Electronic apparatus and adjustment method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9392184-B2
Application number	US-201514752255-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Mar 9, 2012
Publication date	Jul 12, 2016
Grant date	Jul 12, 2016

Abstract

Electronic apparatuses and adjustment methods thereof are provided. The electronic apparatus includes a camera module and a processor. The camera module is enabled into an HDR mode and captures a reference frame according to a first exposure setting, wherein the reference frame corresponds to a plurality of luminance values. The processor calculates a weighted luminance value of the reference frame according to the luminance values, generates a comparison result by comparing the weighted luminance value and a luminance target of the HDR mode, and decides a second exposure setting according to the comparison result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic apparatus, comprising:
a camera module, being enabled into a High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode and configured to capture a first reference frame according to a first exposure setting, wherein the first reference frame corresponds to a plurality of first luminance values; and
a processor, being electrically connected to the camera module and configured to divide the first reference frame into a plurality of blocks, calculate an average luminance value for each of the blocks, wherein each of the average luminance value is one of the first luminance values of the first reference frame,
wherein the processor further adjusts at least a portion of the average luminance values that are greater than a predetermined threshold before calculating a first weighted luminance value, calculates the first weighted luminance value of the first reference frame by averaging the average luminance values of the blocks, generates a first comparison result by comparing the first weighted luminance value and a luminance target of the HDR mode, and decides a second exposure setting according to the comparison result.

2. The electronic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor adjusts at least a portion of the average luminance values that are greater than the predetermined threshold by performing the following operations for each average luminance value that is greater than the predetermined threshold:
calculating an accumulation number of the average luminance values that have been adjusted; and
adjusting the average luminance value according to a reduction ratio when the accumulation number is smaller than a predetermined discard number.

3. An electronic apparatus, comprising:
a camera module, being enabled into a High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode and configured to capture a first reference frame according to a first exposure setting, wherein the first reference frame corresponds to a plurality of first luminance values, the first reference frame has a plurality of pixels, each pixel has a pixel value, each pixel value is one of the first luminance values of the first reference frame; and
a processor, being electrically connected to the camera module and configured to adjust at least a portion of the pixel values that are greater than a predetermined threshold before calculating a first weighted luminance value, calculate the first weighted luminance value of the first reference frame according to the first luminance values, generate a first comparison result by comparing the first weighted luminance value and a luminance target of the HDR mode, and decide a second exposure setting according to the comparison result.

4. The electronic apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the processor adjusts at least a portion of the pixel values that are greater than the predetermined threshold by performing the following operations for each of the pixel values that is greater than the predetermined threshold:
calculating an accumulation number of the pixel values that have been adjusted; and
adjusting the pixel value according to a reduction ratio when the accumulation number is smaller than a predetermined discard number.

5. An adjustment method for use in an electronic apparatus, the electronic apparatus comprising a processor and a camera module, the adjustment method comprising the following steps of:
detecting that a High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode of the camera module has been enabled by the processor;
capturing a reference frame according to an exposure setting by the camera module, wherein the reference frame corresponds to a plurality of luminance values;
dividing the reference frame into a plurality of blocks by the processor;
calculating an average luminance value for each of the blocks by the processor, wherein each of the average luminance value is one of the luminance values of the reference frame;
adjusting at least a portion of the average luminance values that are greater than a predetermined threshold by the processor;
calculating a weighted luminance value of the reference frame by averaging the average luminance values of the blocks by the processor;
generating a comparison result by comparing the weighted luminance value and a luminance target of the HDR mode by the processor; and
deciding the exposure setting according to the comparison result by the processor.

6. The adjustment method of claim 5 , wherein the step of adjusting at least a portion of the average luminance values that are greater than the predetermined threshold comprises the following step of:
performing the following steps for each average luminance value that is greater than the predetermined threshold:
calculating an accumulation number of the average luminance values that have been adjusted by the processor; and
adjusting the average luminance value according to a reduction ratio by the processor when the accumulation number is smaller than a predetermined discard number.

7. An adjustment method for use in an electronic apparatus, the electronic apparatus comprising a processor and a camera module, the adjustment method comprising the following steps of:
detecting that a High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode of the camera module has been enabled by the processor;
capturing a reference frame according to an exposure setting by the camera module, the reference frame corresponding to a plurality of luminance values, wherein the reference frame has a plurality of pixels, each pixel has a pixel value, each pixel value is one of the luminance values of the reference frame;
adjusting at least a portion of the pixel values that are greater than a predetermined threshold by the processor;
calculating a weighted luminance value of the reference frame according to the luminance values by the processor;
generating a comparison result by comparing the weighted luminance value and a luminance target of the HDR mode by the processor; and
deciding the exposure setting according to the comparison result by the processor.

8. The adjustment method of claim 7 , wherein the step of adjusting at least a portion of the pixel values that are greater than the predetermined threshold comprises the following step of:
performing the following steps for each of the pixel values that is greater than the predetermined threshold:
calculating an accumulation number of the pixel values that have been adjusted by the processor; and
adjusting the pixel value according to a reduction ratio by the processor when the accumulation number is smaller than a predetermined discard number.

Assignees

• Htc Corp

Inventors

• Yang Hung-Chih
• Liu Wei-Chih
• Hsieh Chung-Hsien
• Peng Yu-Chun

Classifications

• H04N23/70 Primary

  Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene · CPC title

• H04N23/73 Primary

  by influencing the exposure time · CPC title

• H04N23/71

  Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation · CPC title

• H04N23/741

  by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors · CPC title

• H04N5/2351

  Electricity · mapped topic