Method and system for producing formatted information related to the defects of at least one appliance of a chain, in particular related to blurring

• US 20040218803A1
• Filed: 05/28/2004
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lens Correction Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: DXO Labs
• Inventors: Chanas, Laurent, Guichard, Frederic, Liege, Bruno, Moisan, Lionel
• Granted Patent: US 7,346,221 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/141
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0007 Image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/10 Selection of transformation methods according to the characteristics of the input images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/00 Image enhancement or restoration
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/73 Deblurring; Sharpening
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/80 Geometric correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00007 relating to particular apparatus or devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00045 using a reference pattern designed for the purpose, e.g. a test chart
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00071 characterised by the action taken
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/387 Composing, repositioning or otherwise geometrically modifying originals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/40093 Modification of content of picture, e.g. retouching geometric modifications H04N1/387
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/58 Edge or detail enhancement; Noise or error suppression, e.g. colour misregistration correction H04N1/62 takes precedence

Abstract

A system and method for producing formatted information related to at least one image-capture appliance and/or at least one image-restitution appliance. The system and method provide for production of formatted information related to defects of the appliance, especially blurring and noise, from a measured field. This measured field is obtained from a universal set by performing the operations: capturing or restituting the universal set by the appliance to produce an image; choosing an image zone within the image; calculating a reference image from the image; selecting, within the reference image, a reference zone homologous to the image zone; choosing a base for representing all or part of the image zones and reference zones; selecting variable characteristics of the appliance; and in this way the measured field is obtained. The system and method are applicable to photographic or video image processing, in optical devices, industrial controls, robotics, metrology, etc.

Claims

1-42. -42. (Canceled).

43. A method for producing formatted information related to appliances of an appliance chain, the appliance chain including at least one image-capture appliance and/or at least one image-restitution appliance, the method comprising:

producing formatted information related to defects of at least one appliance of the appliance chain.

44. A method according to claim 43, wherein the appliance is configured to capture or restitute an image, the appliance being provided with at least one fixed characteristic and/or one variable characteristic depending on the image, the fixed characteristic and/or variable characteristic configured to be associated with one or more values of characteristics, and values of associated characteristics;

the method further comprising;

producing, from a measured field, measured formatted information related to the defects of the appliance, the formatted information configured to include the measured formatted information.

45. A method according to claim 44, further comprising:

producing extended formatted information related to the defects of the appliance from the measured formatted information, the formatted information configured to include the extended formatted information, the extended formatted information exhibiting a deviation compared with the measured formatted information.

46. A method according to claim 45, wherein in the method the formatted information produced from the measured formatted information is represented by parameters of a parameterizable model chosen from among a set of parameterizable models, the method further comprising:

selecting the parameterizable model within the set of parameterizable models by;

defining a maximum deviation,

ordering the parameterizable models of the set of parameterizable models in accordance with their degree of complexity of employment,

choosing a first of the parameterizable models of the ordered set of parameterizable models such that the deviation is smaller than the maximum deviation.

47. A method according to claim 45, wherein the extended formatted information is the measured formatted information.

48. A method according to claim 45, the method including a calculation algorithm with which the measured field can be obtained from a universal set, the calculation algorithm including:

capturing or restituting the universal set by the appliance to produce an image,

choosing at least one image zone in the image,

calculating a reference image from the image,

determining, within the reference image, a reference zone homologous to the image zone,

choosing a base with which all or part of the image zone can be represented by an image representation and all or part of the reference zone can be represented by a reference representation,

selecting zero or one or more variable characteristics as the selected variable characteristics, among the set of the variable characteristics;

the measured field being composed of a set of three-membered groups comprising;

an image zone and/or an identifier of the image zone,

the image representation of the image zone,

the reference representation of the reference zone;

the measured field further composed of the value, for the image, of each of the selected variable characteristics;

such that a measured field characterizing a defect as blurring is obtained.

49. A method according to claim 48, wherein the reference image contains reference pixels, the reference pixels each having a reference pixel value, the method being such that, to calculate the reference image from the image, the image is subsampled, to obtain a reference image whose reference pixels can take one or the other of two reference pixel values;

wherein the reference image exhibits the same defects as the image, with exclusion of blurring.

50. A method according to claim 48, wherein in the method the base is chosen to permit a representation in frequency, and is calculated by a Fourier transform.

51. A method according to claim 48, wherein in the method the base is chosen to permit a representation in wavelets or in wavelet packets.

52. A method according to claim 48, wherein in the method a linear base containing a small number of elements is chosen.

53. A method according to claim 48, wherein the reference representation is composed of digital values, the method further comprising:

choosing the universal set such that the percentage of digital values below a first specified threshold is below a second predetermined threshold.

54. A method according to claim 48, wherein the universal set is composed of elements whose distribution in size and whose geometric position extend over a broad spectrum.

55. A method according to claim 48, wherein the universal set is chosen such that the representation of the image in the base is substantially independent, except for the defects, of conditions of capture or restitution of the image, in a case of an image-capture appliance, the representation is independent of orientation and of a position of the universal set relative to the image-capture appliance.

56. A method according to claim 48, wherein the universal set is constructed from a quantized image of a natural scene.

57. A method according to claim 48, the method further comprising preprocessing the image by a calculation that eliminates part of the defects;

such that blurring characterizes the appliance and the calculating means with which the defects can be removed.

58. A method according to claim 48, the method further comprising obtaining the extended formatted information related to an arbitrary image zone, by deducing the formatted information related to an arbitrary image zone from the measured formatted information.

59. A method according to claim 45, wherein in the method the appliance of the appliance chain is provided with at least one variable characteristic depending on the image, each variable characteristic configured to be associated with a value to form a combination composed of the set of the variable characteristics and of the values;

the method further comprising;

selecting predetermined combinations,

calculating measured formatted information, by employing the calculation algorithm for each of the selected predetermined combinations.

