Method for controlling CCD camera

• US 20020006284A1
• Filed: 07/06/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Innotek Company Limited (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Sung Bong
• Granted Patent: US 6,989,867 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 396/429
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/75 by influencing optical camera components

Abstract

A controlling method for a CCD camera in which a photographing area is divided into a number of cell regions, the illumination of each cell regions is detected the photographing mode of a camera is switched to a daytime or nighttime mode on the basis of the detected illumination so that an optimum image is photographed even under conditions where the illumination of a certain position and the total illumination condition in the photographing place changes irregularly.

Claims

1. A controlling method for a CCD camera comprising the steps of:

detecting illumination levels in a certain space to be photographed;

comparing the detected illumination levels to a previously determined standard illumination level; and

switching a photographing mode of a camera on the basis of the comparison result;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of detecting the illumination levels an illumination level is detected of each cell region in a photographing area divided into a plurality of cell regions.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, in the comparing step, it is determined whether the illumination level of each cell region is higher than the standard illumination level.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of switching the photographing mode of the camera comprises the sub-steps of:

counting the number of cell regions having a detected illumination level less than the standard illumination level;

determining whether the thusly counted number of cell regions is greater than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions; and

switching the photographing mode of the camera on the basis of the determination.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of switching the photographing mode of the camera switches the photographing mode of the camera to a daytime mode or a nighttime mode on the basis of the determination.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched to a nighttime mode in case the number of cell regions having a lower illumination level than the standard illumination level is greater than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched to a daytime mode in case the number of cell regions having lower illumination level than the standard illumination level is less than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions.

8. A method of controlling a photographing mode of a camera, comprising the steps of:

dividing a photographing area into a plurality of cell regions;

detecting an illumination level of each cell region; and

switching the photographing mode of the camera on the basis of the detected illumination levels.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein switching of the photographing mode of the camera is on the basis of determining whether the illumination level of each cell region is higher than a previously determined standard illumination level.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of switching the photographing mode of the camera comprises the sub-steps of:

counting the number of cell regions among all the cell regions having a lower illumination level than the previously determined standard illumination level;

determining whether the counted number of cell regions is higher than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions; and

switching the photographing mode of the camera on the basis of the determination.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched on the basis comparing the detected illumination levels and the previously determined standard illumination level.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched into either a daytime mode or a nighttime mode.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched into a nighttime mode in case the number of cell regions having a lower illumination level than the previously determined standard illumination level is greater than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched int o a daytime mode in case the numbe r of cell regions having lower illumination level than the previously stored standard illumination is less than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions.

15. A method of controlling a photographing mode of a camera, comprising the steps of:

dividing a photographing area into a plurality of cell regions and detecting an illumination level of each cell region;

determining whether the detected illumination level of each cell region is greater than the previously determined standard illumination level;

counting the number of the cell regions having a lower illumination level than the standard illumination level;

determining whether the counted number is greater than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions; and

switching the photographing mode of the camera on the basis of the determination.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched to a daytime mode or nighttime mode on the basis of the determination.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched to a nighttime mode in case the number of the cell regions having a lower illumination level than the standard illumination level is higher than the certain percentage.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the photographing mode of the camera is switched to a daytime mode in case the number of the cell regions having a lower illumination than the standard illumination is lower than the certain percentage.

19. A method of controlling a photographing mode of a camera, comprising the steps of:

dividing a photographing area into a plurality of cell regions and detecting the illumination of each cell region;

determining whether the illumination of each cell region is greater than a previously determined standard illumination value;

counting the number of the cell regions having a lower illumination than the standard illumination value;

determining whether the counted number of cell regions is greater than a certain percentage of the total number of cell regions; and

switching the photographing mode of the camera on the basis of the determination.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the cell regions divide the photographing area at regular intervals.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the illumination of the cell regions is uniformly averaged regardless of the position of the cell regions.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the nighttime mode is selected in case the counted number is higher than the certain percentage.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein in the nighttime mode the camera does not use an optical low pass filter.