METHOD OF PROVIDING PANORAMIC IMAGE AND IMAGING DEVICE THEREOF

• US 20130135428A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 05/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: CHOI, Jong-yun
• Granted Patent: US 9,538,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/36
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture

Abstract

A method of providing a panoramic image and an imaging device thereof. The method may include: extracting at least one panoramic section, which is to generate a panoramic image, from moving picture data; displaying at least one thumbnail image respectively corresponding to the at least one panoramic section on a display screen; and if one of the at least one thumbnail image is selected, generating a panoramic section corresponding to the selected thumbnail image as a panoramic image. Therefore, even if a user performs capturing without the aim of acquiring a panoramic image at a capturing time, the user can aquire a panoramic image later by using moving picture data.

Claims

1. A method of generating a panoramic image of an imaging device, the method comprising:

extracting at least one panoramic section, which is to generate a panoramic image, from moving picture data;

displaying at least one thumbnail image respectively corresponding to the at least one panoramic section on a display screen; and

if one of the at least one thumbnail image is selected, generating a panoramic section corresponding to the selected thumbnail image as a panoramic image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein motion vector information of an image frame constituting the moving picture data is analyzed, and a moving direction of an image is determined through the analyzed motion vector information to extract the at least one panoramic section.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a characteristic dot is extracted from the image frame constituting the moving picture data, and a motion of the image is determined according to a moving direction of the characteristic dot to extract the at least one panoramic section.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the thumbnail image is a first image frame of the panoramic section.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of image frames included in the panoramic section overlap with one another, and overlapping boundary interfaces are interpolated to generate the panoramic image.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein if photographing setting conditions of the plurality of image frames included in the panoramic section are changed, an average value of pixels comprised in an overlapping area of the plurality of image frames is calculated, and the panoramic image is generated by using a pixel having the calculated average value.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the panoramic image is generated, storing the panoramic image and metadata of the panoramic image along with the moving picture data.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

if the panoramic image is generated, storing the panoramic image and metadata of the panoramic image separately from the moving picture data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a panoramic image list comprising the generated panoramic image.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

if a panoramic image is selected from the displayed panoramic image list, playing the moving picture data starting from a panoramic section corresponding to the selected panoramic image.

11. An imaging device comprising:

a display unit; and

a controller which extracts at least one panoramic section, which is to generate a panoramic image, from moving picture data, displays at least one thumbnail image respectively corresponding to the at least one panoramic section on the display unit, and if one of the at least one thumbnail image is selected, generates a panoramic section corresponding to the selected thumbnail image as a panoramic image.

12. The imaging device of claim 11, wherein the controller analyzes motion vector information of an image frame constituting the moving picture data and determines a moving direction of an image through the analyzed motion vector information to extract the at least one panoramic section.

13. The imaging device of claim 12, wherein the controller extracts a characteristic dot from the image frame constituting the moving picture data and determines a motion of the image according to a moving direction of the characteristic dot to extract the at least one panoramic sections.

14. The imaging device of claim 11, wherein the thumbnail image is a first image frame of the panoramic section.

15. The imaging device of claim 11, wherein the controller overlaps a plurality of image frames included in the panoramic section and interpolates overlapping boundary interfaces to generate the panoramic image.

16. The imaging device of claim 15, wherein if photographing setting conditions of the plurality of image frames included in the panoramic section are changed, the controller calculates an average value of pixels included in an overlapping area of the plurality of image frames and generates the panoramic image by using a pixel having the calculated average value.

17. The imaging device of claim 11, further comprising:

a storage unit,

wherein if the panoramic image is generated, the controller controls the storage unit to store the panoramic image and metadata of the panoramic image along with the moving picture data.

18. The imaging device of claim 17, further comprising:

a storage unit,

wherein if the panoramic image is generated, the controller controls the storage unit to store the panoramic image and metadata of the panoramic image separately from the moving picture data.

19. The imaging device of claim 11, wherein the controller controls the display unit to display a panoramic image list comprising the generated panoramic image.

20. The imaging device of claim 19, wherein if a panoramic image is selected from the panoramic image list, the controller plays the moving picture data starting from a panoramic section corresponding to the selected panoramic image.

21. A non-transient computer readable storage medium containing codes to perform a method of generating a panoramic image of an imaging device, the method comprising:

extracting at least one panoramic section, which is to generate a panoramic image, from moving picture data;

displaying at least one thumbnail image respectively corresponding to the at least one panoramic section on a display screen; and

if one of the at least one thumbnail image is selected, generating a panoramic section corresponding to the selected thumbnail image as a panoramic image.