Fotonation Limited

Istvan Andorko

Petronel Bigioi

Peter Corcoran

Alexandru Drimbarean

Piotr Stec

Christopher Dainty

Alexander Goncharov

Serghei Carateev

Brian O'Sullivan

Barry McCullagh

Darragh Ballesty

Cosmin Nicolae Rotariu

A vehicle occupant monitoring system, OMS, comprises an image acquisition device with a rolling shutter image sensor configured to selectively operate in either: a full-resolution image mode where an image frame corresponding to the full image sensor is provided; or a region of interest, ROI, mode, where an image frame corresponding to a limited portion of the image sensor is provided. An object detector is configured to receive a full-resolution image from the image sensor and to identify a ROI corresponding to an object of interest within the image. A controller is configured to obtain an image corresponding to the ROI from the image sensor operating in ROI mode, the image having an exposure time long enough for all rows of the ROI to be illuminated by a common pulse of light from at least one infra-red light source and short enough to limit motion blur within the image.

Vehicle occupant monitoring system including an image acquisition device with a rolling shutter image sensor

A vehicle occupant monitoring system, OMS, comprises: an image acquisition device comprising an image sensor and a lens assembly having a varying transmissivity across a field of view of the image sensor; at least one infra-red, IR, light source disposed within a cabin of the vehicle and being configured to illuminate at least one occupant of the vehicle with varying illumination across the field of view of the image sensor; and an image processing pipeline configured to obtain and pre-process an image acquired from the image sensor in accordance with a lens shading map and a cabin illumination map in order to compensate for both the varying transmissivity and the varying illumination in order to provide a more uniformly illuminated image to a controller for further analysis.

A vehicle occupant monitoring system, OMS, comprises an image acquisition device with a rolling shutter image sensor comprising an array of sub-pixels which are respectively selectively sensitive to: red and infra-red; blue and infra-red; and green and infra-red light. The device is configured to selectively operate in either: a colour mode where a multi-plane image frame corresponding to the full image sensor is provided, each plane derived from red, green or blue sensitive sub-pixels respectively; or a monochrome mode, where sensor information from sub-pixels is aggregated to provide a single image plane.

A method includes determining, by a portable device, image capturing conditions based on an analysis of contents of a first digital image of a group of digital images captured by an image capturing device, and determining, by the portable device, whether the image capturing conditions determined for the first digital image indicate outdoor image capturing conditions. Based at least in part on a determination that the image capturing conditions determined for the first digital image indicate outdoor image capturing conditions, displaying a first indication that the first digital image must be captured in indoor image capturing conditions for an iris code enrollment process, and displaying a second indication of resumption of the iris code enrollment process when the image capturing conditions, determined for the first digital image, indicate the indoor image capturing conditions.

Iris recognition workflow

A handheld computing device comprises a display comprising an array of pixels illuminated by a plurality of visible light sources, and a plurality of infra-red light sources interleaved between the visible light sources, the IR light sources being actuable to emit diffuse IR light with a first intensity. A camera has an image sensor comprising an array of pixels responsive to infra-red light and a lens assembly with an optical axis extending from the image sensor through the surface of the display. A dedicated illumination source is located outside the display and is actuable to emit infra-red light with a second greater intensity. A processor is configured to switch between an iris region processing mode in which a subject is illuminated at least by the dedicated light source and a face region processing mode in which a subject is illuminated by the plurality of IR light sources.

Handheld computing device

An image acquisition system determines first and second sets of points defining an iris-pupil boundary and an iris-sclera boundary in an acquired image; determines respective ellipses fitting the first and second sets of points; determines a transformation to transform one of the ellipses into a circle on a corresponding plane; using the determined transformation, transforms the selected ellipse into a circle on the plane; using the determined transformation, transforms the other ellipse into a transformed ellipse on the plane; determines a plurality of ellipses on the plane for defining an iris grid, by interpolating a plurality of ellipses between the circle and the transformed ellipse; moves the determined grid ellipses onto the iris in the image using an inverse transformation of the determined transformation; and extracts an iris texture by unwrapping the iris and interpolating image pixel values at each grid point defined along each of the grid ellipses.

