Apparatus, system and method for increasing quality of digital image capture

• US 7,864,211 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2006
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 54 Essential Systems LLC
• Original Assignee: Mediapod LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Mowry, Craig P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ye; Lin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cowan; Euel K
• Application Number:
  US11/549,937
• Publication Number:
  US 20070181686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,541 Days
• Field of Search: 348/202, 348/203, 348/205, 348/206, 348/224.1, 348/351, 359/196.1, 359/199.4, 359/201.1, 3592101-2114, 359/230
• US Class Current: 348/195
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0006 Arrays G02B3/02, G02B5/188 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0056 arranged along two different directions in a plane, e.g. honeycomb arrangement of lenses G02B3/0043 takes precedence; miniaturised objectives for electronic devices employing wafer level optics G02B13/0085
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 7/00 Mountings, adjusting means, or light-tight connections, for optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/04 with cameras or projectors providing touching or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04732 Detecting at infrequent intervals, e.g. once or twice per line for main-scan control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/58 Means for changing the camera field of view without moving the camera body, e.g. nutating or panning of optics or image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/48 Increasing resolution by shifting the sensor relative to the scene

Abstract

An apparatus, system or method for increasing quality of digital image capture is provided. Imaging and, more particularly, capturing visuals to provide image manipulation options are provided to increase resolution of the subject images.

Claims

1. An imaging system, comprising:

an electronic image capture module mounted within a housing of a camera and configured to capture high resolution images;

a mechanism configured to position the electronic image capture module to capture high resolution images of different portions of a scene;

a module configured to capture low resolution video corresponding to the scene and capture position and timestamp information for image aspects in the scene; and

a computing device configured to;

generate a high resolution composite image from captured high resolution images of different portions of the scene and captured position and timestamp information for the image aspects in the scene; and

generate high resolution video of the scene from the high resolution composite image and the low resolution video.

2. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said high resolution composite image embodies information captured by said electronic image capture module in the collection of high resolution images.

3. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said mechanism comprises an electronic motor configured to move said electronic image capture module to capture the collection of high resolution images and return said electronic image capture module to a starting position after light indicative of the different portions of the scene has been individually captured.

4. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein the position and timestamp information is captured at a higher capture rate than a capture rate used to generate the collection of high resolution images.

5. The imaging system of claim 1, further comprising:

a mechanism for rotating the electronic image capture module to change an aspect ratio for the high resolution images.

6. The imaging system of claim 5, wherein the mechanism for rotating the electronic image module is configured to intermittently rotate the electronic image capture module.

7. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein the module configured to capture low resolution video is configured to obtain position and timestamp information corresponding to time periods during which the electronic image capture module captures the high resolution images and moves to a new position.

8. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein light indicative of the scene is concurrently provided to said electronic image capture module and the module configured to capture low resolution video.

9. The imaging system of claim 8, wherein said module configured to capture low resolution video is further configured to generate a plurality of low resolution video images corresponding to time periods during which the electronic image capture module captures the high resolution images and moves to another position.

10. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said module configured to capture low resolution video is configured to capture 24 full frame captures of the scene per second.

11. The imaging system of claim 1, further comprising:

an image diversion means for concurrently providing light indicative of the scene to the electronic image capture module and the module configured to capture low resolution video.

12. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to assemble at least of the two high resolution images different portions of the scene to form said high resolution composite image.

13. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said high resolution video comprises a plurality of high resolution images configured to be displayed in rapid succession.

14. The imaging system of claim 1, further comprising:

storing time coding information for each high resolution image in the collection of high resolution images.

15. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein the module configured to capture low resolution video is further configured to obtain position information from wire-frame information.

16. The imaging system of claim 1, wherein said computing device is further configured to store the position and timestamp information for objects in the scene and the collection of high resolution images and send the position and time information and the collection of high resolution images over a network.

17. The imaging system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second electronic image capture module configured to capture the low resolution video.

