing a photographing operation to generate a first capture image; and if the touch continues for a second time period that is longer than the first time period, a successive capturing operation is performed until the touch is ended. Accordingly, auto-focusing may be performed by using a touching method, and a photographing may be performed while maintaining an auto-focusing result, and then successive capturing may be performed. | 06-28-2012 |
20120162465 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH TWO IMAGE SENSORS - An electronic device for producing an image of an object is disclosed. The electronic device may include a black-and-white camera having a first sensor area configured to receive luma data pertaining to the object. The first sensor area may correspond to a first pixel array, the luma data associated with the first pixel array. The electronic device may also include a color camera having a second sensor area configured to receive chroma data pertaining to the object. The second sensor area may correspond to a second pixel array. The chroma data may be associated with the second pixel array. The electronic device may also include first logic configured to correlate pixels in the first pixel array with locations on the second sensor area. | 06-28-2012 |
20120182444 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS - An image capture apparatus compares a first pixel value and a second pixel value at the same address of two images captured by continuous shooting with a predetermined threshold, and, when at least one of the first pixel value and the second pixel value exceeds the predetermined threshold, updates the second pixel value with a not smaller one of the first pixel value and the second pixel value. After repeating updating of the image data for a plurality of image planes, the image capture apparatus generates a combined image data using the image data in a memory. | 07-19-2012 |
20120188399 | Methods and Systems for Automatic White Balance - A method for compensating an automatic white balance (AWB) reference generated for a first image sensor is provided that includes computing a red adjustment factor, a green adjustment factor, and a blue adjustment factor based on an average red value, an average green value, and an average blue value of the first image sensor and an average red value, an average green value, and an average blue value of a second image sensor, and modifying a red value, a green value, a blue value, and chromaticity values of the AWB reference based on the red adjustment factor, the green adjustment factor, and the blue adjustment factor to generate a compensated reference for the second image sensor. A method for tuning AWB references based on changes in chromaticity values of the references is also provided. | 07-26-2012 |
20120188400 | PIXEL ARRANGEMENT FOR EXTENDED DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGING - The present invention relates to an imager for improving image quality. The imager includes a pixel array of a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns. The imager also includes a color filter array (CFA) including a color pattern of a first color filter allowing a first pixel to detect a first color of light, and a second color filter allowing a second pixel to detect a second color of light and a third color of light. Each of the color filters in the color pattern are included in each row of the pixel array. | 07-26-2012 |
20120188401 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS - An image processing apparatus includes a taker which repeatedly takes an image expressing an imaged scene. An adjuster adjusts a white balance of the taken image, referring to a confirmed white balance adjustment coefficient. A calculator calculates an appropriate white balance adjustment coefficient based on a partial image indicating colors in a color range that includes a white color, out of the taken image. A detector detects a possibility of the partial image focused on by the calculator being an image expressing a human skin, based on the calculated appropriate white balance adjustment coefficient. A corrector brings a value of the calculated appropriate white balance adjustment coefficient closer to a value of the confirmed white balance adjustment coefficient, along with an increase in the value of the detected possibility. An updater updates the confirmed white balance adjustment coefficient by the appropriate white balance adjustment coefficient indicating the corrected value. | 07-26-2012 |
20120188402 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COMPENSATING FOR VARIATIONS IN DIGITAL CAMERAS - A method of manufacturing a digital video camera is provided. The method comprises acquiring video images of colored light, and measuring a light intensity response of the video camera to the colored light. The method further comprises comparing the intensity of the measured response to a desired colored light intensity for determining a color intensity bias and storing the intensity bias for the colored light in the camera so that the bias can be applied when the camera is operating at an arbitrary lighting condition. | 07-26-2012 |
20120194697 | INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An information processing apparatus, information processing method and computer program product cooperate in detecting a first target object contained in image information. Image information of an image is received through an interface. A processing circuit determines whether a first target object in the image information has not yet been detected. A determination is also made regarding whether a second target object in the image information has been detected. An image quality parameter of the image is modified to assist subsequent detection attempts in recognizing the first target object when the first target object has not yet been detected but the second target object has been detected. | 08-02-2012 |
20120200731 | COLOR RESTORATION APPARATUS AND METHOD - A color restoration apparatus is provided. The color restoration apparatus including a color correction gain generator configured to compensate for a first broad-band pixel value of a first image, which is acquired from a single-exposure environment, based on a saturation gain for compensating for a difference between a time of the saturation of a broad-band pixel value and a time of the saturation of a narrow-band pixel value, and to calculate a color correction gain based on a first narrow-band pixel value of the first image and the compensated first broad-band pixel value, and a color corrector configured to compensate for a second broad-band pixel value of a second image, which is acquired from a dual-exposure environment, based on a color gain difference compensation value for compensating for a difference between color gains applied to the second image, and to calculate a restored narrow-band pixel value based on the second narrow-band pixel value, the compensated second broad-band pixel value, and the color correction gain. | 08-09-2012 |
20120200732 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD - A first white balance correction amount is calculated according to similarity between image data acquired by an image pickup unit and past image data acquired in the past, and a first white balance correction is performed on the image data according to the first white balance correction amount. A luminance correction amount and a color correction amount are calculated according to similarity between the corrected image data and the past image data corrected in the first white balance correction. Using one of them, the first white balance correction amount is corrected thereby to obtain a second white balance correction amount. According to the obtained correction amount, a second white balance correction, a luminance correction, and a color correction are performed on the image data acquired by the image pickup unit. | 08-09-2012 |
20120200733 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGING APPARATUS, COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - In order to effectively and efficiently perform noise reduction by smoothing, an image processing apparatus of the present invention includes an image inputting part inputting an image in which a first pixels and a second pixels indicating mutually different color components are included and at least the second pixels are arranged at discrete positions, a color estimating part estimating first color component data at the second pixels based on first color component data of the first pixels, a calculating part calculating color-difference data at the second pixels based on the first color component data at the second pixels and second color component data of the second pixels, a smoothing part performing smoothing processing on a discrete color-difference image formed of the color-difference data being calculated at the second pixels, and a color-difference estimating part estimating color-difference data at pixels other than the second pixels on the input image. | 08-09-2012 |
20120200734 | INCREASED LOW LIGHT SENSITIVITY FOR IMAGE SENSORS BY COMBINING QUANTUM DOT SENSITIVITY TO VISIBLE AND INFRARED LIGHT - A camera unit generates a processed digital image by augmenting color image data with infrared image data according to the level of ambient light exposure. The camera has an ambient light sensor that detects the level of ambient light in the camera unit and an image sensor that provides image data. One or more quantum dot layers may be included in the image sensor. A camera controller adapts the camera unit for operation in different modes that are selectable based on the levels of detected ambient light. The image data is processed into a digital image, according to the selected mode of operation for the camera unit, using color image data only when the level of ambient light is high, but augmenting the color image data with infrared image data when the level of ambient light is low to increase the color luminance of the final processed digital image. | 08-09-2012 |
20120212643 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND CAMERA MODULE - According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a pixel interpolation unit. The pixel interpolation unit includes a calculating unit that adds, to a first frequency band component, a second frequency band component in a direction in which the amount of change in the sensitivity level value of an acquired color component is determined to be small. The second frequency band component is in a frequency band higher than the first frequency band component. | 08-23-2012 |
20120212644 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus comprises edge detection unit, on-axis chromatic aberration edge detection unit which detects an edge determined to include chromatic aberration on an axis from the edges, color deviation amount acquisition unit which acquires color deviation amounts on the edges, and correction unit which performs chromatic aberration correction, wherein the on-axis chromatic aberration edge detection unit detects, as the edge which includes the chromatic aberration on the axis, an edge having signals corresponding to at least one color on the edge of the image data, which has a blur amount that is not less than a threshold value, and signals corresponding to at least another color which has a blur amount that is less than the threshold value, and the color deviation amount acquisition unit acquires the color deviation amounts from edges among the edges. | 08-23-2012 |
20120218439 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An image processing device includes a color temperature estimating unit configured to estimate a color temperature of a light source in imaging, a white balance adjusting unit configured to perform first white balance adjustment in which white balance of an image signal is adjusted on the basis of the estimated color temperature when the estimated color temperature is within a predetermined color temperature range, and perform second white balance adjustment in which the white balance of the image signal is adjusted on the basis of the estimated color temperature even when the estimated color temperature is not within the predetermined color temperature range, and a color region extracting unit configured to extract a color region of a specific color by using the image signal to which the second white balance adjustment is applied. | 08-30-2012 |
20120224081 | CAMERA DEVICE AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC RED-EYE AVOIDANCE OF DIGITAL IMAGES - In a method for automatic red-eye avoidance of digital images captured from a person using a camera device, the camera device includes a camera lens and a red-eye flash light. The camera lens captures a digital image of the person, and a face area is detected from the digital image according to a face feature value. An eyes area is detected from the face area according to an eyes feature value, and two eyeball positions are detected from the eyes area according to an eyeball feature value. The method analyzes color of each eyeball positions, and determines whether one of the eyeballs of the person is red according to the analysis result. The method invokes a red-eye flash mode of the red-eye flash light if one of the eyeballs is red, and controls the camera lens to capture a non-redeye image of the person under the red-eye flash mode. | 09-06-2012 |
20120236173 | DIGITAL CAMERA USER INTERFACE WHICH ADAPTS TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS - A digital camera having a user interface that automatically adapts to its environment, comprising: an image sensor for capturing a digital image; an optical system for forming an image of a scene onto the image sensor; one or more environmental sensors; a configurable user interface; a data processing system; a storage memory for storing captured images; and a program memory communicatively connected to the data processing system and storing instructions configured to cause the data processing system to implement a method for adaptively configuring the user interface. The stored instructions include: sensing one or more environmental attributes using the environmental sensors; automatically configuring at least one user control element of the user interface in response to the one or more sensed environmental attributes without any user intervention; capturing a digital image of a scene using the image sensor; and storing the captured digital image in the storage memory. | 09-20-2012 |
20120242859 | OPTICAL CONTROL DEVICE, CONTROL DEVICE, OPTICAL SCOPE, AND SCANNING OPTICAL DEVICE - An optical control device is provided in a scanning optical device that applies light emitted from a light source to an observation target as spot light that is applied in a spot-like shape, and detects reflected light from the observation target while scanning with the spot light, the optical control device including an intensity enhancement section that enhances intensity of light within a specific wavelength band included in a wavelength band of white light emitted from a white light source, an irradiation section that applies specific wavelength band-enhanced white light to the observation target, the specific wavelength band-enhanced white light being white light for which intensity of light within the specific wavelength band is enhanced, and a light detection section that detects reflected light from the observation target when the irradiation section applies the specific wavelength band-enhanced white light to the observation target. | 09-27-2012 |
20120249827 | Method for Image Processing of High-Bit Depth Sensors - High-bit depth sensors often capture more information then can be displayed on a commercially available display. Due to this, image processing systems and methods are disclosed to ensure that as much information as possible is presented to a user in a meaningful and statistically significant manner. The image processing systems and methods disclosed herein allow a user to view and process data that would otherwise be invisible to the user. | 10-04-2012 |
20120249828 | APPARATAUS AND METHOD OF AUTOMATIC COLOR SHADING REMOVAL IN CMOS IMAGE SENSORS - A method of processing an image includes the steps of separating an image into multiple color channels, and dividing the image into multiple zones, in which each zone includes a sub-array of pixels. The method then calculates a color shading profile for each zone. The color shading profile is calculated as a linear function, typically a straight line. If a linear function cannot be determined for that zone, the method interprets a function for that zone using the nearest zone neighbors. The method corrects the color shading using the functions calculated for the respective zones. | 10-04-2012 |
20120262600 | WHITE BALANCE OPTIMIZATION WITH HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGES - Systems and methods to improve the white balance of a high dynamic range image are disclosed. In a particular embodiment, an imaging device includes a camera sensor and a processor, the processor configured to capture a lighter image and a darker image of a scene. The processor is then configured to white balance the lighter image based on the lighter regions of the image, and to white balance the darker image based on the darker regions of the image. The two images can then be combined to produce a final image. | 10-18-2012 |
20120262601 | QUANTUM DOT IMAGE SENSOR WITH DUMMY PIXELS USED FOR INTENSITY CALCULATIONS - An image sensor of a camera unit comprises raw image pixels for generating raw image color representing the exposed scene image. The sensor also comprises dummy pixels for supplemental data pertaining to characteristics of light exposing the scene image. A image sensor processor generates a processed digital image by adjusting component color values, obtained from raw image color data, by one or more adjustment factors calculated from supplemental image data. The adjustment factors are calculated according a selected mode of operation. | 10-18-2012 |
20120274805 | Color Correction for Static Cameras - Methods and apparatus are provided for color correction of images. One or more colors in an image obtained from a static video camera are corrected by obtaining one or more historical background models from one or more prior images obtained from the static video camera; obtaining a live background model and a live foreground model from one or more current images obtained from the static video camera; generating a reference image from the one or more historical background models; and processing the reference image, the live background model, and the live foreground model to generate a set of color corrected foreground objects in the image. The set of color corrected foreground objects is optionally processed to classify a color of at least one of the foreground objects. | 11-01-2012 |
20120274806 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - An image capture apparatus capable of auto bracketing. When a capture count for the auto bracketing is N (N is an integer of not less than three), a total of N−1 correction values are set by at least one on each of a positive side and negative side with respect to a reference value, and the apparatus sequentially expands or narrows a correction width serving as a difference between the reference value and each of the N−1 correction values in accordance with user's operation. When the capture count is two, the reference value and one correction value are set, and the apparatus sequentially increases or decreases the one correction value within the predetermined range in accordance with user's operation. | 11-01-2012 |
20120281108 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus divides image data captured while a flash light is not emitted into a plurality of areas, calculates color evaluation value for each of the divided areas. The apparatus divides image data captured while the flash light is emitted into a plurality of areas and to calculate color evaluation value for each of the divided areas. The apparatus determines a movement for each of the plurality of areas in accordance with the calculated color evaluation value and the calculated color evaluation value. The apparatus performs white balance processing into image data in accordance with the determined movement. | 11-08-2012 |
20120281109 | PHOTOGRAPHING SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING COLOR CORRECTION OF AN IMAGE OF A SUBJECT USING SPECTROSCOPIC INFORMATION OF THE SUBJECT - A photographing system for photographing a subject includes a color information detecting section for detecting color information of the subject, a color image capturing section for capturing a color image of the subject, and a color correcting section for performing color correction of a color image captured by the color image capturing section from corresponding position information of the color information detecting section and the color image capturing section so as to enable highly accurate color correction. | 11-08-2012 |
