Imaging Device White Balance Correction Using Wide-Angle Integration Ratios
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional imaging devices with multiple optical systems of different angles of view face a decrease in white balance correction accuracy, particularly when enlarging wide-angle image data on the telephoto side, as only partial color components are detected, leading to inaccurate color representation.
Innovation Solution
An imaging device with wide-angle and telephoto-side light detection units that calculate a telephoto-side white balance gain based on a wide-angle-side integration ratio and telephoto-side color components, using specific integration ranges and reliability determination to improve accuracy across different optical systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If white balance correction is performed using the same method for each optical system in an imaging device with multiple optical systems having different angles of view, then the processing is simple and fast, but the accuracy of white balance correction decreases, especially on the telephoto side
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by determining white balance separately for each optical system (wide-angle and telephoto) based on their respective color components. The white balance processing is customized for each angle of view, with the telephoto side using its own detected color components rather than relying on wide-angle data, thereby improving correction accuracy for each specific optical system
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the white balance correction process by optical system. Instead of applying a unified white balance method to all optical systems, it divides the processing into separate streams: wide-angle white balance determination using wide-angle color components, and telephoto white balance determination using telephoto color components. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by allowing optimized processing for each segment
2Measurement precision
If only partial color components are detected on the telephoto side when enlarging wide-angle image data, then the processing speed is maintained, but the color representation accuracy decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having the telephoto-side light detection unit detect color components in advance before white balance correction is applied. These pre-detected telephoto color components are stored and then used for determining the telephoto white balance gain, ensuring that sufficient color information is available before the correction process begins
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism: the telephoto color components serve as an intermediate data source that bridges the gap between the telephoto image data and the white balance correction process. These intermediate color component values are used to calculate the white balance gain, which then corrects the telephoto image data to achieve accurate color representation
Data Source
AI summary
An imaging device includes a plurality of optical systems having different angles of view. A wide-angle-side light detection unit detects a plurality of wide-angle-side color components in each of a plurality of regions in wide-angle image data having an angle of view wider than a predetermined value. A telephoto-side light detection unit detects a plurality of telephoto-side color components in each of a plurality of regions in telephoto image data having an angle of view narrower than the predetermined value. A telephoto-side white balance gain acquisition unit obtains a gain for the telephoto image data on the basis of a wide-angle-side integration ratio that is a ratio of respective integration values of the plurality of wide-angle-side color components and the plurality of telephoto-side color components as a telephoto-side white balance gain. A telephoto-side white balance correction unit corrects the telephoto image data with the telephoto-side white balance gain.