METHOD, COMPUTER-ACCESSIBLE, MEDIUM AND SYSTEMS FOR FACILITATING DARK FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY

• US 20110292216A1
• Filed: 01/08/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: New York University
• Original Assignee: New York University
• Inventors: Fergus, Robert, Krishnan, Dilip
• Granted Patent: US 9,354,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/164
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 15/03 Combinations of cameras with lighting apparatus; Flash units
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20056 Discrete and fast Fourier transform, [DFT, FFT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/00 Image enhancement or restoration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/741 by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20

Abstract

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to methods, computer-accessible medium and systems for dark flash photography. For example, described herein is an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus for providing illumination and obtaining an image, which can include, e.g., a first arrangement configured to emit a flash of light including ultra-violet light and/or infra-red light to illuminate a scene and/or one or more subjects, and a second arrangement configured to obtain an image of the illuminated scene and/or one or more subject. A duration of time and/or an intensity level of the flash can be selected, e.g., so that wavelengths of the flash can be substantially invisible to a human eye. For example, the visibility of the flash perceived by the human eye can be, e.g., approximately 200 times less than the visibility of a standard flash of light having substantially the same amount of energy as the flash.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing illumination and obtaining an image, comprising:

a first arrangement configured to emit a flash of light comprising at least one of an ultra-violet light or an infra-red light to illuminate at least one of a scene or one or more subjects; and

a second arrangement configured to obtain an image of the illuminated scene or one or more subjects, wherein at least one of a duration of time of the flash or an intensity level of the flash are selected so that wavelengths of the flash are substantially invisible to a human eye.

2. The apparatus recited in claim 1, wherein at least approximately 90% of the light comprises at least one of ultra-violet light or infra-red light.

3. The apparatus recited in claim 1, wherein at least approximately 95% of the light comprises at least one of ultra-violet light or infra-red light.

4. The apparatus recited in claim 1, wherein the visibility of the wavelengths of the flash perceived by the human eye is approximately 200 times less than the visibility of wavelengths of a standard flash of light having substantially the same amount of energy as the flash.

5. The apparatus recited in claim 4, wherein the standard flash comprises light having a substantially even distribution of wavelengths of between approximately 400 nanometers and approximately 700 nanometers.

6. The apparatus recited in claim 5, wherein a majority of the light of the standard flash has a wavelength of between approximately 400 nanometers and approximately 700 nanometers.

7. An apparatus for providing illumination, comprising an arrangement configured to emit light comprising ultra-violet light and infra-red light.

8. The apparatus recited in claim 7, wherein a majority of the light is at least one of ultra-violet light or infra-red light.

9. The apparatus recited in claim 7, wherein the arrangement is further configured to emit near ultra-violet light.

10. The apparatus recited in claim 7, wherein the arrangement is further configured to emit ultra-violet light having a wavelength of between approximately 360 nanometers and approximately 400 nanometers.

11. The apparatus recited in claim 10, wherein the arrangement is further configured to emit infra-red light having a wavelength of between approximately 700 nanometers and approximately 800 nanometers.

12. The apparatus recited in claim 7, wherein the arrangement is further configured to emit infra-red light having a wavelength of between approximately 700 nanometers and approximately 800 nanometers.

13. The apparatus recited in claim 7, further comprising a further arrangement configured to obtain an image.

14. The apparatus recited in claim 13, wherein the image is of at least one of a scene or one or more subjects illuminated by light comprising ultra-violet light and infra-red light.

15. The apparatus recited in claim 14, wherein a majority of the light comprises ultra-violet light and infra-red light.

16. The apparatus recited in claim 14, wherein at least approximately 90% of the light comprises ultra-violet light and infra-red light.

17. The apparatus recited in claim 14, wherein at least approximately 95% of the light comprises ultra-violet light and infra-red light.

18. The apparatus recited in claim 14, wherein the at least one of the scene or one or more subjects is illuminated by light consisting of ultra-violet light and infra-red light.

19. The apparatus recited in claim 14, wherein the at least one of the scene or one or more subjects is illuminated by light comprising near ultra-violet light.

20. The apparatus recited in claim 14, wherein the at least one of the scene or one or more subjects is illuminated by light comprising ultra-violet light having a wavelength of between approximately 360 nanometers and approximately 400 nanometers.

21. The apparatus recited in claim 20, wherein the at least one of the scene or one or more subjects is illuminated by light comprising infra-red light having a wavelength of between approximately 700 nanometers and approximately 800 nanometers.