20120287302 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VIDEO CODING IN A DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT - A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a camera dynamic parameter; determining a reference transform parameter based on the camera dynamic parameter; applying the reference transform parameter to generate a video image; and encoding the reference transform parameter in a bitstream for transmission with the video image. In other more specific instances, the method may include decoding a particular video image; decoding a particular reference transform parameter; and applying a particular reference transform parameter to the particular video image. The entropy-decoded data can undergo inverse quantization and transformation such that reference transformed data is combined with the entropy-decoded data. Additionally, the entropy-decoded data can be subjected to filtering before decoded video images are rendered on a display. | 11-15-2012 |
20120307103 | IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGING METHOD AND COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM - An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging unit that generates electronic image data; a display unit that displays an image; an image processor that produces a visual effect on the image data in combination with a plurality of image processes to generate processed image data; a release input unit that accepts an input of a release signal of instructing the imaging apparatus to execute shooting; an image process controller that executes the plural kinds of special effect processes on one piece of image data generated after the acceptance of the input of the release signal and to generate plural pieces of processed image data; and a display controller that controls the display unit to display, for a predetermined time, one of an image corresponding to the piece of image data and at least one processed image corresponding to at least a part of the plural pieces of processed image data. | 12-06-2012 |
20120307104 | IMAGING DEVICE CAMERA SYSTEM AND DRIVING METHOD OF THE SAME - An imaging device including an electronic shutter and a pixel array with color pixels with different characteristics of spectral sensitivity arranged. The pixel array part has at least one clear pixel, the plurality of color pixels including (i) a first color filter pixel having a peak of spectral sensitivity characteristics for red, (ii) a second color filter pixel having a peak for blue, and (iii) a third color filter pixel having a peak for green. The clear pixel has a high transmittance arranged in an oblique pixel array system at a given position of a given row and a given column with respect to the first color filter pixel, the second color filter pixel, and the third color filter pixel. An electronic shutter is separately driven for the at least one clear pixel and for the plurality of color filter pixels. | 12-06-2012 |
20120307105 | IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSING CIRCUIT, IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE, IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - The present invention relates to an image signal processing circuit, an image capture device, and image signal processing method, and a program capable of reading special information, such as a bar code, using normal lenses with high precision without needing dedicated EDOF lenses and signal processing circuits. The image signal processing circuit has a processing circuit | 12-06-2012 |
20130002901 | FINE GRAINED POWER GATING OF CAMERA IMAGE PROCESSING - Methods and apparatus relating to fine grained power gating of camera image processing are described. In an embodiment, an Image Signal Processor (ISP) includes a first partition to receive and store image sensor data in a memory during a first time period. The ISP also includes a second partition to process the stored image sensor data during a second time period that follows the first time period. The second partition is entered into a low power consumption state during the first time period. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed. | 01-03-2013 |
20130010155 | LIGHT-EMITTING APPARATUS AND CAMERA SYSTEM INCLUDING THE SAME - A light-emitting apparatus and a camera system including the same are disclosed. According to an aspect of the invention, a camera system is provided that includes a light source color detector for detecting a color temperature of a light source; an auxiliary light apparatus for changing a color temperature of auxiliary light according to the detected color temperature of the light source; and a white balance controller for adjusting white balance while the auxiliary light is being radiated. Accordingly, a photograph having a natural color sense can be reproduced by reducing a sense of color incongruity in a captured image. | 01-10-2013 |
20130010156 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD FOR IMAGING APPARATUS - The present invention is directed to performing imaging processing for dividing a video signal obtained by an imaging unit into a plurality of areas, and detecting in parallel respective evaluation values of video signals of the plurality of areas, reducing the video signal obtained by the imaging unit, detecting an evaluation value of the reduced video signal, and controlling an operation of the imaging apparatus using either the evaluation values of video signals of the plurality of areas or the evaluation value of the reduced video signal. | 01-10-2013 |
20130010157 | IMAGE-PICKUP APPARATUS AND WHITE-BALANCE CONTROL METHOD PROVIDED THEREFOR - The present invention allows for selecting a predetermined chromatic color for extraction from among a plurality of chromatic colors based on the result of identification of acquired photographing information. When the value of a white extraction area of the photographing information is smaller than a first threshold value, it is determined whether the value of the area of the selected predetermined chromatic color is greater than or equal to a second threshold value. If the value of the predetermined chromatic-color area is determined to be greater than or equal to the second threshold value, white balance is controlled by bringing the value of the predetermined chromatic-color area near to a predetermined target color value. | 01-10-2013 |
20130016249 | IMAGING APPARATUS CAPABLE OF CONTROLLING EXPOSURE INCLUDING FLASH AMOUNT CONTROL OF FLASH APPARATUS, AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOFAANM Mine; YosukeAACI Yokohama-shiAACO JPAAGP Mine; Yosuke Yokohama-shi JP - There is provided an imaging apparatus capable of reducing effects given by an object outside a dynamic range of the camera, and capturing an object image with appropriate exposure, when a camera performs imaging. The imaging apparatus is configured to separate image data into a plurality of blocks, extract a specific-color block using an average value of each color component acquired using only a pixel group whose pixel output is included within a predetermined range and the number of the groups, set a weighting coefficient of an exposure-amount calculation for the block to be determined as the specific color, and set the exposure based on the weighting coefficient and an average value of brightness acquired using only the pixel groups whose pixel output and the average value of the brightness of the block are included within the predetermined range. | 01-17-2013 |
20130016250 | PROCESSING COLOR AND PANCHROMATIC PIXELS - A method for forming a final digital color image includes capturing an image using an image sensor having panchromatic pixels and color pixels corresponding to at least two color photoresponses; providing from the captured image a digital panchromatic image and an intermediate digital color image; and using the digital panchromatic image and the intermediate digital color image to provide the final digital color image. | 01-17-2013 |
20130021495 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - The image processing apparatus includes a gradient calculating part calculating intensity gradient at each pixel in a captured color image, a first color blur determining part determining that a pixel at which the intensity gradient satisfies a color blur condition using a first threshold is a possible color blur pixel, and a second color blur determining part detecting a saturated pixel in the color image, and determining, when a distance between the saturated pixel and the possible color blur pixel is within a second threshold, that the possible color blur pixel is a color blur pixel. The first and second color blur determining parts change the first and second thresholds depending on at least one of luminance and chroma of the possible color blur pixel. | 01-24-2013 |
20130021496 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING COLOR BALANCE SYNCHRONIZATION BETWEEN A PLURALITY OF VIDEO CAMERAS AND FOR OBTAINING OBJECT TRACKING BETWEEN TWO OR MORE VIDEO CAMERAS - A method for facilitating color balance synchronization between a plurality of video cameras within a system of video cameras includes detecting an object in a video sequence captured by a video camera in the system, determining an object color histogram for the detected object, updating a camera specific reference color histogram using the determined object color histogram, and determining one or more camera specific color histogram compensation coefficients by comparing the camera specific reference color histogram with a system reference color histogram. A system for facilitating color balance synchronization between a plurality of video cameras includes a video camera being connectable to a network of video cameras. | 01-24-2013 |
20130038752 | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME FOR SETTING A WHITE BALANCE - A digital photographing apparatus and method of using the digital photographing apparatus that can manually set a white balance gain. The digital photographing apparatus including a light-emitting device configured to emit light of a plurality of colors; a light-emitting device control unit configured to control light emission of the light-emitting device; an imaging device configured to capture light incident to a subject to generate a plurality of image signals; and a gain setting unit configured to set a white balance gain by using the generated image signals. | 02-14-2013 |
20130038753 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit to acquire image data, an integration unit to calculate a white balance integration value, a first calculation unit to calculate a still image white balance control value, a second calculation unit to calculate a histogram white balance control value, and a histogram processing unit. The second calculation unit calculates the histogram white balance control value by converting a white balance control value which is used in white balance processing on the image data acquired by the imaging unit in an electronic view finder (EVF) mode to the still image white balance control value, and the histogram processing unit adjusts color balance of the image data acquired by the imaging unit using the calculated histogram white balance control value and performs the histogram processing in parallel with calculation of the white balance integration value. | 02-14-2013 |
20130044236 | Method and Apparatus of Correcting Hybrid Flash Artifacts in Digital Images - A method for digital image eye artifact detection and correction include identifying one or more candidate red-eye defect regions in an acquired image. For one or more candidate red-eye regions, a seed pixels and/or a region of pixels having a high intensity value in the vicinity of the candidate red-eye region is identified. The shape, roundness or other eye-related characteristic of a combined hybrid region including the candidate red-eye region and the region of high intensity pixels is analyzed. Based on the analysis of the eye-related characteristic of the combined hybrid region, it is determined whether to apply flash artifact correction, including red eye correction of the candidate red-eye region and/or correction of the region of high intensity pixels. | 02-21-2013 |
20130057724 | IMAGING ELEMENT AND IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging element includes a red color filter, a blue color filter, and two kinds of first and second green color filters. The first green color filter has a peak spectral sensitivity in a longer wavelength region than a wavelength of a peak spectral sensitivity of the second green color filter. | 03-07-2013 |
20130057725 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus determines whether a second light source is present with respect to image data, generates, when it is determined that the second light source is present, first image data based on a first white balance correction value and second image data based on a second white balance correction value, and combines the first image data and the second image data according to a determined combination ratio. | 03-07-2013 |
20130076937 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD THEREOF, AND IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS - An image capture apparatus generating an image, a dynamic range of which is expanded by composing two images having different exposure amounts, includes an imaging unit which continuously outputs images captured to have two different exposure amounts. A system control unit of the image capture apparatus stores in a memory an image of the first frame of two frames to be composed, which are continuously output from the imaging unit, and composes an image of the second frame output from the imaging unit and the image held in the memory so as to expand a dynamic range. The system control unit generates tone compression characteristics based on the image held in the memory and an image obtained by reducing a resolution of the held image, and compresses tones of the composed image using the generated tone compression characteristics. | 03-28-2013 |
20130083216 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE WITH SUPPLEMENTARY SENSORS - An apparatus and method for An image capture device for Automatic White Balance (AWB) are provided. The device includes a camera for capturing an image, a primary sensor for sensing environmental conditions of the image capture device and for generating data regarding the environmental conditions, a plurality of supplementary sensors for sensing the environmental conditions of the image capture device and for generating supplementary data regarding the environmental conditions, an AWB unit for performing an AWB operation on the captured image according to the generated data and the generated supplementary data, and a controller for controlling the camera, the primary sensor, the plurality of supplementary sensors and the AWB unit. | 04-04-2013 |
20130088613 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - A determining unit determines which one of a plurality of divided areas in color distribution a value of an input image single falls within. The plurality of divided areas are defined for each of R, G, and B color components, and the determining unit determines, for each color component, which one of the plurality of divided areas the value of the input image signal falls within. An image correcting unit reads correction coefficients corresponding to the determined divided area for each color component from a correction coefficient storing unit in which correction coefficients are registered for each of the color components and each of the divided areas. The image correcting unit calculates each of R, G, and B output values of an output image signal using the correction coefficients of the individual color components read from the correction coefficient storing unit. | 04-11-2013 |
20130088614 | MOBILE TERMINAL AND METHOD FOR GENERATING AN OUT-OF-FOCUS IMAGE - Provided are a mobile terminal and a method for generating an out-of-focus image, whereby a preview image and a depth map are displayed when an out-of-focus function of the mobile terminal is selected by a user, the displayed depth map is adjusted based on a specific object that is selected from the displayed preview image, an image is captured via a camera of the mobile terminal, and an out-of-focus image is generated by blurring the captured image according to the adjusted depth map. | 04-11-2013 |
20130093914 | Transformations and White Point Constraint Solutions for a Novel Chromaticity Space - A novel chromaticity space is disclosed that may be used as a framework to implement an auto-white balance solution or other color image processing solutions that take advantage of the particular properties of the novel chromaticity space. The chromaticity space may be defined by using a series of mathematical transformations having parameters that are optimized to adapt to specific sensors' spectral sensitivities. The unique properties of the novel chromaticity space provide a conscious white point constraining strategy with clear physical meaning. In this chromaticity space, the ranges of possible white points under different kinds of lighting conditions can be defined by polygons. Because of the physical meaning the chromaticity space, the projection that is needed to bring an initially “out-of-bounds” white point back into the polygon also carries physical meaning, making the definition of projection behavior and its consequences conceptually clean and predictable. | 04-18-2013 |
20130093915 | Multi-Illuminant Color Matrix Representation and Interpolation Based on Estimated White Points - This disclosure pertains to devices, methods, and computer readable media for improved accuracy of color correction matrix (CCM) coefficient determination based on estimated white point, while maintaining a relatively smooth variation of CCM coefficients over the white point space. The techniques disclosed herein may be achieved via the storage of a limited number of determined CCM multiplier vectors and thus be effective in the camera image pipelines of real image capture devices. With the more accurate CCMs calculated with the disclosed techniques, visible improvement in rendered colors may be achieved as compared to using interpolation from a handful of corner CCMs. The color correction techniques described herein may be implemented by dedicated or general purpose hardware, general application software, or a combination of software and hardware in a computer system. | 04-18-2013 |
20130093916 | Use of Noise-Optimized Selection Criteria to Calculate Scene White Points - Methods, devices and computer readable media for implementing a “selective gray world” approach for color balancing are described. The disclosed techniques involve the use of noise-optimized selection criteria and, more specifically, in some embodiments, the interpolation between corresponding values in noise-optimized weighting tables when calculating white balance gains. Estimated scene lux levels may provide a valuable indicator of expected scene noise levels. The image processing techniques described herein may be executed by an image capture device or a general purpose processor (e.g., personal computer) executing a user-level software application. The described color balancing techniques may be implemented by dedicated or general purpose hardware, general application software, or a combination of software and hardware in a computer system. | 04-18-2013 |
20130093917 | Alleviating Dominant Color Failure in Automatic White Balance Using Histogram Trimming - Methods, devices and computer readable media for implementing novel dominant color alleviation techniques for color balancing are described. The techniques take advantage of unique properties of 2D image data histograms accumulated in a chromaticity space, along with other factors such as estimated scene lux and knowledge of plausible scene illuminant white point values within the chromaticity space. The accumulated 2D image data histograms may be refined and “trimmed,” such that the resultant image data passed to an auto white balance solution has much less influence from the dominant colors in the image, even those that overlap the plausible scene illuminant color region. The described techniques provide for white point estimates that are much less prone to dominant color failures. | 04-18-2013 |
20130100311 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, CAMERA MODULE, AND FOCUS ADJUSTMENT METHOD OF CAMERA MODULE - According to one embodiment, a solid-state imaging device includes an imaging processing circuit and a focus drive control section. The imaging processing circuit includes a luminance information generating section and a disparity amount calculating section. The luminance information generating section generates first luminance information from a first image signal. The disparity amount calculating section calculates a disparity amount based on the first luminance information and second luminance information. The second luminance information is contained in a second image signal. The focus drive control section controls the focus drive in accordance with a subject distance obtained using the disparity amount. | 04-25-2013 |
