HDR enhancement with temporal multiplex

• US 10,643,358 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2017
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Baran, Stanley J., Appu, Abhishek R., Lee, Sang-Hee, Mohammed, Atthar H., Oh, Jong Dae, Chan, Hiu-Fai R., Ray, Joydeep, Parikh, Kunjal, Wang, Changliang, Kambhatla, Srikanth, Smith, Gary, Avadhanam, Satyanarayana, Hicks, Richmond, Johnston, Robert J., Biswal, Narayan, Bhattacharjee, Susanta
• Primary Examiner(s): Chu, Randolph I
• Application Number:
  US15/614,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20180308269A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,065 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20208 High dynamic range [HDR] image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/92 based on global image properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/77 Circuits for processing the brightness signal and the chrominance signal relative to each other, e.g. adjusting the phase of the brightness signal relative to the colour signal, correcting differential gain or differential phase circuits for matrixing H04N9/67

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses and methods may a performance-enhanced computing system comprising a sensor for measuring luminance values corresponding to light focused onto the sensor at a plurality of pixel locations, a memory including a set of instructions, and a processor. The processor executes a set of instructions causing the system to generate a multi-segment tone mapping curve, generate a set of tone mapping values corresponding to the multi-segment tone mapping curve for equally spaced input values between zero and one for storage into a look up table, and process the luminance values using the look up table to apply the tone mapping curve to the luminance values of the pixels.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a sensor for measuring luminance values corresponding to light focused onto the sensor at a plurality of pixel locations of a captured image, the luminance values having a dynamic range;

a memory including a set of instructions; and

a processor, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the system to;

generate a multi-segment tone mapping curve;

map the tone mapping curve to values in a look up table at equally spaced locations;

apply a multi-tap sync filter to the values within the look up table;

generate, based on the filtered values in the look up table, a set of tone mapping values corresponding to the multi-segment tone mapping curve for equally spaced input values for storage into the look up table; and

process the luminance values using the look up table to apply the tone mapping curve to the luminance values of the pixels.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the generation of the multi-segment tone mapping curve comprises:

an identification of initial values for a set of end pivot points on the multi-segment tone mapping curve; and

a computation of additional pivot points on the multi-segment tone mapping curve between the set of end pivot points to compress the dynamic range of the luminance values to a desired dynamic range.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the multi-tap sync filter comprises an exponential curve fitting function.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the generation of the tone mapping curve creates a one to one line applying no tone mapping to the luminance values when the dynamic range is less than a desired dynamic range.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the desired dynamic range corresponds to a dynamic range for an output display device used to display the captured image.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a digital imaging device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the equally spaced input values are between zero and one.

8. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions, which when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to:

generate a multi-segment tone mapping curve;

map the tone mapping curve to values in a look up table at equally spaced locations;

apply a multi-tap sync filter to the values within the look up table;

generate, based on the filtered values in the look up table, a set of tone mapping values corresponding to the multi-segment tone mapping curve for equally spaced input values for storage into the look up table; and

process luminance values of an image using the look up table to apply the tone mapping curve to the luminance values.

9. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the generation of the multi-segment tone mapping curve comprises:

an identification of initial values for a set of end pivot points on the multi-segment tone mapping curve; and

a computation of additional pivot points on the multi-segment tone mapping curve between the set of end pivot points to compress a dynamic range of the luminance values to a desired dynamic range.

10. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the multi-tap sync filter comprises an exponential curve fitting function.

11. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the generation of the tone mapping curve creates a one to one line applying no tone mapping to the luminance values when the dynamic range is less than a desired dynamic range.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the desired dynamic range corresponds to a dynamic range for an output display device used to display the image.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein a digital imaging device is to capture the image.

14. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the equally spaced input values are between zero and one.