Multi-View Flash Lighting Control for Synchronized 3D Facial Scans
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image capture systems face challenges in maintaining synchronization between lighting and imaging systems, particularly in varying lighting conditions, leading to issues such as shallow depth-of-field, manual focus adjustments, and sensitivity to subject motion, which affect image quality and accuracy in high-fidelity image capture.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device controls a lighting system to emit flash pulses with varying intensities and polarizations, synchronized with multi-view image capture devices to capture high-fidelity 3D facial scans, using predefined lighting patterns to ensure accurate and comfortable illumination, and adjusts auto-focus and shutter speed for optimal image capture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual focus adjustment is used to mitigate shallow depth-of-field, then image quality may be improved, but the speed and accuracy of scan is affected, particularly if the object is in motion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing optimal focus settings for different scanning scenarios before the actual scan begins. The system prepares focus-by-wire parameters in advance based on predicted subject positions and characteristics, allowing the imaging system to switch between pre-computed focus settings rapidly during motion scans without requiring real-time manual adjustment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical focus adjustment with an automated focus-by-wire system controlled by processing circuitry. The mechanical focus ring is substituted with electronic actuators that receive control signals from the processor, enabling precise and rapid focus changes without manual intervention, thereby maintaining image quality while increasing scan speed.
2Ease of operation
If manual focus adjustment is used, then focus control may be achieved, but the focus points are lost in case the imaging system is turned-off or restarted due to focus-by-wire technology
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies copying by creating and storing digital replicas of focus point data in memory. When the imaging system is turned off or restarted, the processing circuitry retrieves the stored focus point information from memory and restores the focus-by-wire settings, ensuring that focus points are not lost. This digital copying mechanism preserves focus information across power cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by continuously monitoring and storing focus adjustment data in memory. The system records focus point positions and associated imaging parameters, then uses this stored information to automatically restore optimal focus settings after system restart. The feedback loop ensures that learned focus preferences are retained and reapplied, maintaining reliability across power cycles.
3Manufacturing precision
If synchronization between lighting system and imaging system is maintained in different lighting conditions, then high-fidelity image capture is achieved, but the process becomes cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a lighting system with flash units that can operate in multiple modes (single flash, multiple flashes, varying intensities) and a processing circuitry that handles diverse lighting conditions through a unified synchronization protocol. The system accommodates different lighting scenarios using the same core synchronization mechanism, reducing the need for separate complex control procedures for each lighting condition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamics by making the synchronization system adaptive to changing lighting conditions. The processing circuitry dynamically adjusts flash timing, intensity, and sequence based on real-time lighting environment detection and image capture requirements. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to maintain high-fidelity capture across varying lighting conditions without requiring manual reconfiguration of synchronization parameters.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables high-fidelity 3D facial scans and precise material estimation by ensuring synchronization and comfort during image capture, reducing the impact of subject motion and improving image quality.
Implementation Method 1
controls a lighting system to emit flash pulses with varying intensities and polarizations
Implementation Method 2
capture a set of images of the subject based on the illumination of the subject with the second set of flash pulses
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device and method for lighting control for multi-view image capture is provided. The electronic device selects, from a plurality of predefined lighting patterns, a set of lighting patterns to capture a set of images of a subject. The electronic device controls a lighting system to illuminate the subject with a first pulse and a second pulse. An illumination intensity increases from a first intensity to a second intensity, associated with the first pulse and the second pulse respectively. The electronic device controls the lighting system to illuminate the subject with flash pulses corresponding to the selected set of lighting patterns, based on illumination of the subject with the first pulse and the second pulse. The electronic device controls a set of multi-view image capture devices to capture the set of images of the subject, based on illumination of the subject with the selected set of flash pulses.