Panoramic Image Stitching with Color Correction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional panoramic image generating apparatuses face challenges in precisely aligning overlapped sections of images with different color characteristics, such as varying exposure times and lighting conditions, which limits the accuracy of the generated panoramic image.
Innovation Solution
An image processing apparatus and method that calculates shift values to maximize color similarity between overlapped sections of images, adjusts image positions accordingly, and corrects color discrepancies using calculated correction parameters to ensure precise alignment and stitching, even when initial colors are not identical.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional image stitching methods are used, then the stitching process is simple and fast, but the alignment precision of overlapped sections deteriorates when color characteristics differ
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing color correction on overlapped sections before final stitching. The system identifies color discrepancies between adjacent images and applies correction parameters to normalize colors in advance, ensuring that color differences do not interfere with subsequent alignment operations. This preliminary color normalization enables more accurate feature matching and alignment in the overlapped regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs parameter changes by adjusting color parameters (such as brightness, contrast, and color balance) of overlapped sections to achieve color consistency across multiple images. The system calculates correction parameters based on color histograms or feature point colors and applies these parameters to transform the color space of individual images, thereby resolving color mismatches that would otherwise degrade alignment precision.
2Area of stationary object
If multiple images with different exposure times and lighting are stitched, then the panoramic coverage is improved, but color consistency in overlapped sections deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent addresses color inconsistency by dynamically adjusting color parameters of each image based on its exposure characteristics and lighting conditions. The system calculates correction parameters that compensate for exposure time differences and lighting variations, applying transformations to normalize colors across all images in the panoramic sequence while preserving the expanded field of view.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary color correction process that acts as a mediator between images with different exposure and lighting conditions. This intermediary step calculates optimal correction parameters that bridge the color gap between adjacent images, allowing the system to maintain both wide panoramic coverage and consistent color appearance in the final stitched result.
3Reliability
If color correction is applied to overlapped sections, then color similarity is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by performing color correction only on the overlapped sections of images rather than processing entire images. The system identifies the specific regions where images overlap and applies correction parameters locally to these areas, thereby achieving color similarity improvement while minimizing the computational burden and processing time associated with full-image processing.
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided are an apparatus, method, and medium for processing an image. In the apparatus, at least one image selected from images to be stitched so as to make colors of overlapped sections of the images as identical with each other as possible and operating again in response to a re-alignment signal, and an image correction unit generating the re-alignment signal after correcting a color of at least a part of the overlapped sections as a result of the shifting of the at least one image in consideration of colors of the overlapped sections Then the shifting of the image is repeated. Therefore, even when the overlapped sections of the images are not identical in color, the overlapped sections of the images can be precisely aligned when the images are stitched for forming a panoramic image, thereby making the panoramic image more accurate.