Dynamic optimization of light source power

• US 9,736,373 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2013
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Horesh, Nizan
• Primary Examiner(s): Perungavoor, Sath V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duley, Janese
• Application Number:
  US14/129,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20160227113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,390 Days
• Field of Search: 315152
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/03 Combinations of cameras with lighting apparatus; Flash units
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30041 Eye; Retina; Ophthalmic
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/141 Control of illumination
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/61 based on recognised objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/65 Control of camera operation in relation to power supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means

Abstract

Technologies for power optimization of light sources include an imaging device to generate a captured image of a subject. The imaging device analyzes the captured image to determine, in the captured image, a location of the subject'"'"'s eye relative to the imaging device, an iris-pupil contrast of the subject'"'"'s eye, and a glint intensity of glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye. The imaging device determines, for each of a plurality of light sources, an illumination efficiency based on a distance between the camera and the subject'"'"'s eye, a distance between the light source and the subject'"'"'s eye, an incidence angle of the light source relative to the subject'"'"'s eye, and a power profile of the light source. The imaging device determines an amount of power to supply to each light source to reduce a total cumulative power supplied to the light sources based on one or more power constraints.

Claims

1. An imaging device for power optimization of light sources of the imaging device, the imaging device comprising:

a camera to generate a captured image of a subject;

a processor; and

a memory having stored therein a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

analyze the captured image to (i) determine a location of an eye of the subject in the captured image relative to the imaging device, (ii) determine an iris-pupil contrast between the iris and the pupil of the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image, and (iii) determine a glint intensity of one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image;

determine, for each light source of a plurality of light sources of the imaging device, an illumination efficiency based on (i) a distance between the camera and the subject'"'"'s eye, (ii) a distance between the corresponding light source and the subject'"'"'s eye, (iii) an incidence angle of the corresponding light source relative to the subject'"'"'s eye, and (iv) a power profile of the corresponding light source; and

determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain the iris-pupil contrast at a contrast value not less than the predefined contrast value comprises to maintain an inequality,

2. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the location of the subject'"'"'s eye relative to the imaging device comprises to determine a three-dimensional location of the subject'"'"'s eye relative to the imaging device based on the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye.

3. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the iris-pupil contrast comprises to compare an intensity of an iris region of the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image to a pupil region of the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image.

4. The imaging device of claim 3, wherein the iris-pupil contrast is a difference between (i) an average intensity of pixels of the captured image corresponding to the iris region and (ii) an average intensity of pixels of the captured image corresponding to the pupil region.

5. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the glint intensity comprises to (i) identify a glint region corresponding with a glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye and (ii) determine a maximum intensity of pixels of the captured image corresponding to the glint region,

wherein the glint intensity is the maximum intensity of the glint region.

6. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the illumination efficiency comprises to determine the distance between the camera and the subject'"'"'s eye and the distance between the corresponding light source and the subject'"'"'s eye based on the determined location of the subject'"'"'s eye relative to the imaging device.

7. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the illumination efficiency comprises to determine the illumination efficiency based on the expression,

8. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the amount of power to supply to each light source further comprises to determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain the power supplied to each light source inclusively between zero and a maximum operating power of the corresponding light source.

9. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the amount of power to supply to each light source further comprises to determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain, for each glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye, a glint-eye contrast of the corresponding glint from a corresponding light source at a contrast value not less than a predefined ratio of the intensity of the corresponding light source and a sum of intensity of the other light sources of the plurality of light sources.

10. The imaging device of claim 9, wherein to maintain the glint-eye contrast of the corresponding glint from the corresponding light source at a contrast value not less than the predefined ratio of the sum of intensity of the other light sources comprises to maintain an inequality,

11. The imaging device of claim 1, wherein to determine the amount of power to supply to each light source further comprises to determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain, for each glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye, a non-saturated glint intensity.

