Image processing for a dual camera mobile device

#Many of today's portable devices, such as smartphones, provide video capture functionality. A user of the portable device can capture both still images and video through a camera on the phone. However, to transmit captured video to another party, the user must generally either send the video directly to the other party or upload the video to another location (e.g., an Internet video hosting site) after the video is done being captured. Unfortunately, this does not allow the other party to view the live video stream as it is captured by the portable device.

#In addition, standard portable devices are only equipped with one camera, and processing information from this one camera is difficult enough. An ideal device would have multiple cameras and could send out live video that is a composition of video from at least two cameras. This is an especially difficult problem in light of the limited resources available for portable devices, both in terms of the device processing multiple captured video streams and a network to which the device is connected handling the transmission of the live video streams.

#Some embodiments of the invention provide a mobile device with two cameras that can take pictures and videos. The mobile device of some embodiments has a display screen for displaying the captured picture images and video images. It also includes a storage for storing the captured images for later transmission to another device. The device further has a network interface that allows the device to transmit the captured images to one or more devices during a real-time communication session between the users of the devices. The device also includes an encoder that it can use to encode the captured images for local storage or for transmission to another device. The mobile device further includes a decoder that allows the device to decode images captured by another device during a real-time communication session or to decode images stored locally.

#The novel features of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. However, for purpose of explanation, several embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following figures.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a composite display of some embodiments.

#FIG. 2 illustrates another composite display of some embodiments.

#In the following description, numerous details are set forth for purpose of explanation. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the invention may be practiced without the use of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the description of the invention with unnecessary detail.

#Some embodiments of the invention provide a mobile device with two cameras that can take pictures and videos. Examples of mobile devices include mobile phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, tablet personal computers, or any other type of mobile computing device. As used in this document, pictures refer to still picture images that are taken by the camera one at a time in a single-picture mode, or several at a time in a fast-action mode. Video, on the other hand, refers to a sequence of video images that are captured by a camera at a particular rate, which is often referred to as a frame rate. Typical frame rates for capturing video are 25 frames per second (fps), 30 fps, and 60 fps. The cameras of the mobile device of some embodiments can capture video images (i.e., video frames) at these and other frame rates.

#The mobile device of some embodiments (1) can display the captured picture images and video images, (2) can store the captured images for later transmission to another device, (3) can transmit the captured images to one or more devices during a real-time communication session between the users of the devices, and (4) can encode the captured images for local storage or for transmission to another device.