20130100312 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing device may include an image processing pipeline in which at least a magnification chromatic aberration correction processing unit that corrects magnification chromatic aberration of an imaging optical system, a distortion aberration correction processing unit that corrects distortion aberration of the imaging optical system, and an imaging processing unit that performs image processing with respect to image data and outputs image processed-image data to the distortion aberration correction processing unit are included in one pipeline, magnification chromatic aberration of the image data having been corrected by the magnification chromatic aberration correction processing unit, a sequencer that controls operations of respective elements included in the image processing pipeline, and a distortion correction range calculation unit that calculates a distortion aberration correction input range. | 04-25-2013 |
20130100313 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - An image processing device includes an imaging unit generating RAW image data of a shot image and a gradation conversion unit. The imaging unit includes an imaging sensor which converts an image of a subject into an electrical signal. Then the gradation conversion unit performs gradation conversion according to a shooting condition for each of color signals based on a pixel array of the imaging sensor on the RAW image data of continuously shot images. Thus, it is possible to efficiently compress the RAW image data of continuously shot images. | 04-25-2013 |
20130107076 | DIGITAL CAMERA THAT TRANSMITS DATA TO EXTERNAL SYSTEM | 05-02-2013 |
20130113956 | FACE DETECTION AND TRACKING - Methods and systems for face detection and tracking using an image-based capture device are disclosed herein. The method includes generating a depth image of a scene, generating a mask image from the depth image, and detecting a position of a face of a user in the scene using the mask image. The method also includes determining an intensity of the face using a first color channel of the mask image and adjusting a gain level of a first color channel of the image-based capture device directed at the scene to achieve a target intensity of the face. | 05-09-2013 |
20130113957 | Digital Photographing Apparatus - A digital photographing apparatus including: a display unit for displaying a captured image; a position setting unit for setting a position on the display unit; an area setting unit for setting an area based on the position set by the position setting unit; a photometry unit for measuring luminance of the set area; an exposure value determination unit for determining an exposure value based on a photometric reference and a result of the measuring performed by the photometry unit. The digital photographing apparatus may capture a high quality image by properly adjusting exposure and white balance. | 05-09-2013 |
20130113958 | COLOR IMAGE SENSOR ARRAY WITH COLOR CROSSTALK TEST PATTERNS - An integrated circuit comprises a semiconductor substrate and a color image sensor array on the substrate. The color image sensor array has a first configuration of color pixels for collecting color image data, and at least one crosstalk test pattern on the substrate proximate the color image sensor array. The crosstalk test pattern includes a plurality of color sensing pixels arranged for making color crosstalk measurements. The test pattern configuration is different from the first configuration. | 05-09-2013 |
20130120607 | IMAGE COMPOSITION APPARATUS AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING A PROGRAM - An image composition apparatus | 05-16-2013 |
20130120608 | LIGHT SOURCE ESTIMATION DEVICE, LIGHT SOURCE ESTIMATION METHOD, LIGHT SOURCE ESTIMATION PROGRAM, AND IMAGING APPARATUS - A light source estimation device includes: a light-source-estimation area setting section configured to detect a background in an image and to set a light-source-estimation area on the basis of a result of the background detection; and a light source estimation section configured to estimate a type of a light source when the image is captured on the basis of the light-source-estimation area. | 05-16-2013 |
20130120609 | IMAGING DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD FOR IMAGING DEVICE - An imaging device of the present invention comprises an image sensor provided with phase detection pixels for focus detection at some of its pixels, a contrast information detection section for detecting contrast information of a formed image from pixels, among pixel data output from the image sensor, positioned close to the phase detection pixels, a phase detection pixel correction determination section for determining whether or not to correct data of the phase detection pixel based on the detected contrast information, a weighting determination section for determining a weighting for neighboring pixels to the phase detection pixels based on the detected contrast information, a pixel correction section for carrying out weighted correction of the phase detection pixels based on the determined weighting, and a color conversion processing section for carrying out conversion processing for display of the image data or to create an image for storage, after the pixel correction. | 05-16-2013 |
20130128073 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ADJUSTING WHITE BALANCE - An apparatus and method for adjusting a white balance, and more particularly, an apparatus and method for adjusting a white balance of an image captured with a complex light source are provided. The apparatus includes a camera unit, and a controller for controlling recognition of a facial image from an image captured by the camera unit and, if it is determined that the image has been captured with a complex light source based on a comparison between a white balance gain calculated based on a facial skin color of the recognized facial image and a white balance gain calculated based on a white balance scheme, for adjusting a white balance of the captured image based on a final white balance gain extracted by interpolating the two white balance gains. | 05-23-2013 |
20130128074 | DISPLAY UNIT, IMAGE SENSING UNIT AND DISPLAY SYSTEM - A host unit | 05-23-2013 |
20130135494 | USER INTERFACE (UI) PROVIDING METHOD AND PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS USING THE SAME - A User Interface (UI) providing method and a photographing apparatus using the UI providing method are provided. The UI providing method includes capturing an image, calculating a “hand shake” value of the captured image by comparing the captured image with a pre-capture image corresponding to the captured image, and displaying a UI corresponding to the calculated “hand shake” value of the captured image along with the captured image. A user can decide whether to delete or edit a captured image based on “hand shake” information relating to the captured image. | 05-30-2013 |
20130155274 | AUTO WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT SYSTEM, AUTO WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD, AND CAMERA MODULE - According to one embodiment, a white balance fine adjustment starting instruction unit determines whether to start fine adjustment in white balance using a first threshold value. The white balance fine adjustment starting instruction unit determines whether to keep on performing the fine adjustment using a second threshold value. The second threshold value is set for the fine adjustment based on a second color judgment gate. The second color judgment gate defines the range of a target color temperature in white balance adjustment for each light source. | 06-20-2013 |
20130155275 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, IMAGE CAPTURING METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM STORING IMAGE CAPTURING PROGRAM - An image capturing apparatus includes: an image capturing device in which a plurality of pixels having sensitivity to visible light and illuminating light in a certain wavelength range are arranged and that captures a moving image having a plurality of frames; a radiation device that radiates the illuminating light onto an image capturing region of the image capturing device; and a processor that executes a procedure, the procedure comprising: selecting, from among a plurality of frames captured by the image capturing device, a frame captured during an OFF period of the radiation device, and outputting the selected frame as a frame representing a visible image of the image capturing region. | 06-20-2013 |
20130155276 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, AND CONTROL METHOD AND PROGRAM THEREFOR - To allow an AF mode to be quickly changed when the AF mode can be changed among a plurality of AF modes. | 06-20-2013 |
20130162862 | COLOR CORRECTION OF DIGITAL COLOR IMAGE - A software application corrects for luminance and/or color in a captured image on a device having two cameras. The first camera receives a reference image, and the second camera receives a target image. The device compares the reference image and a reference file retrieved from memory to identify one or more luminance or color differences, and it automatically actuates an optical adjustment element of the second imaging device in response to the differences. The second imaging device captures a target image, and the target image is stored in a computer-readable memory. | 06-27-2013 |
20130162863 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND EVALUATION VALUE GENERATION APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus and an evaluation value generation apparatus can include an image data interface unit that outputs image data according to a pixel signal input from a solid-state imaging device as first image data, an image data reading unit that reads image data stored in a storage unit and outputs the read image data as second image data, an evaluation value generation unit that generates an evaluation value based on input image data, an image data selection unit that selects one of image data based on the first image data and image data based on the second image data as image data to be input to the evaluation value generation unit, and an image data writing unit that stores the image data based on the first image data in the storage unit. | 06-27-2013 |
20130176455 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a calculation unit. The calculation unit calculates a reliability for each of pixel areas in such a manner that the reliability increases with increasing at least one of (1) a first evaluation value which increases with increasing planarity, in a color space, of a distribution of pixel values in each of the pixel areas, (2) a second evaluation value which increases with increasing wideness of pixel values in each of the pixel areas on an estimated plane approximating the distribution of the pixel values in each of the pixel areas in the color space, and (3) a third evaluation value which increases with decreasing distance between the estimated plane and an origin of the color space. | 07-11-2013 |
20130182142 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IMAGE PROCESSING - An image processing apparatus and an image processing method are provided. The image processing apparatus includes a sample unit, an amplifier, an analog to digital converter, and a white balance unit. The sample unit is for sampling a pixel to obtain a pixel voltage. The amplifier is for amplifying the pixel voltage according to an analog gain. The analog to digital converter is for converting the amplified pixel voltage into digital pixel data, the digital pixel data including a number of first sub-pixel data which are corresponding to different colors. The white balance unit is for obtaining a number of second of sub-pixel data from white balance compensating the first sub-pixel data. The first sub-pixel data are white balance compensated respectively according to the analog gain and a number of white balance gains which are corresponding to different sub-pixels. | 07-18-2013 |
20130182143 | APPARATUS AND A METHOD FOR PROCESSING A MOVING IMAGE, AND A NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM THEREOF - According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit, a clustering unit, a detection unit, and a correction unit. The acquisition unit is configured to acquire a moving image including a plurality of frames. The clustering unit is configured to cluster frames having a similar scene to the same group in the moving image. The detection unit is configured to detect at least one object region from each frame clustered to the same group, and to calculate a color distribution of the object region of the each frame. The correction unit is configured to select a typical color distribution of the object region from the color distribution of the each frame, and to correct a color of the each frame clustered to the same group, based on the typical color distribution. | 07-18-2013 |
20130188074 | IMAGE PICKUP UNIT, COLOR CORRECTION METHOD, AND COLOR CORRECTION PROGRAM - An image pickup unit includes: an image pickup device outputting an image signal based on incident object light; a dimming device adjusting a light amount of object light incident to the image pickup device; a color correction section adjusting color balance of the image signal; and a control section controlling the color correction section to be switched from one of a first adjustment mode and a second adjustment mode to the other, the first adjustment mode automatically adjusting the color balance following variations in color temperature of a light source, the second adjustment mode adjusting the color balance without following variations in color temperature of the light source. The control section controls a light amount adjustment value by the dimming device at a fixed value, when the color correction section is switched to the second adjustment mode. | 07-25-2013 |
20130194450 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS - An image capturing apparatus can use a reading time from an image sensor efficiently. To achieve the object, the image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing unit which separates a color image of a subject being captured by an image sensor having pixels of colors into three or more fields and outputs said three or more fields successively, and an image processing unit which generates a low-resolution image which is lower in resolution than the color image obtained by the image capturing unit, based on output of one or more fields among said three or more fields, said one or more fields being able to extract color information of all the colors, wherein the image processing unit starts generation of the low-resolution image in a period in which fields other than said one or more fields for generating the low-resolution image are read. | 08-01-2013 |
20130201362 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - An image capturing apparatus comprises an image sensor configured to photoelectrically convert incident light into an image signal and to output the image signal; an exposure time control unit configured to control exposure time when an image is sensed by the image sensor; a gain control unit configured to control a gain to be applied to the image signal; a temperature detection unit; and a color suppression unit configured to determine, from at least one of the exposure time and the temperature, a noise level that changes with the exposure time and the temperature and to suppress, on the basis of a level of color deviation that corresponds to the determined noise level and of the gain, a color component of the image signal so that the color deviation is reduced. | 08-08-2013 |
20130201363 | SYSTEMS FOR CONSTANT HUE AND ADAPTIVE COLOR CORRECTION IMAGE PROCESSING - An electronic device may have a camera module. The camera module may capture images. The electronic device may include image processing circuitry that color corrects the images. The image processing circuitry may desaturate the images globally and/or spatially based on global and/or spatial noise levels of the image. The image processing circuitry may desaturate the images substantially without changing the hue of the images. The image processing circuitry may generate a color correction matrix with constant hue in real time and may color correct images in real time as the images are captured by the camera module. | 08-08-2013 |
20130215288 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS PROVIDED WITH A FUNCTION OF COMBINING A PLURALITY OF CAPTURED IMAGES - The present invention provides a digital camera which can overlay a plurality of images in multiple exposure shooting without intermingling with each other. A digital camera includes an image sensor constituted by a color filter for a plurality of color components, an imaging unit configured to capture a subject image with the image sensor and output the image data, a comparison unit configured to compare first image data output from the imaging unit with second image data output from the imaging unit between image data in corresponding regions within a screen, and a selecting unit to output either the first image data or the second image data for each region according to a comparison result. | 08-22-2013 |
20130235231 | VECTOR EMBEDDED GRAPHICS CODING - A method of coding High Definition (HD) color pictures is described. The method divides the HD picture into individual bit planes of the three colors. The method then interleaves the bit planes such that bit planes of the three colors having the same significance are coded together. The method codes a block of the picture based on the bit distribution in corresponding groups of the corresponding bit planes of the three colors. The method performs a first level grouping of bits in a bit plane of an image and a second level grouping of the first level grouping bits of different color components within a group. | 09-12-2013 |
20130242130 | White Balance Method and Apparatus Thereof - An entered image is divided into a plurality of windows and it is determined, on a per-window basis, whether the image data within an applicable window is indicative of the color white, based upon the position of each window in the image and the continuity to its surrounding divided windows. A white balance method is performed based upon data of a window determined to be indicative of the color white. The present invention conducts a white balance process through the addition of determining the light source type weight and calculating the continuity of each divided window and its surrounding divided windows. In order the white balance process to accurately obtain the colors of an entered image even under the conditions of specific scenes with distinctive colors. | 09-19-2013 |
20130242131 | DIGITAL MULTI-SPECTRAL CAMERA SYSTEM HAVING AT LEAST TWO INDEPENDENT DIGITAL CAMERAS - A digital camera system having at least two independent digital cameras, which capture image signals in different narrow-band spectral ranges, wherein each of the at least two independent digital cameras comprises at least one separate two-dimensional digital image sensor, preferably a CCD sensor or a CMOS sensor, and at least one filter element corresponding to the particular narrow-band spectral range connected upstream of the at least one two-dimensional digital image sensor and having at least one filter region. The at least one color filter element additionally comprises at least one neutral region, which is translucent in a spectral range that includes at least the different narrow-band spectral ranges of the at least two independent digital cameras, in particular in a panchromatic spectral range, and which is assigned to at least one specific neutral, in particular unused, pixel region of the associated at least one two-dimensional digital image sensor. | 09-19-2013 |
20130242132 | DIGITAL CAMERA AND STORAGE MEDIUM FOR IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR WHITE BALANCE CONTROL - A CCD captures a subject image passed through a taking lens and an image processing circuit performs various types of image pre-treatment including gamma correction and white balance on image data corresponding to n lines×m rows output by the CCD. The image processing circuit performs format processing on the data which are then compressed at a compression circuit. The white balance adjustment is implemented in line sequence at a line processing circuit which engages in signal processing in pixel sequence in units of individual lines in the output from the CCD. The image data having undergone the pre-treatment are subjected to format processing prior to JPEG compression, at a block processing circuit that engages in signal processing in units of individual blocks each ranging over an n×m (N>n, M>m) block. The signal processing is performed in block sequence. | 09-19-2013 |
20130250138 | DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSOR FOR A DIGITAL CAMERA - A digital camera and methods of operating a digital camera are disclosed. In one aspect of the invention, a digital camera includes an imaging unit including an image sensor and imaging optics and a digital image processor connected to receive raw digital images from the imaging unit and to process the raw digital images. The digital camera also includes a memory configured to store digital image data that has been pre-processed by the digital image processor and a processor configured to direct retrieval of the digital image data that is stored in the memory and the digital image processor comprises a pre-processing portion and a post-processing portion, the pre-processing portion including a uniformity corrector configured to correct non-uniformities using Photo Response Non-Uniformity (PRNU) correction and/or white balancing. | 09-26-2013 |
