Dual-Camera Subject Tracking for Continuous Autofocus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image pickup devices struggle to track and maintain focus on a subject when it moves outside the capturing area displayed on the camera's finder, leading to loss of the subject and inability to continue capturing it in focus.
Innovation Solution
An image pickup device equipped with a first camera sensor and a second camera sensor that captures a wider region, along with a processing unit that extracts and tracks the subject, allowing the device to bring the subject into focus even when it moves outside the capturing area of the first camera sensor by utilizing a sub-camera to continue tracking the subject.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a single camera sensor with a narrow capturing region is used, then the image quality and focus precision are improved, but the ability to track subjects moving outside the capturing area deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the capturing function into two separate camera sensors: a first camera sensor with a narrow capturing region for high-quality image capture and precise focusing, and a second camera sensor with a wide capturing region for subject detection and tracking. This segmentation allows each sensor to be optimized for its specific function, resolving the contradiction between focus precision and tracking capability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the capturing region is expanded to include wider area, then the subject tracking capability is improved, but the image quality and focus precision deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system separates the wide-area detection function (second camera sensor) from the high-quality capture function (first camera sensor). The second sensor provides the wide capturing region needed for tracking subjects that move outside the main capturing area, while the first sensor maintains high image quality and focus precision for the actual photograph.
Solution Approach 2:
The second camera sensor acts as an intermediary that detects subjects in the wide area and provides positional information to the processing unit. This intermediary function enables the system to track subjects beyond the main capturing region without degrading the image quality of the first camera sensor.
3Speed
If autofocus is centered on the screen center, then the focusing speed is improved, but the ability to focus on subjects away from the center deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The processing unit continuously receives real-time subject position information from the second camera sensor and uses this feedback to dynamically adjust the focusing target. This feedback mechanism allows the system to quickly redirect focus from the center to subjects that move to different positions within or outside the original capturing area.
Solution Approach 2:
The second camera sensor performs preliminary detection of subject positions in the wide area before the actual capture. This preliminary action allows the system to pre-calculate the necessary focus adjustments and prepare the lens positioning, enabling fast focusing on subjects regardless of their position.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides an image pickup device that recognizes the object that the user is attempting to capture as the subject, tracks the movement of that subject, and can continue tracking the movement of the subject even when the subject leaves the capturing area so that the subject can always be reliably brought into focus. The image pickup device includes a main camera that captures the subject; an EVF that displays the captured image captured by the main camera, a sub-camera that captures the subject using a wider capturing region than the main camera, and a processing unit that extracts the subject from the captured images captured by the main camera and the sub-camera, tracks the extracted subject, and brings the subject into focus when an image of the subject is actually captured. When the subject moves outside of a capturing region of the main camera, the processing unit tracks the subject extracted from the captured image captured by the sub-camera.