Red-eye filter method and apparatus

A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising a portable apparatus for capturing digital images, a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture, and a red-eye filter for detecting a region within a captured image indicative of a red-eye phenomenon, said detection being based upon a comparison of said captured image and at least one reference eye color characteristic,

• wherein the filter also includes a shape analyser so that the filter is configured to identify a region in the captured image having both a shape and color indicative of a red-eye phenomenon for subsequent comparison with stored information of characteristics of red eye phenomenon, and
• wherein the at least one reference eye color characteristic is determined from a reference image of lower pixel resolution than the captured image, the filter including programming code for matching the pixel resolutions of the captured and reference images by at least one of up-sampling the reference image and sub-sampling the captured image.

A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising a portable apparatus for capturing digital images, a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture, and a red-eye filter for detecting a region within a captured image indicative of a red-eye phenomenon, said detection being based upon a comparison of said captured image and at least one reference eye color characteristic, wherein the filter also includes a shape analyser to determine subsequent to said comparison whether a region designated as indicative of a red-eye phenomenon has a shape indicative of a red-eye phenomenon, and wherein the at least one reference eye color characteristic is determined from a reference image of lower pixel resolution than the captured image, the filter including programming code for matching the pixel resolutions of the captured and reference images by at least one of up-sampling the reference image and sub-sampling the captured image.

A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising a portable apparatus for capturing digital images, a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture, and a red-eye filter for detecting a region within a captured image indicative of a red-eye phenomenon, said detection being based upon a comparison of said captured image and at least one reference eye color characteristic, wherein the filter also includes a shape analyser so that the filter is configured to identify a region in the captured image having both a shape and color indicative of a red- eye phenomenon for subsequent comparison with a reference eye shape characteristic and the reference eye color characteristic, respectively, and

• wherein the at least one reference eye color characteristic is determined from a reference image of lower pixel resolution than the captured image, the filter including programming code for matching the pixel resolutions of the captured and reference images by at least one of up-sampling the reference image and sub-sampling the captured image.

A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising a portable apparatus for capturing digital images, a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture, and a red-eye filter for detecting red-eye phenomenon in a captured image based upon a comparison of said captured image and a reference image of nominally the same scene taken without flash, wherein the reference image is a preview image of lower pixel resolution than the captured image, the filter including means for matching the pixel resolutions of the captured and reference images by at least one of up-sampling the preview image and sub-sampling the captured image.

A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising a portable apparatus for capturing digital images, a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture, and a red-eye filter for detecting a region within a captured image indicative of a red-eye phenomenon, said red eye filter comprising a falsing analyzer for processing the captured image around the region for details indicative of an image of an eye, and wherein the detecting is based upon a comparison of an eye grouping characteristic of said captured image and at least one reference eye grouping characteristic, and wherein the reference eye grouping characteristic is determined from a reference image of lower pixel resolution than the captured image, the filter including programming code for matching the pixel resolutions of the captured and reference images by at least one of up-sampling the reference image and sub-sampling the captured image.

A method of detecting a red-eye phenomenon within a digital image acquired by a digital image acquisition device having no photographic film, the device comprising a portable apparatus for capturing digital images, and a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture, the method comprising identifying a region within a captured image indicative of a red-eye phenomenon including comparing said captured image and at least one reference eye grouping characteristic and processing the captured image around the region for details indicative of an image of an eye, and wherein the reference eye grouping characteristic is determined from a reference image of lower pixel resolution than the captured image, the filter including programming code for matching the pixel resolutions of the captured and reference images by at least one of up-sampling the reference image and sub-sampling the captured image.

A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, comprising a portable apparatus for capturing digital images, a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture, and a red-eye filter for detecting a region within a captured image indicative of a red-eye phenomenon, said detection being based upon a comparison of said captured image and at least one reference eye color characteristic,

• wherein the filter also includes a grouping analyser so that the filter is configured to identify a region in the captured image having both a grouping characteristic and color indicative of a red-eye phenomenon for subsequent comparison with a reference eye grouping characteristic and the reference eye color characteristic, respectively, and
• wherein the reference eye grouping or color characteristic, or both, is determined from a reference image of lower pixel resolution than the captured image, the filter including programming code for matching the pixel resolutions of the captured and reference images by at least one of up-sampling the reference image and sub-sampling the captured image.