Image Recording Redundancy for Raw Quality and JPEG Display
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Modern digital cameras lose image quality when converting raw image data to JPEG format due to reduced color shades and dynamic range, leading to inferior image quality in displayed images.
Innovation Solution
An image capture system stores a first copy of digital image data in raw format and a second copy in a lower quality format using excess system resources, allowing for high-quality image storage and retrieval.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If digital image data is converted from raw format to JPEG format for display, then the image data can be displayed on standard displays, but image quality is lost due to reduced color shades and dynamic range
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary conversion of raw image data to JPEG format during the image capture process, creating a processed version in advance. This allows the camera to store both the processed JPEG (for immediate display) and the original raw data (for quality preservation), resolving the contradiction between display compatibility and image quality retention
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the image data in JPEG format from the raw image data. This copy serves the display function while the original raw data remains intact, allowing the system to maintain high image quality in the original while providing display-compatible versions without permanent quality loss
2Device complexity
If a single image sensor with color mask is used to capture images, then the camera structure is simplified and cost is reduced, but color information for each pixel is limited to a single wavelength
Solution Approach 1:
The color mask (Bayer filter mosaic) acts as an intermediary that selectively transmits specific color wavelengths to each pixel sensor. This allows a single sensor structure to capture color information by filtering, resolving the contradiction between simplified device structure and color information capture
Solution Approach 2:
The color mask segments the sensor surface into regions with different color filters (red, green, blue), allowing each pixel to capture a specific color component. This segmentation enables a single sensor to capture multiple color channels, addressing the limitation of single-wavelength sensitivity while maintaining structural simplicity
3Loss of information
If excess system resources are utilized to store a second copy of image data, then image quality is preserved, but system resources such as storage capacity and processing power are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a second copy of the image data in raw format using excess system resources. This copy preserves the original high-quality image information while the system continues to operate with available resources, balancing quality preservation with resource management
Solution Approach 2:
The system stores image data in different formats (raw and JPEG) with different resource requirements. By utilizing excess resources to store the raw format copy, the system optimizes the balance between image quality preservation and resource consumption, allowing quality-critical operations to access the raw data while routine operations use the compressed JPEG data
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and apparatuses disclosed herein can store a first copy of digital image data that is related to an image, for example, a scene. These systems, methods, and apparatuses can store the first copy of digital image data as unprocessed digital image data in a raw image format that includes color information for each pixel of the image. Often times, not all the available system resources, such as central processing unit (CPU) resources, memory resources, system bandwidth, and/or electrical power to provide some examples, are utilized by these systems, methods, and apparatuses to store the first copy of the digital image data. Some of the excess system resources can be utilized by these systems, methods, and apparatuses to store a second copy of at least some of the digital image data in the raw image format and/or in an image file format.