Electronic Image Stabilizer Segments Exposure Time
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital imaging systems struggle to adequately correct motion-induced distortion and blurriness, particularly with long focal length lenses, as current mechanical stabilization techniques are complex, expensive, and not always effective, especially in low light conditions.
Innovation Solution
An electronic image stabilizer that divides exposure time into short intervals, allowing for digital processing and integration of images to compensate for camera motion, and identifies moving objects within the scene to correct their motion, using pair-wise comparison and offset vectors to produce sharp images without motion blurriness, applicable to all lenses without modification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mechanical stabilization is used to compensate for camera motion, then image blurriness due to camera jitter is corrected, but the device becomes complex and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical stabilization systems with an electronic solution. The camera captures a sequence of images during the exposure period, and digital processing algorithms combine these images to compensate for camera motion. This substitution eliminates complex mechanical components while achieving the same image stabilization effect through computational methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary capture of multiple images during the exposure period before final processing. By capturing the entire sequence of camera positions in advance and then processing them digitally to determine motion compensation, the system achieves stabilization without requiring real-time mechanical adjustment during exposure.
2Illumination intensity
If longer exposure times are used in low light conditions, then adequate signal-to-noise ratio is achieved, but motion-induced blurriness increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the long exposure time into multiple shorter sub-exposures, capturing a sequence of images throughout the total exposure period. Each individual image has reduced motion blur due to its shorter duration, and digital processing combines these segmented images to achieve the equivalent of a long exposure without the corresponding motion-induced blurriness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses periodic capture of images at regular intervals during the exposure period. This periodic sampling allows the system to track camera motion over time and apply appropriate compensation when combining the images, maintaining sharpness while achieving the required signal-to-noise ratio through the cumulative effect of multiple periodic captures.
3Reliability
If mechanical image stabilizers are implemented, then motion compensation is achieved, but the system requires complex mechanical devices with moving parts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical image stabilizers that use moving lenses or sensors with a fully electronic solution. The camera remains stationary while capturing multiple images, and digital image processing algorithms perform the motion compensation by aligning and combining the captured images based on detected camera motion, eliminating all mechanical moving parts from the stabilization system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates multiple digital copies of the image scene at different moments during the exposure period. Instead of physically moving optical components to track camera motion, the system captures multiple static copies and uses computational methods to reconstruct the stabilized image, replacing mechanical tracking with digital copying and processing.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic image stabilizer in a digital camera compensates for camera motion-induced blurriness by segmenting exposure times into multiple shorter exposure times and summing the individual pixels from successive frames after applying an appropriate motion correction. Motion is detected by computing the correlation function between successive images, and compensation is applied by maximizing the correlation function. This avoids the need for mechanical stabilization devices in order to detect or correct the motion as is done in prior art. This method further enables the detection of moving objects in a still background, and correction of blurriness images due to such motion.