Method and electronic device for seamless tile blending with linear matching

Abstract

A method and an electronic device for seamless tile blending with linear matching are provided. The method comprises receiving an input image and generating a target image based on the input image. The generating comprises modifying each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image based on linear matching, updating the target image by blending an overlapping region between the modified tile and a previously processed tile, and updating the target image by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile.

Description

METHOD AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR SEAMLESS TILE BLENDING WITH LINEAR MATCHING

[0001] This disclosure relates generally to image processing technologies. More specifically, this disclosure relates to a method and an electronic device for seamless tile blending with linear matching.

[0002] Due to hardware constraints such as limited memory, images are often processed in tiles before being assembled together. However, various shortcomings exist. For example, tile-based processing can introduce inconsistencies, such as variations in brightness between tiles, thus creating visible seam artifacts when the tiles are assembled together.

[0003] This disclosure relates to seamless tile blending with linear matching.

[0004] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for seamless tile blending with linear matching is provided. The method may comprise receiving, using at least one processing device of an electronic device, an input image. The method may comprise generating, using the at least one processing device, a target image based on the input image. The generating may comprise modifying each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image based on linear matching. The generating may comprise updating the target image by blending an overlapping region between the modified tile and a previous processed tile. The generating may comprise updating the target image by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile.

[0005] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for seamless tile blending with linear matching may include receiving, using at least one processing device of an electronic device, an input image. The method may further include generating, using the at least one processing device, a target image using the input image. The generating the target image using the input image may include, for each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image, processing the tile to obtain an incoming tile, modifying the incoming tile by applying scaling and offset coefficients to the incoming tile, for each pixel in the target image that corresponds to the tile and that overlaps with a previous tile in the target image, updating the pixel in the target image with a combination of a pixel value of the pixel in the target image and a pixel value of a first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile, and for each pixel in the target image that corresponds to the tile and that does not overlap with the previous tile, updating the target image by filling in each such pixel in the target image with a second corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile.

[0006] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for seamless tile blending with linear matching is provided. The electronic device may comprise memory storing instructions, and at least one processing device each comprising processing circuitry, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processing device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to receive an input image; and generate a target image based on the input image, wherein, to generate the target image, the at least one processing device is configured to modify each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image based on linear matching; update the target image by blending an overlapping region between the modified tile and a previous processed tile; and update the target image by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile.

[0007] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device may include at least one processing device configured to receive an input image. The at least one processing device may be also configured to generate a target image using the input image. To generate the target image using the input image, for each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image, the at least one processing device may be also configured to process the tile to obtain an incoming tile, modify the incoming tile by an application of scaling and offset coefficients to the incoming tile, for each pixel in the target image that corresponds to the tile and that overlaps with a previous tile in the target image, update the pixel in the target image with a combination of a pixel value of the pixel in the target image and a pixel value of a first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile, and for each pixel in the target image that corresponds to the tile and that does not overlap with the previous tile, update the target image by filling in each such pixel in the target image with a second corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile.

[0008] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, provided is a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processing device individually or collectively, cause the at least one processing device to perform the above methods.

[0009] Other technical features may be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.

[0010] For a more complete understanding of this disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:

[0011] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network configuration including an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0012] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of tiling of an image that has been tiled in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0013] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an image that includes soft seam artifacts;

[0014] FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate an example of a tile blending process in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0015] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a target image that is partially reconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0016] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an example of tile processing sequences in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0017] FIG. 7 illustrates a method for seamless tile blending with linear matching in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0018] FIG. 8 illustrates a method for seamless tile blending with linear matching in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0019] It may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The terms "transmit," "receive," and "communicate," as well as derivatives thereof, encompass both direct and indirect communication. The terms "include" and "comprise," as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term "or" is inclusive, meaning and / or. The phrase "associated with," as well as derivatives thereof, means to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like.

[0020] Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed from computer readable program code and embodied in a computer readable medium. The terms "application" and "program" refer to one or more computer programs, software components, sets of instructions, procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or a portion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computer readable program code. The phrase "computer readable program code" includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code, and executable code. The phrase "computer readable medium" includes any type of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type of memory. A "non-transitory" computer readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical, or other communication links that transport transitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computer readable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored and media where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as a rewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

[0021] As used here, terms and phrases such as "have," "may have," "include," or "may include" a feature (like a number, function, operation, or component such as a part) indicate the existence of the feature and do not exclude the existence of other features. Also, as used here, the phrases "A or B," "at least one of A and / or B," or "one or more of A and / or B" may include all possible combinations of A and B. For example, "A or B," "at least one of A and B," and "at least one of A or B" may indicate all of (1) including at least one A, (2) including at least one B, or (3) including at least one A and at least one B. Further, as used here, the terms "first" and "second" may modify various components regardless of importance and do not limit the components. These terms are only used to distinguish one component from another. For example, a first user device and a second user device may indicate different user devices from each other, regardless of the order or importance of the devices. A first component may be denoted a second component and vice versa without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0022] It will be understood that, when an element (such as a first element) is referred to as being (operatively or communicatively) "coupled with / to" or "connected with / to" another element (such as a second element), it can be coupled or connected with / to the other element directly or via a third element. In contrast, it will be understood that, when an element (such as a first element) is referred to as being "directly coupled with / to" or "directly connected with / to" another element (such as a second element), no other element (such as a third element) intervenes between the element and the other element.

[0023] As used here, the phrase "configured (or set) to" may be interchangeably used with the phrases "suitable for," "having the capacity to," "designed to," "adapted to," "made to," or "capable of" depending on the circumstances. The phrase "configured (or set) to" does not essentially mean "specifically designed in hardware to." Rather, the phrase "configured to" may mean that a device can perform an operation together with another device or parts. For example, the phrase "processor configured (or set) to perform A, B, and C" may mean a generic-purpose processor (such as a CPU or application processor) that may perform the operations by executing one or more software programs stored in a memory device or a dedicated processor (such as an embedded processor) for performing the operations.

