Digital cameras with triangulation autofocus systems and related methods
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of auto-focusing a digital camera in still image and/or video recording mode, comprising:
- projecting a plurality of discrete light spots toward a target subject using the digital camera;
capturing a first viewfinder image of the target subject with the projected light spots in response to the projecting step;
programmatically calculating a triangulation measure of distance for each of a plurality of the projected light spots in the first viewfinder image; and
automatically focusing a digital camera lens associated with the digital camera using a closest one of the calculated triangulation measure of distances.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Digital cameras with triangulation auto focus systems include a spot beam emitter than can be used to project a spot onto a subject that is captured in an image and used to electronically automatically determine a subject to camera distance.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A method of auto-focusing a digital camera in still image and/or video recording mode, comprising:
-
projecting a plurality of discrete light spots toward a target subject using the digital camera; capturing a first viewfinder image of the target subject with the projected light spots in response to the projecting step; programmatically calculating a triangulation measure of distance for each of a plurality of the projected light spots in the first viewfinder image; and automatically focusing a digital camera lens associated with the digital camera using a closest one of the calculated triangulation measure of distances. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method of auto-focusing a digital camera in a cellular telephone in still image and/or video recording mode, comprising:
-
projecting a plurality of spatially discrete light spots toward a target subject using the cellular telephone digital camera in a viewfinder mode; capturing a viewfinder image of the target subject having light spots in response to the projecting step; programmatically determining spot positions in the image; calculating a triangulation measure of distance for each of at least a plurality of the light spots in the image; selecting a focus distance for the camera based on a closest calculated spot distance; and automatically focusing a digital camera lens in the cellular telephone digital camera using the selected focus distance to obtain a second image. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method of auto-focusing a digital camera having a lens in a cellular telephone in still image and/or video recording mode, comprising:
-
(a) projecting a plurality of spatially discrete light spots toward a target subject using the cellular telephone digital camera; (b) capturing a first image of the target subject having the light spots in response to the projecting step; (c) electronically calculating a triangulation measure of distance for each of a plurality of the light spots in the captured first image; and (d) programmatically focusing the camera using a focus distance of the target subject based on the triangulation measure of distance having a lowest distance value. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
-
Specification