Techniques for low-light imaging

A computer program product including one or more non-transitory machine-readable mediums having instructions encoded thereon that when executed by at least one processor cause an image processing method to be carried out, the method comprising:

• acquiring a plurality of input image frames;
• detecting at least one object of interest in individual image frames of the plurality of image frames;
• for the individual image frames, producing a respective bounding box corresponding to the at least one object of interest, the bounding box describing coordinates of a boundary of the object of interest within a respective individual image frame;
• temporally averaging corresponding pixel values of pixels within the bounding box over the plurality of image frames to produce a plurality of averaged pixel values;
• and
• producing an output image in which pixels within an area of the output image described by coordinates of the bounding box are replaced with the averaged pixel values.

An image sensor comprising:

• an imaging device configured to acquire a temporal series of image frames;
• and
• a digital signal processing module coupled to the imaging device and configured to
• process the image frames to detect at least one object of interest in individual image frames of the image frames,
• for the individual image frames, produce a respective bounding box corresponding to the at least one object of interest, the bounding box describing coordinates of a boundary of the object of interest within a respective individual image frame,
• average corresponding pixel values of pixels within the bounding box over the temporal series of image frames to produce a plurality of averaged pixel values, and
• produce an output image in which at least some pixels within an area of the output image described by coordinates of the bounding box are replaced with the averaged pixel values.