Method for improving digital images and an image sensor for sensing the same
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An electronic image sensor, comprising:
- a detector array for detecting an input image and for producing an electronic image signal including a plurality of signal samples; and
an image intensity processing array having a plurality of nodes, each node connected to a corresponding detector in the detector array, comprising;
a discontinuity-preserving smoothing system for producing a smooth image signal from the electronic image signal, wherein large discontinuities in the image signal are substantially preserved in the smooth image signal and small discontinuities in the electronic image signal are substantially smoothed over in the smooth image signal;
the discontinuity-preserving smoothing system comprising;
a plurality of horizontal resistive elements for imposing a smoothness constraint by restricting a signal difference across a pair of nodes;
a plurality of vertical resistive elements for imposing a closeness constraint by restricting a difference between the electronic image signal and the signal on a corresponding node; and
a balancing system for producing a smooth image signal by favoring the closeness constraint over the smoothness constraint according to a permeability function, the permeability function substantially being a function of the electronic image signal.
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Abstract
The present invention provides an image processing method. In one embodiment, the method provides discontinuity-preserving image smoothing and segmentation, noise reduction, reduction of image variations particularly those variations caused by illumination conditions, exposure compensation, and dynamic range compression. The present invention also provides an electronic image sensor that is able to detect high dynamic range optical images and produce electronic images with reduced dynamic range.
37 Citations
38 Claims
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1. An electronic image sensor, comprising:
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a detector array for detecting an input image and for producing an electronic image signal including a plurality of signal samples; and an image intensity processing array having a plurality of nodes, each node connected to a corresponding detector in the detector array, comprising; a discontinuity-preserving smoothing system for producing a smooth image signal from the electronic image signal, wherein large discontinuities in the image signal are substantially preserved in the smooth image signal and small discontinuities in the electronic image signal are substantially smoothed over in the smooth image signal;
the discontinuity-preserving smoothing system comprising;a plurality of horizontal resistive elements for imposing a smoothness constraint by restricting a signal difference across a pair of nodes; a plurality of vertical resistive elements for imposing a closeness constraint by restricting a difference between the electronic image signal and the signal on a corresponding node; and a balancing system for producing a smooth image signal by favoring the closeness constraint over the smoothness constraint according to a permeability function, the permeability function substantially being a function of the electronic image signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of:
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receiving first signal samples, representative of an image; solving for voltages by solving a system of equations describing a discontinuity-preserving smoothing circuit for producing a second signal from the first signal, wherein large discontinuities in the first signal are substantially preserved in the second signal and small discontinuities in the first signal are substantially smoothed over in the second signal;
the discontinuity-preserving smoothing circuit comprising;a plurality of nodes, the first signal samples received as current being injected into the nodes; a first plurality of resistors connected between each said node and a common voltage level thus imposing a closeness constraint by restricting a difference between the nodal voltages and the common voltage level; a second plurality of resistors connected between pairs of the nodes, thus imposing a smoothness constraint by restricting a signal difference between the corresponding pairs of nodes; wherein the values of each resistor in the second plurality of resistors is controlled by the strength of discontinuities in the first signal, the strength of discontinuities being determined as a Weber-Fechner contrast of the first signal, thus balancing between the smoothness and closeness constraints to produce voltages on said nodes, the nodal voltages representing the second signal.
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11. An apparatus comprising an analog circuit comprising:
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means for supplying a first signal; means for performing a discontinuity-preserving smoothing over at least a portion of the first signal to produce a second signal, comprising; a first plurality of resistive elements Rh imposing a smoothness constraint by selectively restricting a difference between samples of the produced second signal; a second plurality of resistive elements Rv imposing a closeness constraint by selectively restricting a difference between samples of the second signal and samples of the first signal; wherein the smoothness constraint is controlled by resistance values of individual resistive elements in the first plurality of resistive elements, or the closeness constraint is controlled by resistance values of individual resistive elements in the second plurality of resistive elements, or both the smoothness and closeness constraints are controlled by resistance values of individual resistive elements in the first and second pluralities of resistive elements, thus balancing between the closeness constraint and the smoothness constraint to produce the second signal whereby large discontinuities present in the first signal are substantially preserved in the second signal, and small discontinuities present in the first signal are substantially smoothed over in the second signal, and wherein controlling individual resistances is done in response to a permeability function, the permeability function substantially being a function of the strength of discontinuities in the first signal. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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15. A method of producing an improved electronic image comprising the steps of:
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supplying a first image; producing a second image by solving for nodal voltages of a circuit comprising; a plurality of input nodes, samples of the first image being supplied to the input nodes as a voltage source connected between the input nodes and a common voltage level; a plurality of output nodes, wherein samples of a second image are produced as voltages on the output nodes; a first plurality of resistors Rv connecting each input node to a corresponding output node, thereby imposing a closeness constraint by restricting a voltage difference between said input nodes and said corresponding output nodes; and a second plurality of resistors Rh connecting pairs of output nodes, thereby imposing a smoothness constraint by restricting a voltage difference between connected nodes in the said pairs of output nodes; controlling the values of each Rh resistor with a relative measure of discontinuities in the first image, the controlling being determined as a local spatial change of the first image relative to a local signal strength of the first image, thereby balancing between the smoothness and closeness constraints across said pluralities of input and output nodes to produce voltages on said output nodes representing the second image, whereby the second image becomes a discontinuity-preserved version of the first image in which discontinuities with a large value of the relative measure of discontinuities in the first image are preserved in the second image and discontinuities with a small value of the relative measure of discontinuities in the first image are smoothed over in the second image; and compensating the first image with the second image to produce a compensated image. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification