Apparatus and method for combining images

• US 8,989,487 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2009
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kwon, Jae-hyun, Lee, Seong-deok, Choe, Won-hee
• Primary Examiner(s): TSAI, TSUNG YIN
• Application Number:
  US12/467,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20090285476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,136 Days
• Field of Search: 382/284
• US Class Current: 382/167
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/486 with separate detectors, each detector being used for one specific colour component
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/11 for generating image signals from visible and infrared light wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/843 Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/951 by using two or more images to influence resolution, frame rate or aspect ratio
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/133 including elements passing panchromatic light, e.g. filters passing white light
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/135 based on four or more different wavelength filter elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/67 for matrixing camera processing pipelines for matrixing of colour signals H04N23/85
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/76 for mixing of colour signals H04N9/75 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/78 for separating the brightness signal or the chrominance signal from the colour television signal, e.g. using comb filter

Abstract

Provided are an image composition apparatus for composing color images with black-and-white images including infrared components, and an image composition method thereof. The image composition method includes generating a first image signal with color information and a second image signal including infrared components without color information, dividing the first image signal into a brightness signal and a color signal, composing the brightness signal of the first image signal with a brightness signal of the second image signal to generate a composed brightness signal, and composing the composed brightness signal with the color signal of the first image signal to generate a color image.

Claims

1. An image composition apparatus comprising:

an image acquiring unit configured to acquire incident light and generate a first image signal with color information and a second image signal comprising a wider band than the first image signal and including infrared components and black-and-white components where the black-and-white components are generated based on a combination of color signals from the color information of the first image signal;

an image signal divider configured to divide the first image signal into a color signal and a brightness signal that does not include color;

a dynamic bandwidth adjusting unit to equalize dynamic bandwidths of the first image signal and the second image signal;

a brightness composer configured to combine the divided brightness signal that does not include color of the first image signal with a brightness signal of the second image signal comprising the wider band and including the black-and-white components and the infrared components, based on a brightness combination rule, to generate a combined brightness signal; and

an image restoring unit configured to compose the combined brightness signal with the color signal of the first image signal to generate a color image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first image signal includes a signal corresponding to a specific region of a visible band of an optical spectrum, and the second image signal includes a signal corresponding to an infrared band of the optical spectrum and a combination of signals corresponding to specific regions of the visible band which generate the black-and-white color information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a resolution adjusting unit to equalize resolutions of the first image signal and the second image signal.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a domain transformer to transform spatial domains of the first image signal and the second image signal into frequency domains.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the brightness composer generates the combined brightness signal by adding a coefficient of the brightness signal of the first image signal and a coefficient of the brightness signal of the second image signal using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT).

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the brightness composer is configured to combine the brightness signal of the first image signal with the brightness signal of the second image signal based on a conversion function representing a relationship between brightness information of the first image signal and brightness information of the second image signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the brightness composer is configured to combine the brightness signal of the first image signal with the brightness signal of the second image signal based on a lookup table.

8. An image composition method in an image composition apparatus, the method comprising:

generating, by an image sensor, a first image signal with color information and a second image signal comprising a wider band than the first image signal and including infrared components and black-and-white components where the black-and-white components are generated based on a combination of color signals from the color information of the first image signal;

dividing the first image signal into a color signal and a brightness signal that does not include color;

equalizing dynamic bandwidths of the first image signal and the second image signal;

combining the divided brightness signal that does not include color of the first image signal with a brightness signal of the second image signal comprising the wider band and including the black-and-white components and the infrared components without color information, based on a brightness combination rule, to generate a combined brightness signal; and

composing the combined brightness signal with the color signal of the first image signal to generate a color image.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first image signal includes a signal corresponding to a specific region of a visible band of an optical spectrum, and the second image signal includes a combination of signals corresponding to specific regions of the visible band which generate the black-and-white color information, and a signal corresponding to an infrared band of the optical spectrum.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising matching a resolution of the first image signal with a resolution of the second image signal.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the matching of the resolution comprises interpolating an image signal with the lower resolution among the first and second image signals with respect to an image signal with the higher resolution among the first and second image signals.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the combining comprises combining the brightness signal of the first image signal with the brightness signal of the second image signal by adding a coefficient of the brightness signal of the color image signal and a coefficient of the brightness signal of the infrared image signal using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT).