Image processing devices for suppressing color fringe, and image sensor modules and electronic devices including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016171663-A1
Application number	US-201514741599-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 17, 2015
Priority date	Dec 16, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In an image processing device, a color transformation circuit is configured to generate a color difference based on a first image of normal exposure and a second image of under exposure. A color fringe detection circuit is configured to detect color fringe in the first image, and to generate color fringe detection information based on the detected color fringe. A weight map formation circuit is configured to generate a weight map based on the color fringe detection information and the color difference. An image fusion circuit is configured to generate a third image, in which the detected color fringe is suppressed, based on the color difference and the weight map.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An image processing device comprising:
a color transformation circuit configured to generate a color difference based on a first image of normal exposure and a second image of under exposure; a color fringe detection circuit configured to detect color fringe in the first image, and to generate color fringe detection information based on the detected color fringe in the first image; a weight map formation circuit configured to generate a weight map based on the color fringe detection information and the color difference; and an image fusion circuit configured to generate, based on the color difference and the weight map, a third image in which the detected color fringe is suppressed.

2 . The image processing device of claim 1 , wherein
each of the first image and the second image include a red channel, a green channel, and a blue channel; and the color difference includes a first pixel difference between the red channel and the green channel and a second pixel difference between the blue channel and the green channel.

3 . The image processing device of claim 1 , wherein the color fringe detection information includes information associated with an area of the first image with the color fringe and an area of the first image without the color fringe.

4 . The image processing device of claim 1 , wherein the weight map formation circuit is further configured to generate the weight map using at least one of a guided filter, a wavelet transform, a curvelet transform, and Markov random fields.

5 . The image processing device of claim 1 , wherein the image fusion circuit is further configured to generate the third image based on a green channel of the first image.

6 . The image processing device of claim 1 , wherein each of the first image and the second image is generated by controlling at least one of a shutter speed, a diaphragm, and a value of an international organization for standardization (ISO).

7 . The image processing device of claim 1 , wherein the color transformation circuit is further configured to transform the first and second images from a RGB color space to a color difference space.

8 . The image processing device of claim 1 , wherein the second image does not include color fringe.

9 . An image sensor module comprising:
an image sensor; and an image processing device configured to receive a first image of normal exposure and a second image of under exposure from the image sensor, the image processing device including,
a color transformation circuit configured to generate a color difference based on the first image and the second image,
a color fringe detection circuit configured to detect color fringe in the first image, and to generate color fringe detection information based on the detected color fringe,
a weight map formation circuit configured to generate a weight map based on the color fringe detection information and the color difference, and
an image fusion circuit configured to generate, based on the color difference and the weight map, a third image in which the detected color fringe is suppressed.

10 . The image sensor module of claim 9 , wherein
each of the first image and the second image include a red channel, a green channel, and a blue channel; and the color difference includes a first pixel difference between the red channel and the green channel and a second pixel difference between the blue channel and the green channel.

11 . The image sensor module of claim 9 , wherein the color fringe detection information includes information about an area of the first image with the color fringe and an area of the first image without the color fringe.

12 . The image sensor module of claim 9 , wherein the weight map formation circuit is further configured to generate the weight map using at least one of a guided filter, a wavelet transform, a curvelet transform, and Markov random fields.

13 . The image sensor module of claim 9 , wherein the image fusion circuit is further configured to generate the third image based on a green channel of the first image.

14 . The image sensor module of claim 9 , wherein the image sensor is configured to generate each of the first image and the second image by controlling at least one of a shutter speed, a diaphragm, and a value of an ISO.

15 . The image sensor module of claim 9 , wherein the color transformation circuit is further configured to transform the first and second images from a RGB color space to a color difference space.

16 . An image processing device, comprising:
a color transformation circuit configured to generate color difference information based on a first image having a first exposure and a second image having a second exposure, the first exposure being greater than the second exposure, and the color difference information being indicative of first color differences between color channels of the first image and second color differences between color channels of the second image; and an image fusion circuit configured to generate an output image based on the color difference information and a green channel of the first image.

17 . The image processing device of claim 16 , wherein the image fusion circuit is further configured to
generate a fused color difference for the first and second images based on the color difference information; and generate the output image by combining the fused color difference with the green channel of the first image.

18 . The image processing device of claim 17 , further comprising:
a color fringe detection circuit configured to generate color fringe detection information based on detected chromatic aberration in the first image; a weight map formation circuit configured to generate a weight map based on the color fringe detection information and the color difference information; and wherein the image fusion circuit is further configured to generate the fused color difference based on the color difference information and the generated weight map.

19 . The image processing device of claim 16 , wherein
the first image includes a first red channel, a first blue channel and a first green channel; the first color differences include a pixel intensity difference between the first red channel and the first green channel and a pixel intensity difference between the first blue channel and the first green channel; the second image includes a second red channel, a second blue channel and a second green channel; and the second color differences include a pixel intensity difference between the second red channel and the second green channel and a pixel intensity difference between the second blue channel and the second green channel.

20 . The image processing device of claim 16 , wherein the first image includes chromatic aberration, and the second image does not include chromatic aberration.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
• Univ Sogang Res Foundation

Inventors

• Kim Jihye
• Park Rae-Hong
• Jang Dong-Won
• Kim Hyo-Song
• Jung Chang-Dae

Classifications

• H04N25/611

  Correction of chromatic aberration · CPC title

• H04N23/80 Primary

  Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof · CPC title

• H04N23/951

  by using two or more images to influence resolution, frame rate or aspect ratio · CPC title

• G06T2207/10024

  Color image · CPC title

• G06T7/408

  Physics · mapped topic