Image acquisition method and apparatus

A digital image acquisition apparatus, comprising:

• an image acquisition sensor coupled to imaging optics for acquiring a sequence of images;
• an image store for storing two or more of said sequence of images acquired by said sensor;
• a motion detector for causing said sensor to cease capture of an image when the degree of movement of the apparatus in acquiring said image exceeds a first threshold, and wherein exposure times of two or more of said sequence of images differ based on different degrees of movement of the apparatus;
• one or more controllers that causes the sensor to restart capture when the degree of movement of the apparatus is less than a given second threshold and that selectively transfers said two or more of said sequence of images acquired by said sensor to said image store;
• a motion extractor for determining motion parameters of at least one selected image stored in said image store, wherein the motion extractor is configured to:
• estimate a point spread function (PSF) for said selected image;
• calculate a Cepstrum for said selected image;
• identify one or more spikes in said Cepstrum;
• and
• select one of said spikes in said Cepstrum as an end point for said PSF;
• an image re-constructor for correcting the at least one selected image with associated motion parameters;
• and
• an image merger for merging a selected plurality of images including said two or more images, and including said at least one selected image corrected by said image re-constructor, to produce a high quality image of said scene.

A digital image acquisition apparatus, comprising:

• an image acquisition sensor coupled to imaging optics for acquiring a sequence of images;
• an image store for storing one or more of said images acquired by said sensor;
• a motion detector for causing said sensor to cease capture of an image when the degree of movement of the apparatus in acquiring said image exceeds a threshold;
• a controller for selectively transferring said one or more of said images acquired by said sensor to said image store;
• a motion extractor for determining motion parameters of a selected image stored in said image store;
• an image re-constructor for correcting a selected image with associated motion parameters;
• and
• an image merger for merging a selected plurality of images nominally of the same scene and corrected by said image re-constructor to produce a high quality image of said scene, and
• wherein the motion extractor is configured to:
• estimate a point spread function (PSF) for said selected image;
• calculate a Cepstrum for said selected image;
• identify one or more spikes in said Cepstrum;
• and
• select one of said spikes in said Cepstrum as an end point for said PSF.

A digital image acquisition apparatus, comprising:

• an image acquisition sensor coupled to imaging optics for acquiring a sequence of images;
• an image store for storing one or more of said images acquired by said sensor;
• a motion detector for causing said sensor to cease capture of an image when the degree of movement of the apparatus in acquiring said image exceeds a first threshold ;
• one or more controllers that causes the sensor to restart capture when the degree of movement of the apparatus is less than a given second threshold and that selectively transfers said one or more of said images acquired by said sensor to said image store;
• a motion extractor for determining motion parameters of a selected image stored in said image store;
• an image re-constructor for correcting a selected image with associated motion parameters;
• and
• an image merger for merging a selected plurality of images nominally of the same scene and corrected by said image re-constructor to produce a high quality image of said scene, and
• wherein the motion extractor is configured to:
• estimate a point spread function (PSF) for said selected image;
• calculate a Cepstrum for said selected image;
• identify one or more spikes in said Cepstrum;
• and
• select one of said spikes in said Cepstrum as an end point for said PSF.