[0024] The terms and phrases as used here are provided merely to describe some embodiments of this disclosure but not to limit the scope of other embodiments of this disclosure. It is to be understood that the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. All terms and phrases, including technical and scientific terms and phrases, used here have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments of this disclosure belong. It will be further understood that terms and phrases, such as those defined in commonly-used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined here. In some cases, the terms and phrases defined here may be interpreted to exclude embodiments of this disclosure.

[0025] Examples of an "electronic device" according to embodiments of this disclosure may include at least one of a smartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a mobile phone, a video phone, an e-book reader, a desktop PC, a laptop computer, a netbook computer, a workstation, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable multimedia player (PMP), an MP3 player, a mobile medical device, a camera, or a wearable device (such as smart glasses, a head-mounted device (HMD), electronic clothes, an electronic bracelet, an electronic necklace, an electronic accessory, an electronic tattoo, a smart mirror, or a smart watch). Other examples of an electronic device include a smart home appliance. Examples of the smart home appliance may include at least one of a television, a digital video disc (DVD) player, an audio player, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a cleaner, an oven, a microwave oven, a washer, a dryer, an air cleaner, a set-top box, a home automation control panel, a security control panel, a TV box (such as SAMSUNG HOMESYNC, APPLETV, or GOOGLE TV), a smart speaker or speaker with an integrated digital assistant (such as SAMSUNG GALAXY HOME, APPLE HOMEPOD, or AMAZON ECHO), a gaming console (such as an XBOX, PLAYSTATION, or NINTENDO), an electronic dictionary, an electronic key, a camcorder, or an electronic picture frame. Still other examples of an electronic device include at least one of various medical devices (such as diverse portable medical measuring devices (like a blood sugar measuring device, a heartbeat measuring device, or a body temperature measuring device), a magnetic resource angiography (MRA) device, a magnetic resource imaging (MRI) device, a computed tomography (CT) device, an imaging device, or an ultrasonic device), a navigation device, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, an event data recorder (EDR), a flight data recorder (FDR), an automotive infotainment device, a sailing electronic device (such as a sailing navigation device or a gyro compass), avionics, security devices, vehicular head units, industrial or home robots, automatic teller machines (ATMs), point of sales (POS) devices, or Internet of Things (IoT) devices (such as a bulb, various sensors, electric or gas meter, sprinkler, fire alarm, thermostat, street light, toaster, fitness equipment, hot water tank, heater, or boiler). Other examples of an electronic device include at least one part of a piece of furniture or building / structure, an electronic board, an electronic signature receiving device, a projector, or various measurement devices (such as devices for measuring water, electricity, gas, or electromagnetic waves). Note that, according to various embodiments of this disclosure, an electronic device may be one or a combination of the above-listed devices. According to some embodiments of this disclosure, the electronic device may be a flexible electronic device. The electronic device disclosed here is not limited to the above-listed devices and may include new electronic devices depending on the development of technology.

[0026] In the following description, electronic devices are described with reference to the accompanying drawings, according to various embodiments of this disclosure. As used here, the term "user" may denote a human or another device (such as an artificial intelligent electronic device) using the electronic device.

[0027] Definitions for other certain words and phrases may be provided throughout this patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

[0028] None of the description in this application should be read as implying that any particular element, step, operation, or function is an essential element that must be included in the claim scope. The scope of patented subject matter is defined only by the claims. Moreover, none of the claims is intended to limit the interpretation of any term beyond its ordinary and customary meaning as understood by those skilled in the art. Use of any term such as "mechanism," "module," "device," "unit," "component," "element," "member," "apparatus", "electronic device," "machine," "system," "processor," or "controller" is intended to refer to structural or functional components understood by those skilled in the relevant art, and is not intended to invoke any country-specific statutory construction rule requiring means-plus-function interpretation.

[0029] FIGS. 1 through 8, discussed below, and an embodiment of this disclosure are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it should be appreciated that this disclosure is not limited to the embodiment, and all changes and / or equivalents or replacements thereto also belong to the scope of this disclosure. The same or similar reference numerals may be used to refer to the same or similar elements throughout the specification and the drawings.

[0030] As noted above, due to hardware constraints such as limited memory, images are often processed in tiles before being assembled together. However, various shortcomings exist. For example, tile processing operations can introduce variations such as variations in brightness from tile to tile, thus creating hard seam artifacts when the tiles are assembled together. While simple blending along tile boundaries may help reduce the hard seam, tile brightness variation may still be observable as a soft seam artifact. As used herein, hard seam may refer to a visually noticeable boundary artifact caused by brightness variations between adjacent tiles, whereas soft seam may refer to a more gradual and less distinct artifact that remains observable due to residual brightness differences between tiles, even after blending is applied along tile boundaries.

[0031] To overcome the above-described disadvantages associated tile processing and tile blending, this disclosure may provide seamless tile blending with linear matching. In an embodiment, linear matching on neighboring tiles may be performed on overlapping pixels of the neighboring tiles before blending the tiles back together again. As described in this disclosure, this may include passing a tile from an input image through an image signal processing (ISP) pipeline to obtain an incoming tile. A first set of pixels of the incoming tile that overlap with a location of a previous tile in a target (output) image and a second set of pixels of the previous tile in target image that overlap with a location of the currently-processed tile in the target image may be retrieved and linear matching may be performed between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain scaling and offset coefficients.

