Image acquisition system
By introducing a buffer and a timed sleep module into the image acquisition system, images are compressed while being acquired, solving the problem of inconvenient storage and transmission caused by the large memory footprint of images, and achieving low-cost and low-power image acquisition.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2024-09-04
- Publication Date
- 2026-03-10
AI Technical Summary
Existing technologies for image acquisition suffer from inconvenience in storage and transmission due to the large memory requirements of images, and also result in high hardware costs, especially for high-resolution image processing.
An image acquisition system with a buffer size of A and an original image size of B captured by the camera is used. Data streams are transmitted to the buffer in batches, and the image acquisition module performs on-the-fly compression. Combined with a timing module and a sleep module, the chip memory requirements and power consumption are reduced, and the compressed images are stored using an external storage chip.
It effectively reduces the hardware cost and power consumption of the image acquisition system, improves compression efficiency, simplifies the design of the main control chip, and reduces reliance on high-cost chips.
Smart Images
Figure CN121644978A_ABST
Abstract
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of image acquisition, in particular to an image acquisition system. BACKGROUND
[0002] In the image acquisition scene of camera, the image is usually obtained from the camera sensor by the chip. The image occupies a large memory, and the subsequent storage, transmission and use of the image are extremely inconvenient. In order to solve the problem that the image occupies a large memory, the prior art generally compresses the image. The compression mode of the image generally has the following three kinds: 1. using a special camera sensor with image compression function to output a compressed image, and the chip reads the compressed image; 2. using a special chip with image compression function to compress the image after the camera sensor acquires the image; 3. using a software algorithm to compress the whole image by the chip after the camera sensor acquires the image. The above-mentioned modes 1 and 2 need special camera or special chip, and the hardware cost is high; the mode 3 uses software processing, which needs to store the image before compression, and the memory demand is large for high-resolution pictures, and the cost is high.
[0003] Therefore, a low-cost image acquisition and compression method is needed to reduce the storage demand of the processing chip as much as possible. SUMMARY
[0004] The present application provides an image acquisition system, which comprises a camera, a main control chip, the main control chip comprising an image acquisition module, an image compression module and a storage area, the image acquisition module being connected with the camera, the image acquisition module comprising a cache area, the size of the cache area being A, the size of an original picture acquired by the camera being B, wherein 0.1
[0005] Further, the cache area comprises a first cache area and a second cache area, the first cache area and the second cache area working alternately: when the first cache area receives the original picture data stream of the camera, the image compression module extracts and compresses the data in the second cache area, and then transmits it to the storage area; conversely, when the second cache area receives the original picture data stream of the camera, the image compression module extracts and compresses the data in the first cache area, and then transmits it to the storage area.
[0006] The application further provides an image acquisition system, comprising a camera, a main control chip, wherein the main control chip comprises an image acquisition module, an image compression module and a storage area; the image acquisition module is connected with the camera; an external memory interface is arranged on the main control chip; the external memory interface is internally connected with the image compression module; the external memory interface is used for externally connecting a storage chip; the external memory comprises a cache area; the size of the cache area is A; the size of an original picture acquired by the camera is B, wherein 0.1 < A / B ≤ 1; the data stream of the original picture is wholly or in batches transmitted to the cache area; the image compression module reads the data stream in the cache area and performs compression, and stores the compressed data into the storage area; the image acquisition module controls the image acquisition time of the camera according to an instruction; the interval between two image acquisition times is set to be greater than the time for the image compression module to process one original picture.
[0007] Preferably, the original picture acquired by the camera is a sub-area of a shooting area; the image acquisition of the whole monitoring area is completed by shooting images of multiple sub-areas for multiple times.
[0008] Preferably, the main control chip further comprises a timing module; the timing module can pre-set an acquisition time table, and automatically wakes up the system to perform image acquisition according to the time set in the acquisition time table.
[0009] Preferably, the main control chip further comprises a sleep module; the sleep module controls the system to sleep in a time period without image acquisition.
[0010] Preferably, the image acquisition system further comprises an instruction module; the instruction module is connected with the main control chip; the instruction module comprises a radio frequency module; the radio frequency module is connected with a server, and is used for sending the data in the storage area to the server, or receiving the instruction of the server to control the main control chip to start image acquisition.
[0011] Preferably, the instruction module further comprises an image acquisition trigger button; the image acquisition trigger button controls the main control chip to start image acquisition.
[0012] Preferably, the main control chip further comprises a serial port; the compressed image data in the storage area can be output to a user terminal through the serial port, so that the user terminal can visually display the data to the user.