60. A method according to claim 59, wherein an argument is defined as an arbitrary image zone and one of the combinations, the method further comprising:

deducing, from the measured formatted information, the extended formatted information related to an arbitrary argument.

61. A method according to claim 58, wherein in the method, to deduce the extended formatted information from the measured formatted information:

a first threshold is defined,

the extended formatted information is selected such that the deviation is below the first threshold.

62. A method according to claim 45, the method further comprising:

associating the deviations with the formatted information.

63. A method according to claim 48, wherein the image is a color image composed of a plurality of color planes, the method further comprising:

producing the measured formatted information by employing the calculation algorithm for at least two of the color planes.

64. A system for producing formatted information related to appliances of an appliance chain, the appliance chain including at least one image-capture appliance and/or at least one image-restitution appliance, the system comprising:

calculating means for producing formatted information related to the defects of at least one appliance of the appliance chain.

65. A system according to claim 64, wherein the appliance is configured to capture or restitute an image, the appliance being provided with at least one fixed characteristic and/or one variable characteristic depending on the image, the fixed characteristic and/or variable characteristic configured to be associated with one or more values of characteristics, and values of associated characteristics;

the system further comprising;

calculating means for producing, from a measured field, measured formatted information related to the defects of the appliance, the formatted information configured to include the measured formatted information.

66. A system according to claim 65, further comprising:

calculating means for producing extended formatted information related to the defects of the appliance from the measured formatted information, the formatted information configured to include the extended formatted information, the extended formatted information exhibiting a deviation compared with the measured formatted information.

67. A system according to claim 66, wherein in the system the formatted information produced from the measured formatted information is represented by parameters of a parameterizable model chosen from among a set of parameterizable models;

the system further comprising;

selection means for selecting the parameterizable model within the set of parameterizable models by;

defining a maximum deviation,

ordering the parameterizable models of the set of parameterizable models in accordance with their degree of complexity of employment,

choosing the first of the parameterizable models of the ordered set of parameterizable models such that the deviation is smaller than the maximum deviation.

68. A system according to claim 66, wherein the extended formatted information is the measured formatted information.

69. A system according to claim 66, the system including calculating means that employ a calculation algorithm with which the measured field can be obtained from a universal set, the image-capture or image-restitution appliance including means for capturing or restituting the universal set, so that an image can be produced;

the calculating means of the calculation algorithm including data-processing means for;

choosing at least one image zone in the image,

calculating a reference image from the image,

determining, within the reference image, a reference zone homologous to the image zone,

choosing a base with which all or part of the image zone can be represented by an image representation and all or part of the reference zone can be represented by a reference representation,

selecting zero or one or more variable characteristics, as selected variable characteristics, among the set of the variable characteristics;

the measured field being composed of the set of three-membered groups comprising;

an image zone and/or an identifier of the image zone,

the image representation of the image zone,

the reference representation of the reference zone;

the measured field further composed of the value, for the image, of each of the selected variable characteristics;

such that a measured field characterizing a defect as blurring is obtained.

70. A system according to claim 69, wherein the reference image contains reference pixels, the reference pixels each having a reference pixel value, the system being such that the processing means for calculating the reference image from the image includes means for subsampling the image, for obtaining a reference image whose reference pixels can take one or the other of two reference pixel values.

71. A system according to claim 69, wherein in the system the data-processing means chooses therefrom the base that permits a representation in frequency, and is calculated by a Fourier transform.

72. A system according to claim 69, wherein in the system the data-processing means chooses therefrom the base that permits a representation in wavelets or in wavelet packets.

73. A system according to claim 69, wherein in the system the data-processing means chooses a linear base containing a small number of elements.

74. A system according to claim 69, wherein the reference representation is composed of digital values, the system further comprising:

data-processing means for choosing the universal set such that the percentage of digital values below a first specified threshold is below a second predetermined threshold of 1%.

75. A system according to claim 69, wherein the universal set is composed of elements whose distribution in size and whose geometric position extend over a broad spectrum.

76. A system according to claim 69, wherein the universal set is chosen such that the representation of the image in the base is substantially independent, except for the defects, of conditions of capture or restitution of the image, in the case of an image-capture appliance, the representation is independent of orientation and of position of the universal set relative to the image-capture appliance.

77. A system according to claim 69, wherein the universal set is constructed from a quantized image of a natural scene.

78. A system according to claim 69, wherein the system additionally makes it possible to preprocess the image by employing calculating means to eliminate part of the defects.

79. A system according to claim 69, wherein the system additionally includes data-processing means with which it is possible to obtain the extended formatted information related to an arbitrary image zone, by deducing the formatted information related to an arbitrary image zone from the measured formatted information.

80. A system according to claim 66, wherein in the system the appliance of the appliance chain is provided with at least one variable characteristic depending on the image, each variable characteristic configured to be associated with a value to form a combination composed of the set of the variable characteristics and of the values;

the system further comprising;

calculating means for calculating the measured formatted information, by employing the calculation algorithm for selected predetermined combinations.

81. A system according to claim 80, wherein an argument is defined as an arbitrary image zone and one of the combinations, the system further comprising:

data-processing means for deducing, from the measured formatted information, the extended formatted information related to an arbitrary argument.

82. A system according to claim 79, wherein in the system the data-processing means for deducing the extended formatted information from the measured formatted information includes selection means for selecting the extended formatted information such that the deviation is below a first threshold.

83. A system according to claim 66, the system further comprising data-processing means for associating the deviations with the formatted information.

84. A system according to claim 69, wherein the image is a color image composed of a plurality of color planes, the system further comprising:

calculating means for producing the measured formatted information by employing the calculation algorithm for at least two of the color planes.