[0032] In an embodiment, the incoming tile may be modified by applying the scaling and offset coefficients to the incoming tile. As at least a part of generating the target (output) image, for pixels of the currently-processed tile (nthtile) in the target image that overlap with the previous tile ((n-1)thtile) in the target image, each such pixel in the target image may be updated with a combination (e.g., an average) of the corresponding pixel value from the modified incoming tile and a current pixel value in the target image. For pixels of the currently-processed tile (nthtile) in the target image that do not overlap with the previous tile ((n-1)thtile) in the target image, the target image may be updated by filling in each such pixel with the corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile. An embodiment of this disclosure may minimize the pixel-wise error between common pixels in a target image and processed incoming tiles from an input image by utilizing the above-described modified incoming tile to replace pixels in overlapping regions of the target image. The processes of this disclosure have been found to significantly reduce or eliminate tile artifacts in output images.

[0033] In an embodiment of the disclosure, an electronic device may receive an input image and generate a target image based on the input image. The generating of the target image may comprise modifying each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image based on linear matching, updating the target image by blending an overlapping region between a modified tile and a previously processed tile, and updating the target image by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile, as illustrated in FIG. 8.Note that while an embodiment discussed below is described in the context of use in consumer electronic devices (such as smartphones), this is merely one example. It will be understood that the principles of this disclosure may be implemented in any number of other suitable contexts and may use any suitable device or devices. It will be understood that the principles of this disclosure may be implemented using any number of devices. In general, this disclosure is not limited to use with any specific type(s) of device(s).

[0034] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network configuration 100 including an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the network configuration 100 shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the network configuration 100 may be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0035] According to an embodiment of this disclosure, an electronic device 101 may be included in the network configuration 100. The electronic device 101 may include at least one of a bus 110, a processor 120, memory 130, an input / output (I / O) interface 150, a display 160, a communication interface 170, or a sensor 180. In an embodiment, the electronic device 101 may not include at least one of these components or may include one or more additional components. For example, the electronic device 101 may include the processor 120 and the memory 130. The processor 120 may correspond to at least one processing device. The memory 130 may correspond to at least one memory. The at least one memory may store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing device individually or collectively, may cause the at least one processing device to perform one or more of operations described herein. The bus 110 may include a circuit for connecting the components 120-180 with one another and for transferring communications (such as control messages and / or data) between the components.

[0036] The processor 120 may include at least one processor, such as one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), at least one processor circuitry, or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). In an embodiment, the processor 120 may include one or more of a central processing unit (CPU), an application processor (AP), a communication processor (CP), or a graphics processor unit (GPU). The processor 120 may be able to perform control on at least one of the other components of the electronic device 101 and / or perform an operation or data processing relating to communication or other functions. As described in more detail below, the processor 120 may perform various operations related to seamless tile blending with linear matching

[0037] The memory 130 may include volatile and / or non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 130 may store commands or data related to at least one other component of the electronic device 101. According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the memory 130 may store software and / or a program 140. The program 140 may include, for example, a kernel 141, middleware 143, an application programming interface (API) 145, and / or an application program (or "application") 147. At least a portion of the kernel 141, middleware 143, or API 145 may be denoted an operating system (OS).

[0038] The kernel 141 may control or manage system resources (such as the bus 110, processor 120, or memory 130) used to perform operations or functions implemented in other programs (such as the middleware 143, API 145, or application 147). The kernel 141 may provide an interface that allows the middleware 143, the API 145, or the application 147 to access the individual components of the electronic device 101 to control or manage the system resources. The application 147 may support various functions related to seamless tile blending with linear matching. These functions may be performed by a single application or by multiple applications that each carries out one or more of these functions. The middleware 143 may function as a relay to allow the API 145 or the application 147 to communicate data with the kernel 141, for instance. A plurality of applications 147 may be provided. The middleware 143 may be able to control work requests received from the applications 147, such as by allocating the priority of using the system resources of the electronic device 101 (like the bus 110, the processor 120, or the memory 130) to at least one of the plurality of applications 147. The API 145 may be an interface allowing the application 147 to control functions provided from the kernel 141 or the middleware 143. For example, the API 145 may include at least one interface or function (such as a command) for filing control, window control, image processing, or text control.

[0039] The I / O interface 150 may serve as an interface that may, for example, transfer commands or data input from a user or other external devices to other component(s) of the electronic device 101. The I / O interface 150 may output commands or data received from other component(s) of the electronic device 101 to the user or the other external device (e.g., a first electronic device 102, a second electronic device 104, and / or a server 106).

[0040] The display 160 may include, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, a quantum-dot light emitting diode (QLED) display, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) display, or an electronic paper display. The display 160 may be a depth-aware display, such as a multi-focal display. The display 160 may be able to display, for example, various contents (such as text, images, videos, icons, or symbols) to the user. The display 160 may include a touchscreen and may receive, for example, a touch, gesture, proximity, or hovering input using an electronic pen or a body portion of the user.

[0041] The communication interface 170, for example, may be able to set up communication between the electronic device 101 and the external electronic device (such as the first electronic device 102, the second electronic device 104, or the server 106). For example, the communication interface 170 may be connected with a network 162 or 164 through wireless or wired communication to communicate with the external electronic device. The communication interface 170 may be a wired or wireless transceiver or any other component for transmitting and receiving signals.

[0042] The wireless communication may be able to use at least one of, for example, WiFi, long term evolution (LTE), long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A), 5th generation wireless system (5G), millimeter-wave or 60 GHz wireless communication, Wireless USB, code division multiple access (CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), wireless broadband (WiBro), or global system for mobile communication (GSM), as a communication protocol. The wired connection may include, for example, at least one of a universal serial bus (USB), high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), recommended standard 232 (RS-232), or plain old telephone service (POTS). The network 162 or 164 may include at least one communication network, such as a computer network (like a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN)), Internet, or a telephone network.

