APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY IN PORTABLE TERMINAL

• US 20070297693A1
• Filed: 06/19/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, June-Sok
• Application Number:
  US11/765,267
• Publication Number:
  US 20070297693A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/284
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/32 involving image mosaicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/32 using correlation-based methods

Abstract

Provided are an apparatus and a method for panoramic photography in a portable terminal. The apparatus includes a camera unit for photographing an image; a memory unit for storing the photographed image; a display unit for displaying an overlapped area during panoramic photographing; a guide unit for selecting an overlapped area from a previous image stored in the memory unit during the panoramic photographing to display the overlapped area into the display unit; and a merge unit for searching in an overlapped area of a current image an interval which is identical to a searching interval contained in the overlapped area of the previous image, and merging the previous image and the current image so that the searching interval and the identical interval overlap, and generating a merged image.

Claims

1. An apparatus in a portable terminal for panoramic photography, the apparatus comprising:

a camera unit for photographing an image;

a memory unit for storing the photographed image;

a display unit for displaying an overlapped area during the panoramic photographing;

a guide unit for selecting the overlapped area from a previous image stored in the memory unit during the panoramic photographing to display the overlapped area on the display unit; and

a merge unit for searching in an overlapped area of a current image an interval which is identical to a searching interval contained in the overlapped area of the previous image, merging the previous image and the current image so that the searching interval and the identical interval overlap, and generating a merged image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an image quality enhancing unit for enhancing an image quality of the merged image.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the merge unit searches the overlapped area of the current image by a size of the searching interval to find the identical interval through an NGM (Natural Global Motion) vector which is calculated by the following equation, and decides an interval having the smallest NGM vector value as the identical interval:

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the merge unit defines a final NGM, and decides an interval having the smallest final NGM value as the identical interval, the final NGM being calculated by averaging NGMs in a template having a predetermined number of vectors.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the averaging the NGMs is calculated by using the following equation:

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the horizontal vector, the vertical vector, the left-down diagonal vector, and the right-down diagonal vector are calculated by using the following equation:

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the image quality enhancing unit enhances an image quality of an interface of a combined area in the merged image by using a low band pass filter, the combined area being actually overlapped by the previous image and the current image.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the image quality enhancing unit enhances an image quality of the interface by using the low band pass filter, the interface being calculated by the following equation:

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the image quality enhancing unit makes the merged image in a uniform color by using histogram equalization.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the histogram equalization is calculated by the following equation:

11. A method in a portable terminal for panoramic photography, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying an overlapped area of a previous image into a display unit during panoramic photographing;

photographing a current image;

searching in an overlapped area of the current image for an interval which is identical to a searching interval contained in the overlapped area of the previous image; and

merging the previous image and the current image so that the searching interval and the identical interval overlap, and generating a merged image.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein, after generating of the merged image, further comprising enhancing an image quality of the merged image.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein searching of the identical interval comprises searching the overlapped area of the current image by a size of the searching interval to find the identical interval through an NGM (Natural Global Motion) vector which is defined by the following equation, and deciding an interval having the smallest NGM vector value as the identical interval:

14. The method of claim 11, wherein searching of the identical interval comprises:

defining a final NGM calculated by averaging NGMs in a template having a predetermined number of vectors; and

deciding an interval having the smallest final NGM value as the identical interval.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein averaging the NGMs is calculated by the following equation:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the horizontal vector, the vertical vector, the left-down diagonal vector, and the right-down diagonal vector are calculated by the following equation:

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the enhancing of the image quality of the merged image comprises enhancing an image quality of an interface of a combined area by using a low band pass filter, the combined area being actually overlapped by the previous image and the current image.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the enhancing of the image quality of the merged image comprises using the low band pass filter, the interface being calculated by the following equation:

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the enhancing of the image quality of the merged image comprises making the merged image in a uniform color by using histogram equalization.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the histogram equalization is calculated by the following equation:

21. A portable terminal for panoramic photography, the terminal comprising:

a camera unit for panoramic photographing an image;

a memory unit for storing the photographed image;

a control unit for selecting a previous overlapped area from a previous image during the panoramic photographing and searching in a current overlapped area of a current image an interval which is identical to a searching interval contained in the previous overlapped area, merging the previous image and the current image so that the searching interval and the identical interval overlap, and generating a merged image; and

a display unit for displaying the overlapped area during the panoramic photographing.