Camera configuration in a camera system accelerator architecture

• US 9,628,704 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2016
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
• Original Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
• Inventors: Campbell, Scott Patrick, Mobbs, Paul, Adsumilli, Balineedu Chowdary, Chawla, Sumit
• Primary Examiner(s): LAM, HUNG H
• Application Number:
  US15/049,010
• Publication Number:
  US 20160173764A1
• Time in Patent Office: 423 Days
• Field of Search: 3482181, 3482221, 348294, 34833302
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4015 Image demosaicing, e.g. colour filter arrays [CFA] or Bayer patterns
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6019 using look-up tables H04N1/6025 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6027 Correction or control of colour gradation or colour contrast H04N1/6058 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/12 Selection from among a plurality of transforms or standards, e.g. selection between discrete cosine transform [DCT] and sub-band transform or selection between H.263 and H.264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/156 Availability of hardware or computational resources, e.g. encoding based on power-saving criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/186 the unit being a colour or a chrominance component
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/1883 the unit relating to sub-band structure, e.g. hierarchical level, directional tree, e.g. low-high [LH], high-low [HL], high-high [HH]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/33 in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/423 characterised by memory arrangements H04N19/433 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/517 by encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/63 using sub-band based transform, e.g. wavelets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/91 Entropy coding, e.g. variable length coding [VLC] or arithmetic coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/13 with multiple sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 : Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 : Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 : Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 : Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/6811 : based on the image signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/683 : performed by a processor, e.g. controlling the readout of an image memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 : Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/73 : by influencing the exposure time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 : Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/843 : Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/88 : for colour balance, e.g. white-balance circuits or colour temperature control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/90 : Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/75 : Circuitry for providing, modifying or processing image signals from the pixel array
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/76 : Addressed sensors, e.g. MOS or CMOS sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction

Abstract

An image capture accelerator performs accelerated processing of image data. In one embodiment, the image capture accelerator includes accelerator circuitry including a pre-processing engine and a compression engine. The pre-processing engine is configured to perform accelerated processing on received image data, and the compression engine is configured to compress processed image data received from the pre-processing engine. In one embodiment, the image capture accelerator further includes a demultiplexer configured to receive image data captured by an image sensor array implemented within, for example, an image sensor chip. The demultiplexer may output the received image data to an image signal processor when the image data is captured by the image sensor array in a standard capture mode, and may output the received image data to the accelerator circuitry when the image data is captured by the image sensor array in an accelerated capture mode.

Claims

1. A camera system, comprising:

an image sensor chip configured to produce image data representative of light incident upon the image sensor chip during a capture interval;

an image capture accelerator chip (“

ICA”

) comprising;

an input configured to receive the image data from the image sensor;

a compression engine configured to decimate the received image data into a plurality of image sub-band components; and

one or more outputs configured to output the received image data and an image sub-band component; and

an image signal processor chip (“

ISP”

) with a first input and a second input, the ICA coupled between the image sensor chip and the ISP and configured to;

receive the processed image data at the first input;

receive the image sub-band component at the second input;

process the received sub-band component; and

reconfigure the camera system based on the processing of the received sub-band component.

2. The camera system of claim 1, wherein the outputted image sub-band component is a low/low sub-band component, wherein the received image data comprises an image at a first resolution, and wherein the low/low sub-band component comprises the image at a second resolution lower than the first resolution.

3. The camera system of claim 1, wherein the outputted image sub-band component is one of a low/high sub-band component, a high/low sub-band component, and a high/high sub-band component.

4. The camera system of claim 1, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises analyzing exposure properties of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting an auto-exposure setting of the image sensor chip based on the analysis.

5. The camera system of claim 1, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises analyzing white level properties of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting an auto-white balance setting of the ICA based on the analysis.

6. The camera system of claim 1, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises analyzing focus levels of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting an auto-focus setting of a lens of the camera system based on the analysis.

7. The camera system of claim 1, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises estimating a sharpness of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting a sharpness setting of the camera system based on the estimated sharpness.

8. The camera system of claim 1, wherein the ISP is configured to receive a second sub-band component representative of second image data, and wherein reconfiguring the camera system is based additionally on a processing of the received second sub-band component.

9. The camera system of claim 8, wherein sub-band component is a low/low sub-band component, and wherein the second sub-band component is a high/high sub-band component.

10. A method for reconfiguring a camera system, comprising:

capturing, by an image sensor chip of the camera system, light incident upon the image sensor chip to produce image data representative of the captured light;

receiving, by an image capture accelerator chip (“

ICA”

) of the camera system, the image data from the image sensor chip;

outputting, by the ICA, the image data to a first input of an image signal processor chip (“

ISP”

) of the camera system;

decimating, by the ICA, the receive image data into a plurality of image sub-band components;

outputting, by the ICA, an image sub-band component to a second input of the ISP;

processing, by the ISP, the sub-band component; and

reconfiguring the camera system based on the processing of the received sub-band component.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the outputted image sub-band component is a low/low sub-band component, wherein the received image data comprises an image at a first resolution, and wherein the low/low sub-band component comprises the image at a second resolution lower than the first resolution.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the outputted image sub-band component is one of a low/high sub-band component, a high/low sub-band component, and a high/high sub-band component.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises analyzing exposure properties of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting an auto-exposure setting of the image sensor chip based on the analysis.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises analyzing white level properties of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting an auto-white balance setting of the ICA based on the analysis.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises analyzing focus levels of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting an auto-focus setting of a lens of the camera system based on the analysis.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein processing the received sub-band component comprises estimating a sharpness of the sub-band component and wherein reconfiguring the camera system comprises adjusting a sharpness setting of the camera system based on the estimated sharpness.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the ISP is configured to receive a second sub-band component representative of second image data, and wherein reconfiguring the camera system is based additionally on a processing of the received second sub-band component.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein sub-band component is a low/low sub-band component, and wherein the second sub-band component is a high/high sub-band component.

19. A camera system comprising an image sensor chip, an image capture accelerator chip (“

ICA”

), and an image signal processor chip (“

ISP”

), the camera system configured to;

produce image data representative of light incident upon the image sensor chip during a capture interval;

provide the image data to the ISP for processing;

decimate, by the ICA, the image data into a plurality of image sub-band components;

process one or more of the sub-band components comprising a low/low sub-band component representative of the image data at a lower resolution than the image data; and

reconfigure one or more camera system settings based on the processing of the one or more sub-band components, the reconfiguring comprising adjusting at least one selected from an auto-exposure setting of the image sensor chip, an auto-white balance setting of the ICA, an auto-focus setting of a lens of the camera system, and a sharpness setting of the camera system.