[0043] The electronic device 101 may further include one or more sensors 180 that may meter a physical quantity or detect an activation state of the electronic device 101 and convert metered or detected information into an electrical signal. For example, one or more sensors 180 may include one or more cameras or other imaging sensors for capturing images of scenes. The sensor(s) 180 may include one or more buttons for touch input, one or more microphones, a gesture sensor, a gyroscope or gyro sensor, an air pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor or magnetometer, an acceleration sensor or accelerometer, a grip sensor, a proximity sensor, a color sensor (such as an RGB sensor), a bio-physical sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, an illumination sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) sensor, an electromyography (EMG) sensor, an electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor, an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor, an infrared (IR) sensor, an ultrasound sensor, an iris sensor, or a fingerprint sensor. The sensor(s) 180 may further include an inertial measurement unit, which may include one or more accelerometers, gyroscopes, and other components. In addition, the sensor(s) 180 may include a control circuit for controlling at least one of the sensors included here. Any of these sensor(s) 180 may be located within the electronic device 101.

[0044] In an embodiment, the first external electronic device 102 or the second external electronic device 104 may be a wearable device or an electronic device-mountable wearable device (such as an HMD). When the electronic device 101 is mounted in the first electronic device 102 (such as the HMD), the electronic device 101 may communicate with the first electronic device 102 through the communication interface 170. The electronic device 101 may be directly connected with the first electronic device 102 to communicate with the first electronic device 102 without involving with a separate network. The electronic device 101 may be an augmented reality wearable device, such as eyeglasses, that include one or more imaging sensors.

[0045] The first and second external electronic devices 102 and 104 and the server 106 each may be a device of the same or a different type from the electronic device 101. According to an embodiment of this disclosure, the server 106 may include a group of one or more servers. According to an embodiment of this disclosure, all or some of the operations executed on the electronic device 101 may be executed on another or multiple other electronic devices (such as the first electronic device 102 and the second electronic device 104, or server 106). According to an embodiment of this disclosure, when the electronic device 101 should perform some function or service automatically or at a request, the electronic device 101, instead of executing the function or service on its own or additionally, may request another device (such as the first electronic device 102 and the second electronic device 104, or server 106) to perform at least some functions associated therewith. The other electronic device (such as the first electronic device 102 and the second electronic device 104, or server 106) may be able to execute the requested functions or additional functions and transfer a result of the execution to the electronic device 101. The electronic device 101 may provide a requested function or service by processing the received result as it is or additionally. To this end, a cloud computing, distributed computing, or client-server computing technique may be used, for example. While FIG. 1 shows that the electronic device 101 may include the communication interface 170 to communicate with the first electronic device 102, the second electronic device 104, or the server 106 via the network 162 or 164, the electronic device 101 may be independently operated without a separate communication function according to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0046] The server 106 may include the same or similar components 110-180 as the electronic device 101 (or a suitable subset thereof). The server 106 may support to drive the electronic device 101 by performing at least one of operations (or functions) implemented on the electronic device 101. For example, the server 106 may include a processing module or processor that may support the processor 120 implemented in the electronic device 101. As described in more detail below, the server 106 may perform various operations related to seamless tile blending with linear matching.

[0047] Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a network configuration 100 including an electronic device 101, various changes may be made to FIG. 1. For example, the network configuration 100 may include any number of each component in any suitable arrangement. In general, computing and communication systems come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 1 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to any particular configuration. Also, while FIG. 1 illustrates one operational environment in which various features disclosed in this patent document may be used, these features may be used in any other suitable system. The electronic device 101 may be configured to perform the operations in the flowcharts illustrated in FIGS. 7 and / or 8.

[0048] For example, the electronic device 101 may comprise at least one processing device 120 and at least one memory 130 storing instructions that, when executed individually or collectively by the at least one processing device 120, may cause the at least one processing device 120 to receive an input image; and generate a target image based on the input image, wherein, to generate the target image, the at least one processing device 120 is configured to modify each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image based on linear matching, update the target image by blending an overlapping region between the modified tile and a previous processed tile, and update the target image by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile.

[0049] In an embodiment, to modify each tile based on linear matching, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to obtain a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the modified tile that overlap with the previous processed tile in the target image, obtain a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previous processed tile in the target image, and obtain scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0050] In an embodiment, the at least one processing device (120) may be further configured to perform linear matching between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain the scaling and offset coefficients.

[0051] In an embodiment, to perform the linear matching, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to minimize a total squared error between co-located pixel pairs from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0052] In an embodiment, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to perform the linear matching separately for a red (R) channel, a green (G) channel, and a blue (B) channel.

[0053] In an embodiment, to modify each tile, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to apply the coefficients for the red (R) channel, the green (G) channel, and the blue (B) channel to each tile on a pixel-wise basis.

[0054] In an embodiment, to update the target image by blending the overlapping region, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to compute an average of a pixel value of the modified tile and a pixel value of the previous proceed tile.

[0055] As noted above, due to hardware constraints such as limited memory, images are often processed in tiles before being assembled together. For example, FIG. 2 illustrates an example of tiling of an image 200 that has been tiled in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. For ease of explanation, tiling such as shown in FIG. 2 may be performed using the electronic device 101 in the network configuration 100 of FIG. 1. However, the tiling may be performed using any other suitable electronic device(s), such as the server 106, and in any other suitable system(s).

[0056] As shown in FIG. 2, the image 200 is tiled by dividing the image 200 into a plurality of tiles, such as 16 tiles, i.e., in a 4x4 format. As illustrated in FIG. 2, each tile is shown within a bounding box. In tile-based processing, there is an overlapping area 202 between adjacent tiles (or neighboring tiles), such as shown in FIG. 2. The tiles are subsequently processed independently by the same image signal processing (ISP) pipeline before being put back together to form a final output image.

