Mobile Image Capture Neural Network Scene Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile image capture devices face resource constraints such as limited memory, processing power, and energy, which hinder their ability to continuously capture and store high-resolution images without overheating, making them inefficient for extended use.
Innovation Solution
A resource-efficient mobile image capture device equipped with a neural network-based scene analyzer that selectively retains and edits images by assessing their desirability, adjusting capture modes, and optimizing energy consumption, storage, and thermal management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the mobile image capture device continuously captures and stores high-resolution images, then the image quality and quantity are improved, but the memory usage and power consumption increase, causing the device to overheat
Solution Approach 1:
The device performs preliminary analysis of captured images using a neural network scene analyzer to assess desirability before committing to full storage. This preliminary action allows the device to identify and retain only worthy images, avoiding the energy cost of storing all captured images while maintaining high capture rates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the most desirable images from the continuous capture stream for permanent storage, separating them from the rest. This extraction approach allows continuous capturing at high rates while storing only a fraction of images, significantly reducing memory usage and power consumption.
2Productivity
If the mobile image capture device continuously captures and stores high-resolution images, then the image quality and quantity are improved, but the memory resources are depleted, limiting extended operation
Solution Approach 1:
The device performs preliminary analysis of captured images using a neural network scene analyzer to assess desirability before committing to full storage. This preliminary action allows the device to identify and retain only worthy images, avoiding the memory cost of storing all captured images while maintaining high capture rates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the most desirable images from the continuous capture stream for permanent storage, separating them from the rest. This extraction approach allows continuous capturing at high rates while storing only a fraction of images, significantly reducing memory usage.
3Reliability
If the mobile image capture device processes and stores all captured images, then no images are lost, but the processing power and energy are wasted on low-quality images
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the most desirable images from the continuous capture stream for permanent storage, separating them from the rest. This extraction approach allows continuous capturing at high rates while storing only a fraction of images, significantly reducing memory usage and power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of image retention from binary (keep all or none) to selective (keep based on desirability assessment). The neural network assigns desirability scores to images, and retention decisions are made based on these scores and available memory, optimizing the balance between reliability and energy consumption.
4Duration of action of moving object
If the mobile image capture device operates continuously for extended periods, then more images are captured, but the device overheats due to sustained processing and storage operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the most desirable images from the continuous capture stream for permanent storage, separating them from the rest. This extraction approach allows continuous capturing at high rates while storing only a fraction of images, significantly reducing memory usage and power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The device operates in periodic cycles of capture, analysis, and selective storage rather than continuous full-processing mode. This periodic action with idle periods between processing cycles allows thermal dissipation, enabling extended operational duration without overheating.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides an image capture, curation, and editing system that includes a resource-efficient mobile image capture device that continuously captures images. The mobile image capture device is operable to input an image into at least one neural network and to receive at least one descriptor of the desirability of a scene depicted by the image as an output of the at least one neural network. The mobile image capture device is operable to determine, based at least in part on the at least one descriptor of the desirability of the scene of the image, whether to store a second copy of such image and/or one or more contemporaneously captured images in a non-volatile memory of the mobile image capture device or to discard a first copy of such image from a temporary image buffer without storing the second copy of such image in the non-volatile memory.