Eastman-kodak Company

Apple Inc.

Monument Peak Ventures, LLC

Intellectual Ventures Fund 83 LLC

Carl Zeiss Ag

Wayne E Prentice

Robert J Parada

William Vernon Fintel

Kenichi Nakajima

Tetsuji Uezono

Kenneth Alan Parulski

Robert Michael Guidash

Thomas A Napoli

Thomas N Berarducci

Kevin Edward Spaulding

Steven M Bryant

Frank Razavi

Hiroshi Yamagata

Jay A Endsley

Tanja Teuber

David Abreu

Stephen M Coppola

Jorge L Rivera

A method, an image processing apparatus, and computer program product for multilevel bilateral noise filtering of digital images are provided. The method includes receiving from an image sensor an image frame including a color mosaic having a color filter array (CFA) pattern, decomposing the image frame into at least one color plane image for each of a plurality of color planes, sequentially and separately reducing noise in the at least one color plane image by performing multilevel bilateral noise filtering of the at least one color plane image, and reconstructing the at least one color plane image to generate a noise filtered image frame.

Method, apparatus, and system for multilevel bilateral noise filtering

A digital camera comprises an image sensor for providing initial sensor image data and final sensor image data; a lens for exposing the image of a scene onto the image sensor; an exposure control system for adjusting an exposure level of a final image on the image sensor in response to a scene type; and a processor for processing the initial sensor image data to select one of a plurality of scene types, and to process the final sensor image data in response to the scene type.

Camera using preview image to select exposure

A method for controlling a digital camera system having an optical system with an F/# that can be varied between a minimum F/# and a maximum F/#, comprising: setting the optical system F/# to a first F/#; capturing an evaluation image of the scene; analyzing the evaluation image to determine whether a subject is acceptably focused; if the subject is acceptably focused setting a capture F/# to be equal to the first F/#, otherwise the optical system F/# is iteratively increased until the subject is determined to be acceptably focused, or until a maximum F/# is reached; determining a capture F/# responsive to the F/# where the subject is acceptably focused; setting the optical system to use the capture F/#; capturing an archival image of the scene using the image sensor; and storing the captured archival image in a storage memory.

Extending a digital camera focus range

A digital camera system providing an extended focus range, comprising: a program memory storing instructions to implement a method for capturing a focused digital image. The method includes: setting an optical system F/# to a first F/#; capturing an evaluation image of the scene; analyzing the evaluation image to determine whether a subject is acceptably focused; if the subject is acceptably focused setting a capture F/# to be equal to the first F/#, otherwise the optical system F/# is iteratively increased until the subject is determined to be acceptably focused, or until a maximum F/# is reached; determining a capture F/# responsive to the F/# where the subject is acceptably focused; setting the optical system to use the capture F/#; capturing an archival image of the scene using the image sensor; and storing the captured archival image in a storage memory.

Digital camera providing an extended focus range

A digital camera for having a variable time duration burst capture mode, comprising: an image sensor; an optical system; a data processing system; a frame buffer memory; and a program memory. The program memory stores instructions including: specifying a first frame rate; initiating an image capture sequence; storing a sequence of digital images captured at the first frame rate in the frame buffer memory; determining whether the frame buffer memory has been filled to a predetermined capacity. If the frame buffer memory has been filled to the predetermined capacity, the program memory further includes instructions for specifying a second frame rate, wherein the second frame rate is lower than the first frame rate; designating a set of stored digital images that can be overwritten; and storing a sequence of digital images captured at the second frame rate in the frame buffer memory, overwriting the designated set of stored digital images.

Digital camera having variable duration burst mode

A method for improving the dynamic range of a captured digital image, the method includes the steps of acquiring at a first and second image each at different effective exposures; computing from the first and second images a linear exposure shift; applying the exposure shift to the first image to match relative effective exposure of the second image; and computing a single high dynamic range image from the first and second images.

Method for creating high dynamic range image

A digital camera system, comprising: a digital image sensor; an optical system for forming an image of a scene onto the digital image sensor; a global positioning system sensor; a processor-accessible memory system; and a processor. The processor performs the steps of analyzing a signal from the global positioning system sensor to determine whether the digital camera system is indoors or outdoors; capturing an input digital image of the scene using the digital image sensor; processing the input digital image responsive to whether the digital camera system is indoors or outdoors; and storing the processed digital image in the processor-accessible memory system.

Indoor/outdoor scene detection using GPS

A method for selectively optimizing a plurality of image characteristics for captured images, that includes modifying two or more one-dimensional image characteristic controls using a single loop position controller having one-dimensional control. The single loop position controller traverses useful ranges of each of the two or more one-dimensional image characteristic controls. Additionally, a user cycles through several combinations of the two or more one-dimensional image characteristic controls within a video loop; and has a means of selecting a desired image rendered according to the two or more one-dimensional image characteristic controls.

Animated display for image manipulation and correction of digital image

An electronic image capture device for capturing a color image, comprising an image sensor comprised of discrete light sensitive picture elements overlaid with a color filter array (CFA) pattern to produce sensor color image data corresponding to the CFA pattern; an A/D converter for producing uninterpolated digital CFA image data from the sensor color image data; a processor for processing the uninterpolated digital CFA image data to produce interpolated image data and for forming a TIFF image file containing both the uninterpolated CFA image data and the interpolated image data; and a memory for storing the TIFF image file.

Electronic image capture device and image file format providing raw and processed image data

A dual mode digital imaging system has a still processing mode that produces an output image in a first color space and a motion processing mode that produces an output image in a second color space, in particular a first color space that is RGB and a second color space that is YUV. The digital imaging system includes a dual mode digital camera for use with a computer and a processing application for running on the computer, wherein the motion mode processing is relatively less complex than the still mode processing although at least one common control parameter is used to control both modes. The motion mode processing, which is performed using algorithms and software approaches designed to minimize processing time, nonetheless produces an entirely adequate relatively low resolution YUV image appropriate for applications such as videoconferencing. The still mode processing, on the other hand, uses more elaborate algorithms to optimize the image quality of a relatively high resolution RGB output image.

Dual mode digital imaging and camera system

A method for producing an extended color gamut luminance-chrominance digital image from a captured digital image includes determining an estimate of the colors of the captured digital image of an original scene and further processing to produce an extended range output RGB image value including values outside the range that can be displayed on the output image display device, and producing an extended color gamut luminance-chrominance digital image by transforming the extended range output RGB image values to a luminance-chrominance representation.

Producing an extended color gamut luminance-chrominance digital image from a captured image

Apparatus and method of correcting for dark current in a solid state image sensor, include capturing an image with the image sensor to produce a digital image having pixel values; correcting the pixel values with a dark level correction value; employing a control system to adjust the dark level correction value to drive the number of pixels having values lower than a predetermined value chosen to represent dark scene content to a predetermined range.

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Honeoye Falls, NY, United States of America

Wayne E Prentice