KR101651623B1 - Image system loaded in mobile terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

To a video system mounted on a mobile terminal. The image system includes a lens unit that includes a plurality of lenses to receive an optical image of a subject, an image sensor unit that converts the optical image received from the lens unit into image data that is an electrical signal, A user input section for selecting a designated section AE (Auto Exposure) function for adjusting the brightness of an image at a predetermined intensity by the user, and a user input section for receiving the section and the intensity input; An image signal processor for processing the image data to have brightness of the image according to the intensity, and a display unit for outputting the image data to the screen.

Mobile terminal, video system, designated section, designated intensity, brightness

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to an image system loaded in a mobile terminal,

The present invention relates to a video system mounted on a mobile terminal.

Auto Exposure (also referred to as "AE") function of the camera module automatically controls the amount of exposure to the film and the exposure time by adjusting the degree of opening of the iris and the speed of the shutter to keep the brightness of the image constant And automatically controls the amount of light of the subject and the surrounding environment and the light reflectance of the subject.

In the case of the camera module, the AE algorithm is installed in the ISP (Image Signal Processor), and the brightness (the brightness of the subject) level is adjusted in every input image frame frame in correspondence with the luminance change around the subject or the brightness of the subject, A control function is performed.

The conventional AE control technology adjusts the brightness of the entire image when the subject is photographed, so that the whole image becomes bright or dark. Therefore, when the subject in the angle of view is black, it is recognized as dark and the surrounding objects other than the main subject become too saturated. On the contrary, if the object in the angle of view is white, there is a problem that the entire screen or the surrounding objects become too dark even if the AE function operates and the brightness is low.

The present invention provides an imaging system mounted on a mobile terminal in which exposure is uniformly adjusted in the entire angle of view within an angle of view by improving the phenomenon of partially saturated or darkening the subject.

An image system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a lens unit that includes a plurality of lenses to receive an optical image of a subject, an image sensor unit that converts the optical image received from the lens unit into image data that is an electrical signal, A user input section for selecting a designated section AE (Auto Exposure) function for adjusting the brightness of an image at a predetermined intensity by a user in a section designated by the user in the data and a user input section for receiving the section and the intensity input, An image signal processing unit for processing the image data so as to have the brightness of the image according to the section and the intensity, and a display unit for outputting the image data to the screen.

The image system according to the present embodiment improves the phenomenon in which the screen is rapidly brightened or darkened according to the brightness of the subject, thereby obtaining an image close to the actual image.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, .

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a duplicate description thereof will be omitted.

1 is a photograph showing an image photographed using a conventional AE control technique when the main subject is dark. Referring to FIG. 1, a dark subject B is saturated due to a dark subject A, indicating that the subject is not totally close to the actual subject.

2 is a photograph in which the photographed image is corrected through brightness control.

Referring to FIG. 2, if the image is saturated (A) (see (a)) and corrected through brightness control (see b), there is a problem that the dark subject B is not displayed well even if the saturation disappears.

Hereinafter, the designated area AE function or method refers to adjusting the brightness of a video image according to the present embodiment.

3 is a block diagram illustrating an imaging system including a camera module according to the present embodiment. 3, the image system 10 includes a camera module 200, a user input unit 310, a display unit 350, and a memory 330. The camera module 200 includes a lens unit 210, An image sensor unit 220 and an image signal processing unit 230.

The lens unit 210 includes a plurality of lenses to receive a light image of a subject. The image sensor unit 220 converts the optical image received from the lens unit 210 into image data that is an electrical signal. The image signal processing unit 230 processes the image data so as to have the brightness of the image image according to the interval and the intensity to be applied to the designated interval AE function set by the user, which will be described later.

The user input unit 310 receives the selection of the designated interval AE function from the user in the preview state, and receives the interval and the intensity to which the designated interval AE function is to be applied from the user when the designated interval AE function is selected. The user input unit 310 may include a key pad, a dome switch, a touch pad, a jog wheel, a jog switch, and the like. In particular, when the touch pad has a mutual layer structure with the display unit 350, which will be described later, it is referred to as a touch screen. When the display unit 350 and the touch pad, which will be described later, have a mutual layer structure to form a touch screen, the display unit 350 can be used as an input device in addition to the output device.

The memory 330 stores the compressed image data encoded by the image sensor unit 220 through the encoder. Here, the image data includes RGB information indicating information such as red, green, and blue gain for each pixel.

The display unit 350 reads the image data stored in the memory 330 and outputs the read image data to the screen. The touch pad is overlapped with the layer structure so that the display unit 350 operates as a touch screen, It is also possible to enable input. In addition, when the designated section AE function is selected in the user input section 310, the image of the output screen is divided into a predetermined number of blocks, and the user inputs a designated section AE function through the user input section 310 It shows input contents when inputting section and intensity. The display unit 350 may further include a control unit (not shown) for controlling an output relationship between the input of the user input unit 310 and the display unit 350.

