Image Processing Device Adaptive White Balance Color Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image processing technologies face challenges in correctly extracting a color region of a specific color due to the effects of varying light sources, particularly low color temperature light sources like tungsten lamps, which can incorrectly identify achromatic regions as the target color, requiring extensive pre-prepared threshold adjustments.
Innovation Solution
An image processing device and method that estimates the color temperature of the light source and performs adaptive white balance adjustments, allowing for the extraction of specific colors regardless of the light source's color temperature, using a color temperature estimating unit, white balance adjusting unit, and color region extracting unit to apply second white balance adjustments even outside predetermined ranges.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If threshold values of luminance signal and color signal are changed depending on color temperature information, then color region extraction accuracy is improved, but device complexity and information preparation requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically estimating color temperature from the image signal itself and using this estimation to dynamically adjust white balance and extraction thresholds, eliminating the need for external color temperature measurement devices or manual threshold preparation for different lighting conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters dynamically by adjusting white balance and extraction thresholds based on the estimated color temperature, allowing the same extraction algorithm to adapt to different lighting conditions without requiring pre-prepared threshold sets for each color temperature
2Measurement precision
If white balance adjustment is performed based on estimated color temperature, then color extraction accuracy is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by estimating color temperature and performing white balance adjustment before color region extraction, ensuring that the extraction process works on already corrected color data, which improves accuracy without requiring complex post-processing adjustments
Solution Approach 2:
The white balance adjustment unit serves multiple functions: it corrects color casts for general image processing and simultaneously prepares the image for accurate color region extraction, eliminating the need for separate correction steps
3Reliability
If second white balance adjustment is applied for color region extraction, then extraction accuracy under varying light sources is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamics by providing two different white balance adjustment modes (first and second) that can be dynamically selected based on whether color region extraction is required, allowing the system to optimize between speed and accuracy depending on the operational context
Data Source
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AI summary
An image processing device includes a color temperature estimating unit configured to estimate a color temperature of a light source in imaging, a white balance adjusting unit configured to perform first white balance adjustment in which white balance of an image signal is adjusted on the basis of the estimated color temperature when the estimated color temperature is within a predetermined color temperature range, and perform second white balance adjustment in which the white balance of the image signal is adjusted on the basis of the estimated color temperature even when the estimated color temperature is not within the predetermined color temperature range, and a color region extracting unit configured to extract a color region of a specific color by using the image signal to which the second white balance adjustment is applied.