[0057] However, tile processing operations may introduce variations such as variations in brightness from tile to tile, thus creating hard seam artifacts when the tiles are assembled together. While simple blending along tile boundaries may help reduce the hard seam, tile brightness variation may still be observable as tile artifacts (e.g., soft seam artifacts). FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an image 300 that includes soft seam artifacts resulting from previous approaches to tile processing, in which the soft seam artifacts appear in overlapping areas between neighboring tiles (or adjacent tiles).

[0058] To overcome the above-described disadvantages associated tile processing and tile blending, this disclosure may provide for seamless tile blending with linear matching. In an embodiment of this disclosure, linear matching on neighboring tiles is performed on overlapping pixels of the neighboring tiles before blending the tiles back together again.

[0059] FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate an example of a tile blending process 400 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. For ease of explanation, the process 400 may be described as involving the use of the electronic device 101 in the network configuration 100 of FIG. 1. However, the process 400 may be used with any other suitable electronic device (such as the server 106) or a combination of devices (such as the electronic device 101 and the server 106) and in any other suitable system(s).

[0060] As shown in FIG. 4A, an input image 402 may be captured, such as using one or more cameras or other imaging sensors for capturing images of scenes, such as one or more cameras or other imaging sensors of the electronic device 101. The input image 402 is divided into a plurality of tiles by the electronic device 101. In this example, the input image 402 is divided into 16 tiles (a 4x4 format), but it will be understood that other tiling formats may be used. Each tile is processed by an ISP pipeline 403, and processed tiles are reconstructed into a target image 404. The ISP pipeline 403 may be implemented by the electronic device 101. The ISP pipeline 403 may be implemented using one or more components of the electronic device 101 and / or by another processing device communicatively coupled to the electronic device 101. Once all tiles from the input image 402 are processed, the target image 404 may be provided as a final output image.

[0061] FIG. 4A shows that a first input tile 406 from the input image 402 may be processed using the ISP pipeline 403, and the tile may be reconstructed in the target image 404 as a first output tile 407. For each tile processed after the first input tile 406, tile blending may be performed to reduce visual artifacts in areas that overlap between tiles.

[0062] For instance, as shown in FIG. 4B, a second input tile 408 may be passed from the input image 402 through the ISP pipeline 403 to obtain an incoming tile 410 (which may correspond to a currently processed tile or a processed tile). As also shown in FIG. 4B, an image 412 including a first set of pixels of the incoming tile 410 that overlap with a location of a previous tile in the target image 404 and an image 414 including a second set of pixels of the previous tile 407 in the target image 404 that overlap with a location of currently-processed tile 409 in the target image 404 are retrieved. Linear matching 416, which may be implemented as a linear matching operation, is performed between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain scaling and offset coefficients.

[0063] In an embodiment, the linear matching 416 may be performed to find optimal scaling and offset coefficients (a, b) based on a specified objective. For example, based on the sets of pixels retrieved, the following noisy linear model ( is the noise) may be assumed for the relationship between a set of ref pixels ( ) and a set of non-ref ones ( ), where represents the first set of pixels from the image 412 of the pixels from the incoming tile 410 (the nthtile) that overlaps with the (n-1)thtile, and where represents the second set of pixels from the image 414 (the (n-1)thtile) from the target image 404 that overlaps with the incoming tile 410 (the nthtile). The pixels may thus constitute a set of reference pixels of the (n-1)thtile in the target image 404, and pixels may constitute the non-reference pixels from the incoming tile 410. The reference pixels may thus be expressed by Equation (1).

[0064]

[0065] Here, and are the co-located pixels in the set of ref pixels and the set of non-ref pixels , respectively, is the error between pixel and pixel , and and are the scaling coefficient and offset coefficient, respectively.

[0066] As noted above, the coefficients and are to be estimated from these pixels based on an objective. For example, the objective may be the minimization of the sum of the total square error between all pairs of pixels . This may be expressed by Equation (2).

[0067]

[0068] In an embodiment, the linear matching 416 may be performed for the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) channels separately, resulting in coefficients for the R channel, for the G channel, for the B channel. It will be understood that any suitable optimization process may be used to find the optimal sets of coefficients , , .

[0069] As shown in FIG. 4C, in an embodiment, a modification operation 418 may take as input the incoming tile 410 and modifies, at operation 420, the incoming tile by applying the linear model (the scaling and offset coefficients) to the incoming tile 410 to provide a modified incoming tile 422. In an embodiment, the scaling and offset coefficients may be obtained for each channel for the G channel; for the B channel, and the coefficients may be applied (on a pixel-wise basis) on the incoming tile 410 for R, G, B channels to obtain modified incoming tile 422. Performing the linear matching 416 may serve to reduce the pixel-wise differences (error) between the common pixels in the target image 404 and the incoming tile 410. That is, by applying the optimized coefficients to the incoming tile 410, the resulting modified incoming tile 422 has a significantly reduced pixel-wise difference between common pixels in the target image 404 compared to the original incoming tile 410. In an embodiment, each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image 402 may be directly modified based on the linear matching 416, without separately obtaining or defining an incoming tile 410. In such embodiments, the linear matching 416 may be performed between overlapping pixel regions 412, 414 of a currently processed tile 409 and a previously processed tile 407 in a target image 404 to obtain scaling and offset coefficients. The obtained scaling and offset coefficients may then be applied to the currently processed tile 409 to generate a modified tile 422. The modified tile 422 may be used to update the target image 404 by blending overlapping regions with the previously processed tile 407 and by filling non-overlapping regions using pixel values of the modified tile 422.

