Method and apparatus to provide improved image quality in a camera

• US 7,982,770 B1
• Filed: 10/13/2006
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kahn, Philippe, Kinsolving, Arthur, Vogel, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Sinh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Flohre, Jason A
• Application Number:
  US11/580,947
• Time in Patent Office: 1,740 Days
• Field of Search: 348/208.1, 348/208.2, 348/208.4, 348/208.7
• US Class Current: 348/208.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/68 for stable pick-up of the scene, e.g. compensating for camera body vibrations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6812 based on additional sensors, e.g. acceleration sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/683 performed by a processor, e.g. controlling the readout of an image memory

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing improved images utilizing acceleration data is described. In one embodiment, the method utilizes the accelerometer data to time the taking of the image to minimize motion effects.

Claims

1. An improved camera system including:

a camera apparatus including an aperture and an image sensor, the camera apparatus to take a plurality of images;

an accelerometer to detect motion of the improved camera system and to generate accelerometer data based on the detected motion;

a buffering logic to buffer the plurality of images and to buffer the acceleration data, wherein each of the plurality of images is associated with distinct accelerometer data; and

a stabilization logic to utilize the accelerometer data to select an image having a minimal motion from the plurality of images, when a user provides an indication,

the stabilization logic including a selection logic to discard each of the plurality of images having acceleration data that indicates a level of motion above a motion threshold and each of the plurality of images that do not have any in-focus portions, and

the selection logic further to select a function to use to evaluate a quality value of each of a remainder of the plurality of images, and to select an image from the remainder of the plurality of images that has a largest quality value, the quality value being a function of stability and time from the indication.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the stabilization logic comprises:

the buffering logic to buffer at least one of the plurality of images prior to the indication.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

the selection logic to first determine whether the camera is in a still image mode or an action image mode, and select a first function that weights the time from the indication more heavily for the action image mode and a second function that weights the stability more heavily for the still image mode.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the image quality value is further a function of lighting level.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising a stability detection logic to detect a user stabilizing the system for taking an image, the stability detection logic to trigger the buffering logic to take the image taken prior to the indication.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the stabilization logic comprises:

an image acquisition system to cause the camera apparatus to take the plurality of images upon receipt of the indication; and

the selection logic to select an image from the plurality of images, based on a reading from the accelerometer indicating that the selected image is a most stable image.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the stabilization logic comprises:

a stability detection logic to utilize data from the accelerometer to detect an optimal stability after receiving the indication, within a period of time, the stability detection logic to trigger taking the image.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the acceleration data is attached to the plurality of images as metadata.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein at least two of the plurality of buffered images satisfy a stability criteria.

8. A system comprising:

a camera including a shutter indicator and a camera sensor, the camera to take a plurality of images;

an accelerometer to detect motion of the system and to generate accelerometer data based on the detected motion; and

a stabilization logic to utilize the accelerometer data to select an image having a best image quality from the plurality of images when a user provides an indication, the stabilization logic comprising;

a stability detection logic to determine a level of stability for each of the plurality of images based on the accelerometer data;

a buffering logic to buffer the plurality of images and to buffer the accelerometer data, wherein each of the plurality of images is associated with an image quality value, the image quality value being a function of the level of stability of the camera and a time from the indication; and

a selection logic to discard each of the plurality of images that fail to satisfy one or more image quality criteria, and to select the image having the best image quality from a remainder of the plurality of images, using one of a first image selection function that weights the time from the indication more heavily and a second image selection function that weights the level of stability more heavily.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the image quality value for at least two of the plurality of images satisfy an image stability criteria.

19. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

the selection logic to determine whether the camera is in a still image mode or an action image mode, to use the first image selection function when the camera is in the action image mode and to use the second image selection function when the camera is in the still image mode.

20. The system of claim 8, wherein the image quality criteria include a first image quality criterion and a second image quality criterion, wherein an image fails to satisfy the first image quality criterion when the image has accelerometer data that indicates a level of motion above a motion threshold, and wherein the image fails to satisfy the second image quality criterion when the image does not have any in-focus portions.

9. A stabilization logic, to be used with a camera, comprising:

a stability detection logic to detect whether the camera is tending toward stability and whether the camera is stable, wherein the camera is tending toward stability if an acceleration of the camera is getting smaller and a rate of change of the acceleration is getting smaller, and wherein the camera is stable when the acceleration is approximately zero and the rate of change of acceleration is approximately zero;

an image acquisition system to enable the camera to acquire a plurality of images and a plurality of motion sensor readings when the stability detection logic detects that the camera is stable, wherein each of the plurality of images is associated with one or more of the plurality of motion sensor readings; and

a selection logic to discard each of the plurality of images associated with motion sensor readings that indicate a level of motion above a motion threshold, to further discard each of the plurality of images that do not have any in-focus portions, and to enable selection of one of a remainder of the plurality of images acquired, the selection logic selecting based on a quality of the image, wherein the quality of the image is based, at least in part, on the one or more motion sensor readings associated with the image.

10. The stabilization logic of claim 9, wherein the image acquisition system acquires an image after the shutter release signal is received from the user.

11. The stabilization logic of claim 9, wherein the quality of the image is a function of a stability of the image and proximity to a shutter release indicator.

12. The stabilization logic of claim 11, wherein the quality of the image increases with increased stability and increases with decreased distance from a time at which the shutter release indicator is received.

14. The stabilization logic of claim 9, further comprising:

the image acquisition system to buffer the plurality of images in a buffer, wherein at least one of the plurality of images is buffered prior to a shutter release signal and at least one of the plurality of images is buffered after the shutter release signal.

15. The stabilization logic of claim 14, wherein the stability detection logic to detect a user stabilizing the camera for taking an image, the stability detection logic to trigger the image acquisition system to begin buffering the plurality of images prior to the shutter release signal.

16. The stabilization logic of claim 11, wherein the image quality value increases with increased stability and increases with decreased time from the shutter release indication.