20130258134 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT METHOD - In an image processing method according to an aspect of the presently disclosed subject matter, a captured image obtained by continuous imaging is acquired, the captured image is divided into a plurality of divided areas, a flicker that flashes is detected for each of the divided areas, it is detected, for each of the divided areas where the flicker has been detected, whether a divided area is an LED area including light from a light emitting diode (LED) based on a luminance difference between a luminance in a turn-on state and a luminance in an turn-off state, and LED area information is output. | 10-03-2013 |
20130265462 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - An image capture apparatus generates a developed image by generating a signal intensity of an inexistent color component for an image signal of each pixel read from an image sensor having a Bayer pattern. The image capture apparatus corrects a color dispersion caused by the image sensor for the developed image and outputs the corrected developed image. And the image capture apparatus generates a Bayer image having the Bayer pattern from the corrected developed image. | 10-10-2013 |
20130278790 | IMAGE DISPLAY SYSTEM AND METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME - An image display system includes a camera part and an image display part. The image display part includes a user analyzer, a gamma corrector, a gamma voltage generator, and a display panel. The camera part takes a picture of a user and generates a user image signal. The user analyzer calculates the user's viewing direction based on the user image signal. The gamma corrector generates a correction gamma value based on the viewing direction. The gamma voltage generator generates a gamma voltage based on the correction gamma value, and the display panel displays an image corresponding to the gamma voltage. Accordingly, the image display system provides the image having an optimized gamma curve to the user in real time even without a separate input from the user. | 10-24-2013 |
20130278791 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus has an image pickup device having a plurality of pixels having input-output characteristic which non-linearly changes according to input and a plurality of color filters in a plurality of colors arranged on respective pixels; an output signal linear convertor converting a first output signal from the image pickup device into a second output signal which is predicted to be output from the image pickup device on the assumption that the image pickup device outputs the second output signal which linearly changes all over a range of the input brightness; a color signal generator generating color signals in the plurality of colors on each pixel based on the second output signal; a brightness signal generator generating a brightness signal from the first output signal; and a color brightness composition part combining the color signals and the brightness signal to generate an image signal. | 10-24-2013 |
20130278792 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR ENHANCING WHITE BALANCE OF AN IMAGE - In response to an image, a likelihood of flicker within the image is estimated. In response to the estimated likelihood, references are selected from among first and second sets of references. The first set of references are responsive to a first set of reference images captured under particular illumination. The second set of references are responsive to a second set of reference images captured under fluorescent illumination. In response to the selected references, one or more gains are generated for enhancing white balance of the image. | 10-24-2013 |
20130278793 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus includes a first calculation unit configured to calculate a first white balance correction value for correcting white balance for image data based on a pixel value in a divided region, among a plurality of divided regions into which the image data is divided, where a color evaluation value is within a predetermined color range, and a second calculation unit configured to calculate, if the first white balance correction value is at a high temperature side of a predetermined threshold value, a second white balance correction value for correcting white balance for the image data based on a pixel value in a divided region within a color range where a color range at a low temperature side of the predetermined color range is limited. | 10-24-2013 |
20130300892 | CAMERA CONTROL APPARATUS, CAMERA CONTROL METHOD, AND CAMERA SYSTEM - A camera control apparatus comprises a processor adapted to control a display to display a plurality of sensed images respectively obtained from a plurality of cameras and a transmitter adapted to transmit a command to control another camera to execute color adjustment based on an image signal of a reference region of an image of a reference camera of the images displayed as a list by the processor. | 11-14-2013 |
20130300893 | TWO-DIMENSIONAL SIGNAL ENCODING DEVICE - The device for encoding a Bayer pattern image includes a two-dimensional high-pass filtering means for calculating a GH coefficient which is a high-pass component corresponding to a space coordinate of a G1 pixel, from the value of the G1 pixel and the values of four G0 pixels in the neighborhood of the G1 pixel; a two-dimensional low-pass filtering means for calculating a GL coefficient which is a low-pass component corresponding to a space coordinate of a G0 pixel, from the value of the G0 pixel and the values of four GH coefficients in the neighborhood of the G0 pixel; a first encoding means for encoding a two-dimensional signal including the GH coefficient; and a second encoding means for encoding a two-dimensional signal including the GL coefficient. | 11-14-2013 |
20130308009 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - There are provided an image capture apparatus which can implement good tone gradation at various shooting sensitivities without preparing a nonlinear conversion characteristic for each shooting sensitivity, and a method of controlling the apparatus. If the shooting sensitivity is less than the standard sensitivity, nonlinear conversion processing is performed by linearly converting the range of signal levels obtained by shooting operation with an image sensor sensitivity corresponding to the standard sensitivity such that the maximum value decreases with a decrease in shooting sensitivity. | 11-21-2013 |
20130321663 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND PROGRAM PRODUCT - There are provided: an original color image capturing unit capturing an original color image of a object represented by YCbCr; a Cr component elimination processing unit performing, on each pixel data of the original color image captured by the original color image capturing unit, processing to make a value of Cr component to be zero; a hue rotation processing unit performing, on each pixel data of the color image after being subjected to the processing performed by the Cr component elimination processing unit, hue rotation processing of 5 degrees to 50 degrees in a CbCr color space; and a display control unit performing a control to display the color image after being subjected to the hue rotation processing performed by the hue rotation processing unit, on a display section as a hue-converted color image. | 12-05-2013 |
20130342724 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR - An image processing apparatus is provided that allows accurate white balance gains to be obtained by accurately estimating the illuminant colors of various objects in an image. The white balance gains are obtained based on values of white pixels that have been extracted from an input image and have colors included in an extraction range, and the white balance gains are obtained based on specular reflection components included in the input image, are mixed in accordance with a mix ratio. The mix ratio is determined in accordance with, for example, a degree of reliability of extraction of the white pixels. | 12-26-2013 |
20130342725 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE - A method for calibrating automatic white balance (AWB) in a digital system is provided that includes capturing an image of a test target under a natural lighting condition, generating a first color temperature reference from the captured image, and outputting AWB configuration data for the digital system, wherein the AWB configuration data comprises the first color temperature reference and a second color temperature reference generated using the test target under simulated lighting conditions. A method for calibrating automatic white balance (AWB) in a digital system comprising a first imaging sensor is provided that includes receiving a reference for AWB that was generated using an image captured using a second imaging sensor, and compensating a histogram reference into a histogram reference for AWB for the first imaging sensor in the digital system based on R, G, B adjustment values from the second imaging sensor to the first imaging sensor. | 12-26-2013 |
20140002691 | IMAGING APPARATUS | 01-02-2014 |
20140009637 | SIGNAL PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD, AND PROGRAM - Signals are provided which allow colors in a wider color range than predetermined standards, which can be handled by apparatus according to such predetermined standards. A primary color converter converts first color signals having primary color points in a wider color range than the primary color points according to BT.709 into second color signals based on the primary colors according to BT.709. A photoelectric transducer converts the second color signals into third color signals according to photoelectric transducer characteristics defined in a numerical range wider than a range from 0 to 1.0 of color signals corresponding to a luminance signal and color difference signals according to BT.709. A color signal converter converts the third color signals into a luminance signal and color difference signals. A corrector incorporated in the color signal converter corrects the color difference signals into color difference signals. | 01-09-2014 |
20140022410 | Spectral Synthesis for Image Capture Device Processing - A substantially rectangular spectral representation is synthesized, which is adapted to produce image capture device sensor outputs if applied to an image capture device. The synthesized substantially rectangular spectral representation can be utilized in generating output color values of an output color space from image capture device sensor outputs, where the image capture device sensor outputs correspond to an image captured by an image capture device. The generated output color values correspond to colors perceived by the human visual system for the same image as that captured by the image capture device. Image capture device gamut is also determined. | 01-23-2014 |
20140028871 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM - An image capturing apparatus for capturing an object and generate an image, displaying the image, performing signal processing for the image, and accepting an input from a user, wherein the image is displayed with a vectorscope superimposed thereon, the vectorscope indicating a distribution of color components included in the image based on a hue and a color density and an index for specifying a range of a skin color region in the image, a display position of the index on the vectorscope is specified based on the hue and the color density values, and a size of the index is specified by the range of the skin color region value, and processing is performed for decreasing a detail level of an image signal of the image having a color component included in the index. | 01-30-2014 |
20140036105 | VIDEO CONVERSION DEVICE, PHOTOGRAPHY SYSTEM OF VIDEO SYSTEM EMPLOYING SAME, VIDEO CONVERSION METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM OF VIDEO CONVERSION PROGRAM - A video conversion unit comprises: a unit which acquires a camera video data signal; a first color conversion unit which converts the camera video data signal to a photography scene reference color space and derives first video data; a lock modification section which carries out a lock modification on the first video data; a second color conversion unit which converts the post-color conversion video data to a video output reference color space and derives second video data; and a third color space conversion unit which converts the second video data to a color space of a verification display device and derives third video data in order to pre-verify a device color which is obtained when converting to a color space of a final video output device with a different display device. | 02-06-2014 |
20140063283 | CORRECTION FACTOR FOR COLOR RESPONSE CALIBRATION - The color response of camera devices may be calibrated, using a correction factor that can account for differences in the spectra of light emitted by different light sources used during calibration. The correction factor may be calculated based on the expected spectral sensitivities of the camera devices, the power spectrum of an actual light source, and the power spectrum of a canonical light source. The correction factor is then applied to adjust a measured color response of a given camera device, so that the adjusted color response is effectively the response of the given camera device if it had been illuminated by the canonical light source. In this manner, any measured color response differences, which may be due to differences between the actual light source used and the canonical light source, can be effectively reduced (if not essentially eliminated.) Other embodiments are also described and claimed. | 03-06-2014 |
20140063284 | IMAGE TRANSMISSION DEVICE AND IMAGING DISPLAY SYSTEM - An image transmission device is an image transmission device in an imaging display system in which an imaging device which images a subject and outputs frame image data, the image transmission device which wirelessly transmits the frame image data, an image reception device which wirelessly receives the wirelessly transmitted frame image data, and a display device which displays an image thereon based on the frame image data wirelessly received by the image reception device are included. The image transmission device includes an input unit, an image processing unit, a communication unit, and an adjustment unit. | 03-06-2014 |
20140071309 | SIGNAL SHAPING FOR IMPROVED MOBILE VIDEO COMMUNICATION - In certain low-light or other poor image capture conditions, the camera capture settings may create noise fitting a known profile, including certain specific color ranges and signal frequencies, in the captured image. A pre-processor may identify frequency bands and DC offsets that may indicate noise in an image captured with known settings. Then the areas of the image containing the identified frequencies and offsets may be analyzed spatially and temporally to confirm that the identified regions are noise and not part of the scene and an appropriate filter defined. | 03-13-2014 |
20140071310 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, METHOD, AND PROGRAM - There is provided an image processing apparatus including: an eye region detecting unit which detects an eye region of an object in an image; a high luminance pixel detecting unit which detects a high luminance pixel with a higher luminance than a predetermined luminance based on pixels in the eye region detected by the eye region detecting unit; a light source color estimating unit which estimates information of a light source color from the high luminance pixel detected by the high luminance pixel detecting unit; a white balance adjusting amount calculating unit which calculates a white balance adjusting amount based on the information of the light source color estimated by the light source color estimating unit; and an image processing unit which adjusts a white balance of at least a region in the image by using the white balance adjusting amount calculated by the white balance adjusting amount calculating unit. | 03-13-2014 |
20140078340 | WHITE BALANCING METHOD AND IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE - A white balancing method includes capturing an original image with red(R), green (G) and blue (B) color channels; computing and converting the R, G and B color channels into original color histogram; stretching the original color histograms over the entire grayscale width from 0 to 255 values; and adjusting a color of the original image based on the stretched color histograms to obtain a white balanced image. In the computing and converting the original color histograms, a sampling length follows a formula of span | 03-20-2014 |
20140085502 | HIGH RESOLUTION MULTISPECTRAL IMAGE CAPTURE - The use of a hybrid camera tool may capture high resolution multispectral images without sacrificing resolution in exchange for spectral accuracy. The capture of a high resolution multispectral image may include forming a high spatial resolution image based on a portion of incoming light and generating a high spectral resolution image that includes multispectral samples based on another portion of the incoming light. The high resolution multispectral image is then synthesized by consolidating the high spatial resolution image with the high spectral resolution image. | 03-27-2014 |
20140085503 | Mobile Communication Apparatus and Flashlight Controlling Method - The invention discloses a mobile communication apparatus including an optical module, a flashlight module and a control unit. The optical module is configured for sensing an ambient color temperature of an ambient light. The flashlight module includes a plurality of light-emitting units. Each of the light-emitting units corresponds to a different spectrum band. The control unit is coupled to the optical module and the flashlight module respectively. According to the ambient color temperature of the ambient light, the control unit dynamically adjusts a relative intensity proportion between the light-emitting units while the flashlight module performing a lighting operation. In addition, a flash controlling method is also disclosed. | 03-27-2014 |
20140085504 | IMAGING DEVICE, CONTROL METHOD FOR IMAGING DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING A CONTROL PROGRAM FOR IMAGING DEVICE - A deterioration in image quality caused by correction can be prevented in comparison to when consideration is not given to the sequence in which correction is performed on an image captured by an image pickup device. An imaging apparatus 10 is configured including an optical system 12, an image pickup device 14, an image capture correction processing section 16, and an image processing section 18. The image capture correction processing section 16 is configured including a color mixing correction section 20, a noise correction section 22, an offset correction section 24 and a gain correction section 26. The color mixing correction section 20 reads image data from the image pickup device 14 and performs color mixing correction processing thereon. The noise correction section 22 performs noise correction processing on the image data on which the color mixing correction section 20 has performed color mixing correction processing. | 03-27-2014 |
20140092276 | Systems and Methods for Camera Image Correction and White Balancing - Systems and methods are provided for calibrating a digital camera. First pixel values of a first calibration image illuminated by white light are captured using a color sensor. A color sensor adjustment matrix is determined based on a comparison of the first pixel values and baseline pixel values associated with the calibration image. Second pixel values of a second calibration image illuminated by a first color temperature light are captured. The second pixel values are adjusted based on the color sensor adjustment matrix, and a first color temperature balance factor is determined based on the adjusted second pixel values, where a white balance adjustment is performed on captured image data based on the first color temperature balance factor. | 04-03-2014 |
20140104454 | METHOD FOR WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT - A white balance adjustment method includes capturing a raw image by an image capturing device, setting an initial maximum and an initial minimum threshold values of each channels, and obtaining a reference white and a reference black. Color scale values of each R, G, and B channels are extracted and a minimum, a maximum, and an average values of the color scale values corresponding to each channels are obtained. A modulation factor of each channel is defined by using above defined three values, according to the modulation factor of each channels to re-define a new maximum threshold value as a reference white and a new minimum threshold value as a reference black. According to the obtained reference black and the reference white to complete the white balance adjustment of the image. | 04-17-2014 |