[0070] As shown in FIG. 4C, as at least a part of generating the target (output) image 404, for pixels of the currently-processed tile 409 (nthtile) in the target image 404 that overlap with the previous tile 407 ((n-1)thtile) in the target image 404, each such pixel in the target image 404 may be updated with a combination (e.g., an average, mean, median, etc.) of the corresponding pixel value from the modified incoming tile 422 and a current pixel value in the target image 404. For pixels of the currently-processed tile 409 (nthtile) in the target image 404 that do not overlap with the previous tile 407 ((n-1)thtile) in the target image 404, the target image 404 may be updated by filling in each such pixel with the corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile 422.

[0071] As shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C, as at least a part of generating the target (output) image 404, after the linear matching 416 has been performed and a modified tile 422 has been obtained, the target image 404 may be updated using the modified tile 422. In particular, for pixels of a currently processed tile 409 (n-th tile) in the target image 404 that overlap with a previously processed tile 407 ((n-1)-th tile) in the target image 404, the target image 404 may be updated by blending an overlapping region using a combination (e.g., an average, mean, median, or weighted combination) of corresponding pixel values from the modified tile 422 and existing pixel values of the previously processed tile 407. For pixels of the currently processed tile 409 that do not overlap with the previously processed tile 407, the target image 404 may be updated by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile 422.

[0072] It will be understood that the above-described process 400 may be repeated for each iteration after the second iteration described above for each successive tile from the input image 402 until the target image 404 is fully formed.

[0073] For example, FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a target image 500 that is partially reconstructed in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of tiles, in this case in which the tiling is in a 4x4 format, 5 tiles, have been processed and added to the target image 500. A sixth tile 502, is therefore, the next to be processed, and the processing as described with respect to the process 400 of FIGS. 4A-4C continues until the entire target image 500 is formed. It will also be understood that some tiles may have more than one overlapping portion. For instance, the tile 502 shown in FIG. 5 overlaps a portion of both the previously processed second tile and the previously processed fifth tile. In an embodiment, the linear matching described in the process 400 may be performed for both overlapping portions of the tile 502.

[0074] Although FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate one example of a tile blending process 400, various changes may be made to FIGS. 4A-4C. For example, various components and functions in FIGS. 4A-4C may be combined, further subdivided, replicated, or rearranged according to particular needs. Also, one or more additional components and functions may be included if needed or desired. Moreover, while shown as a series of operations, various operations in FIGS. 4A-4C may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or occur any number of times (including zero times). Also, while FIGS. 4A-4C the images 402 and 404 may include particular content or a particular scene, it will be understood that the images 402 and 404 are merely examples, and the images could be of any content or scene.

[0075] Further, it will be understood that the order of processing of the tiles may vary as needed or desired. For example, FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate example tile processing sequences in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 6A illustrates a first tile processing sequence 601 in which tiles are processed left to right. FIG. 6B illustrates a second tile processing sequence 602 in which tiles are processed top to bottom. It will be understood that other sequences may be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0076] FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a method 700 for seamless tile blending with linear matching in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. For ease of explanation, the method 700 shown in FIG. 7 is described as being performed using the electronic device 101 in the network configuration 100 of FIG. 1. However, the method 700 may be performed using any other suitable device(s), such as the server 106, and in any other suitable system(s).

[0077] At operation 702, an input image 402 is received. This may include a processor, such as the processor 120, receiving data concerning an image captured using one or more camera or image sensor devices, such as those described with respect to the electronic device 101. As described in this disclosure, the input image is subjected to a tiling process to generate a target image using the input image. A first tile of the input image may be processed by an ISP pipeline 403 to reconstruct a portion of the target image corresponding to the first tile. Operations 704-710 shown in FIG. 7 may then be performed for the second and all subsequent tiles.

[0078] At operation 704, a tile from the input image 402 may be processed to obtain an incoming tile 410. In an embodiment, the tile may be processed at operation 704 using an ISP pipeline 403, such as an ISP pipeline 403 implemented on the electronic device 101. At operation 706, this incoming tile 410 may be modified by applying scaling and offset coefficients to the incoming tile 410. This may include the processor 120 performing linear matching, such as the linear matching operation 416 described with respect to FIGS. 4A-4C, to obtain the scaling coefficient and the offset coefficient.

[0079] As described in this disclosure, in an embodiment, modifying the incoming tile 410, may include obtaining a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the incoming tile 410 that overlap with a location of the previous tile in the target image 404, obtaining a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previous tile in the target image 404 that overlap with a location corresponding to the tile in the target image 404, and obtaining the scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels by performing the linear matching 416.

[0080] As also described in this disclosure, the linear matching 416 may be performed between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain the scaling and offset coefficients. In an embodiment, to perform the linear matching 416 a sum of a total squared error between pairs of pixels from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels is minimized. In an embodiment, each of the pairs of pixels are co-located pixels in the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels. As described in this disclosure, minimizing the sum of the total squared error between the pairs of pixels reduces an error between the pairs of pixels. As also described in this disclosure, the linear matching 416 may be performed for a red (R) channel, a green (G) channel, and a blue (B) channel separately such that the scaling and offset coefficients include coefficients for each of the R channel, the G channel, and the B channel. In an embodiment, to modify the incoming tile 410, the coefficients may be applied for each of the R channel, the G channel, and the B channel on a pixel-wise basis to the incoming tile 410.

[0081] At operation 708, for each pixel in the target image 404 that corresponds to the tile and that overlaps with a previous tile in the target image 404, the pixel in the target image 404 may be updated with a combination of a pixel value of the pixel in the target image 404 and a pixel value of a first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile 422. In an embodiment, the combination of the pixel value of the pixel in the target image 404 and the pixel value of the first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile 422 is an average. At operation 710, for each pixel in the target image 404 that corresponds to the tile and that does not overlap with the previous tile, the target image 404 may be updated by filling in each such pixel in the target image 404 with a second corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile 422.

