ENHANCED IMAGE CAPTURE

• US 20150341561A1
• Filed: 08/04/2014
• Published: 11/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Petrescu, Doina I., Lay, Thomas T., Petrie, Steven R., Ryan, Bill, Sinha, Snigdha, Vanhoof, Jeffrey S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,628,702 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00 Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/21 Intermediate information storage H04N1/387, H04N1/41 take precedence ; for control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32358; indexing, editing G11B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/212 Motion video recording combined with still video recording television signal recording H04N5/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2145 of a sequence of images for selection of a single frame before final recording, e.g. from a continuous sequence captured before and after shutter-release
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/215 Recording a sequence of still pictures, e.g. burst mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3247 Data linking a set of images to one another, e.g. sequence, burst or continuous capture mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• 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 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• 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 23/6812 based on additional sensors, e.g. acceleration sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/683 performed by a processor, e.g. controlling the readout of an image memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques that provide a “best” picture taken within a few seconds of the moment when a capture command is received (e.g., when the “shutter” button is pressed). In some situations, several still images are automatically (that is, without the user'"'"'s input) captured. These images are compared to find a “best” image that is presented to the photographer for consideration. Video is also captured automatically and analyzed to see if there is an action scene or other motion content around the time of the capture command. If the analysis reveals anything interesting, then the video clip is presented to the photographer. The video clip may be cropped to match the still-capture scene and to remove transitory parts. Higher-precision horizon detection may be provided based on motion analysis and on pixel-data analysis.

Claims

1. A method on an image-capture device, the method comprising:

presenting, on the image-capture device, a captured still image, the captured still image based, at least in part, on input received from a user of the image-capture device; and

presenting, on the image-capture device, a notification that a selected still image is available, wherein the selected still image is not the presented still image.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a modality of the notification is selected from the group consisting of:

visual, aural, and haptic.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein presenting the notification comprises presenting at least a portion of the selected still image.

4. An image-capture device comprising:

an image-capture system configured for capturing a still image;

a user interface configured for receiving a capture command from a user of the image-capture device; and

a processing system operatively connected to the image-capture system and to the user interface and configured for;

presenting, via the user interface, a captured still image, the captured still image based, at least in part, on input received from a user of the image-capture device; and

presenting, via the user interface, a notification that a selected still image is available, wherein the selected still image is not the presented still image.

5. The image-capture device of claim 4 wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of:

a camera, a cellphone, and a tablet computer.

6. The image-capture device of claim 4 wherein a modality of the notification is selected from the group consisting of:

visual, aural, and haptic.

7. The image-capture device of claim 4 wherein presenting the notification comprises presenting at least a portion of the selected still image.

8. A method on an image-capture device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the image-capture device, a still-image capture command from a user of the image-capture device; and

based, at least in part, on the still-image capture command, presenting, on the image-capture device, a notification that a captured video is available.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein a modality of the notification is selected from the group consisting of:

visual, aural, and haptic.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein presenting the notification comprises presenting at least a portion of the captured video.

11. An image-capture device comprising:

an image-capture system configured for capturing a still image and for capturing a video;

a user interface configured for receiving a still-image capture command from a user of the image-capture device; and

a processing system operatively connected to the image-capture system and to the user interface and configured for;

based, at least in part, on the still-image capture command, presenting, via the user interface, a notification that a captured video is available.

12. The image-capture device of claim 11 wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of:

a camera, a cellphone, and a tablet computer.

13. The image-capture device of claim 11 wherein a modality of the notification is selected from the group consisting of:

visual, aural, and haptic.

14. The image-capture device of claim 11 wherein presenting the notification comprises presenting at least a portion of the captured video.

15. A method on an image-capture device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the image-capture device, a command to enter a viewfinder mode of the image-capture device; and

presenting, on the image-capture device, a notification that a captured video is available, the video being captured while the image-capture device is in the viewfinder mode.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein a modality of the notification is selected from the group consisting of:

visual, aural, and haptic.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein presenting the notification comprises presenting at least a portion of the captured video.

18. An image-capture device comprising:

an image-capture system configured for capturing video;

a user interface configured for receiving a command to enter a viewfinder mode of the image-capture device; and

a processing system operatively connected to the image-capture system and to the user interface and configured for;

presenting, via the user interface, a notification that a captured video is available, the video being captured while the image-capture device is in the viewfinder mode.

19. The image-capture device of claim 18 wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of:

a camera, a cellphone, and a tablet computer.

20. The image-capture device of claim 18 wherein a modality of the notification is selected from the group consisting of:

visual, aural, and haptic.

21. The image-capture device of claim 18 wherein presenting the notification comprises presenting at least a portion of the captured video.