18. A camera comprising:

an image capture device configured to generate high resolution images of different portions of a lens image of a scene such that a high resolution composite image can be generated based on the collection of high resolution images;

a movable optical element configured to sequentially direct the different portions of the lens image to the image capture device;

a module configured to generate low resolution video corresponding to the lens image such that position and time information for objects in the lens image can be determined; and

a transfer mechanism configured to send generated high resolution images and generated low resolution video to a system, wherein the generated high resolution images and the generated low resolution video are configured to allow the system to generate high resolution video from at least the generated high resolution images, the generated low resolution video, and generated high resolution composite images.

19. The camera of claim 18, wherein said image capture device is configured to receive and capture the different portions of the lens image.

20. The camera of claim 18, wherein said movable optical element is a mirror.

21. The camera of claim 18, wherein said movable optical element is a lens.

22. The camera of claim 18, wherein said image capture device further comprises at least one imaging module within an image capture target zone, said at least one imaging module remaining static relative to said movable optical element.

23. The camera of claim 22, wherein said at least one imaging module is an electronic image capture and data relaying device.

24. The camera of claim 18, wherein the image capture device is a camera chip component operable to receive the different portions of the lens image and create a storable and readable electronic information representation of the generated high resolution images.

25. The camera of claim 18, wherein said different portions of the lens image are sequentially directed to at least one capture module in said image capture device, wherein said image capture device is configured to generate high resolution images at a configurable frame rate.

26. The camera of claim 18, wherein said movable optical element is further configured to move intermittently to provide a static period for image portion capture by the image capture device.

27. The camera of claim 18, wherein a motion of said optical element motion is at least in part a tandem function of a location changing motion imposed on the image capture device.

28. The camera of claim 18, further comprising:

an image diversion component configured to relay light indicative of the lens image to the module configured to generate low resolution video in tandem with relaying the light indicative of the lens image to the movable optical element.

29. The camera of claim 18, wherein said movable optical element is configured to enlarge said lens image prior to sequentially directing said different portions of the lens image.

30. The camera of claim 29, wherein a focal length associated with the movable optical element is selectable and dependent on a quantity of the high resolution images in the collection of high resolution images.

31. The camera of claim 30, wherein the focal length is varied as a function of the quantity of the high resolution images.

32. The camera of claim 29, wherein said movable optical element affects a focal length variation of said lens image.

33. The camera of claim 18 wherein said collection of high resolution composite images comprises more data than any individual high resolution image of the collection.

34. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for generating at least one high resolution composite image based on high resolution images of different portions of a scene and position and time information for objects in the scene; and

instructions for generating high resolution video of the scene from at least the high resolution composite image and low resolution video corresponding to the scene.

35. The non-transitory computer of readable storage medium of claim 34, further comprising:

instructions for receiving the position and time information.

36. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 35, wherein said position and time information is generated at least at 24 times per second.

37. The non-transitory computer storage readable medium of claim 35, further comprising:

instructions for receiving the position and time information from an electronic image capture module.

38. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 35, further comprising:

instructions for receiving the high resolution images from a camera configured to generate the high resolution images at a frequency set by a user of the camera.

39. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for generating at least one high resolution composite image based on high resolution images; and

instructions for forming high resolution video of a scene from the high resolution composite image and low resolution video corresponding to the scene;

wherein the high resolution composite image includes more image detail than at least one high resolution image in the plurality of high resolution images of different portions of the scene.

40. A camera, comprising:

a housing;

a lens integrated within the housing, the lens configured to receive light indicative of an image of a scene and relay the light to an image capture zone that includes an electronic image capture module;

a component configured to move the position of the electronic image capture module in the image capture zone to capture different portions of the light indicative of the image to generate high resolution images of the different portions of the scene;

a module configured to generate low resolution video corresponding to the image such that position and time information for objects in the image can be determined;

a data transfer mechanism configured to send generated high resolution images of different portions of the scene and generated low resolution video to a computer system, wherein the generated high resolution images and the generated low resolution video are configured to allow the computer system to generate a composite image of the scene from the generated high resolution images and generate high resolution video from the high resolution composite image and the generated low resolution video, wherein the high resolution composite image includes more image detail than at least one of the generated high resolution images.

