Electronic image acquistion system with image optimization by intensity entropy analysis and feedback control
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An image acquisition system comprising:
- (a) an electronic camera having a lens with a selectively adjustable aperture control;
(b) an amplifier coupled to said camera to receive image data therefrom, said amplifier having selectively adjustable gain and offset controls;
(c) a digitizer coupled to said amplifier to receive amplified image data therefrom; and
(d) a processor coupled to said digitizer to receive digitized image data therefrom, said processor having outputs coupled to said amplifier gain and offset controls for selectively adjusting the same, and an output connected to said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same;
(e) said processor being adapted to process said digitized image data received from said digitizer to calculate therefrom an intensity entropy of an image and, in response thereto, to provide outputs selectively to said amplifier gain and offset controls and said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same to optimize the acquired image information, said intensity entropy of said image being defined as Hn, where;
##EQU12## and n=the number of quantized intensity levels of the digitizer, andPi =the probability of the ith intensity level occurring in the image and is defined by pi =fi /N where f is the frequency of occurrence of the ith intensity level in the digitized image data and N is the total number of pixels in the digitized image data.
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Abstract
An image acquisition system is arranged to optimize the information in an acquired image. Parameters associated with the system, such as any of the lens aperture, the lens focus and image intensity, are adjusted. Incoming image data is processed to determine the entropy of the image and with this information the aperture can be optimized. By determining the dynamic range of the scene the black and white levels thereof can be identified and the gain and offset applied to the image adjusted to minimize truncation distortion. Specular highlights can be detected by calculating the ratio of changes in maximum and minimum intensities between different but related images.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. An image acquisition system comprising:
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(a) an electronic camera having a lens with a selectively adjustable aperture control; (b) an amplifier coupled to said camera to receive image data therefrom, said amplifier having selectively adjustable gain and offset controls; (c) a digitizer coupled to said amplifier to receive amplified image data therefrom; and (d) a processor coupled to said digitizer to receive digitized image data therefrom, said processor having outputs coupled to said amplifier gain and offset controls for selectively adjusting the same, and an output connected to said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same; (e) said processor being adapted to process said digitized image data received from said digitizer to calculate therefrom an intensity entropy of an image and, in response thereto, to provide outputs selectively to said amplifier gain and offset controls and said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same to optimize the acquired image information, said intensity entropy of said image being defined as Hn, where;
##EQU12## and n=the number of quantized intensity levels of the digitizer, andPi =the probability of the ith intensity level occurring in the image and is defined by pi =fi /N where f is the frequency of occurrence of the ith intensity level in the digitized image data and N is the total number of pixels in the digitized image data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An image acquisition system comprising:
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(a) an electronic camera having a lens with a selectively adjustable aperture control; (b) an amplifier coupled to said camera to receive image data therefrom, said amplifier having selectively adjustable gain and offset controls; (c) a digitizer coupled to said amplifier to receive amplified image data therefrom; and (d) a processor coupled to said digitizer to receive digitized image data therefrom, said processor having outputs connected to said amplifier gain and offset controls for selectively adjusting the same and an output connected to said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same; (e) said processor being adapted to process said digitized image data received from said digitizer to calculate therefrom an intensity gradient entropy of said image and, in response thereto, to provide outputs selectively to said amplifier gain and offset controls and said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same to optimize the acquired image information, the intensity gradient entropy of the image being defined as Hg, where;
##EQU13## and the intensity gradient magnitude being defined as g, where;
space="preserve" listing-type="equation">g=(I.sub.x.sup.2 +I.sub.y.sup.2).sup.1/2and the intensity partial derivatives Ix and Iy are ##EQU14## and m=the number of levels spanned by the gradient magnitude distribution of the quantized intensity levels of the digitizer; and pg =the probability of the gth intensity gradient level occurring in the image and is defined by pg =Fg /N, where fg is the frequency of occurrence of the gth intensity gradient level in the digitized image data and N is the total number of pixels in the digitized image data. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An image acquisition system comprising:
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(a) an electronic camera having a lens with a selectively adjustable aperture control; (b) an amplifier coupled to said camera to receive image data therefrom, said amplifier having selectively adjustable gain and offset controls; (c) a digitizer coupled to said amplifier to receive amplified image data therefrom; and (d) a processor coupled to said digitizer to receive digitized image data therefrom, said processor having outputs connected to said amplifier gain and offset controls for selectively adjusting the same, and an output connected to said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same; (e) said processor being adapted to process said digitized image data received from said digitizer to derive a histogram of the image intensities in said digitized image data and to calculate therefrom the variance of the image intensities from a reference histogram and, in response thereto, to provide outputs selectively to said amplifier gain and offset controls and said lens aperture control for selectively adjusting the same to optimize the acquired image information, said variance being defined as σ
h2, where ##EQU15## and n=the number of quantized intensity levels of the digitizer fi -the frequency of occurrence of the ith intensity level in the digitized image data, andμ
h =N/n, where N is the total number of pixels in the digitized image data. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification