Auto-Focus Control Using G-Sensor Orientation Tables
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Solution Overview
Problem
The auto-focus accuracy of cameras in portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs, is dependent on how the user holds the device, leading to inconsistent focus quality due to varying orientations.
Innovation Solution
A portable electronic device with a lens module, image sensor, G-sensor, storage unit, and focus module that uses orientation-detecting G-sensors to select appropriate autofocus look-up tables and generate actuating signals to adjust the image distance between the lens and image sensor, employing a voice coil mechanism to adjust the focus based on the device's orientation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the camera uses a fixed autofocus mechanism, then the device structure is simple, but the auto-focus accuracy deteriorates when the device orientation changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic autofocus system that adapts to different device orientations. The G-sensor detects orientation changes and triggers the focus module to adjust the image distance accordingly. This dynamic adjustment ensures optimal focus accuracy regardless of whether the device is held horizontally, vertically, or at intermediate angles, resolving the contradiction between fixed simplicity and adaptive precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback through the G-sensor that continuously monitors device orientation and provides this information to the focus module. Based on this feedback, the focus module adjusts the image distance to maintain optimal focus. This closed-loop feedback mechanism enables the system to automatically compensate for orientation changes without requiring manual intervention.
2Reliability
If the camera does not compensate for gravity, then the structure is simple, but image quality deteriorates at non-horizontal orientations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the counterweight principle by using the G-sensor to detect gravity's influence on the lens module at different orientations. The focus module then generates compensating actuating signals to counteract gravity's effect on the image distance. This ensures consistent image quality across all orientations by actively compensating for gravitational distortion rather than passively accepting it.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the image distance parameter dynamically based on device orientation. The G-sensor detects orientation and triggers the focus module to adjust the image distance to specific predetermined values corresponding to different orientations (horizontal, vertical, intermediate). This parameter adjustment ensures optimal focus and image quality regardless of gravitational influence at any orientation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method improves the auto-focus quality by accounting for different orientations, ensuring consistent image capture by adjusting the focus module's magnetic force to compensate for gravity's influence, thereby enhancing the camera's ability to capture clear images regardless of the device's position.
Implementation Method 1
The G-sensor detects the orientation of the portable electronic device to generate orientation information
Implementation Method 2
adjusting the focus module's magnetic force to compensate for gravity's influence
Data Source
AI summary
A portable electronic device and an autofocus control method of a camera of the portable electronic device are disclosed. The portable electronic device provides a G-sensor to detect the orientation of the portable electronic device, and provides a storage unit to store autofocus lookup tables for different orientations of the portable electronic device, respectively. According to orientation information from the G-sensor, the central processing unit of the portable electronic device selects one autofocus lookup table from the storage unit and thereby generates an actuating signal for a focus model. The focus model of the portable electronic device is actuated by the actuating signal to adjust an image distance between a lens module and an image sensor of the camera.