Qualcomm Incorporated

Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Lifesize Communications, Inc.

Jingqiang Li

Szepo Robert Hung

Xiaoyun Jiang

Hsiang-Tsun Li

Chinchuan Andrew Chiu

Ying Noyes

Ruben Manuel Velarde

Shuxue Quan

Hau Hwang

Young Woo Lee

Joseph Cheung

Dennis C Lee

Babak Forutanpour

Kalin Mitkov Atanassov

Yingyong Qi

Xin Zhong

Shuai Yue

Stephen Flosdorf

Timothy Robert Povlick

Patrick R McKinnon

Stephen Horton

Georgios Skolianos

Ying Xie Noyes

When a lens assembly of an imaging device is subject to impacts, vibrations or other movements, and an optical axis of a lens assembly is varied as a result of the movements, blurring or pixel shifts may be reduced or eliminated at a targeted location within an image plane by shifting a lens of the lens assembly by a distance calculated based on an angle corresponding to the selected location, an angular difference between orientations of the optical axis, and a focal length of the imaging device. If the distance would result in a pixel shift at a center of the image plane in excess of a maximum allowable pixel shift, an alternate distance may be calculated based on the maximum allowable pixel shift, the angular difference between orientations of the optical axis, and the focal length of the imaging device.

Targeted image stabilization

A method is disclosed that includes receiving multiple sequential images captured by an image capture device. The method includes selecting a subset of the multiple sequential images that are aligned to each other. The method further includes averaging pixel values from each image in the subset of the multiple sequential images to produce a combined image.

Image selection and combination method and device

Described herein is a system for reducing vibration of a lens. One way to reduce vibration is through a programmable processor configured to divide a lens movement requirement into smaller lens movements and then insert a wait time after completing the smaller lens movements. The smaller lens movements can be repeated for subsequent smaller lens movements until all the remaining smaller lens movements have been completed. The system may include an actuator configured to move the lens; and wherein the lens movements are completed within a processing time of one image frame.

System for reducing lens vibration

This disclosure describes barcode scanning techniques for an image capture device. The image capture device may automatically detect a barcode within an image while the image capture device is operating in a non-barcode image capture mode, such a default image capture mode. In one aspect, the detection of the barcode within the image may be based on a combination of identified edges and low intensity regions within the image. The image capture device may configure, based on the detection of the barcode, one or more image capture properties associated with the image capture device to improve a quality at which the images are captured. The image capture device captures the image in accordance with the configured image capture properties. The techniques may effectively provide a universal and integrated front-end for producing improved quality images of barcodes without requiring significant interaction with a user via a complicated user interface.

Image capture device with integrated barcode scanning

The disclosure relates to techniques for calibration of an auto-focus process in an image capture device. The techniques may involve calibration of a lens actuator used to move a lens within a search range during an auto-focus process. For example, an image capture device may adjust reference positions for the search range based on lens positions selected for different focus conditions. The different focus conditions may include a far focus condition and a near focus condition. The focus conditions may be determined based on a detected environment in which the device is used. Detection of an indoor environment may indicate a likelihood of near object focus, while detection of an outdoor environment may indicate a likelihood of far object focus. An image capture device may detect indoor and outdoor environments based on lighting, exposure, or other conditions.

Auto-focus calibration for image capture device

A device has a processing unit to implement a set of operations to use both luma and chroma information from a scene of an image to dynamically adjust exposure time and sensor gain. The processing unit collects bright near grey pixels and high chroma pixels in the scene. Based on the collected pixels, brightness of the near grey pixels is increased to a predetermined level without saturation. At the same time, the high chroma pixels are kept away from saturation.

Scene-dependent auto exposure control

This disclosure describes techniques for detecting a barcode within an image. An image processor may, for example, process an image to detect regions within the image that may be barcodes. The image processor may identify regions of the image that exhibit a high concentration of edges and a high concentration of pixels with low optical intensity co-instantaneously as potential barcodes. The image processor may identify the regions using a number of morphological operations. The image processor may then determine whether the identified regions are actually barcodes by verifying whether the region have unique barcode features. The barcode detection techniques described in this disclosure may be independent of barcode size, location and orientation within the image. Moreover, the use of morphological operations results in faster and more computationally efficient barcode detection, as well as lower computational complexity.

