Apple Inc.

Kevin A Gross

Jason C Sauers

Edward S Huo

David A Schmuck

Richard Lawrence Baer

Jianping Zhou

Scott Thomas Smith

Santiago Alban

Wei Luo

Abhishek Dhanda

Shaun M Pacheco

Ronan S Kerviche

Various embodiments disclosed herein include optical aberration control for a camera system. Such a camera system may implement optical aberration control, e.g., by combining one or more variable focus devices with one or more actuators (e.g., a voice coil motor actuator) for moving a lens stack of the camera system to provide autofocus (AF) and/or optical image stabilization (OIS) functionality. A variable focus device may have variable optical power to achieve AF, OIS, and/or introduce optical aberrations such as spherical aberration. In some implementations, the variable focus device may be driven to introduce optical aberrations, and the actuator for moving the lens stack may be driven to compensate for the optical power from the variable focus device.

Optical aberration control for camera

Various embodiments include implementing optical image stabilization (OIS) in a camera module. For example, a controller may control an actuator of the camera module to move a lens group and/or an image sensor of the camera module to provide OIS movement. In various embodiments, OIS movement control is implemented according to a region-based blur reduction model that effects a greater reduction in blur associated with a target region of an image sensor, relative to one or more other regions of the image sensor.

Optical image stabilization with region-based blur reduction

Systems and methods for characterizing a camera system on a mobile device are disclosed. Characterization of the camera system may be implemented by providing a diffraction pattern of dots at controlled, defined angles to the camera system. Images of the diffraction pattern may be captured during a focus sweep through predetermined focus positions and/or while changing the relative locations between the lens and image sensor at the predetermined focus positions. The captured images may be analyzed to determine calibration data that provides physical measurement of properties of the camera system. The calibration data may then be implemented by the camera system to produce enhanced imaging on the mobile device.

Physical characterization of camera system for super-resolution imaging

A pass-through camera in a head-mounted device may capture image data for displaying on a display in the head-mounted device. However, only low-resolution image data may be needed to display low-resolution images in the periphery of the user's field of view on the display. Therefore, the pass-through camera may only capture high-resolution images that correspond to the portion of the user's field-of-view that is being directly viewed and may capture lower resolution image data that corresponds to the real-world objects in the user's peripheral vision. To enable the camera module to selectively capture high-resolution images, the pass-through camera may include an image sensor with two or more pixel densities, a distortion lens, and/or one or more planar or curved mirrors. Any of the components in the camera module may be adjusted to change which portion of a scene is captured with high-resolution image data.

Head-mounted device with active optical foveation

A small format factor camera system for mobile devices that provides improved image quality when using accessory lenses. The system may detect an accessory lens attached to the camera, either via sensing technology or by analyzing captured images. The system may analyze image data to determine current alignment (e.g., optical axis alignment, spacing, and/or tilt) of the accessory lens relative to the camera lens, and may shift the camera lens on one or more axes using a mechanical or optical actuator, for example to align the camera lens optical axis with the accessory lens optical axis. The system may also determine optical characteristics of the accessory lens, either via sensing technology or by analyzing captured images, and may apply one or more image processing functions to images captured using the accessory lens according to the determined optical characteristics of the accessory lens.

Adapting camera systems to accessory lenses

Systems and methods for providing spatially dynamic illumination in camera systems. A spatially dynamic illumination source enables the illumination of only desired objects in the field of view of the camera, thereby reducing the amount of light required from the illumination source. The spatially dynamic illumination source may include an array of illumination elements and a control component. Each illumination element in the illumination array may include a light-emitting element combined with an optical element. A camera and the spatially dynamic illumination source may be combined in a camera and illumination system. The camera and illumination system may dynamically detect, track, and selectively illuminate only desired objects in the camera field of view.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Kevin A Gross