20140104455 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING IMAGE IN CAMERA DEVICE AND PORTABLE TERMINAL - A method for processing an image in a camera device includes processing a preview image in which first photographing information for controlling a camera drive in a preview mode and second photographing information collected in the image processing are obtained, and both photographing information is stored with a corresponding frame image; and processing a still image in which a specific frame image selected from the frame images stored in a buffer is processed by using the corresponding photographing information during a capture mode. | 04-17-2014 |
20140111665 | METHOD FOR WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT OF IMAGES - A white balance adjustment method includes capturing a raw image by an image capturing device where an arrangement format of the raw image is BGb/GrR, a predetermined sampling width is used to sample RGB pixels, and obtaining color scale values of each channel. Each channel includes a first buffer space and a second buffer space, the first buffer space storing smaller color scale values, the second buffer storing larger color scale values, an average value of the minimum color scale values stored in the first buffer space is calculated to obtain a reference black, an average value of the maximum color scale values stored in the second buffer space is calculated to obtain a reference white. A color histogram stretching method using the obtained reference black and white adjusts the white balance of the raw image. | 04-24-2014 |
20140111666 | IMAGE SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SCENE ILLUMINANT ESTIMATION - An image sensor apparatus is disclosed. The image sensor apparatus includes an image sensor for generating pixel data corresponding to a scene under a scene illuminant and a processor. The processor includes an illuminant estimation module for receiving a subset of the pixel data associated with a subset of a color space and finding a chromaticity trend in the pixel data subset to estimate the scene illuminant. A white balance and color correction module in the processor applies white balance and color correction coefficients to the pixel data according to the estimated scene illuminant. | 04-24-2014 |
20140118573 | METHOD FOR WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT - A white balance adjustment method includes capturing a raw image where an arrangement format of the raw image is BGb/GrR, extracting color scale values of each color channels, and obtaining cumulative proportion of color scale values in each channel. Cumulative proportion of each channels are compared with default minimum and maximum values, to get a cumulative proportion which is above a maximum value treated as a reference white, and a cumulative proportion below the minimum value treated as a reference black. The color scale values are re-quantized according to the obtained reference white and black, by using a color histogram equalization method. | 05-01-2014 |
20140118574 | METHOD FOR WHITE BALANCE ADJUSTMENT OF IMAGES - A white balance adjustment method includes capturing a raw image by an image capturing device where an arrangement format of the raw image is BGb/GrR, color scale values of each color channel are extracted, the color scale values of all pixels in B, Gb, Gr, and R channels are separately scanned, and predetermined number ranges are used to classify the color scale values, then obtaining a cumulative proportion of color scale values in each channel is obtained. The cumulative proportions of each channel are compared with default minimum and maximum values, to obtain a more-than-maximum as a reference white, and a less-than-minimum as a reference black. The color scale values are re-quantized, according to the reference white and black, and a color histogram stretching method is applied to complete the white balance adjustment. | 05-01-2014 |
20140118575 | CAMERA SYSTEM - A camera system includes a lens unit, a mount, a camera body, and a control unit. The lens unit includes at least one lens unit operation portion and changes the magnification of an optical image electrically. The mount supports removably the lens unit. The camera body includes at least one camera body operation portion. The control unit controls the lens unit so as to change the magnification of an optical image electrically in response to either one of the operation of the camera body operation portion or the operation of the lens unit operation portion. The control unit controls the lens unit so as to execute an operation that is different from the operation which changes the magnification of an optical image, in response to the other of the operation of the camera body operation portion or the operation of the lens unit operation portion. | 05-01-2014 |
20140125836 | ROBUST SELECTION AND WEIGHTING FOR GRAY PATCH AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCING - Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems for robust weighting of gray patches in automatic white balancing in an image-capture device by utilizing kernel density estimation techniques with dynamically variable bandwidth to determine the probability density of samples to create an initial estimate, then verifying the initial gray point estimate to account for outliers. In one embodiment, given a set of image data, an initial gray point estimate in a color space is determined for the set of image data. The initial estimate is then refined by weighting the sub-population with the greatest probability of being gray. A final evaluation that includes a further comparison to pre-programmed constraints determines a final estimate, which can still be further tuned according to user preferences by adjusting color biases. The resulting final gray point estimate provides greater stability, and greatly improved accuracy over traditional techniques and solutions. | 05-08-2014 |
20140125837 | DIGITAL CAMERAS WITH DIRECT LUMINANCE AND CHROMINANCE DETECTION - Digital camera systems and methods are described that provide a color digital camera with direct luminance detection. The luminance signals are obtained directly from a broadband image sensor channel without interpolation of RGB data. The chrominance signals are obtained from one or more additional image sensor channels comprising red and/or blue color band detection capability. The red and blue signals are directly combined with the luminance image sensor channel signals. The digital camera generates and outputs an image in YCrCb color space by directly combining outputs of the broadband, red and blue sensors. | 05-08-2014 |
20140132795 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus which corrects color balance of an image in image data captured by an image capturing apparatus having a color balance correction function, the apparatus comprises a light source estimation unit configured to estimate a capturing light source of the image based on a color value of an object; a first color conversion unit configured to perform first color conversion of converting, based on the capturing light source and the color value, the image into an image in which color balance correction applied depending on the image capturing apparatus that has captured the image data containing the image is weakened; and a second color conversion unit configured to perform second color conversion for the image having undergone the first color conversion, by using an adaptation rate corresponding to a color value defined based on chromatic adaptation of a man under the capturing light source. | 05-15-2014 |
20140132796 | INDOOR/OUTDOOR SCENE DETECTION USING GPS - A digital camera system, comprising: a digital image sensor; an optical system for forming an image of a scene onto the digital image sensor; a global positioning system sensor; a processor-accessible memory system; and a processor. The processor performs the steps of: analyzing a signal from the global positioning system sensor to determine whether the digital camera system is indoors or outdoors; capturing an input digital image of the scene using the digital image sensor; processing the input digital image responsive to whether the digital camera system is indoors or outdoors; and storing the processed digital image in the processor-accessible memory system. | 05-15-2014 |
20140152864 | APPARATUS, METHOD, AND PROGRAM FOR PROCESSING IMAGE - An apparatus, a method, and a program for processing an image are provided. The apparatus includes: a determiner which determines an area corresponding to a white-saturation area included in a raw image based on raw data representing the raw image, wherein the raw image is obtained by photographing and is not processed; and a converter which selectively performs an image space frequency distribution conversion on a portion of the raw data that corresponds to the determined area corresponding to the white-saturation area. The converter reduces luminance changes of pixels which are not a preset reference pixel in the area corresponding to the white-saturation area. | 06-05-2014 |
20140152865 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus enlarges the number of pixels of first image data made of a luminance signal and a color-difference signal in a vertical direction and in a horizontal direction, and causes each pixel to have a luminance signal and a color-difference signal to convert the image data made of the luminance signal and the color-difference signal into image data of a Bayer array made of R, G1, G2, and B signals. The image processing apparatus generates a luminance signal using one of the G1 signal and the G2 signal, the R signal, and the B signal in the image data of the Bayer array. | 06-05-2014 |
20140152866 | RANKING COLOR CORRECTION PROCESSES - Systems and methods of ranking color correction processes are disclosed. An example method includes processing subimages of an image using a plurality of color correction processes. The method also includes ranking the plurality of results of color correction processes across the subimages. The method also includes applying color correction to the image based on the ranking of the color correction processes. | 06-05-2014 |
20140160314 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPTICAL ECHO CANCELLATION - A method that includes obtaining a video signal of an object by a camera, obtaining an ambient light signal representing ambient light, obtaining a display signal representing light emitted by a display, obtaining a distance signal representing a distance between the display and the object, and modifying the video signal based on the ambient light signal, the display signal, and the distance signal, to obtain a modified video signal. | 06-12-2014 |
20140168463 | IMAGE-PROCESSING DEVICE AND IMAGING APPARATUS - An image-processing device that adjusts white balance of an image includes a region setter that classifies the image by color temperature and sets a plurality of regions thereto; and a white balance controller that generates a white-balance-adjusted image based on color temperature of a target region of the regions from the image, wherein by targeting all of the regions set by the region setter, the white balance controller generates white-balance-adjusted images as many as the number equal to the number of the regions set by the region setter from the image. | 06-19-2014 |
20140168464 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus comprises a first calculation unit which calculates information regarding a pixel whose pixel level is equal to or greater than a first threshold in an input image, and calculates a ratio of pixels whose signal levels are equal to or greater than a second threshold in pixel data of a detected person; a second calculation unit which calculates a control amount for a tone control based on information regarding the pixel whose pixel level is equal to or greater than the first threshold; a third calculation unit which calculates a correction amount for correcting the control amount in accordance with the ratio of pixels whose signal levels are equal to or greater than the second threshold; and a control unit which determines an input-output characteristic of an image, based on the control amount and correction amount. | 06-19-2014 |
20140168465 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - An image processing apparatus capable of obtaining a gamma characteristic (non-linear conversion characteristic) giving consideration to a difference between light and dark parts in a subject region is provided along with a method for controlling the same. A value indicating the difference between light and dark parts in the subject region is calculated based on image data. Then, by interpolating multiple basic gamma characteristics using the value indicating the difference between light and dark parts, a gamma characteristic depending on the difference between light and dark parts is generated and applied to the image data. | 06-19-2014 |
20140176757 | Color balance in digital photography - A technique for generating a digital photograph comprises blending two related images, each sampled according to a different illumination environment. The two related images are blended according to a blend surface function that includes a height discontinuity separating two different blend weight regions. Color consistency between the two related images is achieved by spatial color correction prior to blending. The technique enables a digital camera to generate a strobe image having an appearance of consistent color despite discordant strobe and ambient scene illumination. | 06-26-2014 |
20140176758 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP SYSTEM, AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An image pickup apparatus includes a shooting scene determining unit configured to determine a shooting scene, a selecting unit configured to select a bracket shooting from a plurality of bracket shootings which alter parameters in different ways from each other, based on the shooting scene determined by the shooting scene determining unit, and an image pickup unit configured to perform the bracket shooting selected by the selecting unit, and the selecting unit selects one type of bracket shooting even when the shooting scene determined by the shooting scene determining unit is suitable for at least two types of bracket shootings in the plurality of bracket shootings. | 06-26-2014 |
20140184848 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - An imaging apparatus capable of performing image display that allows a user to more effectively check images of a group composed of a plurality of images generated in response to a single shooting instruction, includes a control unit configured to perform control to cause an imaging unit to generate a plurality of images in response to a single shooting instruction, and a display control unit configured to, as automatically performed review display after shooting in response to the shooting instruction, perform control to sequentially display the plurality of generated images one by one on a display unit, and then display the plurality of images in a multi-display form on the same screen. | 07-03-2014 |
20140192222 | White balance adjusting method with scene detection and device thereof - A white balance adjusting method with scene detection comprises: receiving source image data corresponding to a plurality of sensing units; generating an initial white balance gain according to the source image data; generating an image parameter corresponding to a plurality of parameter elements according to the source image data; determining whether a preset condition is satisfied according to the image parameter to generate a decision result; determining whether the source image data are associated with any of built-in scenes according to the decision result in which the built-in scenes include a first scene in connection with a first-scene adjustment rule; and if the source image data are associated with the first scene, adjusting the initial white balance gain or processing the source image data according to the first-scene adjustment rule to thereby obtain a scenic white balance gain and adjust the source image data with it. | 07-10-2014 |
20140192223 | IMAGING DEVICE, IMAGING SYSTEM, AND IMAGING METHOD - An imaging device includes a histogram unit that extracts luminance information from video signals obtained by image capture and generates a histogram, a white balance detector unit that detects the deviation in the white balance of the video signal, and a white balance processor unit that corrects the white balance of the video signal; and along with selecting the imaging conditions of the imaging unit based on the deviations detected by the white balance detector unit, also controls the white balance processor unit. When there is a large deviation in the white balance, the imaging device decides whether or not to correct the white balance according for example to the hue. | 07-10-2014 |
20140198232 | MOBILE DEVICE WITH OPERATION FOR MODIFYING VISUAL PERCEPTION - Embodiments disclosed herein are directed to a lighting system for modifying visual perception of an image. In one embodiment, the lighting system includes a display screen and a frame that is designed to be reversibly coupled around the display screen. The frame includes a first light source and a second light source positioned about a perimeter of the frame. The first light source provides key light and the second light source provides fill light. The lighting system also includes a processor operatively connected to the frame to individually control the light intensity, temperature, or brightness of the first and second light sources. The lighting system also may include a camera disposed adjacent to the display screen to capture images. In this embodiment, the processor is connected to the camera and the processor automatically enhances the captured images and displays the enhanced images as a mirror reflection on the display screen. | 07-17-2014 |
20140204239 | COLOUR CALIBRATION METHOD FOR AN IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE - A method for providing a mapping from apparent colour to actual colour for an image capture device including capturing an image of a reference colour chart having a plurality of colour patches using the image capture device, wherein each colour patch has an associated reference colour, measuring the apparent colour of the plurality of colour patches in the captured image, selecting a plurality of control points representing different hue values within a circular hue space, determining an angular offset for each control point such that the distance between a transformed apparent colour and the reference colour for each colour patch is minimised, the angular offset representing a hue correction, wherein interpolation of the angular offsets for the control points provides a mapping from apparent colour to actual colour for the image capture device. | 07-24-2014 |
20140204240 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD - An image processing apparatus inputs captured image data that has been read from an image capturing unit in accordance with a reading mode, and processes the input captured image data so as to enable identification of the reading mode used in reading the captured image data from the image capturing unit. | 07-24-2014 |
20140204241 | Imaging Apparatus - An imaging apparatus performs a focus detecting operation with an image sensor including a photoelectric conversion portion that has a pupil-dividing function. The imaging apparatus increases a line addition number according to a target exposure value corresponding to a pixel dynamic range that is variable depending on an exposure setting value. Thus, the imaging apparatus can reduce the amount of noise and can suppress the dispersion of focus detection result. Further, the imaging apparatus changes the line addition number according to a lens diaphragm aperture size, a defocus amount, or a pixel signal reading mode. Thus, the imaging apparatus can secure the resolution in the vertical direction and can prevent the detection accuracy from deteriorating even in a case where a photographic subject is obliquely positioned in a focus detection area. | 07-24-2014 |
20140211041 | REDUCE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT EFFECT USING MULTIPLE CAMERAS - Methods and devices for automatically white balancing an image are described. In one embodiment, a method includes: capturing a first image using a first camera associated with an electronic device and capturing a second image using a second camera associated with the electronic device, the first image and the second image being temporally related; determining one or more white balance correction values for the first image by analyzing the first image and the second image, the white balance correction value representing the effect of lighting conditions on the first image and the second image; and correcting one or more images captured by the first camera based on the white balance correction value. | 07-31-2014 |
