Method and camera system for blurring portions of a verification image to show out of focus areas in a captured archival image

A method for forming a verification image that indicates out of focus portions of an archival image using a display having a resolution that is lower than the resolution of the archival image, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining an archival image;
• generating a luminance image based upon the obtained archival image;
• resampling the luminance image to form a high pass luminance image at display resolution;
• generating a blur map corresponding to the resampled display resolution image by applying a threshold test to the high pass luminance image;
• providing a display resolution image matching the appearance of the archival image;
• and
• blurring the display resolution image in accordance with the blur map resolution image so that out of focus areas in the display resolution image appear to be out of focus when viewed on the display.

A method for forming a verification image that indicates out of focus portions of an archival image using a display having a resolution that is lower than the resolution of the archival image, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining archival image capture settings at a defined moment;
• obtaining an electronic image at a defined moment;
• using the archival image capture settings to modify the appearance of the electronic image to form a verification image matching the appearance of the archival image;
• identifying out of focus areas in the archival image;
• and,
• blurring the verification image in areas of the verification image that correspond to out of focus areas in the archival image.

A camera system for capturing an archival image and displaying a verification image, the camera system comprising:

• a digital image capture system for capturing an archival image having a predetermined imaging resolution;
• a display having a display resolution lower than the predetermined imaging resolution for presenting a verification image;
• and
• a signal processor receiving the archival image, forming the verification image, identifying portions of the archival image that are out of focus and modifying the verification image so that when the verification image is displayed on the display portions of the verification image that correspond to portions of the archival image that are out of focus, appear out of focus.

A camera system for generating a verification image, the camera system comprising:

• an image sensor to convert light incident on said sensor into a digital representation of an image formed on the image sensor, the image sensor having a depth of field;
• a taking lens unit having an adjustable focus distance for focusing light on to the image sensor;
• and
• a camera microprocessor for controlling the adjustment of the lens taking unit;
• a rangefinder to determine a distance from the camera to various spots in a scene with the rangefinder determining a distance from the camera to a subject and setting the taking lens unit so that the image formed at the image sensor is focused at the distance defined by the rangefinder;
• and
• a digital signal processor connected to the image sensor to receive the images captured by the image sensor, and forming an archival image and a verification image that is representative of the archival image and adapted for display on a video display having resolution lower than that of the image sensor,
• wherein said digital signal processor uses rangefinding data and data regarding the focus distance of the taking lens unit to determine whether portions of the archival image are out of focus and modifies the display verification image so that portions of the verification image that correlate to out of focus portions of the archival image appear out of focus when the verification image is presented on the video display.

A camera system for generating a verification image for presentation on a video display having a predetermined display resolution the camera system comprising:

• an archival image capture system having an optical system to controllably focus light from a scene onto an archival image capture surface to capture images of a scene at a resolution that is higher than the predetermined display resolution, the archival image capture system having a first depth of field and a first focus distance at the time of archival image capture;
• a verification image capture system having an optical system to controllably focus light from the scene onto an electronic image capture surface to capture an electronic image of the scene at the time of archival image capture, the verification image capture system having a second depth of field and a second focus distance;
• a range finder dividing the scene into a plurality of portions and determining an optimum focus distance for each portion;
• a microprocessor to determine which portions of the captured archival image are out of focus based upon the optimum focus distance of each portion and the first focus distance and first depth of field of the archival image,
• a signal processor to selectably blur portions of the verification image so that portions of the verification image that correspond to portions of the archival image that are out of focus appear out of focus in the verification image.