Image acquisition system for off-axis eye images

A biometrics-enabled portable storage device may store and secure data via biometrics related to a user's iris. The biometrics-enabled portable storage device may include a camera that captures image data related a user's iris and stores the image data to enroll the user for use of the biometrics-enabled portable storage device. To unlock the data, a user aligns the camera with their iris using a hot mirror and the camera captures iris data for comparison with the iris image data stored during enrollment. If the two sets of image data match, the biometrics-enabled portable storage device may be unlocked and the user may access data stored on the biometrics-enabled portable storage device. If the two sets of image data do not match, then the biometrics-enabled portable storage device remains locked.

Biometrics-enabled portable storage device

A method for automatically determining exposure settings for an image acquisition system comprises maintaining a plurality of look-up tables, each look-up table being associated with a corresponding light condition and storing image exposure settings associated with corresponding distance values between a subject and the image acquisition system. An image of a subject is acquired from a camera module; and a light condition occurring during the acquisition is determined based on the acquired image. A distance between the subject and the camera module during the acquisition is calculated. The method then determines whether a correction of the image exposure settings for the camera module is required based on the calculated distance and the determined light condition; and responsive to correction being required: selects image exposure settings corresponding to the calculated distance from the look-up table corresponding to the determined light condition; and acquires a new image using the selected image exposure settings.

Automatic exposure module for an image acquisition system

This disclosure describes, in part, devices and techniques for performing biometric identification for an electronic device. For instance, the electronic device may include one or more near-infrared illuminators that output near-infrared light. The one or more near-infrared illuminators may be located in or on a bezel and/or a display of the electronic device. The electronic device may also include an imaging device that generates first image data representing the near-infrared light and visible light. After generating the image data, the electronic device may process the first image data using one or more image processing techniques to generate second image data representing a near-infrared image and third image data representing a visible image. The electronic device may then analyze the second image data and/or the third image data using one or more biometric identification techniques. Based on the analysis, the electronic device may identify a person possessing the electronic device.

Electronic device for performing biometric identification

A device, such as a head-mounted device (HMD), may include a frame and a plurality of mirrors coupled to an interior portion of the frame. An imaging device may be coupled to the frame at a position to capture images of an eye of the wearer reflected from the mirrors. The HMD may also include a mirror angle adjustment device to adjust an angle of one or more of the mirrors relative to the imaging device so that the mirror(s) reflect the eye of the wearer to the imaging device.

Multi-perspective eye acquisition

An image processing method for iris recognition of a predetermined subject, comprises acquiring through an image sensor, a probe image illuminated by an infra-red (IR) illumination source, wherein the probe image comprises one or more eye regions and is overexposed until skin portions of the image are saturated. One or more iris regions are identified within the one or more eye regions of said probe image; and the identified iris regions are analysed to detect whether they belong to the predetermined subject.

Image processing method and system for iris recognition

In an embodiment, a method comprises determining, by a portable device, image capturing conditions by analyzing contents of a particular digital image of one or more first digital images captured by one or more image capturing devices. It is also determined whether the image capturing conditions indicate indoor image capturing conditions. If the image capturing conditions indicate indoor image capturing conditions, then it is determined whether the particular digital image includes a depiction of at least one eye. If so, an iris region, depicting the at least one eye, is segmented in the particular digital image. If the segmented iris region does not include iris valid information, then one or more image capturing devices capture one or more second digital images having an enhanced contrast. If the one or more second digital images include iris valid information, then iris code is extracted from the one or more second digital images.

An image processing method for iris recognition of a predetermined subject, comprises acquiring through an image sensor, a probe image illuminated by an infra-red (IR) illumination source, wherein the probe image comprises one or more eye regions and is overexposed until skin portions of the image are saturated. One or more iris regions are identified within the one or more eye regions of said probe image; and the identified iris regions are analyzed to detect whether they belong to the predetermined subject.

Growing community of inventors

Galway, Ireland

Istvan Andorko