Barcode detection based on morphological operations

In a method for reducing lens vibration in an image capture device, a lens movement requirement is broken up into N smaller lens move steps, and the lens is moved a first of the N smaller steps. A wait time is inserted after completing the first of the N smaller steps, and then the moving and inserting steps are repeated until the remaining N smaller move steps have been completed. The image capture device includes a voice coil motor for moving the lens under control of a controller in accordance with the lens movement requirement, which reflects a determined lens position. The voice coil motor includes springs which impart vibration to the lens during lens movement. The vibration imparted by the springs to the lens is thus actively dampened during the lens movement to the determined lens position.

Method and device for damping lens vibration

A system and method for detecting defective pixels in a sensor. A plurality of pixel values of the sensor may be detected. The values may include those of a first pixel and each nearest neighboring pixel to the first pixel. A second pixel may have the highest value of the neighboring pixels. A third pixel may have the next highest value of the neighboring pixels. A first function may be performed on the second pixel value, producing a first output value. A second function may be performed on the third pixel value, producing a second output value. If the first pixel value is higher than the first output value, or, if the first pixel value is higher than the second output value and the second pixel value is higher than the second output value, it may be determined that the first pixel is defective.

Detection of defective pixels in an image sensor

In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes comparing a frame rate of image capture by an image sensor to a frame rate threshold at an image capture device. The method also includes when the frame rate is less than the frame rate threshold, increasing the frame rate to a modified frame rate that is greater than or at least equal to the frame rate threshold. The method further includes performing an autofocus operation on an image to be captured at the modified frame rate.

System and method to autofocus assisted by autoexposure control

A camera system in normal mode and hand jitter reduction (hjr) mode may comprise generating a first exposure time-gain product by multiplying the normal mode exposure time with the normal mode gain. It may further comprise modifying the normal mode exposure time and gain and multiplying these modified parameters to generate a second exposure time-gain product for a hjr mode that reduces the difference between the first exposure time-gain product and the second exposure time-gain product. To reduce the difference the normal mode frame rate may also be modified. Operation of a camera in normal mode may be in response to a sensed light level being above a threshold. The hjr mode may be selected by the user while the camera is operating. The hjr mode may be used in response to a sensed light level being lower than the threshold.

Hand jitter reduction system for cameras

The disclosure describes flicker detection and correction techniques to improve the quality of captured imagery, such as video or still images. In particular, this disclosure describes flicker correction techniques that compare different image frames to detect flicker. In some embodiments, the comparisons involves summing intensity values associated with rows within the frames and comparing the row sums to generate a difference signal. Detection and correction of flicker may be performed using a first derivative of the difference signal. The first derivative of the difference signal can be used in variety of ways to detect and correct flicker.

Automatic flicker correction in an image capture device

In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes illuminating an opaque mask having a plurality of holes formed therein, each hole of the plurality of holes having a predetermined size. The method includes forming a two-dimensional impulse response image of the illuminated opaque mask using a camera module. The method further includes determining at least one optical characteristic of the camera module based on the two-dimensional impulse response image of the illuminated opaque mask.

Camera module testing

A two-dimensional (2D) mesh is applied over a distortion surface to approximate a lens roll-off distortion pattern. The process to apply the 2D mesh distributes a plurality of grid points among the distortion pattern and sub-samples the distortion pattern to derive corrected digital gains at each grid location. Non-grid pixels underlying grid blocks having a grid point at each corner are adjusted based on the approximation of the lens roll-off for the grid points of the grid block. In one example, bilinear interpolation is used. The techniques universally correct lens roll-off distortion irregardless of the distortion pattern shape or type. The technique may also correct for green channel imbalance.

Surface mesh matching for lens roll-off correction

The registration of images comprising generating a plurality of projections from a base frame and generating a plurality of projections from a movement frame. Comparing a set of projections from the base frame, with a second set of projections from the movement frame, and generating a global motion vector estimate to add to the base frame.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Jingqiang Li