Hand-shake correction method and apparatus of camera module for use in mobile device

• US 8,009,971 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2007
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seoul National University Industry Foundation (Seoul National University)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seoul National University Industry Foundation (Seoul National University)
• Inventors: Koo, Jun-Mo, Song, Dong-Sung, Kim, Pyo-Jae, Chang, Hyung-Jin, Choi, Jin-Young, Jang, Dong-Hoon, Kang, Byung-Kwon
• Primary Examiner(s): Perkey; W. B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan; Minh Q
• Application Number:
  US11/958,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20080152332A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,351 Days
• Field of Search: 396 52- 55, 348/208.99, 700/28, 700 41- 43
• US Class Current: 396/55
• 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 23/687 by shifting the lens or sensor position

Abstract

A hand-shake correction apparatus and method for a camera module for typical use in a mobile device. A camera unit includes an angular velocity sensor for sensing an angular velocity of a hand-shake motion of a camera, a position detection sensor for detecting a current position of an image sensor, and an actuator for actuating the image sensor. An Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) circuit unit controls the actuator using a multi-rate Proportional Integrate Derivative (PID) control scheme that performs control a plurality of times using a shorter control period compared with existing PID controls for a basic period, in which a reference value is updated according to a control reference value by which the image sensor optimally shifts to correct a hand-shake motion.

Claims

1. A hand-shake correction apparatus of a camera module for use in a mobile device, the apparatus comprising:

a camera unit including an angular velocity sensor for sensing an angular velocity of a hand-shake motion of a camera,

a position detection sensor for detecting a position of an image sensor, and

an actuator for actuating the image sensor; and

an Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) circuit unit for controlling the actuator using a multi-rate Proportional Integrate Derivative (PID) control scheme that performs control for a plurality of times over a basic period in which a reference value is updated according to a control reference value by which the image sensor optimally shifts to correct a hand-shake motion, the control scheme comprising a time-division scheme wherein different functions are performed in each subdivision of the time-division scheme.

2. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 1, wherein the angular velocity sensor is attached to the camera unit for detecting an angular velocity of a motion in two directions in order to compensate for an up/down and left/right hand-shake of the image sensor.

3. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 2, wherein the two directions comprise a yaw axis and a pitch axis.

4. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 2, wherein the angular velocity sensor comprises a gyro sensor.

5. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 4, wherein the position detection sensor comprises a Hall sensor.

6. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 1, wherein the angular velocity sensor comprises a gyro sensor.

7. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 1, wherein the position detection sensor comprises a Hall sensor.

8. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 1, wherein the actuator comprises a Voice Coil Motor (VCM) in shifting the image sensor.

9. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 1, wherein the OIS circuit unit comprises:

a gyro signal analog filter unit including a Low Pass Filter (LPF) for filtering off a high-frequency noise component from a hand-shake motion signal to extract a desired band;

a Hall signal analog filter unit for processing a signal for the position of the image sensor detected by the Hall sensor;

a motor drive unit for controlling a motor of the actuator; and

a microprocessor for calculating a control value by which the image sensor is shifted to compensate for a hand-shake, and for controlling the motor drive unit depending on the control value.

10. The hand-shake correction apparatus of claim 9, wherein the microprocessor comprises:

a gyro signal digital filter unit for filtering off a Direct Current (DC) component from the angular velocity signal of the hand-shake motion using a High Pass Filter (HPF);

a hand-shake calculator for calculating a hand-shake of the camera unit by integrating the angular velocity signal of the hand-shake motion; and

a image sensor position controller for calculating a control value by which the image sensor shifts to compensate for a hand-shake motion, and controlling the motor drive unit depending on the control value.

11. A hand-shake correction method of a camera module for use in a mobile device, the method comprising:

(a) detecting an angular velocity of a hand-shake motion that has occurred in a camera, and detecting a position of an image sensor of the camera;

(b) generating an angular velocity signal and an image sensor signal, respectively, in accordance with step (a)

(c) processing the detected angular velocity signal and image sensor position signal generated in step (b);

(d) calculating a hand-shake by integrating the angular velocity signal; and

(e) controlling the image sensor using a multi-rate Proportional Integrate Derivative (PID) control scheme that performs control for a plurality of times in a time-division scheme over a basic period in which a reference value is updated according to a control reference value by which the image sensor optimally shifts in order to compensate for a hand-shake motion, based on the calculated hand-shake and the processed image sensor position signal,

wherein a different function is performed in each of the plurality of times.

12. The hand-shake correction method of claim 11, wherein the calculation of a hand-shake comprises:

applying a moving average method that calculates an average value of gyro angular velocity signals within a specific sampling period beginning from a current time, and substitutes the calculated average value for a center value of a current gyro signal thereby positioning a center of a hand-shake angular displacement in a zero point.

13. The hand-shake correction method of claim 11, wherein a control scheme for controlling the image sensor in order to compensate for a hand-shake motion includes a pseudo-shake scheme added thereto, which outputs a pseudo-shake signal to an actuator for a predetermined interval of a control signal to continuously actuate the actuator thereby controlling the image sensor within a specific kinetic friction.

14. The hand-shake correction method of claim 13, wherein a the time division scheme, which generates an interrupt at regular intervals using a control signal, and performs a different operation in each of a predetermined number of interrupt intervals using the plurality of interrupts as one interval.

15. The hand-shake correction method of claim 14, wherein the time division scheme outputs a pseudo-shake signal, calculates a gyro signal for a yaw axis, and transmits a resulting signal to a monitoring program in a first interrupt interval out of four predetermined interrupt intervals;

performs multi-rate PID control simultaneously for two directions of the yaw axis and a pitch axis in a second interrupt interval;

outputs a pseudo-shake signal, calculates a gyro signal of the pitch axis, and transmits a resulting signal to the monitoring program in a third interrupt interval; and

performs multi-rate PID control simultaneously for two directions of the yaw axis and the pitch axis in a fourth interrupt interval.

16. The method according to claim 11, wherein in step (e) the optimal shift and an actual shift of the image sensor are substantially equal.