20140232900 | LIGHT SENSITIVE, LOW HEIGHT, AND HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE CAMERA - A user device includes a dual array camera in which a first camera includes a first image sensor without a color filter array to capture luminance, and a second camera includes a second image sensor with a color filter array to capture chrominance. | 08-21-2014 |
20140232901 | IMAGING APPARATUS - White balance correction is performed on RGB color signals output from an image pickup device that includes a particular color filter array in which RGB color filters are arranged on respective lines and the ratios of the numbers of RGB color filters are different between the lines. For calculation of WB gains used for the white balance correction, not all the pixels of the image pickup device but prescribed lines are used to thinning-read. The WB gains are calculated based on color signals on the thinning-read prescribed lines. As the prescribed lines to be thinning-read, lines having a small degree of color mixture are selected under an imaging condition (a lens f-number and a zoom position) with a high degree of color mixture; lines having relatively even ratios of the numbers of RGB color filters are selected under an imaging condition having a low degree of color mixture. | 08-21-2014 |
20140240533 | IMAGING DEVICE AND IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSOR - Enhancing the image quality by suitable color noise correction is realized without depending on a subject, a photographing scene, and photographing conditions by determining and correcting a color noise component according to photographing conditions of a camera. The present invention is configured of an imaging device that has: an imaging unit; a signal processing unit that performs signal processing on an image signal inputted from the imaging unit and outputs a luminance signal and a chrominance signal; a camera controlling unit that controls at least one of photographing conditions of optical conditions and exposure of the photographing unit and a signal processing condition of the signal processing unit; and a color noise correction unit that extracts and corrects a color noise component from the chrominance signal inputted from the signal processing unit. The camera control unit controls the color noise correction unit using information of the photographing conditions. | 08-28-2014 |
20140240534 | METHOD FOR IMAGE PROCESSING AND AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE THEREOF - A method and an apparatus for image processing in an electronic device are provided. The method for image processing in the electronic device includes obtaining a first image and a second image respectively from a first image sensor and a second image sensor, determining at least one of a first image processing parameter for the first image and a second image processing parameter for the second image as an image processing parameter for the first image and the second image, and displaying at least one of the first image and the second image by considering the image processing parameter for the first image and a second image. | 08-28-2014 |
20140240535 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS - An amount of color correction of a facial region is modified based on changes caused in face average values by white balance correction. Also, the amount of color correction of the facial region is modified according to luminance of pixels of interest to perform optimum color correction on the facial region and a highlight region. | 08-28-2014 |
20140247375 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus comprises an input unit configured to input an image; an acquisition unit configured to acquire a parameter for adjusting an image quality, reference environment information serving as a reference when adjusting the image quality by applying the parameter, and shooting environment information representing an environment upon shooting the image; an adjustment unit configured to adjust the image by using the parameter; and a determination unit configured to determine, based on a difference between the reference environment information and the shooting environment information, whether adjustment by the parameter is necessary. | 09-04-2014 |
20140267826 | APPARATUS AND TECHNIQUES FOR IMAGE PROCESSING - An apparatus may include an image sensor that contains a multiplicity of pixel elements to detect one or more images and a processor circuit coupled to the image sensor. The apparatus may include a white balance module for execution on the processor circuit to receive, based upon a detected image of the one or more images, for a plurality of pixel elements of the multiplicity of pixel elements, three of more gray level values for a respective three or more color channels, to determine grayness likelihood functions for the respective three or more color channels, the three or more grayness likelihood functions comprising a proportional contribution to grey pixels of the detected image from one or more gray levels for each respective color channel, and to determine a white balance gain for two or more color channels based upon the determined grayness likelihood functions. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 09-18-2014 |
20140267827 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR HANDLING MIXED ILLUMINATION IN VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHY - A method including: obtaining, with an image processing apparatus, a white point that corresponds to an image captured by a camera with only the natural light as a light source; obtaining, with the image processing apparatus, a white point that corresponds to an image captured by the camera with only the artificial light as a light source; determining, with the image processing apparatus, a ratio of an intensity of natural light for a pixel to an intensity of an artificial light for the pixel within an image captured by a camera under mixed illumination of the natural light and the artificial light; and determining, with the image processing apparatus, a white point for the pixel in the image under mixed illumination based on the ratio of the intensity of natural light to the intensity of artificial light for the pixel in the image, the white point for only the natural light, and the white point for only the artificial light. | 09-18-2014 |
20140285682 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGING APPARATUS - The present technique has a face detection unit configured to detect a face region which is determined as a face in an image, a position specifying unit configured to specify a particular position in the image, a range specifying unit configured to determine a first range as a range for calculating an evaluation value of a hue and to set a hue at a position specified by the position specifying unit in a case where the position is not contained in the face region, and to determine a second range as a range for calculating an evaluation value of a hue and to set a hue at a position specified by the position specifying unit in a case where the position contains the face region, and image processing unit for performing image conversion processing based on color information contained in the hue range. | 09-25-2014 |
20140285683 | LINE-OF-SIGHT DETECTION APPARATUS AND IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS - A line-of-sight detection apparatus is configured to calculate a mean luminance value in an eye area of a face image, determine that an object is a person whose iris area is blue or green in a case in which the calculated mean luminance value is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, determine a correction parameter for correcting the eye area based on the determined color of the iris area, and generate a luminance image in which the eye area is corrected by using the determined correction parameter. Thus, the line-of-sight detection apparatus detects a line of sight with high accuracy regardless of the color of the iris area. | 09-25-2014 |
20140285684 | DETECTING COUNTERFEIT PRINT MATERIAL WITH CAMERA-EQUIPPED COMPUTING DEVICE - An apparatus, system, and method for examining authenticity of printed material and distinguishing between original printed material and counterfeit printed material is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method is performed by a mobile device. The mobile device recognizes a reference point on a page of the printed material, computes a color balance ratio for that reference point, and compares the computed color balance ratio to an expected value for original printed material. Based on the comparison between the computed color balance ratio and the expected value, a determination is made as to the authenticity of the printed material. If the printed material is authentic, the mobile device may provide supplementary, complementary and/or additional information and content, for example, information related to the page or chapter of the printed material. If the printed material is not authentic, the mobile device may inhibit the presentation of additional material. | 09-25-2014 |
20140293088 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An image processing apparatus includes a class tap selection unit that selects pixel values related to pixels corresponding to a plurality of color components as a class tap, from a first image formed by image signals which are output from a single-plate type pixel portion, a class sorting unit that sorts out target pixels of second images as any one of a plurality of classes on the basis of a feature amount of the class tap, a prediction tap selection unit that selects pixel values related to pixels corresponding to a first color component of the plurality of color components as a prediction tap from the first image, and a product-sum operation unit that uses the pixel values of the first color component of the prediction tap as variables, and operates pixel values of the second images through a product-sum operation using the read coefficient. | 10-02-2014 |
20140300772 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, COLOR CORRECTION METHOD, AND COLOR CORRECTION PROGRAM - An image pickup apparatus includes: a dimming device configured to adjust light quantity of incident image pickup light; an image pickup device configured to obtain an image pickup signal based on image pickup light emitted from the dimming device; and a color correction processing section configured to perform color correction on the image pickup signal that is obtained by the image pickup device, based on information relating to light quantity of the image pickup light emitted from the dimming device. The color correction processing section performs the color correction to allow a color balance value of the image pickup signal to be substantially constant independent of the light quantity of the image pickup light emitted from the dimming device. | 10-09-2014 |
20140307121 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND IMAGING DEVICE - An image processing method in accordance with one aspect of the present invention includes: preparing a storage unit storing a color mix ratio, which is each of color mix ratios of peripheral pixels adjacent to an object pixel for mixed color correction in a mosaic image including pixels of a plurality of colors, corresponding to each of combinations of first and second parameters indicating an azimuth direction and a color of each of the peripheral pixels, respectively; acquiring color signals of any object pixel and peripheral pixels thereof; reading out a corresponding color mix ratio from the storage unit based on an azimuth direction and a color of each of the peripheral pixels; and eliminating mixed color components included in the object pixel based on the color signals of the object pixel and the peripheral pixels thereof, and the color mix ratio of the peripheral pixels. | 10-16-2014 |
20140307122 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND METHOD, AND IMAGING DEVICE - For a mosaic image in a repeated cycle with “I”דJ” (“I” and “J” are integers of 2 or more) pixels, a color mix ratio is stored in a memory unit by being associated with a pixel position in I×J pixels so that a color mix ratio A associated with a pixel position in I×J pixels of an object pixel for mixed color correction is read from the memory unit, and a mixed color component included in the object pixel is removed based on the color mix ratio A and a color signal of the object pixel to calculate a white balance gain based on a color signal of each of pixels in the mosaic image for which the mixed color correction is applied. | 10-16-2014 |
20140313368 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, METHOD, RECORDING MEDIUM AND IMAGING DEVICE - An image processing method according to an aspect of the present invention includes acquiring a mosaic image composed of pixels of a first color that contributes most to acquisition of a luminance signal among three colors for pixels, and pixels of second colors other than the first color, a first color image corresponding to pixels of the first color and a second color image corresponding to pixels of the second colors having respective different frequency ranges that are reproducible; extracting a region containing a spatial frequency at which the second color image is not reproducible while the first color image is reproducible, in an entire image area corresponding to the mosaic image; and reducing a chroma of an image corresponding to that region in an image acquired by demosaic processing on the mosaic image. | 10-23-2014 |
20140313369 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - To generate a color image exhibiting few blocked-up colors or little color saturation. It is provided a image processing apparatus for processing an original image that is picked up, comprising: an image input part for inputting N original images having different exposure levels, where N is an integer of two or more, which are obtained by picking up images of the same subject in one of a simultaneous manner and a time-series manner; and a composite processing part for generating M output images, where M is an integer of one or more and less than N, by composing the N original images. The composite processing part compares color component signals in each corresponding pixel position with each other between the N original images, and sets the color component signal that produces a higher chroma as a color component signal in each pixel position of the output image. | 10-23-2014 |
20140320692 | IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit, a random seed generating unit, a pseudo-random number generating unit, and a special image processing unit. The imaging unit photographs a subject to obtain image data. The random seed generating unit generates a random seed to decide a pseudo-random number sequence. The pseudo-random number generating unit generates a pseudo-random number in accordance with the generated random seed. The special image processing unit performs special image processing to apply a special effect to the image data based on the generated pseudo-random number. The random seed is decided during photography. | 10-30-2014 |
20140320693 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS HAVING A PLURALITY OF IMAGE PROCESSING BLOCKS THAT ARE CAPABLE OF REAL-TIME PROCESSING OF AN IMAGE SIGNAL - An image processing apparatus is provided which offers higher versatility than conventional image processing apparatuses. When an input signal to a spatial filtering block is a monochrome signal that contains Y component only, a selector selects its input terminal and a selector selects its input terminal. Then, a low-pass filter output signal of a programmable spatial filter is inputted to a spatial filter, and a low-pass filter output signal of the spatial filer is inputted to a spatial filter. That is, the programmable spatial filter and the spatial filters are connected in series (in cascade), and the cascade-connected three spatial filters perform filtering operation. In this example, low-pass filters with 5H5 taps are connected in cascade in three stages, which enables low-pass filtering with 13H13 taps. | 10-30-2014 |
20140327794 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND ITS CONTROL METHOD - An image pickup apparatus controls in such a manner that if a touch applied to a touch operation member is detected by a detection unit arranged to detect a touch operation applied to the touch operation member, a photographic preparation unit makes an adjustment of a photographic setting, and after the touch, if the detection unit detects a predetermined touch operation and thereafter detects that the touch operation member loses the touch applied thereto, a photographic processing unit does not execute a photographic processing, while after the touch, if the detection unit detects that the touch operation member loses the touch applied thereto without detecting the predetermined touch operation, the photographic processing unit executes the photographic processing. | 11-06-2014 |
20140333797 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING IMAGE - An image processing device includes: a demosaicking unit which converts a bayer image from a camera sensor into red, green image and blue images; a first color space conversion unit which converts first camera RGB data into first display R′G′B′ data using a first color space conversion matrix; and a display unit which displays an image using the first display R′G′B′ data, where the first color space conversion matrix is calculated from a relationship in which the product of the first color space conversion matrix and a transpose of a first N×3 matrix is a transpose of a second N×3 matrix, where the first N×3 matrix represents camera RGB data of N number of colors, and the second N×3 matrix represents display R′G′B′ data of the N number of colors calculated by measuring the N number of colors displayed in the display unit using a spectrophotometer. | 11-13-2014 |
20140333798 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND IMAGE CORRECTION METHOD - To provide an image pickup apparatus which enables acquisition, by a simple configuration, of a natural image of a dark place or the like at the time of image pickup in a dark environment by eliminating an influence from the surrounding environmental light, an image pickup apparatus of the invention includes an image pickup section for picking up an image of an object and acquiring an image signal, an accumulation section for sequentially accumulating outputs from the image pickup section, a display section for visibly displaying an accumulated image signal of the accumulation section, a position identification section for identifying a position specified on an image displayed on the display section; and a correction section for performing an image correction process on the accumulated image signal of the accumulation section according to an identification result of the position identification section. | 11-13-2014 |
20140362250 | METHOD FOR CORRECTING PIXEL INFORMATION OF COLOR PIXELS ON A COLOR FILTER ARRAY OF AN IMAGE SENSOR - A method for correcting pixel information of color pixels on a color filter array of an image sensor includes: establishing an M×M distance factor table, selecting M×M pixels of the color filter array, calculating a red/green/blue-color contribution from the red/green/blue pixels to a target pixel in the selected M×M pixels, calculating a red/blue/green-color pixel performance of the target pixel, calculating a red/blue/green-color correcting factor, obtaining a corrected pixel information of each of the red/green/blue pixels, by applying the red/green/blue-color correcting factor to the measured pixel information of each of the red/green/blue pixels. | 12-11-2014 |
20140368692 | REAL-TIME CORRECTION/CALIBRATION SYSTEM FOR THE COLOR SPECTRUM CONTAINED ON AN IMAGE OUTPUT (TRANSMITTED) FROM AN IMAGE CAPTURE AND OUTPUT MACRO-SYSTEM, ACCORDING TO A PREVIOUSLY DEFINED COLOR SPECTRUM REFERENCE - A real-time correction/calibration system for the color spectrum contained on an image output (transmitted) from an image capture and output macro-system is provided. The system uses a reference of previously defined color spectrum, represented by an inventive solution preferentially in the electro-electronic or computing sectors. The invention is particularly useful when applied to “image capture and output macro-systems” which involve the use of equipment such as TV sets, projectors, data show, notebook, netbook, PDA, tablets, mobile telephone apparatus, film and photographic cameras, among others. The system of correction/calibration of color spectrum of an image captured from an object (Ob) and perceived by the observer (Ob) is provided with attributes such as flexibility, portability, agility, automation, low labor cost and economically viable. | 12-18-2014 |