[0013] The application optimizes the image acquisition system according to actual image acquisition requirements without continuous real-time monitoring, avoids the dependence on a camera with compression function, a chip with compression function and a large memory high-speed chip by setting a small buffer, and greatly reduces the cost by reducing the requirements for chip memory and main frequency. In addition, the power consumption of image acquisition is reduced by using a timing module and a sleep module. Furthermore, the compression efficiency is improved by the image acquisition and compression method. The original image is stored in an external storage chip, the design of the main control chip is simplified, the demand for internal storage space of the chip is reduced, and the cost is further reduced. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0014] Figure 1 is a structural schematic diagram of the image acquisition system embodiment 1 of the application;
[0015] Figure 2 is a structural schematic diagram of the image acquisition module in the image acquisition system embodiment 2 of the application;
[0016] Figure 3 is a structural schematic diagram of the embodiment 3 of the application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] Embodiment 1:
[0018] Referring to Figure 1 The image acquisition system of the application includes a camera and a main control chip. The main control chip includes an image acquisition module, an image compression module and a storage area. The image acquisition module is connected with the camera, controls the opening and closing of the camera through IIC, transmits the image data of the camera through SPI, and transmits the image captured by the camera to the image acquisition module.
[0019] The SPI (Serial Peripheral interface) protocol is a synchronous serial communication interface specification, mainly applied to short-distance communication in an embedded system.
[0020] The IIC (Inter-Integrated Circuit) protocol is a synchronous serial interface, which adopts a half-duplex working mode.
[0021] After the image acquisition is triggered, the camera captures a picture and transmits the picture data to the image acquisition module. The image acquisition module receives the data and uses the image compression module to compress the image. After the compression is completed, the data is stored in the storage area.
[0022] In this process, the image acquisition module needs to obtain the raw image data transmitted from the camera. In existing technologies, the image acquisition module requires a large amount of memory to hold the raw image data, increasing its cost. In this invention, the image acquisition module includes a buffer of size A, and the size of a single raw image captured by the camera is B, where 0.1
[0023] The A / B ratio mentioned above refers to the ratio of the value of A to the value of B; the data range of A / B can be designed according to actual needs, preferably 0.1.
[0024] In other words, in this invention, the image acquisition module sequentially processes multiple batches of data streams for a complete image captured by the camera. This requires minimal memory space, making it highly practical for applications such as non-real-time monitoring and significantly reducing costs.
[0025] For example, assuming the camera captures high-resolution images each time, with each image being 1MB in size, and the buffer in the image acquisition module is set to 200KB, the raw image data stream from the camera only needs to transmit 200KB at a time. The image acquisition module controls the camera's image acquisition time according to instructions, and the interval between two image acquisition times ensures that the image compression module can process the 1MB image completely. In this way, it is not necessary to acquire images from the camera in real time, but the need for low-cost monitoring can still be met.
[0026] In image compression, a certain number of pixels are first input into the compression module. After DTC discrete cosine transform, quantization, scan sorting, and entropy encoding, the compressed data stream is output and stored in the chip. During the quantization stage, a quantization table is used to quantize the data. The magnitude of the values in the quantization table largely determines the compression ratio; the larger the values, the higher the compression ratio. The compression ratio can be adjusted by adding a coefficient to the quantization table.
[0027] In a preferred embodiment, the main control chip further includes a timing module and a sleep module. The timing module can be preset with a data acquisition schedule, automatically waking the system at specific times to perform image acquisition. During periods when image acquisition is not performed, the sleep module controls the system to enter sleep mode, reducing energy consumption.
[0028] In a preferred embodiment, the image acquisition system further includes an instruction module connected to the main control chip. The instruction module includes an image acquisition trigger button and a radio frequency (RF) module; therefore, image acquisition can also be triggered via the button or the RF module. The RF module can also be used to transmit compressed image data from the storage area to an external server platform.
[0029] In a preferred embodiment, the main control chip further includes a serial port, through which compressed image data in the storage area can be output to the user terminal for visualization display. Specifically, the user terminal can be any device capable of data interaction and image visualization, such as a computer or mobile terminal.
[0030] Example 2:
[0031] See Figure 2 The difference between Embodiment 2 and Embodiment 1 is that the buffer area of the image acquisition module includes a first buffer area and a second buffer area. The raw image data stream transmitted from the camera is transmitted to the image acquisition module in batches. The first buffer area and the second buffer area work alternately: when the first buffer area receives the image data stream from the camera, the image compression module compresses the data in the second buffer area and transmits it to the storage area. Conversely, when the second buffer area receives the image data stream, the image compression module compresses the data in the first buffer area and transmits it to the storage area.
