Automatic exposure control based on multiple regions

• US 8,836,851 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2011
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Brunner, Ralph
• Primary Examiner(s): GILES, NICHOLAS G
• Application Number:
  US13/151,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20120307107A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• Field of Search: 348/77, 348/207.99, 348/362, 348/363, 348/364, 348/365, 348/366
• US Class Current: 348/364
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer readable media for performing auto-exposure operations in a digital image capture device. An image capture device'"'"'s auto-exposure settings may be automatically adjusted by generating and then combining, in a dynamically weighted fashion, two sets of exposure values. One set of exposure values may be based on detected faces while the other set may be based on the image as a whole. Each set of exposure values may include a “measured” value and a “target” value, wherein each of these values may, in turn, be based on one or more (different) aspects of the image. Illustrative digital image capture devices in which the disclosed technology may be used include, but are not limited, to portable digital cameras, mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, mobile music and video devices, and portable computer platforms such as notebook and tablet computers.

Claims

1. A non-transitory program storage device comprising instructions stored thereon to cause one or more processors to:

capture a first digital image of a scene using a first exposure value;

obtain image statistics for the first digital image;

determine a measured exposure value of an identified face in the digital image based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine a measured exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine a target exposure value of the identified face based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine a target exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine an overall measured exposure value based, at least in part, on the measured exposure value of the scene and the measured exposure value of the identified face;

determine an overall target exposure value based, at least in part, on the target exposure value of the scene and the target exposure value of the identified face; and

adjust the first exposure value to create a second exposure value based, at least in part, on the overall measured exposure value and the overall target exposure value.

2. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to capture a first digital image comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to capture a first digital image prior to receiving a user-initiated capture command signal.

3. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to obtain image statistics comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to obtain face information identifying one or more areas in the first digital image in which a face has been detected.

4. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 3, wherein the instructions to obtain image statistics further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to obtain a plurality of luminance values, wherein each luminance value corresponds to a region of the first digital image and is indicative of a luminance for that region, the plurality of luminance values collectively forming a first luminance matrix.

5. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 4, wherein the instructions to determine a measured exposure value of an identified face comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to determine a measured exposure value of an identified face based, at least in part, on the face information and the first luminance matrix.

6. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 4, wherein the instructions to determine a measured exposure value of the scene comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to determine a measured exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the luminance matrix.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine a target exposure value of an identified face comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to obtain a constant value.

8. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine a target exposure of the scene comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

obtain a histogram of the first digital image;

identify the first digital image as low-key; and

determine a target exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the histogram and a predetermined exposure value.

9. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine a target exposure value of the scene comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

obtain a histogram of the first digital image;

identify the first digital image as high-key;

determine the number of blown-out pixels in the first digital image based, at least in part, on the histogram; and

determine a target exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the number of blown-out pixels in the first digital image and a predetermined exposure value.

10. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine an overall measured exposure value comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to generate a weighted sum of the measured exposure value of the identified face and the measured exposure value of the scene.

11. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 10, wherein the overall measured exposure value is further based, at least in part, on an area of the identified face with respect to an area of the first digital image.

12. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine an overall target exposure value comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to generate a weighted sum of the target exposure value of the identified face and the target exposure value of the scene.

13. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to adjust the first exposure value to create the second exposure value comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to adjust the first exposure value so that a subsequent digital image'"'"'s exposure value is closer to the overall target exposure value than the first digital image'"'"'s exposure value.

14. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to adjust the first exposure value comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

determine a difference value between the overall measured exposure value and the overall target exposure value; and

adjust the first exposure value so that a subsequent digital image'"'"'s exposure value is closer to the overall target exposure value than the first digital image'"'"'s exposure value when the determined difference is greater than a threshold value.

15. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 14, wherein the threshold value is approximately 1/8^th stop.

16. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, further comprising instructions to cause the one or more processors to:

capture a second digital image of the scene using the second exposure value; and

store the second digital image in a memory.

17. A digital image capture method, comprising:

capturing a first digital image of a scene using a first exposure value;

obtaining image statistics for the first digital image;

determining a measured exposure value of an identified face in the digital image based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determining a measured exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determining a target exposure value of the identified face based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determining a target exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determining an overall measured exposure value based, at least in part, on the measured exposure value of the scene and the measured exposure value of the identified face;

determining an overall target exposure value based, at least in part, on the target exposure value of the scene and the target exposure value of the identified face; and

adjusting the first exposure value to create a second exposure value based, at least in part, on the overall measured exposure value and the overall target exposure value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the act of obtaining image statistics comprises:

obtaining face information identifying one or more areas in the first digital image in which a face has been detected; and

obtaining a plurality of luminance values, wherein each luminance value corresponds to a region of the first digital image and is indicative of a luminance for that region, the plurality of luminance values collectively forming a first luminance matrix.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the act of determining a measured exposure value of an identified face comprises determining the measured exposure value of the identified face based, at least in part, on the face information and the first luminance matrix.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the act of determining a target exposure of the scene comprises:

obtaining a histogram of the first digital image;

identifying the first digital image as low-key; and

determining a target exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the histogram and a predetermined exposure value.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the act of determining a target exposure value of the scene comprises:

obtaining a histogram of the first digital image;

identifying the first digital image as high-key;

determining the number of blown-out pixels in the first digital image based, at least in part, on the histogram; and

determining a target exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the number of blown-out pixels in the first digital image and a predetermined exposure value.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the act of adjusting the first exposure comprises:

determining a difference value between the overall measured exposure value and the overall target exposure value; and

adjusting the first exposure value so that a subsequent digital image'"'"'s exposure value is closer to the overall target exposure value than the first digital image'"'"'s exposure value when the determined difference is greater than a threshold value.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

capturing a second digital image of the scene using the second exposure value; and

storing the second digital image in a memory.

24. A digital image capture device, comprising:

a lens system;

an image sensor operatively coupled to the lens system;

one or more processors coupled to the lens system and the image sensor; and

memory coupled to the image sensor and the one or more processors, the memory configured to store instructions to cause the one or more processors to

capture, using the image sensor and the lens system, a first digital image of a scene using a first exposure value;

obtain image statistics for the first digital image;

determine a measured exposure value of an identified face in the digital image based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine a measured exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine a target exposure value of the identified face based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine a target exposure value of the scene based, at least in part, on the image statistics;

determine an overall measured exposure value based, at least in part, on the measured exposure value of the scene and the measured exposure value of the identified face;

determine an overall target exposure value based, at least in part, on the target exposure value of the scene and the target exposure value of the identified face;

adjust the first exposure value to create a second exposure value based, at least in part, on the overall measured exposure value and the overall target exposure value;

capture a second digital image using the second exposure value; and

store the second digital image in the memory.