Image stitching in the presence of a full field of view reference image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12568178-B2
Application number	US-202418830988-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2024
Priority date	May 17, 2020
Publication date	Mar 3, 2026
Grant date	Mar 3, 2026

Abstract

Systems and methods for obtaining a seamless, high resolution, large field of view image comprise capturing a plurality of Tele images in a scene using a scanning Tele camera, each captured Tele image having an associated Tele field of view FOV T , retrieving a R image having a respective R image scene with a field of view greater than FOV T , analyzing the R image for defining an order of scanning positions according to which the folded Tele camera scans a scene to capture the plurality of Tele images, aligning the plurality of Tele images and the R image to obtain aligned Tele images, and composing the aligned Tele images into an output image. The output image may include at least parts of the R image and may be one of a stream of output images.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
providing a folded Tele camera configured to scan and capture a plurality of Tele images, each captured image having a Tele image resolution RES T , a Tele image signal-to-noise ratio SNR T and a Tele field of view FOV T ; obtaining and analyzing a reference (R) image with a R field of view FOV R >FOV T having a R image resolution RES R <RES T , and/or a R image with a signal-to-noise ratio SNR R <SNR T ; determining an order of one or more scanning FOV T positions for consecutive captures of the Tele images so that first moving objects are captured and then stationary objects are captured; capturing a Tele image at each respective scanning FOV T position; aligning the captured Tele images with segments of the R image to obtain respective aligned Tele images; and using the respective aligned Tele images and the R image to create a new image having a field of view FOV N ≤FOV R , wherein an image resolution RES N of the new image fulfills RES N >RES R and/or wherein a signal-to-noise ratio SNR N of the new image SNR N >SNR R .

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the R image is a Wide image having a FOV W >FOV T , the Wide image captured by a Wide camera included a multi-camera together with the folded Tele camera.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the folded Tele camera captures two or more Tele images at two or more respective FOV T positions within FOV R , the method further comprising composing the aligned Tele images to create a super image.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the aligned Tele images and the R image are fed into an algorithm to create a super wide image having a field of view FOV SW , wherein a FOV segment within FOV R included in at least one FOV T of the captured Tele images has a field-of-view union-FOV T , and wherein union-FOV T <FOV SW ≤FOV R .

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the Tele camera has an effective focal length of 7-40 mm.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed by a mobile device.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the mobile device is a smartphone.

8 . A method, comprising:
providing a folded Tele camera configured to scan and capture a plurality of Tele images, each captured image having a Tele image resolution RES T , a Tele image signal-to-noise ratio SNR T and a Tele field of view FOV T ; obtaining and analyzing a reference (R) image with a R field of view FOV R >FOV T having a R image resolution RES R <RES T , and/or a R image with a signal-to-noise ratio SNR R <SNR T ; determining an order of two or more scanning FOV T positions within FOV R for consecutive captures of the Tele images so that a moving object is removed from a scene included in FOV R ; capturing a Tele image at each respective scanning FOV T position; aligning the captured Tele images with segments of the R image to obtain aligned Tele images; using the aligned Tele images and the R image to create a super image having a field of view FOV SI ≤FOV R , wherein an image resolution RES SI of the super image fulfills RES SI >RES R and/or wherein a signal-to-noise ratio SNR SI of the super image fulfills SNR SI >SNR R .

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the R image is a Wide image having a FOV W >FOV T , the Wide image captured by a Wide camera included a multi-camera together with the folded Tele camera.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the Tele camera has an effective focal length of 7-40 mm.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the method is performed by a mobile device.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the mobile device is a smartphone.

13 . A method, comprising:
providing a folded Tele camera configured to scan and capture a plurality of Tele images, each captured image having a Tele image resolution RES T , a Tele image signal-to-noise ratio SNR T and a Tele field of view FOV T ; obtaining and analyzing a reference (R) image with a R field of view FOV R >FOV T having a R image resolution RES R <RES T , and/or a R image with a signal-to-noise ratio SNR R <SNR T ; determining an order of one or more scanning FOV T positions for consecutive captures of the Tele images; capturing a Tele image at each respective scanning FOV T position; aligning the captured Tele images with segments of the R image to obtain aligned Tele images; wherein the aligned Tele images and the R image are fed into an algorithm to create a super wide image having a field of view FOV SW ≤FOV R , an image resolution RES SW >RES R and/or a signal-to-noise ratio SNR SW >SNR R , wherein a FOV segment within FOV R included in at least one FOV T of the captured Tele images has a field-of-view union-FOV T , and wherein union-FOV T <FOV SW , and wherein the determining an order of one or more scanning FOV T positions includes capturing an object in a Tele image with specific FOV T to improve an image resolution or a signal-to-noise ratio of a similar object included in FOV SW but not included in the specific FOV T .

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the R image is a Wide image having a FOV W >FOV T , the Wide image captured by a Wide camera included a multi-camera together with the folded Tele camera.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the Tele camera has an effective focal length of 7-40 mm.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the method is performed by a mobile device.

17 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the mobile device is a smartphone.

Assignees

• Corephotonics Ltd

Inventors

• Ilan Paz
• Vaisman Shai
• Katz Ruthy
• Teitel Adi
• Tzafrir Hagai
• Shabtay Gal
• Gigushinski Oded
• Azoulai Itamar

Classifications

• H04N23/10

  for generating image signals from different wavelengths · CPC title

• H04N5/265 Primary

  Mixing · CPC title

• H04N23/698

  for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture · CPC title

• H04N23/81

  for suppressing or minimising disturbance in the image signal generation · CPC title

• H04N23/69

  Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming · CPC title