[0082] At operation 712, it may be determined whether there are still additional tiles to process from the input tile. If so, the method moves back to operation 704 to process a next tile from the input image 402. If not, the method moves to operation 714. At operation 714, the reconstructed target image is output.

[0083] Although FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a method 700 for seamless blending with linear matching, various changes may be made to FIG. 7. For example, while shown as a series of operations, various operations in FIG. 7 may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or occur any number of times (including zero times).

[0084] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a method 800 for seamless tile blending with linear matching in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. For ease of explanation, the method 800 shown in FIG. 8 is described as being performed using the electronic device 101 in the network configuration 100 of FIG. 1. However, the method 800 may be performed using any other suitable device(s), such as the server 106, and in any other suitable system(s).

[0085] At operation 810, the at least one processing device 120 of an electronic device 101 may receive an input image 402. At operation 820, the at least one processing device 120 may generate a target image 404 based on the input image 402. To generate the target image 404, at operation 821, the at least one processing device 120 may modify each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image 402 based on linear matching 416. At operation 822, the at least one processing device 120 may update the target image 404 by blending an overlapping region between the modified tile and a previous processed tile. At operation 823, the at least one processing device 120 may update the target image 404 by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile.

[0086] In an embodiment, at operation 821, for modifying each tile based on linear matching, the at least one processing device 120 may comprise obtaining a first set of pixels that correspond to pixels of the modified tile that overlap with the previously processed tile in the target image, obtaining a second set of pixels that correspond to pixels of the previously processed tile in the target image, and obtaining scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0087] In an embodiment, at operation 821, for obtaining the scaling and offset coefficients, the at least one processing device 120 may perform the linear matching 416 between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0088] In an embodiment, at operation 821, for performing the linear matching 416, the at least one processing device 120 may minimize a total squared error between co-located pixel pairs from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0089] In an embodiment, at operation 821, the linear matching 416 may be performed separately for a red (R) channel, a green (G) channel, and a blue (B) channel.

[0090] In an embodiment, at operation 822, for updating the target image by blending the overlapping region, the at least one processing device 120 may compute an average of a pixel value of the modified tile and a pixel value of the previously proceed tile.

[0091] It should be noted that the functions shown in or described with respect to the figures can be implemented in an electronic device 101, 102, 104, server 106, or other device(s) in any suitable manner. For example, in some embodiments, at least some of the functions shown in or described with respect to the figures can be implemented or supported using one or more software applications or other software instructions that are executed by the processor 120 of the electronic device 101, 102, 104, server 106, or other device(s). In other embodiments, at least some of the functions shown in or described with respect to the figures can be implemented or supported using dedicated hardware components. In general, the functions shown in or described with respect to the figures can be performed using any suitable hardware or any suitable combination of hardware and software / firmware instructions. Also, the functions shown in or described with respect to the figures can be performed by a single device or by multiple devices.

[0092] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method 700 may comprise receiving, using at least one processing device 120 of an electronic device 101, an input image 402; and generating, using the at least one processing device 120, a target image 404 using the input image 402, the generating including, for each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image 402, processing the tile to obtain an incoming tile 410; modifying the incoming tile 410 by applying scaling and offset coefficients to the incoming tile; for each pixel in the target image 404 that corresponds to the tile and that overlaps with a previous tile in the target image 404, updating the pixel in the target image 404 with a combination of a pixel value of the pixel in the target image 404 and a pixel value of a first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile; and for each pixel in the target image 404 that corresponds to the tile and that does not overlap with the previous tile, updating the target image 404 by filling in each such pixel in the target image 404 with a second corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile.

[0093] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the modifying the incoming tile 410 includes obtaining a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the incoming tile 410 that overlap with a location of the previous tile in the target image 404, obtaining a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previous tile in the target image 404 that overlap with a location corresponding to the tile in the target image 404; and obtaining the scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0094] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method 700 may further comprise performing the linear matching 416 between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain the scaling and offset coefficients.

[0095] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the performing the linear matching 416 may include minimizing a sum of a total squared error between pairs of pixels from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0096] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, each of the pairs of pixels are co-located pixels in the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0097] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the minimizing the sum of the total squared error between the pairs of pixels may reduce an error between the pairs of pixels.

[0098] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the linear matching 416 may be performed for a red (R) channel, a blue (B) channel, and a green (G) channel separately such that the scaling and offset coefficients include coefficients for each of the R channel, the B channel, and the G channel.

[0099] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the modifying the incoming tile 410 may include applying the coefficients for each of the R channel, the B channel, and the G channel on a pixel-wise basis to the incoming tile.

[0100] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the processing the tile to obtain the incoming tile 410 may include processing the tile using an image signal processing pipeline of the electronic device 101.

[0101] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the combination of the pixel value of the pixel in the target image 404 and the pixel value of the first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile may be an average.

[0102] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronic device 101 may comprise at least one processing device 120 configured to receive an input image; and generate a target image using the input image, wherein, for each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image, the at least one processing device 120 is configured to process the tile to obtain an incoming tile; modify the incoming tile by an application of scaling and offset coefficients to the incoming tile; for each pixel in the target image that corresponds to the tile and that overlaps with a previous tile in the target image, update the pixel in the target image with a combination of a pixel value of the pixel in the target image and a pixel value of a first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile; and for each pixel in the target image that corresponds to the tile and that does not overlap with the previous tile, update the target image by filling in each such pixel in the target image with a second corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile.

[0103] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, to modify the incoming tile, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to obtain a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the incoming tile that overlap with a location of the previous tile in the target image; obtain a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previous tile in the target image that overlap with a location corresponding to the tile in the target image; and obtain the scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0104] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to perform linear matching between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain the scaling and offset coefficients.