20150009358 | WHITE BALANCE METHOD FOR SHADING COMPENSATION, AND APPARATUS APPLIED TO THE SAME - The present disclosure relates to a white balance method for performing a shading compensation, and more particularly, a white balance method for performing a shading compensation, in which a white balance control is initiated for an input image captured when a camera is driven, and then the shading compensation is performed together during a process of performing the initiated white balance control. The white balance method for performing a shading compensation includes executing a white balance for adjusting a color temperature of an input image, extracting a shading gain table corresponding to the color temperature among pre-stored shading gain tables for each color temperature during the execution of the white balance, executing a shading compensation for an image for each block of the input image by using the extracted shading gain table, and terminating the white balance. | 01-08-2015 |
20150009359 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL IMAGING - Methods and apparatus for collaborative digital imaging are disclosed. A method for digital imaging may include receiving a first image and a second image; aligning the first image with the second image; determining a first point of interest within the first image; determining a second point of interest within the second image; identifying a border for the aligned images; and creating a composite image from the aligned first and second images and the border. The composite image may include a first region of the first aligned image that includes the first point of interest and a second region of the second image that includes the second point of interest. | 01-08-2015 |
20150009360 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGING DEVICE AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing device of the present invention comprises a designation section for designating an adjustment amount using a first adjustment axis for carrying out first adjustment to adjust so as to displace white balance of image data in a hue direction that has been designated by the user, and a second adjustment axis for carrying out second adjustment to adjust saturation of the image data that has had white balance adjusted by the first adjustment axis, an image processing section for applying first image processing corresponding to the first adjustment to the image data, and applying second image processing corresponding to the second adjustment to the image data that has been subjected to the first image processing, wherein the image processing section changes the second image processing depending on the first image processing. | 01-08-2015 |
20150022684 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - An information processing apparatus obtains a sensed image, and information representing imaging conditions used when the image was sensed. Based on the information representing the imaging conditions, the information processing apparatus generates conversion information corresponding to a conversion coefficient used in at least one of de-gamma processing and color balance correction processing for converting the sensed image into an image corresponding to a predetermined color response function. The information processing apparatus records the generated conversion information in association with the sensed image. | 01-22-2015 |
20150022685 | Spectral Synthesis for Image Capture Device Processing - A substantially rectangular spectral representation is synthesized, which is adapted to produce image capture device sensor outputs if applied to an image capture device. The synthesized substantially rectangular spectral representation can be utilized in generating output color values of an output color space from image capture device sensor outputs, where the image capture device sensor outputs correspond to an image captured by an image capture device. The generated output color values correspond to colors perceived by the human visual system for the same image as that captured by the image capture device. Image capture device gamut is also determined. | 01-22-2015 |
20150029356 | IMAGING DEVICE, IMAGING METHOD AND NON-TRANSITORY STORAGE MEDIUM IN WHICH IMAGING PROGRAM IS STORED - An imaging device includes an imaging section, a main subject detecting section, a main subject color determining section, a background color setting section, an exposure control section, and a photography control section. The imaging section images a subject. The main subject detecting section detects a region of a main subject in image data. The main subject color determining section determines a color of the region of the main subject. The background color setting section sets a color of a region that becomes a background of the region of the main subject. The exposure control section sets an exposure setting value in accordance with the color of the region that becomes the background. The photography control section controls main imaging in accordance with the exposure setting value. | 01-29-2015 |
20150029357 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCED AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT OF FOCUS, EXPOSURE AND WHITE BALANCE IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - A method, apparatus and computer program are described where signals are received from a camera unit ( | 01-29-2015 |
20150029358 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - There are provided an apparatus and a method which generate an RGB image having less color noise and fewer false colors by inputting an RGBW image. The apparatus has an image sensor having an RGBW array, and an image processing unit which performs image processing by inputting a sensor image formed of an RGBW pixel signal output from the image sensor. The image sensor has a periodic array of a unit composition formed of each RGBW pixel, and has an array in which composition ratios of each RGB pixel within the unit composition are adapted to be the same as each other. The image processing unit converts a pixel array of the sensor image formed of the RGBW pixel signal, and performs at least either array conversion processing for generating an RGB array image or signal processing for generating each RGB image signal in which all RGB pixel values are set for each pixel position of the sensor image. | 01-29-2015 |
20150036018 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TUNING CAMERA CORRECTION SETTING FOR CAMERA MODULE - A camera tuning circuit has a first storage space, a second storage space and a controller. The first storage space stores a first reference camera correction setting for a reference camera module under a first color temperature. The second storage space stores a second reference camera correction setting for the reference camera module under a second color temperature, wherein the second color temperature is different from the first color temperature. The controller receives a default camera correction setting of a target camera module, the first reference camera correction setting, and the second reference camera correction setting, and generates a tuned camera correction setting for the target camera module according to the default camera correction setting, the first reference camera correction setting, and the second reference camera correction setting. | 02-05-2015 |
20150036019 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS - An image processing apparatus comprises an estimation unit which estimates, from color distribution information of an image obtained by capturing an object, a depth of water at which the captured object is positioned, and a white balance control unit which performs white balance control along an axis different from a black body radiation axis in accordance with the depth of water estimated by the estimation unit. | 02-05-2015 |
20150042843 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPROVING IMAGES - Systems and methods for improving images. In some aspects, a method includes determining an environment associated with a first image. The environment includes at least one of a time and a location. At least one of an image sensor and a light sensor of an imaging device is used to capture the first image. The method also includes automatically acquiring supplemental data based on the determined environment. The supplemental data is external to the image sensor and the light sensor. The method also includes improving at least one of an accuracy and a perceptual quality of the first image based on the automatically acquired supplemental data. | 02-12-2015 |
20150054980 | AWB USING FACE DETECTION - A method, system, and article provide automatic white balancing with skin tone correction for image processing. | 02-26-2015 |
20150062373 | INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGING DEVICE, INFORMATIONPROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An information processing device includes circuitry configured to generate a white balance evaluation result based on an user designated portion in an image. The circuitry is also configured to control a display of an indication of the white balance evaluation result with the image. | 03-05-2015 |
20150077587 | IMAGING DEVICE, ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER, AND DISPLAY CONTROL METHOD - An imaging device of the present invention comprises a storage section for holding an initial white point of a display panel, a calculation section for calculating target white point of the display panel based on light source information for the shooting environment, a determination section for making a white point range corresponding to an adaptive light source range, and determining whether or not the initial white point or the target white point are outside the adaptive tracking range, and a display control section for carrying out controls so as to change white point of the display panel over time from the initial white point to the target white point, wherein, in the event that the initial white point or the target white point is outside the adaptive tracking range, a new initial white point or a new target white point is calculated so as to be within the adaptive range. | 03-19-2015 |
20150085157 | DISPLAY CONTROL DEVICE AND DEVICE CONTROL METHOD - A display controller includes circuitry configured to cause a display device to display self-portrait photographing information in response to receiving an indication that the display device and an imaging unit are in a predetermined positional relationship. | 03-26-2015 |
20150092080 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus comprises: a white-balance processing unit that multiplies a first pixel that includes a plurality of colors constituting a pickup image that is picked up by an imaging unit by a gain value according to the colors and thereby generates a second pixel; a value adjusting unit that generates a third pixel by maintaining the second pixel that is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value out of the second pixel as it is, and by replacing, with the predetermined value, the second value that is larger than the predetermined value out of the second pixel; and a restoration processing unit that restores, by a restoration filter, resolution that has been reduced due to an optical system, on the third pixel. | 04-02-2015 |
20150097984 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING IMAGE GENERATION OF IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE BY DETERMINING ONE OR MORE IMAGE CAPTURE SETTINGS USED FOR GENERATING EACH SUBGROUP OF CAPTURED IMAGES - An image generation method includes: determining at least one first image capture setting and at least one second image capture setting; controlling an image capture device to generate a plurality of first successive captured images for a capture trigger event according to the at least one first image capture setting and generate a plurality of second successive captured images for the same capture trigger event according to the at least one second image capture setting. Variation of the at least one first image capture setting is constrained within a first predetermined range during generation of the first successive captured images. Difference between the at least one first image capture setting and the at least one second image capture setting is beyond the first predetermined range. Variation of the at least one second image capture setting is constrained within a second predetermined range during generation of the second successive captured images. | 04-09-2015 |
20150103200 | HETEROGENEOUS MIX OF SENSORS AND CALIBRATION THEREOF - Aspects of calibration of sensors are described. In one embodiment, a characteristic associated with a first or a second sensor is identified. The characteristic may be identified before or after assembly of a device including the first and second sensors. In turn, an operating characteristic of at least one of the first sensor or the second sensor may be adjusted based on the identified characteristic. Further, a first image may be captured with the first sensor and a second image may be captured with the second sensor. An attribute of the second image, for example, may be adjusted to substantially address any difference between the attribute of the second image and a corresponding attribute of the first image using the characteristic for calibration. The adjustments described herein may assist various processing techniques which operate on pairs of images, for example, particularly when a heterogeneous mix of sensors is used. | 04-16-2015 |
20150103201 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, PROGRAM AND IMAGING APPARATUS - An image processing apparatus with at least one circuit provided to perform a process of determining a candidate color region including at least a partial region in an image using color information of an input image signal, prompt a user to select an extraction color region in case a plurality of color regions are determined as the candidate color region, and perform image processing on at least one of the extraction color region of the input image signal and the remaining region of the input image signal excluding the extraction color region, to obtain an output image signal. | 04-16-2015 |
20150116533 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND BLACK LEVEL CONTROLLING METHOD THEREOF - An image sensing apparatus and a black level controlling method thereof are provided. The black level controlling method includes following steps. A conversion relationship between analog gain values and offset values is provided. An analog gain value is converted into an analog offset value by using the conversion relationship between analog gain values and offset values. Whether to adjust the analog offset value is decided according to a first optical black data corresponding to a first part of optical black pixels. A digital data offset value is calculated according to a data corresponding a second part of optical black pixels. | 04-30-2015 |
20150116534 | METHOD OF CALIBRATING AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCE AND IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE PERFORMING THE SAME - An image capture device and a method of calibrating automatic white balance thereof are provided. The method includes generating first and second frame data using first and second image sensors, respectively, in response to incident light; generating first and second color temperature estimation information based on the first frame data and the second frame data, respectively; determining whether an amount of the first color temperature estimation information is sufficient to estimate a color temperature of a light source; estimating the color temperature of the light source based on the first color temperature estimation information when the amount of the first color temperature estimation information is sufficient; and when the amount of the first color temperature estimation information is insufficient estimating the color temperature of the light source based on the first and second color temperature estimation information; and adjusting the first frame data based on the estimated color temperature. | 04-30-2015 |
20150124117 | ENCODER-SUPERVISED IMAGING FOR VIDEO CAMERAS - A controller controls a camera that produces a sequence of images and that has output coupled to a video encoder. The camera has an operating condition including a field of view and lighting, and one or more imaging parameters. The video encoder encodes images from the camera into codewords. The controller receives one or more encoding properties from the video encoder, and causes adjusting one or more of the imaging parameters based on at least one of the received encoding properties, such that the camera produces additional images of the sequence of images for the video encoder using the adjusted one or more imaging parameters. | 05-07-2015 |
20150130964 | Automatic Color Correction Method and Color Correction Module thereof - An auto-color-correction method for an image capturing device includes calculating a plurality color temperatures of a plurality of pixels in an image; calculating a number of pixels of the plurality of pixels located in a first color temperature range as a first number and a number of pixels of the plurality of pixels located in a second color temperature range as a second number; generating a color temperature weight according to the first number and the second number; and generating at least one correction coefficient according to the color temperature weight, at least one first coefficient corresponding to the first color temperature range and at least one second coefficient corresponding to the second color temperature range. | 05-14-2015 |
20150130965 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD - An electronic device includes an image capture unit that generates first RAW image data; a compression unit that compresses the first RAW image data; a decompression unit that decompresses the compressed first RAW image data to generate second RAW image data; a development unit that generates first developed image data from the first RAW image data, and generates second developed image data from the second RAW image data; and a control unit that controls the compression unit based on the first developed image data and the second developed image data. | 05-14-2015 |
20150146037 | IMAGING SYSTEMS WITH BROADBAND IMAGE PIXELS FOR GENERATING MONOCHROME AND COLOR IMAGES - An image sensor may have an array of image pixels that includes red image pixels that generate red image signals, blue image pixels that generate blue image signals, and broadband image pixels that generate broadband image signals in response to detecting at least two of red, blue, and green light. The image sensor may be operable in a monochrome imaging mode in which monochrome images are generated using the broadband signals and in a color imaging mode in which color images are generated using the red, green, and broadband signals. The image sensor may be coupled to processing circuitry that processes the image signals and that instructs the image sensor to perform imaging operations in either the monochrome imaging mode or the color imaging mode. The image sensor may be switched between the color imaging mode and the monochrome imaging mode autonomously and/or via input from a user. | 05-28-2015 |
20150304619 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM FOR RECORDING IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - An image processing device provided with: a white balance correcting section multiplying image data by a white balance gain for each color component; a color difference calculating section calculating color difference components of the image data after the white balance correction, for each pixel; and a color difference correcting section setting a color difference correction range wider as the white balance gain is larger, and, when all the color difference components of a processing target pixel are within the set color difference correction range, performing color difference correction processing for reducing the color difference components of the processing target pixel. | 10-22-2015 |
20150312491 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE - Provided is a solid-state imaging device which is capable of improving an image quality by changing a signal charge voltage conversion gain and performing a binning operation. According to one embodiment, a solid-state imaging device includes a pixel array unit including pixels that accumulate charges obtained by photoelectric conversion and are arranged in a row direction and a column direction in a form of a matrix and a switching transistor that is disposed between pixels and capable of changing a signal charge voltage conversion gain of a pixel and performing a binning operation. | 10-29-2015 |
20150312540 | AUTOMATIC WHITE BALANCING WITH CHROMATICITY MEASURE OF RAW IMAGE DATA - An apparatus and methods for estimating a chromaticity of illumination from raw image data. In an embodiment, one or more image chromaticity weight is determined based on a distance between the raw image data in a sensor chromaticity space and a nearest point within a locus of sensor illumination chromaticities. In a further embodiment, one or more image chromaticity weight is determined based on a disparity among normalized color channel values. In certain embodiments, image chromaticity estimates are utilized to determine a white point estimate for the raw image data. In embodiments, an electronic device including a camera estimates the chromaticity value of raw image data captured by the camera as part of an AWB pipeline. The electronic device may further determine, for example as part of the AWB pipeline, a white point estimate based, at least in part, on the raw image data chromaticity value estimate(s). | 10-29-2015 |