The display unit 350 may be a liquid crystal display, a thin film transistor-liquid crystal display, an organic light-emitting diode, a flexible display, a three-dimensional display 3D display), TOLED (Transparrent OLED), and the like. Such an imaging system 10 may be mounted in a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal may be a portable telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a designated area AE method in an image system including a camera module according to the present embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 4, in the preview state, the user selects the designated section AE function through the user input unit 310 (S110). As the designated section AE function is selected, the image output to the display unit 350 is divided into a predetermined number of blocks.

Next, a section to which the designated section AE function is to be applied is set (S120). Specifically, the divided blocks can be designated using a user input unit 310 including a touch pad or a key pad. In the case where the display unit 350 operates as a touch screen, a section to which the designated section AE function is to be applied by the user's touch can be set and inputted. When the user input unit 310 is composed of a key pad, a section to which the designated section AE function is to be applied can be set and inputted using a direction key and a designated key. The section to which the AE function is to be applied can be designated as a plurality of blocks.

Then, the intensity to which the designated interval AE function is to be applied is set in the designated section (S130). For example, the intensity may range from 1 to 3 or from 1 to 5, and one of the intensity ranges of the designated interval AE function may be selected. As the application strength of the designated section AE function increases, an image with a lot of exposure is generated in the designated section. When using the touch pad to set the designated section AE function, it can be set to increase the strength each time a touch is made on the display. Next, the image is captured (S140). With this process, the captured image is controlled in exposure at the specified section and intensity.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of interval and intensity setting through the designated interval AE function according to the present embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 5, the image output to the display is divided into 8x8 blocks, and the number of each block represents the intensity of AE. A block with a number of 1 indicates that the AE intensity is the default, and a block with a number of 3 shows that the user applies the AE function to the AE strength section. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the number of divisions of the block is only one example and the image output to the display can be divided into various numbers.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another example of the interval and intensity setting through the designated interval AE function according to the present embodiment. Referring to FIG. 6, AE intensity of 2 or 3 is set by applying the designated section AE function to the lower section of the angle of view.

7 is a photograph showing an image using the designated area AE method according to the present embodiment. Referring to FIG. 7, it can be seen that the photograph (a) in which the surrounding brightness is saturated due to the dark subject is prevented from saturating the surrounding brightness by applying the designated area AE method according to the present embodiment, Can be confirmed.

As used in this embodiment, the term " portion " refers to a hardware component such as software or an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) or ASIC, and 'part' performs certain roles. However, 'part' is not meant to be limited to software or hardware. &Quot; to " may be configured to reside on an addressable storage medium and may be configured to play one or more processors. Thus, by way of example, 'parts' may refer to components such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components and task components, and processes, functions, , Subroutines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. The functions provided in the components and components may be further combined with a smaller number of components and components or further components and components. In addition, the components and components may be implemented to play back one or more CPUs in a device or a secure multimedia card.

All of the functions described above may be performed by a processor such as a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. according to software or program code or the like coded to perform the function. The design, development and implementation of the above code will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the description of the present invention.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. You will understand. Accordingly, it is intended that the present invention covers all embodiments falling within the scope of the following claims, rather than being limited to the above-described embodiments.

1 is a photograph showing an image photographed using a conventional AE control technique when the main subject is dark.

2 is a photograph in which the photographed image is corrected through brightness control.

3 is a block diagram illustrating an imaging system including a camera module according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an AE method for a designated region in a video system including a camera module according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of interval and intensity setting through the designated interval AE function according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another example of the interval and intensity setting through the designated interval AE function according to the present embodiment.

7 is a photograph showing an image using the designated area AE method according to the present embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE SYMBOLS

10: image system 200: camera module

210: lens unit 220: image sensor unit

230: image signal processing unit 310: user input unit

330: memory 350: display unit

Claims (6)

A lens unit including a plurality of lenses to receive a light image of a subject; An image sensor unit for converting the optical image received from the lens unit into image data, which is an electrical signal; A user input unit for selecting a predetermined interval AE (Auto Exposure) function for adjusting a brightness of an image at a predetermined intensity by a user in a section designated by the user in the image data, and receiving the interval and the intensity input; An image signal processor for processing the image data to have image brightness according to the interval and the intensity when the designated interval AE function is selected; And And a display unit outputting the image data on a screen and having a mutual layer structure with the user input unit, The display part divides the image data into blocks, and the user touches the divided image data to select the section to which the designated section AE function is to be applied, and the user directly touches the display section of the section to adjust the AE intensity A video system mounted on a mobile terminal. delete delete delete delete The method according to claim 1, Wherein the display unit includes a control unit for controlling an output relationship between the input of the user input unit and the display unit.

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