Image obtaining apparatus and method for obtaining an image based on pixel binning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10321072-B2
Application number	US-201515117184-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 15, 2015
Priority date	Mar 13, 2014
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

Image processing technologies, an image acquisition method and an image acquisition apparatus are provided. A method comprises exposing an image sensor, reading a charge on the image sensor and performing analog-to-digital conversion, where a charge of pixels on a partial region of the photosensitive sensor is read by means of pixel binning according to data characteristics of an image of a target scene, and obtaining a target image of the target scene according to the read charge. Local combination can be performed on at least two images of different image quality according to data characteristics of the images, so that the dynamic range and/or signal-to-noise ratio can be improved locally on the basis of presenting image details as fully as possible, that is, the image quality can be improved according to requirements.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
exposing, by a device comprising a processor, an image sensor;
determining a partial region of the image sensor according to at least one reference image of a target scene, wherein a resolution of the at least one reference image is lower than a full-pixel resolution of the image sensor;
reading a charge on the image sensor and performing analog-to-digital conversion, wherein a charge of pixels on the partial region of the image sensor is read by means of pixel binning according to data characteristics of an image of the target scene, the data characteristics of the image of the target scene being features that represent a grayscale distribution, an amount of noise, and an amount of information of the image; and
obtaining a target image of the target scene according to the charge on the image sensor,
wherein the partial region does not comprise a region having semantic information that exceeds a preset threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the partial region according to the at least one reference image of the target scene comprises:
determining the partial region according to a dynamic range of the at least one reference image.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining the partial region according to the at least one reference image of the target scene comprises:
analyzing a histogram of the at least one reference image region by region; and
determining the partial region according to the histogram.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the determining the partial region according to the histogram comprises:
determining a target region according to a preset threshold number of pixels;
performing upsampling processing on the target region according to the full-pixel resolution of the image sensor; and
determining the partial region on the image sensor corresponding to the target region.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the determining the partial region according to the histogram comprises:
determining a target region according to a preset information entropy threshold;
performing upsampling processing on the target region according to the full-pixel resolution of the image sensor; and
determining the partial region on the image sensor corresponding to the target region.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the region in the “region by region” is a region of an irregular shape.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the partial region according to the at least one reference image of the target scene comprises:
determining the partial region according to a signal-to-noise ratio of the at least one reference image.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining the partial region according to the at least one reference image of the target scene comprises:
performing downsampling processing on a second reference image of a second resolution according to a first reference image of a first resolution in the at least one reference image, wherein the first resolution is lower than the second resolution;
determining, according to an image obtained by the downsampling processing and the second reference image, a mean square error of noise signals region by region;
determining a target region on the second reference image according to the mean square error;
performing upsampling processing on the target region according to the full-pixel resolution of the image sensor; and
determining the partial region on the image sensor corresponding to the target region.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the partial region according to at least one reference image of the target scene further comprises:
detecting respective semantic information of the at least one reference image.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining the at least one reference image.

11. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor, coupled to a memory, that executes or facilitates execution of executable modules, comprising:
an exposure control module configured to expose an image sensor;
a determining module configured to determine a partial region of the image sensor according to a reference image of a target scene, wherein a resolution of the reference image is lower than a full-pixel resolution of the image sensor;
an analog-to-digital conversion module configured to read a charge on the image sensor and perform analog-to-digital conversion, wherein a charge of pixels on the partial region of the image sensor is read by pixel binning according to data characteristics of an image of the target scene, the data characteristics of the image of the target scene being features that represent a grayscale distribution, an amount of noise, and an amount of information of the image; and
a processing module configured to obtain a target image of the target scene according to the charge on the image sensor,

wherein the partial region does not comprise a region having semantic information that exceeds a preset threshold.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the determining module determines the partial region according to a dynamic range of the reference image.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the determining module comprises:
an analysis unit configured to analyze a histogram of the reference image region by region; and
a determining unit configured to determine the partial region according to the histogram.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the determining unit comprises:
a target region determining subunit configured to determine a target region according to a preset threshold number of pixels;
a processing subunit configured to perform upsampling processing on the target region according to the full-pixel resolution of the image sensor; and
a partial region determining subunit configured to determine the partial region on the image sensor corresponding to the target region.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the determining unit comprises:
a target region determining subunit configured to determine a target region according to a preset information entropy threshold;
a processing subunit configured to perform upsampling processing on the target region according to the full-pixel resolution of the image sensor; and
a partial region determining subunit configured to determine the partial region on the image sensor corresponding to the target region.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the semantic information of the region is first semantic region, and wherein the determining module is further configured to detect second semantic information of the reference image.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the determining module determines the partial region according to a signal-to-noise ratio of the reference image.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the determining module comprises:
a first processing unit configured to perform downsampling processing on a second reference image of a second resolution according to a first reference image of a first resolution in the reference image, wherein the first resolution is lower than the second resolution;
a calculating unit configured to calculate, according to an image obtained by the downsampling processing and the second reference image, a mean square error of noise signals region by region;
a target region determining unit configured to determine a target region on the second reference image according to the mean square error;
a second processing unit configured to perform upsampling processing on the target region according to the full-pixel resolution of the i

Assignees

• Beijing Zhigu Ruituo Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhou Hanning
• Ding Dayong

Classifications

• H04N25/46 Primary

  by combining or binning pixels · CPC title

• H04N25/57

  Control of the dynamic range · CPC title

• H04N23/741

  by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors · CPC title

• H04N23/80

  Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof · CPC title

• G06T5/40

  using histogram techniques · CPC title