Electronic device and operation method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017195594-A1
Application number	US-201615393816-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 29, 2016
Priority date	Jan 6, 2016
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

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 constant reference signal; correcting an OB deviation between data acquired from the OB area, 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.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the image sensors comprise a first image sensor and a second image sensor, and acquiring the image data comprises:
acquiring, from the first image sensor, first image data including first OB data and first active data; and acquiring, from the second image sensor, second image data including second OB data and second active data.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein correcting the OB deviation further comprises calculating the OB deviation through the first OB data and the second OB data.

4 . The method of claim 3 , 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.

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

6 . The method of claim 3 , 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.

7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein correcting the OB deviation is activated when the second image data is output to the image processing unit.

8 . The method of claim 2 , wherein outputting the image data comprises:
outputting the first image data to the image processing unit; and correcting the OB deviation for the second image data so as to output the second image data to the image processing unit.

9 . 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.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the image processing unit is configured to process the image data, and the OB deviation is corrected for at least one piece of the image data.

11 . An electronic device comprising:
a plurality of image sensors configured to include optical black (OB) areas that are light-shielding areas for providing a constant reference signal, and acquire image data; a correction unit configured to correct an OB deviation between data acquired from the OB areas, for at least one piece of the image data; an image processing unit configured to receive data for which the OB deviation is corrected; and a control unit functionally connected with and controlling the image sensors, the correction unit, and the image processing unit.

12 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the image sensors comprise a first image sensor and a second image sensor, first image data acquired from the first image sensor includes first OB data and first active data, and second image data acquired from the second image sensor includes second OB data and second active data.

13 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the correction unit further comprises a calculation unit, and
wherein the calculation unit is configured to calculate the OB deviation through the first OB data and the second OB data.

14 . The electronic device of claim 13 , 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.

15 . The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein the correction unit is configured to correct the calculated OB deviation for at least one of the first image data and the second image data.

16 . The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein the correction unit is configured to add the calculated OB deviation to at least one of the first image data and the second image data.

17 . The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein the calculation unit is switched to an activation mode when the second image data is output to the image processing unit.

18 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the correction unit is configured to output the first image data to the image processing unit, and correct the OB deviation for the second image data so as to output the second image data to the image processing unit.

19 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the correction unit is 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.

20 . The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the image processing unit is configured to process the image data, and the OB deviation is corrected for at least one piece of the image data.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H04N5/3572 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N25/633

  by using optical black pixels · CPC title

• H04N23/80 Primary

  Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof · CPC title