System and method for a software steerable web camera with multiple image subset capture

• US 7,593,041 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2006
• Issued: 09/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Vulcan Ventures Inc. (Vulcan, Inc.)
• Inventors: Novak, Robert E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hannett; James M
• Application Number:
  US11/428,525
• Publication Number:
  US 20070030353A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,177 Days
• Field of Search: 348/207.1, 348/211.9
• US Class Current: 348/211.9
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0007 Image acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/58 Means for changing the camera field of view without moving the camera body, e.g. nutating or panning of optics or image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture

Abstract

A method of capturing a scene within a field of view of a wide-angle lens coupled to a camera comprising storing image data of the scene in an image collection array, digitizing the scene image data into digitized scene image data for storage in a memory, receiving selections of a plurality of subsets of the digitized scene image data, and performing distortion compensation on the selected subsets of the digitized scene image data.

Claims

1. A method of capturing a scene within a field of view of a wide-angle lens coupled to a camera, the method comprising:

storing image data of the scene in an image collection array;

digitizing the scene image data into digitized scene image data for storage in a memory;

receiving selections of a plurality of subsets of the digitized scene image data;

performing distortion compensation on the plurality of selected subsets of the digitized scene image data to correct for distortion introduced by the wide-angle lens as a function of a relative distance within the image from an axis of the image; and

transmitting respective ones of the distortion compensated subsets of the digitized scene image data to one or more destination devices.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of subsets of the digitized scene image data are selected serially.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reconstructing the selected plurality of subsets into an integrated output image.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a subset corresponds to a focus area in the scene.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the camera is used to transmit images over a network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the camera is communicatively coupled to a set top box that is capable of transmitting images over a network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing compression on the distortion-compensated subsets of the digitized scene image data.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the selected subsets of the digitized scene image data is automatically selected based on detected activity in the scene.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the selected subsets of the digitized scene image data is selected based on a user command.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein at least two of the selected subsets are overlapping.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least two of the selected subsets are non-overlapping.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein at least two of the selected subsets are serially selected by one or more users.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the wide-angle lens comprises a fish-eye lens.

14. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions to cause a computing device to perform a method, comprising:

storing image data of a scene in an image collection array captured by a wide-angle lens;

digitizing the scene image data into digitized scene image data and store the digitized scene image data in a memory;

receiving selections of a plurality of subsets of the digitized scene image data;

performing distortion compensation on the plurality of selected subsets of the digitized scene image data to correct for distortion introduced by the wide-angle lens as a function of a relative distance within the image from an axis of the image; and

transmitting the plurality of selected subsets of the distortion compensated digitized scene image data to at least one destination device.

15. An apparatus for capturing a scene within a field of view of a wide-angle lens of a camera, comprising:

means for storing image data of the scene;

means for digitizing the scene image data into digitized scene image data;

means for receiving selections of a plurality of subsets of the digitized scene image data;

means for performing distortion compensation on the plurality of selected subsets of the digitized scene image data to correct for distortion introduced by the wide-angle lens as a function of a relative distance within the image from an axis of the image; and

means for transmitting respective ones of the distortion-compensated subsets of the digitized scene image data to one or more destination devices.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

means for reconstructing the selected plurality of subsets into an integrated output image.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

means for transmitting the distortion-compensated subsets of the digitized scene image data through a network.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein at least two of the selected subsets are serially selected by one or more users.