APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR BLENDING MULTIPLE IMAGES

• US 20100150473A1
• Filed: 11/17/2009
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Seong-deok, KWON, Jae-hyun, CHOE, Won-hee
• Granted Patent: US 8,977,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/284
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction

Abstract

Disclosed is an apparatus to blend a high dynamic range (HDR) image or a plurality of images captured with different exposure settings to multiple images, and a method thereof. A multiple image blender receives a high dynamic range (HDR) image or a plurality of images captured with different exposure settings, and controls setting of one or more areas of interest or setting of one or more gradation levels, and combines and blends the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings corresponding to each area of interest or at each gradation level, and generates at least one multi-exposure image.

Claims

1. A multiple image blender, comprising:

a controller to receive a high dynamic range (HDR) image or a plurality of images captured with different exposure settings, and control setting of one or more areas of interest or setting of one or more gradation levels; and

an image processor to combine and blend the HDR image or the plurality of images with different exposures corresponding to each area of interest or at each gradation level, and generate at least one multi-exposure image.

2. The multiple image blender of claim 1, further comprising:

a weight generator to generate a weight to perform image blending corresponding to each area of interest or at each gradation level,

wherein the image processor generates the at least one multi-exposure image by processing the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings according to the weight.

3. The multiple image blender of claim 1, further comprising:

an image acquiring unit to generate the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings or receive the HDR image.

4. The multiple image blender of claim 3, wherein the controller further comprises:

an area-of-interest setter to set, as being an area of interest, an area focused automatically where the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings are acquired.

5. The multiple image blender of claim 3, wherein the image acquiring unit adjusts an exposure time of each image such that dynamic ranges of the images overlap each other, where the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings are acquired.

6. The multiple image blender of claim 1, wherein the controller sets the area of interest based on information about extracted edge components or according to a user'"'"'s input.

7. The multiple image blender of claim 1, wherein the controller performs gradation analysis to determine a gradation level to which a large portion of pixel values of each image belongs, and set the determined gradation level to an optimal gradation level.

8. A multiple image blending method, the method comprising:

receiving a high dynamic range (HDR) image or a plurality of images captured with different exposure settings;

setting at least one gradation level; and

generating at least one multi-exposure image by combining and blending the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings corresponding to each gradation level.

9. The multiple image blending method of claim 8, wherein the generating of the at least one multi-exposure image comprises:

generating the at least one multi-exposure image by generating a weight to perform image blending corresponding to each of the at least one gradation level; and

processing the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings according to the weight.

10. The multiple image blending method of claim 8, wherein the receiving of the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings comprises:

adjusting an exposure time of each image such that dynamic ranges of the images overlap each other, where the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings are acquired.

11. The multiple image blending method of claim 8, wherein the generating of the at least one multi-exposure image comprises:

performing gradation analysis to determine a gradation level to which a large portion of pixel values of each image belongs and setting the determined gradation level to an optimal gradation level.

12. A multiple image blending method, the method comprising:

receiving a high dynamic range (HDR) image or a plurality of images captured with different exposure settings;

setting at least one area of interest; and

generating at least one multi-exposure image by combining and blending the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings corresponding to each area of the at least one area of interest.

13. The multiple image blending method of claim 12, wherein the generating of the at least one multi-exposure image comprises:

generating the at least one multi-exposure image by generating a weight to perform image blending corresponding to each of the at least one area of interest and processing the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings according to the weight.

14. The multiple image blending method of claim 12, wherein the setting of the at least one area of interest comprises:

setting, as being an area of interest, an area focused automatically where the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings are acquired.

15. The multiple image blending method of claim 12, wherein the receiving of the HDR image or the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings comprises:

adjusting an exposure time of each image such that dynamic ranges of the images overlap each other, where the plurality of images captured with different exposure settings are acquired.

16. The multiple image blending method of claim 12, wherein the setting of the area of interest comprises:

setting the area of interest based on information about extracted edge components or according to a user'"'"'s input.