12. The imaging device of claim 11, wherein to maintain the non-saturated glint intensity comprises to maintain an inequality, T_i·

E_i·

P_i≦

PRI,

wherein i is an index of the corresponding light source, T_i is an activation time of the corresponding light source, E_i is the illumination efficiency of the corresponding light source, P_i is the power supplied to the corresponding light source, and PRI is a maximum non-saturated pixel intensity.

13. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a computing device to:

generate a captured image of a subject;

analyze the captured image to (i) determine a location of an eye of the subject in the captured image relative to the computing device, (ii) determine an iris-pupil contrast between the iris and the pupil of the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image, and (iii) determine a glint intensity of one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image;

determine, for each light source of a plurality of light sources of the computing device, an illumination efficiency based on (i) a distance between the camera and the subject'"'"'s eye, (ii) a distance between the corresponding light source and the subject'"'"'s eye, (iii) an incidence angle of the corresponding light source relative to the subject'"'"'s eye, and (iv) a power profile of the corresponding light source; and

determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain the iris-pupil contrast at a contrast value not less than a predefined contrast value by maintaining an inequality,

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein to determine the location of the subject'"'"'s eye relative to the computing device comprises to determine the three-dimensional location of the subject'"'"'s eye relative to the computing device based on the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye.

15. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein to determine the iris-pupil contrast comprises to determine the difference between (i) an average intensity of pixels of the captured image corresponding to an iris region of the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image and (ii) an average intensity of pixels of the captured image corresponding to a pupil region of the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image.

16. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein to determine the glint intensity comprises to (i) identify a glint region corresponding with a glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye and (ii) determine the maximum intensity of pixels of the captured image corresponding to the glint region.

17. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein to determine the illumination efficiency comprises to determine the illumination efficiency based on the expression,

18. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein to determine the amount of power to supply to each light source further comprises to determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain, for each glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye, a glint-eye contrast of the corresponding glint from a corresponding light source at a contrast value not less than a predefined ratio of a sum of intensity of the other light sources by maintaining an inequality,

19. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein to determine the amount of power to supply to each light source further comprises to determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain, for each glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye, a non-saturated glint intensity by maintaining an inequality, T_i·

E_i·

P_i≦

PRI,

wherein i is an index of the corresponding light source, T_i is an activation time of the corresponding light source, E_i is the illumination efficiency of the corresponding light source, P_i is the power supplied to the corresponding light source, and PRI is a maximum non-saturated pixel intensity.

20. A method for power optimization of light sources of an imaging device, the method comprising:

generating a captured image of a subject;

analyzing, by the imaging device, the captured image to (i) determine a location of an eye of the subject in the captured image relative to the imaging device, (ii) determine an iris-pupil contrast between the iris and the pupil of the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image, and (iii) determine a glint intensity of one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye in the captured image;

determining, by the imaging device and for each light source of a plurality of light sources of the imaging device, an illumination efficiency based on (i) a distance between the camera and the subject'"'"'s eye, (ii) a distance between the corresponding light source and the subject'"'"'s eye, (iii) an incidence angle of the corresponding light source relative to the subject'"'"'s eye, and (iv) a power profile of the corresponding light source; and

determining, by the imaging device, an amount of power to supply to each light source to maintain the iris-pupil contrast at a contrast value not less than a predefined contrast value by maintaining an inequality,

21. The method of claim 20, wherein to determine the amount of power to supply to each light source further comprises to determine an amount of power to supply to each light source to:

maintain the power supplied to each light source inclusively between zero and a maximum operating power of the corresponding light source;

maintain the iris-pupil contrast at a contrast value not less than a predefined contrast value;

maintain, for each glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye, a glint-eye contrast of the corresponding glint from a corresponding light source at a contrast value not less than a predefined ratio of a sum of intensity of the other light sources; and

maintain, for each glint of the one or more glints present on the subject'"'"'s eye, a non-saturated glint intensity.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising supplying, for each light source, the determined amount of power to the corresponding light source.