Perceptual tone mapping of SDR images for an HDR display

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10402952-B2
Application number	US-201715667099-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 2, 2017
Priority date	Jun 2, 2017
Publication date	Sep 3, 2019
Grant date	Sep 3, 2019

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer readable media to improve the operation of electronic display systems. Techniques for inverse tone mapping operations for selected standard dynamic range (SDR) images are described. The converted images may be presented on high dynamic range (HDR) displays so as to increase a user's viewing experience (through an expanded dynamic range) while preserving the artistic content of the displayed information. Techniques disclosed herein selectively transform SDR images to HDR images by determining if the SDR images were created from HDR images (e.g., through the fusion of multiple SDR images) and if their quality is such as to permit the conversion without introducing unwanted visual artifacts. The proposed techniques apply a sigmoidal inverse tone mapping function configured to provide a perceptual-based tone mapping. Values for the function's tuning parameters may be set based on what may be determined about the original HDR-to-SDR mapping operation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method to transform a standard dynamic range (SDR) image into a high dynamic range (HDR) image, comprising:
receiving an SDR image;
determining the SDR image was generated from a first HDR image without knowledge of the specific transformation used to do so, wherein determining the SDR image was generated from a first HDR image further comprises transforming the SDR image to generate an SDR luminance image and one or more SDR chrominance images;
determining parameter values for a first inverse tone mapping function based on analysis of the SDR image;
applying the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR image to generate a second HDR image; and
displaying the second HDR image on a HDR display.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining parameter values for a first inverse tone mapping function comprises determining parameter values for a first global inverse tone mapping function.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprises:
determining a quality metric of the SDR image; and
adjusting the parameter values based on the quality metric of the SDR image.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein adjusting the parameter values based on the quality metric of the SDR image comprises aborting application of the first inverse tone mapping function when the quality metric is less than a specified threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR image comprises applying the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR luminance image to generate an HDR luminance image.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein transforming the SDR image to obtain an SDR luminance image and one or more SDR chrominance images further comprises transforming the SDR luminance image to generate an SDR low-frequency luminance image and an SDR high-frequency luminance image.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein applying the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR image comprises applying the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR low-frequency luminance image to generate an HDR low-frequency luminance image.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising combining the HDR low-frequency luminance image and the SDR high-frequency luminance image to generate the HDR luminance image.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising applying a second inverse tone mapping function to one of the one or more SDR chrominance images to generate a HDR chrominance image.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising combining the HDR luminance image and the HDR chrominance image to generate the second HDR image.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein transforming the SDR luminance image to generate an SDR low-frequency luminance image and an SDR high-frequency luminance image comprises bilaterally filtering the SDR luminance image to generate the SDR low-frequency luminance image and the SDR high-frequency luminance image.

12. A non-transitory program storage device comprising instructions stored thereon to cause one or more processors to:
receive a standard dynamic range (SDR) image;
determine the SDR image was generated from a first high dynamic range (HDR) image without knowledge of the specific transformation used to do so, wherein the instructions to determine the SDR image was generated from a first HDR image further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to transform the SDR image to generate an SDR luminance image and one or more SDR chrominance images;
determine parameter values for a first inverse tone mapping function based on analysis of the SDR image;
apply the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR image to generate a second HDR image; and
display the second HDR image on a HDR display.

13. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 12 , wherein the instructions to transform the SDR image to obtain an SDR luminance image further comprise instructions to transform the SDR luminance image to generate an SDR low-frequency luminance image and an SDR high-frequency luminance image.

14. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 13 , wherein the instructions to apply the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR image comprise instructions to apply the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR low-frequency luminance image to generate an HDR low-frequency luminance image.

15. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 14 , further comprising instructions to combine the HDR low-frequency luminance image and the SDR high-frequency luminance image to generate the HDR luminance image.

16. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 15 , further comprising instructions to apply second inverse tone mapping functions to the one or more SDR chrominance images to generate one or more HDR chrominance images.

17. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 15 , further comprising instructions to combine the HDR luminance image and each of the one or more HDR chrominance images to generate the second HDR image.

18. A system, comprising:
a memory;
a display element operatively coupled to the memory; and
one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory and the display element, the one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in the memory, the instructions configured to cause the system to—
retrieve a standard dynamic range (SDR) image from the memory,
determine the SDR image was generated from a first high dynamic range (HDR) image without knowledge of the specific transformation used to do so,
transform the SDR image to generate an SDR luminance image and one or more SDR chrominance images,
determine parameter values for a first inverse tone mapping function based on analysis of the SDR image,
apply the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR luminance image to generate a HDR luminance image,
apply second inverse tone mapping functions to the one or more SDR chrominance images to generate one or more HDR chrominance images,
combine the HDR luminance image and each of the one or more HDR chrominance images to generate a second HDR image, and
display the second HDR image on the display element.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the instructions to transform the SDR image to obtain an SDR luminance image further comprise instructions to transform the SDR luminance image to generate an SDR low-frequency luminance image and an SDR high-frequency luminance image.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the instructions to apply the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR luminance image comprise instructions to apply the first inverse tone mapping function to the SDR low-frequency luminance image to generate an HDR low-frequency luminance image.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Baar Teun R
• Wu Jiaying
• Bonnier Nicolas P
• Johnson Garrett M
• Hubel Paul M

Classifications

• G06T5/50

  using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction · CPC title

• G06T2207/10024

  Color image · CPC title

• G06T2207/20028

  Bilateral filtering · CPC title

• G06T2207/20208

  High dynamic range [HDR] image processing · CPC title

• G06T5/20

  using local operators · CPC title