Color calibration chart acquisition

• US 8,872,923 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2013
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gottwals, Melanie M., Chatow, Ehud, Moroney, Nathan
• Primary Examiner(s): YENKE, BRIAN P
• Application Number:
  US13/772,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20140232879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• Field of Search: 348/222, 348/175, 348/176, 348/177, 348/178, 348/179, 348/180, 348/188, 382/165
• US Class Current: 348/188
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/002 for television cameras

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to color calibration chart acquisition. In an example, a video acquired by an imaging device may be processed. The video may be analyzed to automatically detect a reproduction of a color calibration chart. Upon detection of a reproduction of the color calibration chart, it may be determined whether color calibration chart reproduction quality is within a selected quality threshold. Upon determining that color calibration chart reproduction quality is not within a selected threshold, user feedback may be provided, via the imaging device, to dynamically guide the user to make adjustments in the video acquisition in order to obtain a color calibration chart reproduction within the selected quality threshold.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a imaging device including a camera for acquiring a video and a display to display the video, the video of a physical color calibration chart physically located near a physical object within a scene, the color calibration chart adapted to permit identification of a color of interest of the object so long as the color calibration chart is within a selected quality threshold in the video;

processing in real-time frames of the video;

upon frames of the video including the color calibration chart, displaying user feedback to dynamically guide the user to make adjustments in the video acquisition so as to capture the color calibration chart within a selected quality threshold; and

upon capturing the color calibration chart within the selected quality threshold, signaling that the color calibration chart has been sufficiently captured so that the identification of the color of interest of the object within the video is able to be determined,

wherein if the color calibration chart is failed to be captured within the selected quality threshold, the identification of the color of interest of the object within the video is unable to be determined.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically guiding the user to make adjustments in the video acquisition includes signaling the user to adjust the relative position between the color chart and the imaging device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically guiding the user to make adjustments in the video acquisition includes displaying in the display an overlay frame into which a video image of the color calibration chart is to be placed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically guiding the user to make adjustments in the video acquisition includes signaling the user to avoid casting a shadow on the color calibration chart.

5. A computer software product comprising a non-transitory tangible medium readable by a processor, the medium having stored thereon a set of instructions for obtain a reproduction of a color calibration chart, comprising:

a set of instructions which, when loaded into a memory and executed by the processor, causes processing a video acquired by an imaging device, the video of a physical color calibration chart physically located near a physical object within a scene, the color calibration chart adapted to permit identification of a color of interest of the object so long as the color calibration chart is within a selected quality threshold in the video;

a set of instructions which, when loaded into a memory and executed by the processor, causes analyzing the video to automatically detect the color calibration chart within one or more first frames of the video;

a set of instructions which, when loaded into a memory and executed by the processor, causes, upon detection of the color calibration chart, determining whether color calibration chart reproduction quality is within the selected quality threshold so that the identification of the color of interest of the object within the video is able to be determined; and

a set of instructions which, when loaded into a memory and executed by the processor, causes, upon determining that color calibration chart reproduction quality is not within the selected threshold, providing user feedback, via the imaging device, to dynamically guide the user to make adjustments in the video acquisition in order to obtain the color calibration within the selected quality threshold,

wherein if the color calibration chart is failed to be captured within the selected quality threshold, the identification of the color of interest of the object within the video is unable to be determined.

6. The product of claim 5, wherein determining quality includes determining spatial positioning of the color chart reproduction.

7. The product of claim 6, wherein determining spatial positioning includes determining spatial positioning of the color chart reproduction relative to an overlay frame displayed in the display.

8. The product of claim 5, wherein determining whether color calibration chart reproduction quality is within a selected quality threshold includes

determining illumination of the detected color calibration chart, and

determining whether the illumination is appropriate for performing color profiling based on the color chart reproduction.

9. The product of claim 8, wherein determining whether color calibration chart reproduction quality is within a selected threshold includes determining whether the difference in illumination across the chart is within a selected threshold.

10. The product of claim 5, further comprising performing a color chart capture based on a selected number of detected color calibration reproductions for which reproduction quality is within the selected quality threshold.

11. The product of claim 10, a set of instructions which, when loaded into a memory and executed by the processor, the color chart capture is an average over the selected number of detected color chart calibration reproductions.

12. The product of claim 10, a set of instructions which, when loaded into a memory and executed by the processor, the color chart capture corresponds to the color chart calibration reproduction with the highest reproduction quality.

13. An imaging device, comprising:

a camera;

a display;

a video acquisition engine to acquire a video via the camera of a physical color calibration chart physically located near a physical object within a scene, the color calibration chart adapted to permit identification of a color of interest of the object so long as the color calibration chart is within a selected quality threshold in the video;

a video rendering engine to display a video stream based on the video acquired via the camera; and

a chart capture engine to automatically capture the color calibration chart from the video acquired via the display, the chart capture engine continuously processing the video to;

automatically detect the color calibration chart in a first frame of the video;

upon detecting the color calibration chart, determining whether the color calibration chart is within the selected quality threshold so that the identification of the color of interest of the object within the video is able to be determined; and

upon determining that the color calibration chart reproduction is outside the selected quality threshold, guide a user to make adjustments in the video acquisition engine, detect the color calibration chart in a second frame of the video acquired after the user has made the adjustments, and determine whether the color calibration chart reproduction is now within the selected quality threshold,

wherein if the color calibration chart is failed to be captured within the selected quality threshold, the identification of the color of interest of the object within the video is unable to be determined.

14. The device of claim 13, further comprising a guiding engine to provide user feedback on quality of detected color calibration chart reproductions.

15. The device of claim 13 implemented at a mobile computing device.