CN112351211B

CN112351211B - Method, apparatus, system, medium, and apparatus for adjusting incident light of image pickup device

Info

Publication number: CN112351211B
Application number: CN201910730199.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 董书成
Original assignee: Beijing Horizon Robotics Technology Research and Development Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Horizon Robotics Technology Research and Development Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-08-08
Filing date: 2019-08-08
Publication date: 2022-03-25
Anticipated expiration: 2039-08-08
Also published as: CN112351211A

Abstract

A method, apparatus, system, medium, and apparatus for adjusting incident light of an image pickup device are disclosed, wherein the method includes: detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device; under the condition that the current incident light intensity is determined to meet the preset condition, determining a first duration corresponding to a first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to a second transmission state; wherein the first duration and the second duration form a unit duration; controlling the switching of a light valve arranged in front of an optical lens of the image pickup device between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first duration and the second duration; wherein the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state. The intelligent driving system is beneficial to prolonging the service life of the camera device, improving the quality of the image collected by the camera device and improving the driving safety of the vehicle in the field of intelligent driving.

Description

Method, apparatus, system, medium, and apparatus for adjusting incident light of image pickup device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to image capturing technologies, and in particular, to a method for adjusting incident light of an image capturing device, an apparatus for adjusting incident light of an image capturing device, an image capturing system, a storage medium, and an electronic device.

Background

In the process of using the camera device, the strong light can cause the overexposure phenomenon of the image collected by the camera device, and when the light power reaches a certain degree, the service life of corresponding components in the camera device can be influenced. In the field of intelligent driving, the strong light may also adversely affect the safety of vehicle driving because the overexposure phenomenon may affect the definition of the image, for example, the details in the image may be blurred due to brightness.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure is proposed to solve the above technical problems. The embodiment of the disclosure provides a method and a device for adjusting incident light of an image pickup device, an image pickup system, a storage medium and an electronic device.

According to an aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of adjusting incident light of an image pickup apparatus, the method including: detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device; under the condition that the current incident light intensity is determined to meet the preset condition, determining a first duration corresponding to a first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to a second transmission state; wherein the first duration and the second duration form a unit duration; controlling the switching of a light valve arranged in front of an optical lens of the image pickup device between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first duration and the second duration; wherein the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus for adjusting incident light to an image pickup apparatus, the apparatus including: the detection module is used for detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device; the time length determining module is used for determining a first time length corresponding to the first transmission state and a second time length corresponding to the second transmission state under the condition that the current incident light intensity detected by the detecting module meets the preset condition; wherein the first duration and the second duration form a unit duration; the light valve control module is used for controlling the switching of a light valve arranged in front of an optical lens of the camera device between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first duration and the second duration determined by the duration determining module; wherein the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state.

According to still another aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an image pickup system including: the camera device is used for collecting images; the light valve is arranged in front of the optical lens of the camera device, and the incident light of the camera device enters the camera device through the optical lens of the camera device after passing through the light valve; and a device for adjusting light incident on the image pickup device, the device comprising: the detection module is used for detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device; the time length determining module is used for determining a first time length corresponding to the first transmission state and a second time length corresponding to the second transmission state under the condition that the current incident light intensity detected by the detecting module meets the preset condition; wherein the first duration and the second duration form a unit duration; the light valve control module is used for controlling the switching of a light valve arranged in front of an optical lens of the camera device between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first duration and the second duration determined by the duration determining module; wherein the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for executing the above-described method of adjusting incident light of an image pickup apparatus.

According to still another aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a processor; a memory for storing the processor-executable instructions; and the processor is used for reading the executable instructions from the memory and executing the instructions to realize the method for adjusting the incident light of the camera device.

Based on the method, the device and the camera system for adjusting the incident light of the camera device provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, by detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device and controlling the transmission state of the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the current incident light intensity, because the respective corresponding transmittances of the first transmission state and the second transmission state are different, the incident light entering the camera device in a unit time length can be reduced, thereby being beneficial to avoiding the influence of strong incident light on the service life of corresponding components in the camera device and being beneficial to avoiding the overexposure phenomenon existing in a part area or a whole area in an image formed by the camera device. Therefore, the technical scheme provided by the disclosure is beneficial to prolonging the service life of the camera device, improving the quality of the image collected by the camera device and improving the driving safety of the vehicle in the field of intelligent driving.

The technical solution of the present disclosure is further described in detail by the accompanying drawings and examples.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent by describing in more detail embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the attached drawings. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure and not to limit the disclosure. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally represent like parts or steps.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a scenario in which the present disclosure is applicable;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of yet another scenario in which the present disclosure is applicable;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of yet another scenario in which the present disclosure is applicable;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method of adjusting incident light of an imaging device according to the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of another embodiment of a method for adjusting incident light of an image capturing apparatus according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for adjusting incident light of an image capturing apparatus according to still another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for adjusting incident light of an image capturing apparatus according to another embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of an apparatus for adjusting incident light of an image capturing device according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of one embodiment of the camera system of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of the arrangement positions of the image pickup device and the light valve in the image pickup system of the present disclosure;

fig. 11 is another schematic diagram of the arrangement positions of the image pickup device and the light valve in the image pickup system of the present disclosure;

fig. 12 is still another schematic view of the image pickup device and the arrangement position of the light valve in the image pickup system of the present disclosure;

fig. 13 is a block diagram of an electronic device provided in an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments according to the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the described embodiments are merely a subset of the embodiments of the present disclosure and not all embodiments of the present disclosure, with the understanding that the present disclosure is not limited to the example embodiments described herein.