20150312544 | IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE HAVING IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSOR - Provided is a method for controlling a video lens in an image capture device which uses a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. A vertical sync (Vsync) signal and a horizontal sync (Hsync) signal are separately generated and then synthesized. Thereafter, the resulting signal is synthesized with a DC level mode luminance signal to generate a lens control signal for controlling the video lens. | 10-29-2015 |
20150326841 | WHITE BALANCING DEVICE AND METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME - A white balancing device and a method of driving the same are provided. The white balancing device includes a map generator and an automatic white balancing (AWB) block. The map generator is configured to generate an indoor-outdoor map comparing a first image and a second image generated by performing a wide dynamic range (WDR) algorithm on the first image. The AWB block is configured to generate a first white point with respect to an outdoor region and a second white point with respect to an indoor region using the indoor-outdoor map. | 11-12-2015 |
20150326842 | Automatic White Balance with Facial Color Features as Reference Color Surfaces - An automatic white balance method and an electronic media device incorporating the method deploy characterized individual human facial color features set of a user or users of the device as reference color surfaces in automatic white balance illuminant estimation and color adjustments, which could improve illuminant estimation accuracy, provide flexible color adjustment options and render the image color to each user's own satisfaction taking into account user preferred rendition as target values through a human-machine interactive interface. | 11-12-2015 |
20150332126 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, METHOD OF PROCESSING IMAGE, AND PROGRAM - An image processing apparatus calculating to determine one category, to which an input image data belongs, among categories, which are provided to classify image data, includes a convolution processing unit which performs a convolution process using a first coefficient used for calculating to determine the one category and previously learnt; total combination processing units which are prepared for each category performs a total combination process for a processing result obtained by the convolution processing unit using a second coefficient used for calculating to determine the one category and previously learnt, and calculates to determine the one category; and a normalization unit which performs normalization of a processing result obtained by the total combination processing unit for each category, wherein the convolution processing unit performs learning of the first coefficient in common with the categories, and the total combination processing unit performs learning of the second coefficient for each category. | 11-19-2015 |
20150350515 | COMBINING MULTIPLE IMAGES IN BRACKETED PHOTOGRAPHY - Embodiments provide a unified method for combining images such as high dynamic range images, flash-no-flash image pairs, and/or other images. Weight masks are defined for each of the plurality of images by calculating coefficients for each of the weight masks. Calculating the coefficients includes, at least, performing histogram alignment between a reference image and each of the other input images and by applying a mismatch bias to the coefficients as a function of the histogram alignment. After applying the weight masks to the corresponding images, the images are combined to produce a final image. | 12-03-2015 |
20150350620 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS THAT PERFORMS WHITE BALANCE CONTROL AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - An image pickup apparatus capable of properly performing white balance control on an image. A photographed image is divided into areas and a color evaluation value is acquired from each area. Infrared light is detected from each of areas of an object defined in association with the areas of the image. White balance correction is performed on the image using a mixed WB correction value calculated by mixing a first WB correction value calculated using the color evaluation values included in a white detection range set in a color space and a second WB correction value calculated using the color evaluation values acquired from areas each having an infrared light amount larger than a predetermined amount and included in a detection range of a predetermined color other than white, set in the color space. | 12-03-2015 |
20150365612 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS AND IMAGE COMPENSATING METHOD THEREOF - An image capture device and an image compensating method are provided. The image compensating method is for the image capture device and includes following steps. An image is captured under a current light source. The current light source is detected and a white balance process is executed so as to obtain current gain information of the current light source. A modifying parameter is determined according to the current gain information and reference gain information. The reference gain information is corresponding to a plurality of predefined color temperatures which are different to each other. A first shading compensation table is modified by using the modifying parameter to obtain a second shading compensation table. The image is compensated by using the second shading compensation table so as to generate a compensated image. | 12-17-2015 |
20150381951 | PIXEL ARRANGEMENTS FOR IMAGE SENSORS WITH PHASE DETECTION PIXELS - An image sensor may include a pixel array having image pixels for capturing image data and phase detection pixels for gathering phase information during automatic focusing operations. Phase detection pixels may form phase detection pixel pairs having first and second pixels with different angular responses. The first and second pixels may have color filters of the same color or may have color filters of different colors. The phase detection pixel pairs may be isolated from other phase detection pixel pairs in the array or may be arranged consecutively in a line. The phase detection pixels may, for example, be provided with color filters to match the color filter pattern of the pixel array. Processing circuitry may adjust red and green pixel signals from a phase detection pixel pair having a red and green color filter and may subsequently determine a phase difference using the adjusted pixel signals. | 12-31-2015 |
20160007001 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE THAT PERFORMS WHITE BALANCE CONTROL, METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An image processing device capable of stably performing white balance control. A first WB correction value is calculated according to an infrared light amount obtained from a first image. A second WB correction value different from the first one is calculated according to white pixels obtained from the first image. A third WB correction value is calculated based on the first and second WB correction values. White balance processing is performed on the first image using the third WB correction value, which is stored as a reference WB correction value. When the infrared light amount not smaller than a predetermined amount is obtained from the second image and also the number of obtained white pixels is smaller than a predetermined number, white balance processing is performed on the second image using the stored reference WB correction value. | 01-07-2016 |
20160014316 | PHOTOGRAPHY METHOD USING PROJECTING LIGHT SOURCE AND A PHOTOGRAPHY ELEMENT THEREOF | 01-14-2016 |
20160014359 | IMAGE SENSOR AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE | 01-14-2016 |
20160021352 | COLOR SHADING CORRECTION USING COLOR CHANNEL CONSISTENCY - An imaging system includes a color correction circuit configured to perform in color shading correction of an image independent of lens shading correction of the image. A method for anti-shading correction of an image includes correcting, by a color correction circuit, for color shading of the image independent of lens shading correction of the image. | 01-21-2016 |
20160037039 | LIGHT METERING METHODS AND DEVICES - A light metering method is provided. The method includes: acquiring a touch screen point inputted by a user; identifying an initial light metering area based on an image displayed on a touchscreen, the initial light metering area containing the touch screen point; segmenting the initial light metering area into a background region and an object region containing the touch screen point; and performing light metering on image points within the object region. | 02-04-2016 |
20160044243 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, IMAGE PICKUP SYSTEM, AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An image pickup apparatus includes a shooting scene determining unit configured to determine a shooting scene, a selecting unit configured to select a bracket shooting from a plurality of bracket shootings which alter parameters in different ways from each other, based on the shooting scene determined by the shooting scene determining unit, and an image pickup unit configured to perform the bracket shooting selected by the selecting unit, and the selecting unit selects one type of bracket shooting even when the shooting scene determined by the shooting scene determining unit is suitable for at least two types of bracket shootings in the plurality of bracket shootings. | 02-11-2016 |
20160044293 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - A system, method and computer program product for generating an image set for a photographic scene. The method comprises sampling evaluation images, enumerating exposure requirements for each image comprising the image set, selecting exposure coordinates for each image comprising the image set, generating camera subsystem exposure parameters for each image comprising the image set based on corresponding selected exposure coordinates, storing camera subsystem exposure parameters for each image comprising the image set, sampling each image comprising the image set based on corresponding camera subsystem exposure parameters, and storing each sampled image comprising the image set. Techniques disclosed herein advantageously reduce inter-frame time for images sampled sequentially. | 02-11-2016 |
20160057399 | COLOR CALIBRATION OF COLOR IMAGE RENDERING DEVICES - Color calibration of color image rendering devices, such as large color displays, which operate by either projection or emission of images, utilize internal color measurement instrument or external color measurement modules locatable on a wall or speaker. A dual use camera is provided for a portable or laptop computer, or a cellular phone, handset, personal digital assistant or other handheld device with a digital camera, in which one of the camera or a display is movable with respect to the other to enable the camera in a first mode to capture images of the display for enabling calibration of the display, and in a second mode for capturing image other than of the display. The displays may represent rendering devices for enabling virtual proofing in a network, or may be part of stand-alone systems and apparatuses for color calibration. Improved calibration is also provided for sensing and correcting for non-uniformities of rendering devices, such as color displays, printer, presses, or other color image rendering device. | 02-25-2016 |
20160065840 | METHOD FOR CONTROL OF CAMERA MODULE BASED ON PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNAL - A control method of an electronic device is disclosed. The method includes receiving an input signal including a physiological signal of a subject to be examined through a sensor module of the electronic device, detecting an input operation based on at least the input signal, and acquiring an image through a camera module according to the input operation. | 03-03-2016 |
20160065869 | IMAGE SENSOR PIXEL ARRAY HAVING OUTPUT RESPONSE CURVE INCLUDING LOGARITHMIC PATTERN FOR IMAGE SENSOR BASED TERMINAL - There is described in one embodiment an indicia reading terminal having an image sensor pixel array incorporated therein, wherein the terminal is operative for decoding of decodable indicia and for providing color frames of image data for storage or transmission. An image sensor based terminal in one embodiment can include an image sensor having a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array wherein the image sensor pixel array includes a first subset of monochrome pixels and a second subset of color pixels. In one embodiment, an output response curve for the image sensor pixel array can include a logarithmic pattern. | 03-03-2016 |
20160080715 | PIXEL INTERPOLATION DEVICE AND OPERATION CONTROL METHOD - The generation of a false color is prevented. In a pixel mixture block, pixels of the same color are mixed. For example, red pixels are mixed to obtain a red mixed pixel and blue pixels are mixed to obtain a blue mixed pixel. Green pixels in an odd-numbered row and pixels in an even-numbered row are separately mixed to obtain a green mixed pixel and a green mixed pixel. A correlation direction in a partial color image | 03-17-2016 |
20160086355 | FAST FACE BEAUTIFYING METHOD FOR DIGITAL IMAGES - The present invention provides a fast face beautifying method for digital images. Gaussian blur is performed to an original image to extract a green channel value which is then subject to linear light blending and hard light blending, and a blended green channel value is recalculated. Meanwhile, skin recognition and whitening are performed to the original image, and finally, by using a product of the recalculated green channel value by a probability obtained by skin recognition as a transparency, transparency blending is performed to the original image and the whitened image to compose a beautified image. Moreover, by performing skin recognition to the original image, black pixels will be prevented from being processing by an algorithm, so that hairs, eyes and other non skin parts will be prevented from being processing. Consequently, the final effect of beautification will become better and more natural. | 03-24-2016 |
20160094825 | METHOD FOR SELECTING METERING MODE AND IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE THEREOF - A method for selecting metering mode and an image capturing device thereof are provided. The method includes: obtaining a first exposure compensation value, a first white balance compensation value and a first focus distance corresponding to a first image; determining whether a first color temperature corresponding to the first white balance compensation value is greater than a predetermined color temperature; if yes, determining whether an ambient brightness corresponding to the first exposure compensation value is greater than a predetermined brightness, and if yes, setting a metering mode to be an average metering mode, while if not, setting the metering mode to be a center-weighted average metering mode; and if not, determining whether the first focus distance is greater than a predetermined focus distance, and if yes, setting the metering mode to be the center-weighted average metering mode, while if not, setting the metering mode to be the spot metering mode. | 03-31-2016 |
20160100137 | SMART DEVICE AND RELATED SYSTEMS AND METHODS - An electronic device is provided. The electronic device may include components. The components may include a power source, a processor, a memory, circuitry, an input/output unit, a display unit configured to display data and/or color, and a communication unit configured to transmit and/or receive data. The electronic device may include a conductive material connecting at least two of the components to each other. At least a portion of the electronic device may be formed in one or more layers of a printed substrate, and/or at least one of the components may be formed from a conductive ink. | 04-07-2016 |
20160105656 | WHITE BALANCE METHOD IN MULTI-EXPOSURE IMAGING SYSTEM - A white-balance method for use in a multi-exposure imaging system having an image capturing unit is provided. The method includes the steps of: utilizing the image capturing unit to simultaneously capture a first image and a second image of a scene with a first exposure value and a second exposure value, respectively, wherein the second exposure value is smaller than the first exposure value, and the first exposure value and the second exposure value have individual exposure time and exposure gain; performing light source detection on the second image to obtain light source information and a corresponding light source color ratio of the scene; and performing a color gain process on the first image according to the light source color ratio to generate an output image. | 04-14-2016 |
20160119652 | PRESERVING DYNAMIC RANGE PRECISION IN INTEGER IMAGE FORMATS - High dynamic range media sensor output is encoded using a hybrid transfer function. The hybrid transfer function conforms to existing industry standards over standard brightness level ranges, such as between black and white reference points, and uses a different function to encode captured signals having intensities below the black point and above the white point. Precision over the expanded dynamic range of captured image data is optimally preserved using a two-byte per pixel representation. The transfer function varies across the full dynamic range without clamping off below the maximum value of the expanded captured intensity range. One hybrid transfer function conforms to BT.1886 up to the white point, and uses a linearly varying encoding gamma above the white point up to 1300% IRE, producing encoded values in a 2.14 fixed point representation. The hybrid transfer function is continuous at the white point, and may also have a continuous gradient there. | 04-28-2016 |
20160127672 | ELECTRONIC APPARATUS - An electronic apparatus includes: a processing unit that processes an image capture signal captured by an image capturing unit; a communication unit that is capable of transmitting the image capture signal captured by the image capturing unit to an external apparatus; and a determination unit that determines whether or not to transmit the image capture signal to the external apparatus, according to a capture setting for the image capturing unit. | 05-05-2016 |
20160142609 | MOBILE DEVICE WITH OPERATION FOR MODIFYING VISUAL PERCEPTION - Embodiments disclosed herein are directed to a lighting system for modifying visual perception of an image. In one embodiment, the lighting system includes a mirror having a display and a lighting system. The lighting system may have a key light above the display and a fill light below the display. The lighting system provides frontal lighting to the targeted subject with the key light shaping and defining the targeted subject, and the fill light softening the shadows and creating the illusion of a glow. Further, the key light and fill light may be of the same or different intensities. | 05-19-2016 |
20160156851 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM | 06-02-2016 |
20160165216 | DISPARITY SEARCH RANGE DETERMINATION FOR IMAGES FROM AN IMAGE SENSOR ARRAY - A range is determined for a disparity search for images from an image sensor array. In one example, a method includes receiving a reference image and a second image of a scene from multiple cameras of a camera array, detecting feature points of the reference image, matching points of the detected features to points of the second image, determining a maximum disparity between the reference image and the second image, and determining disparities between the reference image and the second image by comparing points of the reference image to points of the second image wherein the points of the second image are limited to points within the maximum disparity. | 06-09-2016 |
20160173764 | CAMERA CONFIGURATION IN A CAMERA SYSTEM ACCELERATOR ARCHITECTURE | 06-16-2016 |
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20160381303 | Imaging System - An imaging system includes: plural imaging devices which are mounted on the same moving body, and configured to capture subjects to acquire images; and a controller configured to calculate a target white balance value common to the images acquired by the imaging devices. Each imaging device includes: a white balance calculator configured to calculate an individual white balance value of the image acquired by the imaging device; and a white balance corrector configured to correct the individual white value of the image of the subject taken by the imaging device to the target white balance value. The controller includes a weighting unit configured to individually weight the individual white balance value given from each imaging device. | 12-29-2016 |
20170237961 | Hardware-Based Convolutional Color Correction in Digital Images | 08-17-2017 |