Exposure mapping and dynamic thresholding for blending of multiple images using floating exposure
First Claim
1. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a programmable control device and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the programmable control device to:
- obtain a first image of a scene from a camera at a first time using a first exposure value;
obtain a second image of the scene from the camera at a second, later time using a second exposure value, wherein the first and second images share an overlapping region, the overlapping region comprising a plurality of pixels from the first image and a corresponding plurality of pixels from the second image, each pixel having a pixel value comprising one or more of a luminance value and a chrominance value;
determine an exposure ratio value based on the first exposure value and the second exposure value;
determine an updated pixel value for one or more of the plurality of pixels in the second image based, at least in part, on the determined exposure ratio value;
update the pixel values of the one or more pixels from the plurality of pixels in the second image to be equal to the corresponding determined updated pixel values; and
combine at least some of the pixels having the updated pixel values from the second image with corresponding pixels from the first image to generate a wide area-of-view image.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Special blend operations for wide area-of-view image generation utilizing a “floating auto exposure” scheme are described. Pixel values in the two images being stitched together are blended within a transition band around a “seam.” identified in the overlap region between the images after changes in exposure and/or color saturation are accounted for. In some embodiments, changes in exposure and/or color saturation are accounted for through the use of one or more exposure mapping curves, the selection and use of which are based, at least in part, on a determined “Exposure Ratio” value, i.e., the amount that the camera'"'"'s exposure settings have deviated from their initial capture settings. In other embodiments, the Exposure Ratio value is also used to determine regions along the seam where either: alpha blending, Poisson blending—or a combination of the two—should be used to blend in the transitional areas on each side of the seam.
100 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a programmable control device and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the programmable control device to:
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obtain a first image of a scene from a camera at a first time using a first exposure value; obtain a second image of the scene from the camera at a second, later time using a second exposure value, wherein the first and second images share an overlapping region, the overlapping region comprising a plurality of pixels from the first image and a corresponding plurality of pixels from the second image, each pixel having a pixel value comprising one or more of a luminance value and a chrominance value; determine an exposure ratio value based on the first exposure value and the second exposure value; determine an updated pixel value for one or more of the plurality of pixels in the second image based, at least in part, on the determined exposure ratio value; update the pixel values of the one or more pixels from the plurality of pixels in the second image to be equal to the corresponding determined updated pixel values; and combine at least some of the pixels having the updated pixel values from the second image with corresponding pixels from the first image to generate a wide area-of-view image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method, comprising:
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obtaining a first image of a scene from a camera at a first time using a first exposure value; obtaining a second image of the scene from the camera at a second, later time using a second exposure value, wherein the first and second images share an overlapping region, the overlapping region comprising a plurality of pixels from the first image and a corresponding plurality of pixels from the second image, each pixel having a pixel value comprising one or more of a luminance value and a chrominance value; determining an exposure ratio value based on the first exposure value and the second exposure value; determining an updated pixel value for one or more of the plurality of pixels in the second image based, at least in part, on the determined exposure ratio value; updating the pixel values of the one or more pixels from the plurality of pixels in the second image to be equal to the corresponding determined updated pixel values; and combining at least some of the pixels having the updated pixel values of the second image with corresponding pixels from the first image to generate a wide area-of-view image. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A system, comprising:
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an image capture device; a memory operatively coupled to the image capture device and having, stored therein, computer program code; a display element operatively coupled to the memory; and a programmable control device operatively coupled to the memory and the display element and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the programmable control device to; obtain a first image of a scene from the image capture device at a first time using a first exposure value; obtain a second image of the scene from the image capture device at a second, later time using a second exposure value, wherein the first and second images share an overlapping region, the overlapping region comprising a plurality of pixels from the first image and a corresponding plurality of pixels from the second, each pixel having a pixel value comprising one or more of a luminance value and a chrominance value; determine an exposure ratio value based on the first exposure value and the second exposure value; determine an updated pixel value for one or more of the plurality of pixels in the second image based, at least in part, on the determined exposure ratio value; update the pixel values of the one or more pixels from the plurality of pixels in the second image to be equal to the corresponding determined updated pixel values; combine at least some of the pixels having the updated pixel values from the second image with corresponding pixels from the first image to generate a wide area-of-view image; and store the wide area-of-view image in the memory. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification