System and method for horizon correction within images

• US 7,079,707 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2001
• Issued: 07/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Snaptrack Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Baron, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): COUSO, YON JUNG
• Application Number:
  US09/909,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20030016883A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,824 Days
• Field of Search: 382/289, 382/296, 382/297, 382/293, 358 3- 22, 345/649, 345/650, 348/208.99, 348/208.3, 348/208.5, 348/14.01, 348/14.03, 348/649, 348/650, 396 56- 57
• US Class Current: 382/289
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/60 Rotation of whole images or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/81 for suppressing or minimising disturbance in the image signal generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2628 Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation

Abstract

The present invention includes a system and method for the correction of user induced inadvertent orientation errors in captured digital images before the digital image is saved to a storage media or memory. A system of the present invention checks a user-selectable input to determine if the orientation correction has been enabled, enables a tilt determining mechanism which senses orientation errors when the feature is enabled, corrects the orientation errors in the viewed image, displays a corrected digital image to the user and allows the user to store a digital representation of the corrected image into a memory. The method of the present invention includes receiving a digital representation of an image, identifying vertical or horizontal lines contained within the image, determining an orientation error, rotating the digital representation of the image to reduce the orientation error and displaying a corrected digital image.

Claims

1. A method for automatic detection and correction of image orientation errors comprising the steps of:

receiving a digital representation of an image;

identifying at least one vertical or horizontal object within said image;

determining an orientation error of at least one of said identified vertical or horizontal objects;

rotating said digital representation of said image in a manner to reduce said orientation error; and

displaying a corrected digital image, wherein said steps of receiving, identifying, determining, rotating, and displaying are performed within a digital camera.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein both horizontal and vertical objects are used in said automatic detection of orientation errors.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

checking a disable feature to ensure said automatic detection and correction of orientation errors should be performed.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

disabling said automatic correction of orientation errors for orientation errors in excess of a predetermined maximum amount.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

compressing said corrected digital image to provide compressed image data; and

storing said compressed image data in a memory.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said automatic detection of orientation errors is performed from identified edges of objects contained within the digital representation of an image.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said automatic detection of orientation errors includes operating a tilt angle sensor to determine a tilt parameter value.

8. An image orientation correction system comprising:

a user-selectable input device;

a tilt determining mechanism configured to automatically sense orientation errors of received images;

a processor configured to respond to said user-selectable input device and to send said orientation errors of an image for modifying said image to remove said orientation errors; and

;

a display configured to display a digital image as modified by said processor.

9. The orientation correction system of claim 8 wherein:

said user-selectable input allows a user to disable said orientation correction system.

10. The orientation correction system of claim 8 wherein:

said tilt determining mechanism includes a tilt sensor.

11. The orientation correction system of claim 8 wherein:

said tilt determining mechanism is implemented via software.

12. The orientation correction system of claim 11 wherein said software implemented tilt determining mechanism detects and uses an edge of an object contained within said digital representation of said image to determine said orientation errors of said digital image.

13. The orientation correction system of claim 8 further including:

n automatic disable feature which disables said orientation correction when said orientation error is determined to be greater than a predetermined maximum error value.

14. The orientation system of claim 13 wherein said predetermined maximum error value is five degrees.

15. A camera comprising:

an image sensor;

a display connected to display an image captured by said image sensor;

an orientation sensor automatically identifying an orientation of said image sensor with respect to said image captured by said image sensor; and

an image processor responsive to said orientation sensor for performing a rotation operation on said image captured by said image sensor so as to provide corrected image data reducing a misalignment of said image.

16. The camera according to claim 15 further comprising:

a memory configured to store said corrected image data.

17. The camera according to claim 16 wherein said image captured by said image sensor is stored in said memory when said identified orientation is greater than a predetermined maximum value.

18. The camera according to claim 15 further comprising:

an image compressor configured to perform compression of said corrected image data.

19. The camera according to claim 18 wherein said image compressor implements a lossy image compression algorithm.