Reduction of motion-induced blur in images

• US 20060187324A1
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Lin, Qian
• Granted Patent: US 8,482,618 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6811 based on the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6812 based on additional sensors, e.g. acceleration sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/684 performed by controlling the image sensor readout, e.g. by controlling the integration time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/72 Combination of two or more compensation controls
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/843 Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values

Abstract

A device captures images that are intentionally underexposed to reduce motion-related blur. Image processing is performed on the underexposed images. The processing includes reducing noise and increasing gain in the underexposed images.

Claims

1. An image capture device for capturing images that are intentionally underexposed in order to reduce motion-related blur.

2. The image capture device of claim 1, comprising a photosensor array;

and a controller for controlling the array to capture images that are intentionally underexposed in order to reduce motion-related blur.

3. The image capture device of claim 2, wherein the controller controls aperture and shutter speed.

4. The image capture device of claim 2, further comprising means for detecting motion of the type that can cause motion-induced image blur.

5. The image capture device of claim 4, further comprising means for detecting lighting conditions;

wherein the controller evaluates the detected lighting conditions and the detected motion to determine whether the images should be intentionally underexposed.

6. The image capture device of claim 2, wherein the controller causes the array to perform pixel binning on the underexposed images, whereby noise reduction and a gain boost are performed simultaneously.

7. The image capture device of claim 1, wherein the underexposed image is also undersampled;

and wherein for a bin in the undersampled image, first color samples in the bin are combined into a first component of an output pixel, second color samples in the bin are combined into a second component of the output pixel, and third color samples in the bin are combined into a third component of the output pixel,

8. The image capture device of claim 1, further comprising a processor for reducing noise and boosting gain of the underexposed images.

9. The image capture device of claim 8, wherein reducing the noise and increasing the gain includes smoothing the underexposed digital image captured by the image capture device;

and performing tone mapping on the smoothed image.

10. The image capture device of claim 8, wherein pixels of the underexposed digital image are binned to simultaneously reduce the noise and increase the gain.

11. The image capture device of claim 10, wherein the image capture device performs demosaicing on the underexposed digital image after reducing the noise and increasing the gain.

12. The image capture device of claim 10, wherein the image capture device performs demosaicing on the underexposed digital image before reducing the noise and increasing the gain.

13. The image capture device of claim 10, wherein the image capture device performs pixel binning after performing demosaicing and post-processing.

14. The image capture device of claim 8, wherein the processor compensates for a loss of image resolution after the noise has been reduced and the gain increased.

15. The image capture device of claim 1, wherein the image capture device is one of a group consisting of a digital camera, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, a camcorder, and a handheld scanner.

16. An image capture device comprising:

means for capturing an image that is intentionally underexposed, the image being underexposed to reduce motion-related blur; and

means for reducing noise and increasing gain in the underexposed image.

17. The image capture device of claim 16, further comprising means for post processing the image after the noise has been reduced and the gain increased.

18. The image capture device of claim 16, further comprising means for detecting motion and lighting conditions.

19. An image capture device comprising:

a photosensor array;

a controller for causing the array to capture underexposed images to reduce motion-related blur; and

an image processor for binning pixels of underexposed digital images to reduce noise and increase gain.

20. The image capture device of claim 19, wherein the image capture device is one of a group consisting of a digital camera, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, a camcorder, and a handheld scanner.

21. A method comprising:

capturing an image that is intentionally underexposed in order to reduce motion-related blur; and

reducing noise and increasing gain in the underexposed image.