REAL TIME ASSESSMENT OF PICTURE QUALITY

• US 20160191801A1
• Filed: 01/27/2016
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SnapAid LTD
• Original Assignee: SnapAid LTD
• Inventors: SIVAN, Ishay
• Granted Patent: US 9,661,226 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10032 Satellite or aerial image; Remote sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30168 Image quality inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/97 Determining parameters from multiple pictures depth or shape recovery from multiple images G06T7/55; stereo camera calibration G06T7/85
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/64 Three-dimensional objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/67 Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6812 based on additional sensors, e.g. acceleration sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/951 by using two or more images to influence resolution, frame rate or aspect ratio

Abstract

A computerized method for computing the photo quality of a captured image in a device image acquisition system, comprising on-board combining of a plurality of quality indicators computed from said captured image and its previous image frames quality indicators and a confidence level for at least one of said quality indicators, and using a processor to determine, based on said combining, whether photo quality is acceptable and taking differential action depending on whether quality is or is not acceptable.

Claims

1. A method for computing photo quality of a captured image in a digital image acquisition system, comprising an image capture component for capturing in a buffer, a current digital image having pixels, where said method comprising combining of:

a plurality of quality indicators computed from at least one of;

said captured image pixels, camera module 200 current photographic parameters and inertial measurement hardware components readouts;

and combining of at least one time-dependent confidence level C_i(t) computed for at least one quality indicator,

where said confidence level is computed via heuristically estimating probability of said quality indicator for said current image and its said parameters;

and determining, based on said combining, a total quality indicator for said photo.

2. A method according to claim 1 where one total quality indicator passed a predefined threshold, the captured image is stored in memory.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein a stream of frames is saved as video and quality indicators are used to quantify quality of said video.

4. A method according to claim 1 where at least one quality indicator is computed based on a hardware component including at least one of an accelerometer, gyro, GPS receiver.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein at least one of said indicators characterizing quality is computed based on analyzing said photo pixels.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein at least one of said indicators characterizing quality is computed based on comparing said pixels to previous frame data generated by said image capture component.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein at least one of hardware component is based on a flying drone.

12. A method according to claim 1 wherein based on at least one of:

quality indicators, their time-dependent confidence level C_i(t) or the total quality indicator;

where said method will include a command for the capturing device camera/lens module 200 to change at least one of its photographic parameters;

exposure time, ISO, focus distance, white balance.

7. A method for computing photo quality of a captured image in a digital image acquisition system, comprising an image capture component for capturing in a buffer, a current digital image having pixels, where said method comprising combining of:

a plurality of quality indicators computed for said photo;

and combining of at least one time-dependent confidence level C_i(t) computed for at least one quality indicator, where said confidence level is based on previous quality indicators made in close succession from stream of frames that came just before said current photo frame, as done is video frames;

and determining, based on said combining, a total quality indicator for said photo.

8. A method according to claim 7 where at least one quality indicator is computed based on a hardware component including at least one of an accelerometer, gyro, GPS receiver.

10. A method according to claim 7 wherein at least one of hardware component is based on a flying drone.

11. A method according to claim 7 wherein a stream of frames is saved as video and quality indicators are used to quantify quality of said video.

13. A method according to claim 7 wherein based on at least of quality indicators their confidence or the total quality indicator the system will direct the capturing device camera/lens module 200 to change at least one of its photographic parameters:

exposure time, ISO, focus distance, white balance.

14. A method for computing photo quality of a captured image in a digital image acquisition system comprising an image capture component for capturing in a buffer, a current digital image having pixels, where said method comprising combining of:

a plurality of quality indicators, and determining, based on said combining, a total quality indicator for said photo, where at least one weight of one quality indicator is effected by at least one second quality indicator value.

15. A method according to claim 14 wherein second quality indicator value is based on time-dependent confidence level C_i(t) computed from said probability of second quality indicator value, where probability is computed via use of said second quality indicator values from previous close succession image frames.

16. A method according to claim 14 wherein the system will direct the capturing device camera/lens module 200 to change at least one of its photographic parameters (exposure time, ISO, focus distance etc.) based on at least one of:

quality indicators or quality indicators confidence level C_i(t) or total quality indicator.

17. A method according to claim 14 wherein a stream of frames is saved as video and quality indicators are used to quantify quality of said video.

18. A method according to claim 14 where at least one quality indicator is computed based on a hardware component including at least one of an accelerometer, gyro, GPS receiver.

19. A method according to claim 14 wherein at least one of hardware component is based on a flying drone.

20. A method according to claim 14 where one total quality indicator passed a predefined threshold, the captured image is stored in memory.