Multi-Camera Image Fusion for High-Resolution Digital Zoom
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern smartphones with multiple cameras face challenges in achieving a desired digital zoom without compromising image resolution, as digitally up-sampling images often results in resolution loss and poor photographs.
Innovation Solution
A computing device with multiple cameras and an image-processing manager fuses optically zoomed images using a machine-learned model to determine an overlap region and apply a higher resolution, compensating for different fields of view and points of view to create a digitally zoomed image with enhanced resolution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If digital up-sampling is used to achieve intermediate zoom levels, then zoom flexibility is improved, but image resolution deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges images captured by multiple cameras with different optical zoom capabilities (e.g., 1x and 4x zoom cameras) to create a fused image at intermediate zoom levels (e.g., 3x). By combining the wide-field image from the 1x camera and the telephoto image from the 4x camera, the system achieves both zoom flexibility and high resolution, resolving the contradiction between digital up-sampling flexibility and image quality.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple cameras with different optical zooms are used, then zoom flexibility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical zoom mechanisms with a computational approach using multiple fixed-lens cameras. Instead of requiring each camera to have variable focal lengths, the system uses image fusion algorithms to achieve continuous zoom levels, reducing mechanical complexity while maintaining zoom flexibility.
3Ease of manufacture
If digital up-sampling is applied to achieve desired zoom, then processing simplicity is improved, but image quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary image capture at multiple optical zoom levels before the final fusion process. By pre-capturing images at different zoom levels (e.g., 1x and 4x) and then fusing them computationally, the system achieves high-quality intermediate zoom results without requiring complex real-time processing, balancing processing simplicity with image quality.
Data Source
AI summary
This document describes systems and techniques directed at fusing optically zoomed images into one digitally zoomed image. In aspects, a computing device having at least two cameras and an image-processing manager is configured to receive, from a first camera, a first image at a first optical zoom and, from a second camera, a second image at a second optical zoom different from the first optical zoom. The first and second cameras capture a same scene from different fields of view and different points of view. The image-processing manager receives a desired digital zoom between the first optical zoom and the second optical zoom. Based on the first and second images, the image-processing manager determines an overlap region of the first image in which the second image overlaps the first image. Also based on the first and the second image, the image-processing manager applies a higher resolution than the first image of the second image to the overlap region of the first image to determine a fused image of the scene with the desired digital zoom. The image-processing manager, by applying the disclosed systems and techniques, is effective to provide a fused image of the scene having the desired digital zoom and a higher resolution than the first image within at least a portion of the overlap region.