Image feature identification and motion compensation apparatus, systems, and methods
AssigneeAptina Imaging Corporation
InventorsAmnon Silverstein, Sheng Lin, Dong Li
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus, systems, and methods disclosed herein may estimate the magnitude of relative motion between a scene and an image capture device used to capture the scene. Some embodiments may utilize discrete cosine transform and/or Sobel gradient techniques to identify one or more blocks of pixels in an originating calibration image frame. Matching blocks of pixels may be located in a successive calibration image frame. Motion vectors originating at one calibration frame and terminating at the other calibration frame may be calculated. The magnitude of relative motion derived thereby may be used to adjust image capture parameters associated with the image capture device, including exposure settings.
Claims27
Circuitry, comprising:
- a gradient vector calculator circuit that calculates a gradient vector for each pixel within a block of pixels excluding pixels located along a periphery of the block of pixels to provide a plurality of gradient vectors;
- and
- gradient vector logic circuitry operatively coupled to the gradient vector calculator circuit to perform a gradient vector analysis on the plurality of gradient vectors to derive a value of an image feature strength metric associated with the block of pixels.
A system, comprising:
- an image sensor array (ISA) to detect luminance incident to a set of ISA elements and to transform the luminance to create a set of luminance values associated with a pixel representation of an image;
- a gradient vector calculator coupled to the ISA to calculate a gradient vector for each pixel within a block of pixels excluding pixels located along a periphery of the block of pixels to provide a plurality of gradient vectors;
- and
- gradient vector logic operatively coupled to the gradient vector calculator to perform a gradient vector analysis on the plurality of gradient vectors to derive a value of an image feature strength metric associated with the block of pixels.
A method for using processing circuitry, comprising:
- with the processing circuitry, performing a gradient vector analysis on a block of pixels selected from an image that is detected by an image sensor to derive a value of an image feature strength metric associated with the block of pixels;
- and
- with the processing circuitry, calculating a gradient vector for each pixel within the block of pixels excluding pixels located along a periphery of the block of pixels to provide a plurality of gradient vectors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.