Method for photographing panoramic image based on motion vectors between current real time input image with a previous image through a motion estimation mechanism

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9482939-B2
Application number	US-201213613608-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2012
Priority date	Apr 12, 2007
Publication date	Nov 1, 2016
Grant date	Nov 1, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for photographing a panoramic image including the steps of recognizing movement of a corresponding photographing apparatus by comparing a current real-time input image with a previous image through a motion estimation mechanism with exposure compensation, determining a time to photograph each next picture by determining whether movement in a photography direction reaches a preset threshold value, and photographing each next picture by manual or automatic operation at the determined time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for photographing in an electronic device a panoramic image composed of a plurality of pictures, the electronic device performing the operations of:
comparing, by an image processor circuitry, a current real-time input image obtained by an image sensor circuitry with a previously-obtained image, and through operation of a motion estimation mechanism, determining a motion vector between images to recognize movement of a corresponding photographing apparatus of the electronic device;
determining, by the image processor circuitry, a time to photograph each next picture of the plurality of pictures by determining whether the recognized movement in a photography direction reaches a preset threshold value; and
photographing, by the photographing apparatus, each next picture by manual or automatic operation at the determined time, and
generating the panoramic image,
wherein in the motion estimation mechanism includes: determining the motion vector between matching image blocks using error information of respective compared pixels between image blocks within compared frames.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the error information comprises SAD (Sum of Absolute Difference) or SSD (Sum of Squared Difference), which is obtained by

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Assignees

• Moon Jae-Won
• Kim Soo-Kyun
• Cho Sung-Dae
• Oh Yun-Je
• Jung Hee-Won
• Cho Nam-Ik
• Lee Sang-Hwa
• Ha Seong-Jong
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Moon Jae-Won
• Kim Soo-Kyun
• Cho Sung-Dae
• Oh Yun-Je
• Jung Hee-Won
• Cho Nam-Ik
• Lee Sang-Hwa
• Ha Seong-Jong

Classifications

• G03B37/04 Primary

  with cameras or projectors providing touching or overlapping fields of view · CPC title

• H04N23/698 Primary

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

• G06F18/22

  Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures · CPC title

• H04N23/631

  Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters · CPC title

• G06T7/20

  Analysis of motion (motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51) · CPC title