MOBILE TERMINAL AND METHOD OF PHOTOGRAPHING IMAGE USING THE SAME

• US 20110267530A1
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: CHUN, Woo Chang
• Granted Patent: US 8,913,176 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/333.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/632 for displaying or modifying preview images prior to image capturing, e.g. variety of image resolutions or capturing parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/676 Bracketing for image capture at varying focusing conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

The present invention provides a mobile terminal and a method of capturing an image using the same. The mobile terminal controls a camera conveniently and efficiently to capture an image and performs focusing in various manners to capture an image. Accordingly, a user can obtain a desired image easily and conveniently.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a camera;

a touch screen display; and

a controller configured to;

control the touch screen display to display an image that is received via the camera for preview, the image including at least one object to be focused on;

recognize at least one touch input on at least one specific point of the displayed image via the touch screen display;

control the touch screen display to display at least a first guide having a predetermined size at or substantially near the at least one specific point of the image displayed in response to the at least one touch input, a size of the displayed at least a first guide being adjusted according to a size of the at least one object;

determine at least one focusing area for focusing on the at least one object corresponding to the at least one specific point;

perform focusing on the at least one object based on the determined at least one focusing area; and

control the camera to capture the received image with the focused at least one object.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine the at least a first guide having a minimum size as the at least one focusing area, wherein the minimum size of the at least a first guide results from the at least a first guide being adjusted to substantially include the at least one object.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to perform face recognition processing on the at least one focusing area in order to recognize the at least one object included in the at least one focusing area as a person'"'"'s face.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 3, wherein the controller is further configured to control the touch screen display to display at least one menu for applying image characterization processing to the recognized face.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

generate a panoramic image including a plurality of images by controlling the camera to capture each of the plurality of images separately and combining the captured plurality of images into the panoramic image;

control the touch screen display to display a second guide on a designated portion, the second guide including images corresponding to the captured plurality of images; and

control the touch screen display to display a third guide that is configured to move according to a direction of movement of the mobile terminal, the third guide being moved to provide guidance for an image to be captured via the camera and combining with the captured plurality of images.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the camera includes a movable lens and the controller is further configured to recognize a predefined input and control the camera in response to the predefined input to adjust a pointing direction of the movable lens to perform fine adjustment on the focused at least one object.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 6, wherein the predefined input comprises a touch input with a specific pattern that is received through a portion of the touch screen display or received via a specific guide displayed on the touch screen display.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to control the camera to adjust the pointing direction of the movable lens based on at least a moving distance or a moving direction of the predefined input.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 6, wherein the controller is further configured to control the camera to adjust the pointing direction of the movable lens discontinuously in response to the predefined input.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

perform multi-focusing on the plurality of objects;

recognize a plurality of touch inputs designating a plurality of specific points corresponding to a plurality of objects on the displayed image on the displayed image;

control the camera to capture the image with the multi-focused plurality of objects.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to control the touch screen display to display a plurality of guides for guiding focusing on each of the plurality of objects in response to the plurality of touch inputs, the plurality of touch inputs being received at or substantially near the plurality of specific points of the displayed image.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein:

the controller is further configured to control the touch screen display to display the plurality of guides on the corresponding plurality of specific points in response to the plurality of touch inputs; and

the plurality of guides are either formed and displayed sequentially at a designated portion of the touch screen display with each of the plurality of guides is dragged to a corresponding one of the plurality of specific points or formed and displayed directly over the plurality of specific touched points on the touch screen display.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of guides is movable and the controller is further configured to perform focusing on each object that corresponds to one of the plurality of guides according to movement of the guide.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to:

assign different priorities to at least a portion of the plurality of specific points based on preset criteria; and

perform the focusing according to the assigned priorities of the at least a portion of the plurality of specific points such that a specific point with a higher assigned priority is more accurately focused than a specific point with a lower assigned priority.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the preset criteria comprise at least a chronological order in which the plurality of touch inputs have been received at the plurality of specific points.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein:

a specific point corresponding to an object that matches data stored in a memory of the mobile terminal is assigned a higher priority than a specific point corresponding to an object that does not match any data stored in the memory;

the matching data is pre-stored in the memory; and

the controller is further configured to match the object by recognizing the object and comparing the recognized object with the data stored in the memory.

17. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the controller is further configured to:

assign a higher priority to a specific point that corresponds to an area where a number of objects classified as a specific type is greater than a threshold; and

assign a lower priority to a specific point that corresponds to an area where a number of objects classified as the specific type is less than the threshold.

18. A method of capturing an image in a mobile terminal comprising a camera and a touch screen display, the method comprising:

displaying, on the touch screen display, an image that is received via the camera for preview, the image including at least one object to be focused on;

receiving at least one touch input on at least one specific point of the displayed image via the touch screen display;

displaying, on the touch screen display, at least one guide having a predetermined size at or substantially near the at least one specific point in response to the at least one touch input;

adjusting a size of the displayed at least one guide according to a size of the at least one object being focused on;

determining at least one focusing area for focusing on the at least one object corresponding to the at least one specific point;

;

performing focusing on the at least one object based on the determined at least one focusing area; and

capturing, with the camera, the received image with the focused at least one object.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, via the touch screen display, a plurality of touch inputs on a plurality of specific points of the display image, the plurality of touch inputs being received at or substantially near a corresponding plurality of objects included in the displayed image;

displaying a plurality of guides, each of the plurality of guides being displayed at or substantially near a corresponding one of the plurality of specific points in response to the plurality of touch inputs;

determining a plurality of focusing areas for focusing on the plurality of objects corresponding to the plurality of specific points;

performing multi focusing on the plurality of objects based on the determined plurality of focusing areas; and

capturing, with the camera, the received image with the plurality of multi-focused objects.

20. A method of capturing an image in a mobile terminal comprising a camera with a movable lens and a touch screen display, the method comprising:

displaying, on the touch screen display, a preview image received via the camera;

receiving, via the touch screen display, a first touch input on a specific point of the preview image;

displaying a guide over the specific point of the preview image in response to the first touch input;

performing focusing on an object substantially corresponding to the specific point based on the guide;

adjusting a pointing direction of the movable lens of the camera to perform fine adjustment of the focusing in response to a second touch input comprising a predefined pattern, the pointing direction of the movable lens adjusted according to at least a moving distance or a moving direction of the second touch input; and

capturing, via the camera, the preview image with the fine adjustment focused object.