Imaging systems and methods for correcting visual artifacts caused by camera straylight

An imaging system for correcting visual artifacts during production of extended-reality images for a display apparatus, the imaging system comprising:

• at least a first camera and a second camera that are employed to capture contemporaneously a first image and a second image of a real-world environment, respectively;
• and
• at least one processor configured to:
• analyse the first image and the second image to identify at least one visual artifact present in one of the first image and the second image and determine an image segment of the one of the first image and the second image that corresponds to the at least one visual artifact;
• divide the first image and the second image into a plurality of first sub-areas and a plurality of second sub-areas, respectively;
• detect whether or not a magnitude of a difference between a luminance of a given first sub-area in the first image and a luminance of a corresponding second sub-area in the second image exceeds a first threshold difference;
• and
• when it is detected that the magnitude of said difference exceeds the first threshold difference, determine one of the given first sub-area and the corresponding second sub-area whose luminance is higher than the luminance of other of the given first sub-area and the corresponding second sub-area, and identify the determined one of the given first sub-area and the corresponding second sub-area to have a visual artifact;
• generate image data for the image segment of the one of the first image and the second image, based on at least one of:
• information pertaining to a virtual object that is to be virtually superimposed over at least a portion of the image segment, at least one other image segment neighbouring the image segment in the one of the first image and the second image, a corresponding image segment in other of the first image and the second image, at least one previous extended-reality image, a photogrammetric model of the real-world environment;
• and
• process the one of the first image and the second image, based on the generated image data, to produce a given extended-reality image to be presented at the display apparatus.