Multi-frame high dynamic range (HDR) image generation using quanta image frames

An electronic device comprising:

• a multi-mode image sensor configured to capture first image frames and second image frames, wherein the multi-mode image sensor is configured such that:
• the first image frames comprise image data having a first bit depth;
• the second image frames comprise image data having a second bit depth smaller than the first bit depth;
• the first image frames are captured using two or more exposure times;
• the second image frames are captured using at least one exposure time shorter than the two or more exposure times;
• and
• at least one of the second image frames is captured in between each consecutive pair of the first image frames;
• and
• at least one processing device configured to:
• determine a blur kernel for each of the first image frames based on the first image frame, at least one second image frame before the first image frame, and at least one second image frame after the first image frame;
• identify the first image frame having a lowest amount of blur;
• and
• process at least the first image frames using a multi-frame processing (MFP) pipeline to generate an output image, the at least one processing device configured to perform image alignment using the MFP pipeline based on the first image frame having the lowest amount of blur.

A non-transitory machine readable medium containing instructions that when executed cause at least one processor of an electronic device to:

• obtain, using a multi-mode image sensor, first image frames and second image frames, wherein:
• the first image frames comprise image data having a first bit depth;
• the second image frames comprise image data having a second bit depth smaller than the first bit depth;
• the first image frames are captured using two or more exposure times;
• the second image frames are captured using at least one exposure time shorter than the two or more exposure times;
• and
• two or more of the second image frames are captured in between each consecutive pair of the first image frames;
• combine the two or more second image frames captured in between each consecutive pair of the first image frames to generate third image frames;
• and
• process at least the first and third image frames using a multi-frame processing (MFP) pipeline to generate an output image.