22. The apparatus recited in claim 13, wherein the further arrangement comprises attributes, and the arrangement is further configured to emit ultra-violet light and infra-red light having wavelengths selected based on the attributes.

23. A process for dark flash photography, comprising:

(a) obtaining a first image of at least one of a scene or one or more subjects illuminated by light comprising ambient light;

(b) obtaining a second image of the at least one of the scene or one or more subjects illuminated with light comprising ultra-violet light and infra-red light; and

(c) using an apparatus, generating a third image based on the first image and the second image.

24. The process recited in claim 23, further comprising at least one of displaying or storing the third image in a storage arrangement in at least one of a user-accessible format or a user-readable format.

25. The process recited in claim 23, wherein the ambient light comprises light having a wavelength of between approximately 400 nanometers and approximately 700 nanometers.

26. A computer-accessible medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for dark flash photography, wherein, when the executable instructions are executed by a processing arrangement, the processing arrangement is configured to perform procedures comprising:

(a) obtaining at least two images, wherein a first image of the images is obtained using a dark flash illumination procedure and a second image of the images is obtained using an ambient illumination;

(b) determining a relationship between spectral bands corresponding to the images;

(c) identifying noise associated with the second image based on the relationship, and removing or reducing the noise; and

(d) generating a further image from the images with the noise removed or reduced, wherein the further image has a higher quality than at least one of the first image or the second image.

27. The computer-accessible medium recited in claim 26, wherein the relationship between spectral bands corresponding to the images comprises a correlation between spectral bands corresponding to the images.

28. The computer-accessible medium recited in claim 26, wherein the processing arrangement is further configured, when executing the instructions, to utilize an edge structure of the first image to remove or reduce the noise.

33. The computer-accessible medium recited in claim 26, wherein the processing arrangement is further configured, when executing the instructions, to utilize a Fast Fourier transform to perform the first sub-procedure.

34. The computer-accessible medium recited in claim 26, wherein the processing arrangement is further configured, when executing the instructions, to utilize a lookup-table to perform the second sub-procedure, and wherein the lookup-table comprises precomputed values stored in a storage arrangement.

35. The computer-accessible medium recited in claim 26, wherein the processing arrangement is further configured, when executing the instructions, to repeat the performance of the continuation procedure until the output is at least one of substantially denoised or substantially deconvoluted.

36. The computer-accessible medium recited in claim 35, wherein the output comprises an image.

37. The computer-accessible medium recited in claim 35, wherein the at least one prior information comprises at least one image prior information.

29. A process for dark flash photography, comprising:

(a) obtaining at least two images, wherein a first image of the images is obtained using a dark flash illumination procedure and a second image of the images is obtained using an ambient illumination;

(b) determining a relationship between spectral bands corresponding to the images;

(c) identifying noise associated with the second image based on the relationship, and removing or reducing the noise; and

(d) generating a further image from the images with the noise removed or reduced, wherein the further image has a higher quality than at least one of the first image or the second image.

30. The process recited in claim 29, further comprising at least one of displaying or storing the further image in a storage arrangement in at least one of a user-accessible format or a user-readable format.

31. A system for dark flash photography, comprising a processing arrangement which, when executed, is configured to:

(a) obtain at least two images, wherein a first image of the images is obtained using a dark flash illumination procedure and a second image of the images is obtained using an ambient illumination;

(b) determine a relationship between spectral bands corresponding to the images;

(c) identify noise associated with the second image based on the relationship, and remove or reduce the noise; and

(d) generate a further image from the images with the noise removed or reduced, wherein the further image has a higher quality than at least one of the first image or the second image.

32. A computer-accessible medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for at least one of denoising or non-blind deconvolution of an output, wherein, when the executable instructions are executed by a processing arrangement, the processing arrangement is configured to perform procedures comprising:

(a) obtaining at least one prior information, wherein the at least one prior information has a hyper-Laplacian form;

(b) selecting a set of auxiliary variables, wherein the auxiliary variables comprise auxiliary variables corresponding to individual data points of the output; and

(c) at least one of denoising or deconvoluting at least a portion of the output using a continuation procedure that alternates between executing two sub-procedures in successive iterations to increase the strength of at least one parameter linking the two sub-procedures in each iteration, wherein the continuation procedure comprises;

(i) using a first sub-procedure, updating at least one of the data points of the output while maintaining the auxiliary variables as constant; and

(ii) using a second sub-procedure, updating at least one of the auxiliary variables while maintaining the data points of the output as constant.