Adaptive auto exposure and dynamic range compensation

A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a programmable control device and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the programmable control device to:

• obtain a first auto exposure (AE) target for a first image of a scene to be captured by an image sensor;
• obtain the first image captured based, at least in part, on the first AE target, wherein the first image comprises a first plurality of pixels;
• determine whether any of the first plurality of pixels comprise clipped highlight pixels;
• determine a second AE target different from the first AE target if it is determined that clipped highlight pixels are present;
• obtain a second image captured based, at least in part, on the second AE target, wherein the second image comprises a second plurality of pixels;
• generate one or more Dynamic Range Compensation (DRC) curves for the second image based, at least in part, on the first AE target;
• and
• perform tone mapping on the second plurality of pixels using the generated one or more DRC curves,
• wherein the tone mapping performed on the second plurality of pixels is configured to render the second image to match a rendering luminance as if the second image was captured with the first AE target.

A system, comprising:

• an image capture device;
• a memory operatively coupled to the image capture device and having, stored therein, computer program code;
• and
• a programmable control device operatively coupled to the memory and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the programmable control device to execute the computer program code to:
• obtain a first auto exposure (AE) target for a first image of a scene to be captured by the image capture device;
• obtain the first image captured based, at least in part, on the first AE target, wherein the first image comprises a first plurality of pixels;
• determine whether any of the first plurality of pixels comprise clipped highlight pixels or whether there is any unused dynamic range in the captured first image;
• determine a second AE target different from the first AE target if it is determined that clipped highlight pixels are present or if it is determined that there is any unused dynamic range in the captured first image;
• obtain a second image captured based, at least in part, on the second AE target, wherein the second image comprises a second plurality of pixels;
• generate one or more Dynamic Range Compensation (DRC) curves for the second image based, at least in part, on the first AE target;
• and
• perform tone mapping on the second plurality of pixels using the generated one or more DRC curves,
• wherein the tone mapping performed on the second plurality of pixels is configured to render the second image to match a rendering luminance as if the second image was captured with the first AE target.