Image capturing apparatus and method thereof

Abstract

An image capturing apparatus and an image capturing method. The apparatus captures and compresses a preview image, and judges an image complexity and determines a preview compressed setting value according to at least one of a set of factors consisting of a compressed setting, a resolution of the preview image and a size of a compressed preview image. Next, the apparatus captures a to-be-captured image, and determines an initial compressed setting value according to at least one of a set of factors consisting of the image complexity, and the resolution of the to-be-captured image and a compressed image target size, which is a new compressed initial value. Then, the apparatus compresses the image according to the initial compressed setting value to obtain a compressed image approaching a predetermined size or speed up a converging speed of an image compressing loop.

Description

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Taiwan application Ser. No. 95117009, filed May 12, 2006, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The invention relates in general to an image capturing apparatus and a method thereof, and more particularly to an image capturing apparatus for compressing a preview image in a preview mode to judge an image complexity and calculate a preview compressed setting value in advance, and an image capturing method. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005]FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration showing a first conventional image capturing apparatus 10 in a capturing mode. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional image capturing apparatus 10 includes an image sensing unit 110, an image processing unit 120, an image storing unit 130, an image compressing unit 140 and a control unit 150. When the conventional image capturing apparatus 10 enters a capturing mod...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an image capturing apparatus and an image capturing method thereof. When the image capturing apparatus is still in a preview mode, the apparatus compresses a preview image in advance and judges an image complexity according to at least one of a set of factors consisting of a compressed setting, a resolution of the preview image and a size of the compressed preview image. Thus, after entering a capturing mode, the image capturing apparatus determines an initial compressed setting value, which is a new compressed initial value, according to at least one of a set of factors consisting of the image complexity obtained in a previous step, a resolution of a to-be-captured image and a compressed image target size, and rapidly compresses captured image data to compressed data approaching the predetermined target size or speeds up the converging speed of the image compressing loop according to the initial compressed setting value.

Problems solved by technology

However, the conventional image capturing apparatus cannot compress the to-be-captured image data until it enters the capturing mode.

Thus, the conventional image capturing apparatus needs a longer period of time to compress the to-be-captured image data into the predetermined target.

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