[0032] By setting up two buffers, the system can receive the raw image data stream from the camera while simultaneously compressing a portion of the data stream, thereby improving the efficiency of data compression through parallel processing.
[0033] Example 3:
[0034] See Figure 3 The difference between Embodiment 3 and Embodiment 1 is that the main control chip is provided with an external memory interface for connecting to an external memory chip. The memory chip is connected to the image compression module, which is equivalent to setting all or part of the buffer area in the image acquisition module externally. Users can connect a low-cost external memory as needed, so that less buffer area or no buffer area is needed on the main control chip.
[0035] Preferably, the image acquisition module does not require a buffer area; all buffers are provided by an external storage chip. Since external storage chips are inexpensive, the size of the buffer area is A, and the size of a single original image captured by the camera is B, where 0.1
[0036] Example 4:
[0037] Example 4 differs from Examples 1, 2, or 3 in that the camera uses a partial shooting method during the shooting process. Based on the size of the buffer in the image acquisition module, the area to be shot is divided into several sub-regions, and the camera sequentially captures images of each sub-region. Each time, the camera transmits a data stream containing the image of a sub-region. This further reduces the space requirements of the buffer in the image acquisition module, thereby saving costs.
[0038] Preferably, in order to improve processing speed, the upper limit of the data size of the original image of the sub-region does not exceed the minimum size of the buffer in the image acquisition module.
[0039] The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, and are not intended to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that modifications can still be made to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent substitutions can be made to some of the technical features. Such modifications or substitutions do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.
Claims
1. An image acquisition system comprising a camera, a master control chip, the master control chip comprising an image acquisition module, an image compression module, a storage area, characterized in that: the image acquisition module is connected with the camera, the image acquisition module comprises a cache area, the size of the cache area is A, the size of an original picture collected by the camera is B, wherein 0.1 < A / B < 1; the data stream of the original picture is transmitted to the cache area in batches, the image compression module is connected with the image acquisition module and the storage area respectively, the image compression module reads the data stream in the cache area and compresses it, and stores the compressed data in the storage area; the image acquisition module controls the image acquisition time of the camera according to the instruction, and the interval between two image acquisition times is set to be greater than the time for the image compression module to process an original picture.
2. The image acquisition system of claim 1, wherein, the cache area comprises a first cache area and a second cache area, the first cache area and the second cache area work alternately: when the first cache area receives the original picture data stream of the camera, the image compression module extracts and compresses the data in the second cache area, and then transmits it to the storage area; conversely, when the second cache area receives the original picture data stream of the camera, the image compression module extracts and compresses the data in the first cache area, and then transmits it to the storage area.
3. An image acquisition system comprising a camera, a master control chip, the master control chip comprising an image acquisition module, an image compression module, a storage area, characterized in that: the image acquisition module is connected with the camera, an external memory interface is arranged on the master control chip, the external memory interface is internally connected with the image compression module, the external memory interface is used for externally connecting a storage chip, the external memory comprises a cache area, the size of the cache area is A, the size of an original picture collected by the camera is B, wherein 0.1 < A / B < 1; the data stream of the original picture is transmitted to the cache area in whole or in batches, the image compression module reads the data stream in the cache area and compresses it, and stores the compressed data in the storage area; the image acquisition module controls the image acquisition time of the camera according to the instruction, and the interval between two image acquisition times is set to be greater than the time for the image compression module to process an original picture.
4. The image acquisition system according to one of claims 1-3, characterized in that, the original picture collected by the camera is a sub-area of a shooting area, and the image acquisition of the whole monitoring area is completed by shooting images of multiple sub-areas for multiple times.
5. The image acquisition system of any one of claims 1-3, wherein, the master control chip further comprises a timing module, the timing module can pre-set an acquisition time table, and automatically wakes up the system to perform image acquisition according to the time set in the acquisition time table.
6. The image acquisition system of claim 5, wherein, the master control chip further comprises a sleep module, which controls the system to sleep during the time period when no image acquisition is performed.
7. The image acquisition system of any of claims 1-3, wherein, the image acquisition system further comprises an instruction module, the instruction module is connected with the master control chip, the instruction module comprises a radio frequency module, the radio frequency module is connected with a server, and is used for sending the data in the storage area to the server or receiving the instruction of the server to control the master control chip to start image acquisition.
8. The image acquisition system of claim 7, wherein, The instruction module further comprises an image acquisition trigger button, which controls the master control chip to start image acquisition.
9. The image acquisition system of any of claims 1-3, wherein, The master control chip further comprises a serial port, and the compressed image data in the storage area can be output to a user terminal through the serial port, so that the user terminal can visually display for the user.