METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DYNAMIC IMAGE CAPTURING BASED ON MOTION INFORMATION IN IMAGE

• US 20200137287A1
• Filed: 10/25/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KRISHNAPPA, Pradeep Kumar Sindhagatta, DESHPANDE, Pranav Prakash, SRINIVASAN, Karthik, DAS, Saikat Kumar, SHUKLA, Alok Shankarlal
• Granted Patent: US 11,539,896 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/13 Edge detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6811 based on the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/741 by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/84 for processing colour signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/533 by using differing integration times for different sensor regions

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for capturing a high quality dynamic image by setting a different row-wise exposure value when capturing a scene are provided. The dynamic image capturing method includes: generating an image by pre-capturing a scene via an event sensor; generating event data from the image; determining a row-wise exposure value of the image based on the event data; and determining a row-wise readout priority order of the image based on the row-wise exposure value of the image.

Claims

1. A dynamic image capturing method comprising:

generating an image by pre-capturing a scene via an event sensor;

generating event data from the image;

determining a row-wise exposure value of the image based on the event data; and

determining a row-wise readout priority order of the image based on the row-wise exposure value of the image.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining red, green, blue (RGB) data by capturing the image based on the row-wise readout priority order of the image.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating row-wise motion information of the scene based on the event data from the image.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining of the row-wise readout priority order of the image comprises assigning a high priority order to a row including a high motion degree based on the row-wise motion information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the row-wise exposure value of the image comprises determining a row-wise brightness intensity of the image.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the event data from the image comprises extracting a change in an edge of an object in the image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data from the image comprises an asynchronous change of an intensity of a pixel included in the image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the row-wise exposure value is generated based on a row-wise exposure time of the scene.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

assigning relatively less exposure time to a row of the image, the row including a relatively high brightness intensity; and

assigning relatively more exposure time to a row of the image, the row including a relatively low brightness intensity.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining redundancy information of the image based on the event data from the image and event data obtained from a previous RGB frame,

wherein the determining of the row-wise readout priority order of the image comprises determining the row-wise readout priority order of the image by using the redundancy information.

11. An exposure time control method for dynamic image capturing, the method comprising:

determining a row-wise change in brightness level of an image generated by pre-capturing a scene;

determining a row-wise exposure time of the image while capturing the scene via a red, green, blue (RGB) sensor, proportionately to a row-wise brightness level of the image;

determining a row from among rows, the row including a motion of an object in the image;

assigning a row-wise high readout priority order to the row including the motion of the object in the image; and

determining a readout time according to the assigned row-wise high readout priority order.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining of the row-wise change in the brightness level comprises changing a critical value of sensitivity of an event sensor capturing the motion of the object.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating an RGB frame according to the determined readout time.

14. A dynamic image capturing apparatus comprising:

an event sensor configured to pre-capture a scene; and

a processor configured to;

generate event data from an image pre-captured by the event sensor,

determine a row-wise exposure value of the image based on the event data, and

determine a row-wise readout priority order of the image based on the row-wise exposure value of the image.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising a red, green, blue (RGB) sensor configured to capture the scene to obtain RGB data based on the row-wise readout priority order of the image.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to generate row-wise motion information of the scene based on the event data.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to, in order to determine the row-wise readout priority order of the image, assign a high priority order to a row including a high motion degree based on the row-wise motion information.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to, in order to determine the row-wise exposure value of the image, determine a row-wise brightness intensity of the image.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to, in order to generate the event data from the image, extract a change of an edge of an object in the image.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to:

include relatively less exposure time in the row-wise exposure value based on a row-wise brightness intensity of the image being high; and

include relatively more exposure time in the row-wise exposure value based on the row-wise brightness intensity of the image being low.