Camera assembly having a wide viewing angle and image acquisition method using the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9219859-B2
Application number	US-201314020107-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 6, 2013
Priority date	Apr 23, 2013
Publication date	Dec 22, 2015
Grant date	Dec 22, 2015

Abstract

Disclosed is a camera assembly having a wide viewing angle using a variable mirror. The camera assembly includes a variable mirror located in front of an image sensor, a variable mirror controller to switch a mode of the variable mirror to one of a reflection mode to reflect light incident upon the variable mirror and a transmission mode to transmit light incident upon the variable mirror, an image sensor to sense the light reflected by the variable mirror to acquire first image data and to sense the light transmitted through the variable mirror to acquire second image data, and an image processing unit to register the first image data and the second image data acquired by the image sensor to generate a third image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A camera assembly comprising:
a variable mirror;
a variable mirror controller to switch a mode of the variable mirror to one of a reflection mode to reflect light incident upon the variable mirror and a transmission mode to transmit light incident upon the variable mirror;
an image sensor to acquire first image data by sensing the light reflected by the variable mirror and to acquire second image data by sensing the light transmitted through the variable mirror; and
an image processing unit to combine the first image data and the second image data acquired by the image sensor to generate a third image.

2. The camera assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the variable mirror is convex or concave toward the image sensor.

3. The camera assembly according to claim 1 , wherein
the variable mirror is configured such that a surface of the variable mirror opposite the image sensor is concave, and
the camera assembly further comprises a reflection unit to reflect incident light to the concave surface of the variable mirror.

4. The camera assembly according to claim 3 , wherein the reflection unit is configured such that a surface of the reflection unit opposite the concave surface of the variable mirror is convex and has an opening formed at a region corresponding to the image sensor.

5. The camera assembly according to claim 3 , wherein
the image sensor senses light reflected by the reflection unit and re-reflected by the variable mirror to acquire the first image data, and
the image processing unit generates a first image from the first image data.

6. The camera assembly according to claim 5 , wherein the first image comprises an image of a lateral direction excluding a central portion of the image sensor and
wherein the image processing unit further generates a second image from the second image data and the second image data comprises an image of the central portion of the image sensor.

7. The camera assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the variable mirror controller applies power to the variable mirror to switch the mode of the variable mirror.

8. The camera assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the variable mirror is positioned in front of the image sensor.

9. The camera assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the first image data does not include image data in a central portion of the image sensor and the second image data includes image data in the central portion of the image sensor.

10. An apparatus comprising:
a camera assembly comprising:
a variable mirror;
a variable mirror controller to switch a mode of the variable mirror to one of a reflection mode to reflect light incident upon the variable mirror and a transmission mode to transmit light incident upon the variable mirror;
an image sensor to acquire first image data by sensing the light reflected by the variable mirror and to acquire first image data by sensing the light transmitted through the variable mirror; and
an image processing unit to combine the first image data and the second image data acquired by the image sensor to generate a third image; and
a display unit to display the third image generated by the camera assembly.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the variable mirror is positioned in front of the image sensor.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the first image data does not include image data in a central portion of the image sensor and the second image data includes image data in the central portion of the image sensor.

13. An image acquisition method using a camera assembly comprising:
acquiring a first image by sensing light reflected by a variable mirror of the camera assembly;
switching a mode of the variable mirror to a transmission mode;
acquiring a second image by sensing light transmitted through the variable mirror; and
combining the first image and the second image to acquire a third image.

14. The image acquisition method according to claim 13 , wherein the sensing of the light reflected by the variable mirror of the camera assembly comprises:
switching, by a variable mirror controller of the camera assembly, the mode of the variable mirror to a reflection mode;
sensing, by an image sensor of the camera assembly, light reflected by the variable mirror to calculate first image data; and
acquiring, by an image processing unit of the camera assembly, a first image from the first image data calculated by the image sensor.

15. The image acquisition method according to claim 14 , wherein the sensing of the light reflected by the variable mirror to acquire the first image data comprises the image sensor sensing light reflected by a reflection unit of the camera assembly toward the variable mirror and re-reflected by the variable mirror to calculate first image data.

16. The image acquisition method according to claim 13 , wherein the switching of the mode of the variable mirror to the transmission mode comprises a variable mirror controller of the camera assembly applying a predetermined magnitude of power to the variable mirror to switch the mode of the variable mirror from a reflection mode to a transmission mode.

17. The image acquisition method according to claim 13 , wherein the sensing of the light transmitted through the variable mirror to acquire the second image comprises:
sensing, by an image sensor of the camera assembly, light incident upon the variable mirror and transmitted through the variable mirror to calculate second image data; and
acquiring, by an image processing unit of the camera assembly, a second image from the second image data calculated by the image sensor.

18. The image acquisition method according to claim 13 comprising:
generating a first image from the first image data wherein the first image comprises an image of a lateral direction excluding a central portion of the image sensor; and
generating a second image from the second image data wherein the second image data comprises an image of the central portion of the image sensor.

19. A non-transitory medium comprising computer readable code to control at least one processor to implement the image acquisition method of claim 13 .

20. The image acquisition method according to claim 13 , wherein the first image data does not include image data in a central portion of the image sensor and the second image data includes image data in the central portion of the image sensor.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hwang Hyo Seok
• Roh Kyung Shik
• Yoon Suk June

Classifications

• H04N23/698 Primary

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

• H04N23/55

  Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof · CPC title

• H04N5/23238 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G02B5/10

  with curved faces · CPC title

• G02B26/0825

  the reflecting element being a flexible sheet or membrane, e.g. for varying the focus (flexible mirrors for cosmetic use A45D42/24) · CPC title