IMAGE SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EMBEDDING RECOVERABLE DATA ON IMAGE SENSOR PIXEL ARRAYS

• US 20090231455A1
• Filed: 03/12/2008
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnivision Technologies Incorporated (Will Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Shanghai)
• Original Assignee: Omnivision Technologies Incorporated (Will Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Shanghai)
• Inventors: Emery, Robbert
• Granted Patent: US 9,521,292 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32203 Spatial or amplitude domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32208 involving changing the magnitude of selected pixels, e.g. overlay of information or super-imposition H04N1/32219, H04N1/32224 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32229 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected regions of the image H04N1/32213 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3252 Image capture parameters, e.g. resolution, illumination conditions, orientation of the image capture device H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

An image sensor apparatus is disclosed. The image sensor apparatus includes an image sensor for generating image data in a pixel array corresponding to an optical image. A processor alters the image data to embed a feature-dependent code associated with a feature of the image data in a feature-dependent location in the pixel array and generate a digital image from the altered image data.

Claims

1. An image sensor apparatus, comprising:

an image sensor for generating image data in a pixel array corresponding to an optical image; and

a processor for altering the image data to embed a feature-dependent code associated with a feature of the image data in a feature-dependent location in the pixel array and generating a digital image from the altered image data.

2. The image sensor apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image data comprises a CRC of the feature-dependent code embedded in a perimeter of the pixel array.

3. The image sensor apparatus of claim 1, wherein the feature-dependent code comprises an n-bit word, wherein n is at least two.

4. The image sensor apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor alters the value of one or more pixels in the pixel array to represent the n-bit word.

5. The image sensor apparatus of claim 4, wherein the one or more pixels are spatially apart in quadrants of the pixel array.

6. The image sensor apparatus of claim 5, wherein the feature-dependent code is perceptually insignificant to an observer of the digital image.

7. The image sensor apparatus of claim 6, wherein the feature-dependent code comprises a user-selectable code.

8. The image sensor apparatus of claim 1, wherein the feature of the image data comprises a content-feature and a context-feature.

9. A method for embedding a code in a digital image, comprising:

acquiring image data in a pixel array of an image sensor device corresponding to an optical image;

identifying a feature of interest associated with the image data; and

altering the image data in the pixel array to generate a digital image having a feature-dependent code representing the feature of interest embedded in a fixed location of the digital image.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising altering one or more pixels in a perimeter of the pixel array to embed a CRC of the feature-dependent code.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the fixed location is associated with the feature of interest.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein altering the image data in the pixel array comprises altering one or more pixels in the pixel array to represent an n-bit word corresponding to the feature-dependent code, wherein n is at least two.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising processing the digital image to recover the feature-dependent code based on the known location.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising decoding the CRC to recover the feature-dependent code.

15. A processor for use in an image sensor device, comprising:

a feature module for identifying a feature of interest associated with image data captured by the image sensor device in a pixel array;

a signature module for creating a feature-dependent code associated with the feature of interest; and

an embedding module for altering the image data to embed the feature-dependent code in a fixed, feature-dependent location in the pixel array.

16. The processor of claim 15, wherein the feature module comprises routines selected from the list comprising:

an edge detection routine;

a segmentation routine;

a scene identification routine;

an object detection routine;

a metadata identification routine; and

a Global Positioning System routine.

17. The processor of claim 16, wherein the feature-dependent code comprises an n-bit word to identify the feature of interest, wherein n is at least two.

18. The processor of claim 17, further comprising a routine for altering one or more pixels in the perimeter of the image to represent a CRC of the code.

19. A system for identifying a feature of a digital image, comprising:

an imaging device with executable instructions to;

generate image data in a pixel array corresponding to an optical image; and

alter the image data in the pixel array to generate a digital image having a code associated with a feature of the image data embedded in a known location of the digital image; and

a processing device with executable instructions to;

receive the digital image from the imaging device; and

identify the feature of the digital image based on the embedded code and its known location in the digital image.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processing device comprises a detection module for extracting the embedded code from its known location in the image.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the imaging device further comprises executable instructions to embed a CRC of the code in the perimeter of the pixel array.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the processing device further comprises executable instructions to decode the CRC to recover the code.

23. A method for identifying a feature in a digital image, comprising:

receiving a digital image having an embedded feature-dependent code in a feature-dependent location;

processing the digital image to recover one or more pixels in the feature-dependent location; and

comparing the one or more pixels to the feature-dependent code to identify the feature.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising decoding a CRC code embedded in the digital image to verify whether the feature-dependent code is present in the image.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising displaying the digital image.