[0105] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, to perform the linear matching 416, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to minimize a sum of a total squared error between pairs of pixels from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0106] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, each of the pairs of pixels are co-located pixels in the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0107] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the minimizing the sum of the total squared error between the pairs of pixels may reduce an error between the pairs of pixels.

[0108] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to perform the linear matching for a red (R) channel, a blue (B) channel, and a green (G) channel separately such that the scaling and offset coefficients include coefficients for each of the R channel, the B channel, and the G channel.

[0109] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, to modify the incoming tile, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to apply the coefficients for each of the R channel, the B channel, and the G channel on a pixel-wise basis to the incoming tile.

[0110] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, to process the tile to obtain the incoming tile, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to process the tile using an image signal processing pipeline of the electronic device 101.

[0111] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the combination of the pixel value of the pixel in the target image and the pixel value of the first corresponding pixel from the modified incoming tile may be an average.

[0112] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the modifying each tile based on linear matching may comprises obtaining a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the modified tile that overlap with the previously processed tile in the target image; obtaining a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previously processed tile in the target image; and obtaining scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0113] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the obtaining the scaling and offset coefficients may comprise performing linear matching between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0114] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the performing the linear matching may comprise minimizing a total squared error between co-located pixel pairs from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0115] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the linear matching may be performed separately for a red (R) channel, a green (G) channel, and a blue (B) channel.

[0116] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the modifying each tile may comprise applying the coefficients for the red (R) channel, the green (G) channel, and the blue (B) channel to the tile on a pixel-wise basis.

[0117] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the updating the target image by blending the overlapping region may be comprise computing an average of a pixel value of the modified tile and a pixel value of the previously proceed tile.

[0118] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, to modify each tile based on linear matching, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to obtain a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the modified tile that overlap with the previously processed tile in the target image; obtain a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previously processed tile in the target image; and obtain scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0119] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to perform linear matching between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain the scaling and offset coefficients.

[0120] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein, to perform the linear matching, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to minimize a total squared error between co-located pixel pairs from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.

[0121] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to perform the linear matching separately for a red (R) channel, a green (G) channel, and a blue (B) channel.

[0122] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, to modify each tile comprises, the at least one processing device (120) may be further configured to apply the coefficients for the red (R) channel, the green (G) channel, and the blue (B) channel to the tile on a pixel-wise basis.

[0123] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, to update the target image by blending the overlapping region, the at least one processing device 120 may be further configured to compute an average of a pixel value of the modified tile and a pixel value of the previously proceed tile.

[0124] Although this disclosure has been described with reference to various example embodiments, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art. It is intended that this disclosure encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1.A method for seamless tile blending with linear matching, the method comprising:receiving (810), using at least one processing device (120) of an electronic device (101), an input image; andgenerating (820), using the at least one processing device (120), a target image based on the input image, the generating comprising:modifying (821) each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image based on linear matching;updating (822) the target image by blending an overlapping region between the modified tile and a previously processed tile; andupdating (823) the target image by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile.2.The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying each tile based on linear matching comprises:obtaining a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the modified tile that overlap with the previously processed tile in the target image;obtaining a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previously processed tile in the target image; andobtaining scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.3.The method of claim 2, wherein the obtaining the scaling and offset coefficients comprises performing linear matching between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.4.The method of claim 3, wherein the performing the linear matching comprises minimizing a total squared error between co-located pixel pairs from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.5.The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein the linear matching is performed separately for a red (R) channel, a green (G) channel, and a blue (B) channel.6.The method of claim 5, wherein he tmodifying each tile comprises applying the coefficients for the red (R) channel, the green (G) channel, and the blue (B) channel to the tile on a pixel-wise basis.7.The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the updating the target image by blending the overlapping region comprises computing an average of a pixel value of the modified tile and a pixel value of the previously proceed tile.8.An electronic device (101) comprising:memory (130) storing instructions; andat least one processing device (120) each comprising processing circuitry,wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processing device (120) individually or collectively, cause the electronic device (101) to:receive an input image; andgenerate a target image based on the input image,wherein, to generate the target image, the at least one processing device (120) is configured to:modify each tile of a plurality of tiles of the input image based on linear matching;update the target image by blending an overlapping region between the modified tile and a previously processed tile; andupdate the target image by filling a non-overlapping region using pixel values of the modified tile.9.The electronic device (101) of claim 8, wherein, to modify each tile based on linear matching, the at least one processing device (120) is further configured to:obtain a first set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the modified tile that overlap with the previously processed tile in the target image;obtain a second set of pixels that corresponds to pixels of the previously processed tile in the target image; andobtain scaling and offset coefficients based on the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.10.The electronic device (101) of claim 9, wherein the at least one processing device (120) is further configured to perform linear matching between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels to obtain the scaling and offset coefficients.11.The electronic device (101) of claim 10, wherein, to perform the linear matching, the at least one processing device (120) is further configured to minimize a total squared error between co-located pixel pairs from the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels.12.The electronic device (101) of claim 10 or 11, wherein the at least one processing device (120) is further configured to perform the linear matching separately for a red (R) channel, a green (G) channel, and a blue (B) channel.13.The electronic device (101) of claim 12, wherein, to modify each tile comprises, the at least one processing device (120) is further configured to apply the coefficients for the red (R) channel, the green (G) channel, and the blue (B) channel to the tile on a pixel-wise basis.14.The electronic device (101) of any one of claims 8 to 13, wherein, to update the target image by blending the overlapping region, the at least one processing device (120) is further configured to compute an average of a pixel value of the modified tile and a pixel value of the previously proceed tile.15.A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processing device (120) individually or collectively, cause the at least one processing device (120) to perform the method of any one of claims 1-7.

Images