Dual camera system with improved video smooth transition by image blending

• US 10,706,518 B2
• Filed: 07/04/2017
• Issued: 07/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corephotonics Ltd. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Corephotonics Ltd. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cohen, Noy, Geva, Nadav, Leshem, Anat, Gigushinski, Oded, Goldenberg, Ephraim, Shabtay, Gal
• Primary Examiner(s): Nazrul, Shahbaz
• Application Number:
  US15/770,336
• Publication Number:
  US 20190122349A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20221 Image fusion; Image merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/265 Mixing

Abstract

Methods that provide a smooth transition in switching a dual-camera output from an output of a first sub-camera to an output of a second sub-camera comprise forming at least one composite image based on a weighted combination of a first sub-camera image and a second sub-camera image, switching the dual-camera output from an image based on the first sub-camera image to an image based on the at least one composite image, and further switching the dual-camera output from the image based on the at least one composite image to an image based on the second sub-camera image.

Claims

1. A method of zooming in a zoom dual-camera that includes a first sub-camera and a second sub-camera, the method comprising:

during switching in video mode from output images of the first sub-camera to output images of the second sub-camera,

a) applying scaling on the output images of the first sub-camera according to a changing zoom factor (ZF) when the ZF changes from a lower ZF to a higher ZF or vice versa to obtain a first image stream with scaled images;

b) applying shifting on the output images of the second sub-camera according to the changing ZF to obtain a second image stream with shifted images;

c) when a ZF-transition-threshold is reached, generating a third image stream comprising a predefined number of images, wherein each image of the predefined number of images is based on a weighted combination On(x,y) of values of corresponding pixels in an image from the first image stream and a corresponding image from the second image stream

O_n(x,y)=α

_n(n,x,y,ZF,W_n(x,y),T_n(x,y) . . . )P_n{W_n(x,y)}+(1−

α

_n(n,x,y,ZF,W_n(x,y),T_n(x,y) . . . ))Q_n{T_n(x,y)}

wherein x and y are spatial coordinates, n ≥

1, W_n and T_n are n^th frames in the third image stream, P_n and Q_n are spatial transformations and a_n, is a weighting factor dependent on n, x, y and ZF;

d) switching an output image stream of the dual-camera from the first image stream to the third image stream; and

e) further switching the output image stream of the dual-camera from the third image stream to the second image stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying shifting on output images of the second sub-camera according to the changing ZF further includes scaling of output images of the second sub-camera according to the changing ZF.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined number of images includes a single composite image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein during zooming-in operation when the zooming is from a lower ZF to a higher ZF, the first sub-camera is a Wide sub-camera and the second sub-camera is a Tele sub-camera.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein when the zooming is from a higher ZF to a lower ZF, the first sub-camera is a Tele sub-camera and the second sub-camera is a Wide sub-camera.