Multi-Camera Lens Obstruction Detection and Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic apparatuses with multiple cameras face challenges in detecting and addressing obstructions on camera lenses during video recording, particularly in mobile devices where additional detection components are not feasible, leading to potential image quality degradation.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a processor-controlled system that uses image data from one camera to detect obstructions on the lens of another camera and seamlessly switches to a secondary camera with a different field of view to maintain recording, while also providing visual feedback to the user for lens cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single camera is used for video recording, then the device structure is simple, but image quality deteriorates when the lens is obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple cameras into a single device, where the first camera serves as the primary recording camera and the second camera serves as both a wide-angle camera and a lens obstruction detection camera. This merging approach maintains reliable image quality by providing redundancy while avoiding the need for separate detection components that would increase device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The second camera performs multiple functions: it acts as a wide-angle camera for imaging and simultaneously serves as a lens obstruction detection camera. By making the second camera multi-functional, the patent avoids adding separate detection components, thus maintaining simple device structure while ensuring reliable image quality through obstruction detection and switching capability.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If additional detection components are added to detect lens obstructions, then obstruction detection accuracy improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The second camera serves dual purposes: it is a functional wide-angle camera for imaging and simultaneously acts as a lens obstruction detection camera. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate detection components, maintaining simple device structure while achieving accurate obstruction detection through image processing of the second camera's output.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses its own existing camera resources (the second camera) to perform lens obstruction detection, rather than relying on external or additional specialized detection components. This self-service approach maintains detection accuracy while avoiding increased device complexity and cost.
3Duration of action of moving object
If video recording continues with an obstructed lens, then recording continuity is maintained, but image quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the second camera's image output for lens obstructions and uses this feedback to determine when to switch from the first camera to the second camera. This feedback mechanism ensures that recording continuity is maintained by automatically switching to an unobstructed view when obstruction is detected, thereby preserving image quality throughout the recording duration.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically switches between the first camera and the second camera based on real-time obstruction detection results. This dynamic switching capability allows the system to maintain recording continuity while adapting to changing conditions (obstruction presence), ensuring that image quality is preserved by using the appropriate camera for each recording segment.
4Reliability
If the system switches to the second camera when obstruction is detected, then image quality is maintained, but recording stability may be affected by switching
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses continuous feedback from the second camera's image processing to detect obstructions and triggers camera switching only when necessary. This feedback-based switching approach maintains image quality by ensuring the recording camera is unobstructed, while minimizing disruptions to recording stability by switching only when obstruction is actually detected rather than switching frequently or unnecessarily.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic apparatus includes a first camera and a second camera each configured to be able to image a video, a lens covering the second camera, at least one processor configured to control recordings of the videos captured by the first camera and the second camera, and a display screen configured to display the videos captured by the first camera and the second camera. The at least one processor is configured to detect, on the basis of an image data captured by the second camera, whether at least part of the lens is covered with an obstruction that blocks imaging during the recording of the video captured by the second camera, and control so as to switch the recording of the video captured by the second camera to the recording of the video captured by the first camera in a case where the at least part of the lens is covered with the obstruction.