Ophthalmic HDR Imaging With Blink-Aware Frame Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ophthalmic apparatuses face disturbances in generating high dynamic-range images due to blinks during imaging, as existing methods assume identical imaging conditions, leading to inconsistencies when actual images differ.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus includes an imaging means to capture eye images at varying exposure conditions, a storage means to store images with time stamps, and a determination means to compare and update images chronologically, ensuring similarity before generating high dynamic-range images, handling blinks by re-capturing or adjusting affected images.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If images are combined to generate high dynamic-range image, then image quality is improved, but disturbance occurs when test subject blinks during imaging
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of blink states by comparing images at different exposure conditions before incorporating them into the high dynamic-range image generation process. This preliminary action allows the system to detect and exclude blink-related images that would cause disturbance, while still utilizing valid images to maintain image quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and removes problematic images (those taken during blink states) from the dataset before performing high dynamic-range image generation. By separating the valid images from the blink-related images, the system maintains image quality while eliminating the source of disturbance in the final output.
2Adaptability or versatility
If images at different exposure conditions are combined, then dynamic range is improved, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the image processing task into distinct stages: first identifying blink states by comparing images at different exposure conditions, then separately generating high dynamic-range images from valid images only. This segmentation simplifies the overall processing complexity by handling image validation and HDR generation as separate, manageable steps rather than a single complex process.
3Reliability
If blink images are excluded from processing, then image disturbance is eliminated, but data loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously comparing images at different exposure conditions to identify blink states, then using this information to selectively exclude only the problematic images from HDR generation. This feedback mechanism ensures that only necessary images are removed, minimizing data loss while maintaining image consistency in the final output.
Data Source
AI summary
An imaging unit for periodically taking test subject eye images for each different exposure condition, a storage unit for storing the eye images with capturing time information as imaging data, and the selected eye image from the imaging data as base image, and an arithmetic unit for storing a copy of the base image in the storage unit as an output image, performing HDR processing on the output image to generate an HDR image, and determining identicalness of the eye image to the base image are provided, wherein the arithmetic unit performs updating the output image by superimposing the eye image on the output image to store the output image in the storage unit on the eye images in the same exposure condition to generate the HDR image when the eye image and the base image are determined to be the same chronologically.