METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIMULATING A CAMERA PANNING EFFECT

• US 20080309770A1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited (Adeia, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: FotoNation Vision Limited (Adeia, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zamfir, Adrian, Corcoran, Peter, Florea, Laura
• Application Number:
  US11/764,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20080309770A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/208.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/20 using local operators
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51

Abstract

A digital image acquisition system determines a motion function of a subject/object in an acquired image scene based on a comparison of a reference image of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of the acquired image and at least one other image. The acquired image is segmented into a foreground portion and a background portion and a background portion of the acquired image is convolved according to the motion function. The foreground portion and the convolved background portion are composited to produce a final image in which panning of a camera during image acquisition is simulated.

Claims

1. A method operable in a digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, said method comprising:

acquiring a digital image of a scene;

determining a motion function of a subject/object in said scene based on a comparison of a sequence of reference images of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of said acquired image and at least one other image;

segmenting said acquired image into a foreground portion and a background portion;

convolving said background portion of said acquired image according to said motion function; and

compositing said foreground portion and said convolved background portion to produce a final image.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

merging and smoothing said foreground portion and said convolved background portion in said final image.

3. The method according to any preceding claim wherein said motion function is a Point Spread Function, PSF.

4. The method according to any preceding claim wherein said sequence of reference images comprises a single image.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein said segmenting of said acquired image comprises analyzing said acquired image and one of said sequence of reference images.

6. A digital image acquisition system comprising:

an apparatus for capturing digital images;

a digital processing component for determining a motion function of a subject/object in said scene based on a comparison of a reference image of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of said acquired image and at least one other image;

a segmentation tool for segmenting said acquired image into a foreground portion and a background portion;

a convolver for convolving said background portion of said acquired image according to said motion function; and

a compositor for compositing said foreground portion and said convolved background portion to produce a final image.

7. The digital image acquisition system according to claim 6 further comprising:

a blur adjustment module for selectively altering a motion function scaling parameter to alter the degree to which the background portion is to be blurred.

8. The digital image acquisition system according to claim 7, wherein said blur adjustment module is implemented as a user adjustable slider.

9. The digital image acquisition system according to claim 7, wherein said blur adjustment module is implemented as at least one user adjustable button.

10. The digital image acquisition system according to claim 7 comprising one of a digital stills camera, a digital video camera, or a camera phone.