41. The camera of claim 40, wherein the high resolution composite image embodies information captured by said electronic image capture module.

42. The camera of claim 40, further comprising:

an electronic motor capable of moving said electronic image capture module.

43. The camera of claim 42, wherein the number of high resolution images in the collection is variable and selectable.

44. A camera comprising:

an electronic image capture device;

an optical assembly configured to receive light indicative of a scene and sequentially relay different portions of the light indicative of the scene to the electronic image capture device, wherein the electronic image capture device is configured to generate high resolution images of different portions of the scene;

a module configured to generate low resolution video corresponding to the scene such that position and time information for objects in the scene can be determined;

a data transfer mechanism configured to send generated high resolution images and generated low resolution video to a computer system, wherein the generated high resolution images and the generated low resolution video are configured to allow the computer system to generate a high resolution composite image of the scene from at least the generated high resolution images and generate high resolution video from the generated high resolution composite image and the low resolution video, wherein the high resolution composite image includes more image detail than at least one of the generated high resolution images.

45. The camera of claim 44, further comprising:

means for relaying the light indicative of the scene to the optical assembly and to a secondary electronic image capture device configured to sample and determine the position and time information for objects in the scene.

46. A system comprising:

a position variable image capture module configured to be movable around an image capture zone to sequentially capture high resolution images of distinct portions of a scene; and

a computing device configured to generate high resolution video from a high resolution composite image generated from captured high resolution composite images and low resolution video corresponding to the scene.

47. A system comprising:

at least one position variable optical component configured to sequentially relay distinct portions of light indicative of a scene to a stationary electronic image capture module configured to generate high resolution images of distinct portions of the image; and

a computer system configured to generate a plurality of high resolution composite images from captured high resolution images and generate high resolution video from at least the plurality of high resolution composite images and low resolution video corresponding to the scene.

48. A system comprising:

an optical component configured to sequentially relay distinct portions of light indicative of a scene to an image capture zone;

an image capture module configured to capture the distinct portions of light received in the image capture zone and generate high resolution composite images of distinct portions of the scene, the high resolution composite images comprising a plurality of high resolution images,

a computer system configured to generate high resolution video from the high resolution composite images and low resolution video corresponding to the scene.

49. A method for capturing images comprising:

directing a first portion of light indicative of a first portion of a scene to an electronic image capture device;

capturing, by the electronic image capture device, a first high resolution image from the first portion of the light;

directing a second portion of the light indicative of a second portion of the scene to the electronic image capture device;

capturing, by the electronic image capture device, a second high resolution image from the second portion of the light;

capturing low resolution video corresponding to the scene such that position and time information for objects in the image can be determined;

sending the first high resolution image, the second high resolution image, and the low resolution video to a computer, wherein the first high resolution image, the second high resolution image, and the low resolution video are configured to allow the computer to generate high resolution video of the scene from a high resolution composite image derived from the first and second high resolution images and low resolution video corresponding to the scene.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein said directing the first portion and said directing the second portion are performed by a movable optical element.

51. The method of claim 49, further comprising:

determining position information for objects in the scene.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

repositioning the movable optical element to change the aspect ratio for the first high resolution image and the second high resolution image.

53. The method of claim 49, further comprising:

capturing, by a second electronic image capture device, the light indicative of the image at a capture rate greater than the capture rate used by the electronic image capture device.

54. The method of claim 49, wherein the high resolution composite image is a key frame.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the light indicative of the image is concurrently provided to the first and second electronic image capture devices.

56. A computer implemented method for generating high resolution video comprising:

determining position and time information for identifiable elements objects in a scene; and

generating, on the computer, high resolution video corresponding to the scene from at least a high resolution composite image derived from a plurality of high resolution images representative of the scene, low resolution video corresponding to the scene, and the position and time information.