Csr Technology Inc.

Zoran Corporation

Shimon Pertsel

Eli Pozniansky

Ohad Meitav

Victor Pinto

Alex Fishman

Michael Shalev

Erez Galil

A parameter of a digital camera or other digital image acquisition device is adjusted to maintain the resulting digital signal within a range carried by a digital processing path that carries a limited number of bits. The magnitude of the parameter is then also used to represent the image. Examples of the parameter include analog signal gain and exposure time. This is a cost effective way to increase the dynamic range of a digital camera, instead of increasing the width of its digital processing path. The digital data may be processed to obtain either tone mapped images, which are compatible with current cameras and other equipment, or to obtain images with a greater dynamic range for use with suitable displays and the like.

Digital camera with selectively increased dynamic range by control of parameters during image acquisition

Motion of an image of a scene being captured by a digital image acquisition device is detected and used to control parameters of illumination of the scene by a flash lamp that is typically built into the device. Parameters that may be controlled include the intensity, duration and timing of light emitted by the flash lamp. Such control of the flash illumination is preferably performed in conjunction with adjusting one or more exposure parameters used to capture an image. Such exposure parameters include duration, aperture and sensor gain. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters and flash light characteristics.

Control of artificial lighting of a scene to reduce effects of motion in the scence on an image being acquired

Annotations are associated with individual digital pictures that represent a characteristic of the pictures, such as their content, place of taking, etc. An annotation is directly entered into a digital camera and selected for association with pictures to be taken after that. The association of the selected annotation occurs automatically within the camera until another annotation is selected. An annotation is preferably entered into the camera by the voice of the user prior to taking pictures that are characterized by the annotation. The pictures may then be conveniently sorted by subject matter through use of the annotations. The same technique may be used to annotate audio segments.

Labeling and sorting items of digital data by use of attached annotations

Techniques for modifying data of an image that can be implemented in a digital camera, video image capturing device and other optical systems are provided to correct for non-uniform illumination appearing in data obtained using one or more illumination sources from a two-dimensional photo-sensor. In order to correct for these variations, a small amount of modification data is stored in a small memory within the optical system. According to a specific embodiment, non-uniform illumination correction factors are derived during a calibration procedure by illuminating a surface having uniform optical properties with the non-uniform illumination source and imaging that illuminated surface onto the photo-sensor.

Compensating for non-uniform illumination of object fields captured by a camera

A digital camera captures successive first and second images using an image sensor to produce image data, and processes the image data of the successive first and second images. The processing of the second image overlaps processing of the first image in time. The processing of the two images includes mapping locations in a virtual memory space to locations in the memory pages in a physical memory space of the digital camera, and storing information corresponding to the mapped locations in a page table. The digital camera performs operations on the image data of the first and second images stored at specified locations in the virtual memory space, and while performing those operations allocates and de-allocates memory pages in the physical memory space to virtual memory pages in the virtual memory space and updates the page table accordingly.

Digital camera with virtual memory

Techniques for modifying data of an image that can be implemented in a digital camera, video image capturing device and other optical systems are provided to correct for non-uniform illumination and/or effects of saturation appearing in data obtained using one or more artificial illumination sources. In an implementation, correction factors are derived using data from at least two images that have been captured with different illumination levels of the object scene and close in time to the capture of the image of interest. Typically, the image of interest is of higher resolution than at least one of the at least two images.

Techniques for modifying image field data obtained using illumination sources

Quantities of motion regarding an imaging device such as an electronic camera are calculated and used to adjust the exposure time and one or more other exposure parameters used to capture an image to improve the quality of the image. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters. Further, when there is little or no motion detected, the exposure parameters may be selected to improve the depth of field and reduce the noise in the captured image.

Camera exposure optimization techniques that take camera and scene motion into account

Control of artificial lighting of a scene to reduce effects of motion in the scene on an image being acquired

An image capture system is presented where the dynamic range of photo imaging devices, such as a still or video camera, is increased by varying sensor exposure time on a pixel-by-pixel basis under digital camera processor control. The system's photo sensors are continuously illuminated without reset over the exposure interval. In addition to being interrogated at the end of the exposure interval, the pixels are also non-destructively interrogated at one or more intermediate times during the interval. At each interrogation, the image capture system determines individually whether the pixels have saturated and if not, the parameter value is recorded; if the pixel has saturated, the previously stored value from the preceding interval is maintained. To produce the final sensor value for the whole exposure interval, the data for pixels that reached the saturation level are adjusted to compensate for their shortened exposure.

Wide dynamic range image capturing system method and apparatus

An image capture system is presented where the dynamic range of photo imaging devices, such as a still or video camera, is increased by varying sensor exposure time on a pixel-by-pixel basis under digital camera processor control. The systems photo sensors are continuously illuminated without reset over the exposure interval. In addition to being interrogated at the end of the exposure interval, the pixels are also non-destructively interrogated at one or more intermediate times during the interval. At each interrogation, the image capture system determines individually whether the pixels have saturated and if not, the parameter value is recorded; if the pixel has saturated, the previously stored value from the preceding interval is maintained. To produce the final sensor value for the whole exposure interval, the data for pixels that reached the saturation level are adjusted to compensate for their shortened exposure.

A digital camera acquires a first image in a sequence of images by loading it into a unified memory space of the digital camera in a first order and processing it in a second order. Before the first image is completely processed, the digital camera starts acquiring a second image and overwriting at least a processed portion of the first image in the unified memory space with image data of the second image.

Digital camera architecture with improved performance

Quantities of motion between images of an electronic camera are calculated and used to adjust the exposure time and one or more other exposure parameters used to capture an image in order to improve the quality of the image. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters. Further, when there is little or no motion detected, the exposure parameters may be selected to improve the depth of field and reduce the noise in the captured image.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Shimon Pertsel