Electronic device and operation method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10158812-B2
Application number	US-201615393816-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2016
Priority date	Jan 6, 2016
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of an electronic device, including acquiring image data from a plurality of image sensors including optical black (OB) areas that are light-shielding areas for providing a constant reference signal, correcting an OB deviation between data acquired from the OB areas, for at least one piece of the image data, and outputting, to an image processing unit, the image data for which the OB deviation is corrected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of an electronic device, comprising:
acquiring image data from a plurality of image sensors including optical black (OB) areas that are light-shielding areas for providing a reference signal, wherein the plurality of image sensors comprises a first image sensor that acquires first image data and a second image sensor that acquires second image data, the first image data including first OB data and first active data and the second image data including second OB data and second active data;
calculating an OB deviation through the first OB data and the second OB data,
correcting the OB deviation for at least one piece of the image data; and
outputting, to an image processing circuit, the image data for which the OB deviation is corrected.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the OB deviation is a difference in an average value of the first OB data and the average value of the second OB data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculated OB deviation is corrected for at least one of the first image data and the second image data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein correcting the OB deviation comprises adding the calculated OB deviation to at least one of the first image data and the second image data.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein correcting the OB deviation comprises correcting the OB deviation when the second image data is output to the image processing circuit.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein outputting the image data comprises:
outputting the first image data to the image processing circuit; and
correcting the OB deviation for the second image data so as to output the second image data to the image processing circuit.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein outputting the image data comprises determining an output line of the image data and outputting, in units of lines, the image data for which the OB deviation is corrected.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein correcting the OB deviation for at least one piece of the image data comprises correcting the OB deviation for at least one of the first image data and the second image data.

9. An electronic device comprising:
a plurality of image sensors configured to include optical black (OB) areas that are light-shielding areas for providing a reference signal;
a correction circuit;
an image processing circuit; and
a control circuit operably coupled with and controlling the image sensors, the correction circuit, and the image processing circuit, and configured to:
acquire image data from the plurality of image sensors, wherein the plurality of image sensors comprises a first image sensor that acquires first image data and a second image sensor that acquires second image data, the first image data including first OB data and first active data, and the second image data including second OB data and second active data,
calculate an OB deviation through the first OB data and the second OB data,
correct the OB deviation for at least one piece of the image data, and
output, to the image processing circuit, the image data for which the OB deviation is corrected.

10. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the OB deviation is a difference in an average value of the first OB data and the average value of the second OB data.

11. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the control circuit is configured to correct the calculated OB deviation for at least one of the first image data and the second image data through the correction circuit.

12. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to add the calculated OB deviation to at least one of the first image data and the second image data through the correction circuit.

13. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to correct the OB deviation for the at least one piece of the image data when the second image data is output to the image processing circuit.

14. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
output the first image data to the image processing circuit, and
correct the OB deviation for the second image data so as to output the second image data to the image processing circuit.

15. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein control circuit is further configured to:
determine an output line of the image data and output, in units of lines, the image data for which the OB deviation is corrected.

16. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to correct the OB deviation for at least one of the first image data and the second image data.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jin Sung-Ki
• Park Ilkwon
• Seo Hyeong-Chan

Classifications

• H04N5/23229

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N5/3572 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N5/361

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N25/633

  by using optical black pixels · CPC title

• H04N23/80 Primary

  Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof · CPC title