Apple Inc.

George E Williams

Jianping Zhou

Sebastien X Beysserie

Rolf Toft

Damien J Thivent

James David Batson

Rudolph Van Der Merwe

Todd Stephen Sachs

Claus Molgaard

Marco Zuliani

Ethan J Tira-Thompson

Chanaka G Karunamuni

Gregory B Novick

Richard Lawrence Baer

Paul M Hubel

Gregory R Chapman

Marius Tico

Frank Doepke

James Alexander Howard

Jason Klivington

Eric S Lee

Brett M Keating

Walker J Eagleston

Xiaoxing Li

Anders M Holtsberg

Vincent Y Wong

Hugh W Johnson

Martin Lindberg

James C Dovey

Xuemei Zhang

Yingjun Bai

Farhan A Baqai

Anil K Kandangath

Fabio Riccardi

Geoffrey T Anneheim

Jamie P Carlson

Yongfang Liang

Juanqing Chen

Benjamin M Olson

Jangwon Lee

Ramy R Asselin

Stephanie L Legault

Abdul Rahman Al-shawa

Fabien Goncalves

John A Wilkey

The present disclosure generally relates to methods for sending event notifications. In some examples, a controller periodically sends messages concerning a status of an event corresponding to the controller. In some examples, at a first time while periodically sending the messages and in accordance with a determination that the status of the event has changed, the controller sends a message concerning data other than the status of the event. In some examples, at the first time while periodically sending the messages and in accordance with a determination that the status of the event has not changed, the controller continues to periodically send the messages without sending the message concerning data other than the status of the event.

Event reporting

The invention relates to systems, methods, and computer readable media for responding to a user snapshot request by capturing anticipatory pre-snapshot image data as well as post-snapshot image data. The captured information may be used, depending upon the embodiment, to create archival image information and image presentation information that is both useful and pleasing to a user. The captured information may automatically be trimmed or edited to facilitate creating an enhanced image, such as a moving still image. Varying embodiments of the invention offer techniques for trimming and editing based upon the following: exposure, brightness, focus, white balance, detected motion of the camera, substantive image analysis, detected sound, image metadata, and/or any combination of the foregoing.

Method and apparatus for finding and using video portions that are relevant to adjacent still images

Techniques to improve a digital image capture device's ability to stabilize a video stream are presented. According to some embodiments, improved stabilization of captured video frames is provided by intelligently harnessing the complementary effects of both optical image stabilization (OIS) and electronic image stabilization (EIS). In particular, OIS may be used to remove intra-frame motion blur that is typically lower in amplitude and dominates with longer integration times, while EIS may be used to remove residual unwanted frame-to-frame motion that is typically larger in amplitude. The techniques disclosed herein may also leverage information provided from the image capture device's OIS system to perform improved motion blur-aware video stabilization strength modulation, which permits better video stabilization performance in low light conditions, where integration times tend to be longer, thus leading to a greater amount of motion blurring in the output stabilized video.

Combined optical and electronic image stabilization

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide the ability to control a camera from a wearable mechanism device, such as a watch, pendant or other device with its own limited display. Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a wearable mechanism device for remotely controlling a camera with an intuitive user interface and sequencing of interface options. In one embodiment, the display on the wearable mechanism changes before a picture or video is taken with the electronic camera. Certain embodiments of the present invention provide the ability to partially control a camera from the wearable mechanism device, providing split control.

Changing display images of a camera timer remote control

Camera remote control

Techniques to permit a digital image capture device to stabilize a video stream in real-time (during video capture operations) are presented. In general, techniques are disclosed for stabilizing video images using an overscan region and a look-ahead technique enabled by buffering a number of video input frames before generating a first stabilized video output frame. (Capturing a larger image than is displayed creates a buffer of pixels around the edge of an image; overscan is the term given to this buffer of pixels.) More particularly, techniques are disclosed for buffering an initial number of input frames so that a 'current' frame can use motion data from both 'past' and &#x201c;future&#x201d; frames to adjust the strength of a stabilization metric value so as to keep the current frame within its overscan. This look-ahead and look-behind capability permits a smoother stabilizing regime with fewer abrupt adjustments.

Video image stabilization

A method to improve the efficiency of the detection and tracking of machine-readable objects is disclosed. The properties of image frames may be pre-evaluated to determine whether a machine-readable object, even if present in the image frames, would be likely to be detected. After it is determined that one or more image frames have properties that may enable the detection of a machine-readable object, image data may be evaluated to detect the machine-readable object. When a machine-readable object is detected, the location of the machine-readable object in a subsequent frame may be determined based on a translation metric between the image frame in which the object was identified and the subsequent frame rather than a detection of the object in the subsequent frame. The translation metric may be identified based on an evaluation of image data and/or motion sensor data associated with the image frames.

Efficient machine-readable object detection and tracking

Techniques are disclosed for selectively capturing, retaining, and combining multiple sub-exposure images or brackets to yield a final image having diminished motion-induced blur and good noise characteristics. More specifically, after or during the capture of N brackets, the M best may be identified for combining into a single output image, (N&#x3e;M). As used here, the term 'best' means those brackets that exhibit the least amount of relative motion with respect to one another&#x2014;with one caveat: integer pixel shifts may be preferred over sub-pixel shifts.

Dynamic bracketing operations for image stabilization

Systems, methods, and computer readable media to capture and process high dynamic range (HDR) images when appropriate for a scene are disclosed. When appropriate, multiple images at a single&#x2014;slightly underexposed&#x2014;exposure value are captured (making a constant bracket HDR capture sequence) and local tone mapping (LTM) applied to each image. Local tone map and histogram information can be used to generate a noise-amplification mask which can be used during fusion operations. Images obtained and fused in the disclosed manner provide high dynamic range with improved noise and de-ghosting characteristics.

Constant bracket high dynamic range (cHDR) operations

An apparatus, method, and computer-readable medium for motion sensor-based video stabilization. A motion sensor may capture motion data of a video sequence. A controller may compute instantaneous motion of the camera for a current frame of the video sequence and accumulated motion of the camera corresponding to motion of a plurality of frames of the video sequence. The controller may compare the instantaneous motion to a first threshold value, compare the accumulated motion to a second threshold value, and set a video stabilization strength parameter for the current frame based on the results of the comparison. A video stabilization unit may perform video stabilization on the current frame according to the frame's strength parameter.

Stationary camera detection and virtual tripod transition for video stabilization

Techniques and devices for acquiring and processing timelapse video are described. The techniques use exposure bracketing to provide a plurality of images at each acquisition time. Images of the plurality are selected to minimize flicker in a timelapse video encoded from the selected images.

Systems and methods for exposure metering for timelapse video

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Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

George E Williams