It should be noted that: the relative arrangement of the components and steps, the numerical expressions, and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present disclosure unless specifically stated otherwise.

It will be understood by those of skill in the art that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the embodiments of the present disclosure are used merely to distinguish one element from another, and are not intended to imply any particular technical meaning, nor is the necessary logical order between them.

It is also understood that in embodiments of the present disclosure, "a plurality" may refer to two or more and "at least one" may refer to one, two or more.

It is also to be understood that any reference to any component, data, or structure in the embodiments of the disclosure, may be generally understood as one or more, unless explicitly defined otherwise or stated otherwise.

In addition, the term "and/or" in the present disclosure is only one kind of association relationship describing the associated object, and means that there may be three kinds of relationships, such as a and/or B, and may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" in the present disclosure generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

It should also be understood that the description of the various embodiments of the present disclosure emphasizes the differences between the various embodiments, and the same or similar parts may be referred to each other, so that the descriptions thereof are omitted for brevity.

Meanwhile, it should be understood that the sizes of the respective portions shown in the drawings are not drawn in an actual proportional relationship for the convenience of description.

The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses.

Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate.

It should be noted that: like reference numbers and letters refer to like items in the following figures, and thus, once an item is defined in one figure, further discussion thereof is not required in subsequent figures.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in electronic devices such as terminal devices, computer systems, servers, etc., which are operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well known terminal devices, computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with an electronic device, such as a terminal device, computer system, or server, include, but are not limited to: personal computer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients, hand-held or laptop devices, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network pcs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, distributed cloud computing environments that include any of the above, and the like.

Electronic devices such as terminal devices, computer systems, servers, etc. may be described in the general context of computer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The computer system/server may be implemented in a distributed cloud computing environment. In a distributed cloud computing environment, tasks may be performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.

Summary of the disclosure

In the technical field of image acquisition, strong light has certain harm to a camera device; for example, strong light can cause an overexposure phenomenon to an image (e.g., a picture or a video frame) captured by the image capturing device, and for example, the strong light can also affect the service life of corresponding components (e.g., an image sensor) in the image capturing device.

In an image pickup apparatus such as a camera, a user can avoid an adverse effect of strong light on the camera by manually adjusting the size of the aperture during photographing. However, it is not practical for the vehicle-mounted image pickup apparatus or the image pickup apparatus for video monitoring to avoid the adverse effect of strong light on the image pickup apparatus by manually adjusting the aperture of the image pickup apparatus.

If the light transmittance of the incident light of the camera device can be adaptively controlled, so that the intensity of the incident light entering the camera device can be adaptively controlled, the camera device is favorably and adaptively prevented from being adversely affected by strong light in real time.

Brief description of the drawings

By using the device and the method for adjusting the incident light of the camera device, the adverse effect of the incident light on the camera device can be avoided in a real-time self-adaptive manner under the condition that the light intensity of the incident light meets the preset condition, so that the service life of the camera device is prolonged, and the image quality of pictures or video frames and the like acquired by the camera device is improved.

An example of an application scenario of the technical solution of the present disclosure is shown in fig. 1.

In fig. 1, a vehicle 100 is provided with a drive recorder 101. The drive recorder 101 is provided with an imaging device and the device for adjusting the incident light of the imaging device of the present disclosure.

During daytime driving, the vehicle 100 may run against the sun. The rays of sunlight may enter the interior of the image pickup device through the optical lens of the image pickup device in the event recorder 101 at a certain incident angle, for example, the incident light is captured by the image sensor in the image pickup device. When the light intensity of the incident light formed by the sunlight meets a preset condition (for example, exceeds a certain threshold), strong light is formed.

The device for adjusting the incident light of the camera device, which is arranged in the automobile data recorder 101, controls a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state, and the light valve arranged in front of the light lens of the camera device is controlled to be switched between a first transmission state and a second transmission state according to the first duration and the second duration, the incident light entering the camera device in the drive recorder 101 in a unit time length can be reduced, and the light intensity of the incident light entering the image pickup device in the drive recorder 101 can be reduced, it can be seen that, on the one hand, it is advantageous to avoid the strong sunlight irradiation from making the gray scale value of at least a partial area in the video frame captured by the image capturing device in the automobile data recorder 101 too high, the phenomenon that the scenes of at least partial areas in the video frame are unclear is caused, so that the image quality of the video stored in the automobile data recorder 101 is improved; on the other hand, the phenomenon that corresponding components in the camera device in the automobile data recorder 101 are irreversibly damaged by strong sunlight is avoided, so that the service life of the automobile data recorder 101 is prolonged.

When the vehicle 100 is traveling in a dark environment such as at night or in a tunnel, it is common for the vehicle to encounter a vehicle that is traveling in a direction opposite thereto and that is turned on with a high beam. The light of the high beam passes through the optical lens of the camera in the automobile data recorder 101 at a certain incident angle, enters the camera, and is captured by an image sensor, for example. When the light intensity of the incident light formed by the high beam meets the preset condition, strong light is formed.

The device for adjusting the incident light of the camera device, which is arranged in the automobile data recorder 101, controls a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state, and the light valve arranged in front of the light lens of the image pickup device is controlled to be switched between a first transmission state and a second transmission state according to the first duration and the second duration, it is possible to reduce incident light entering the image pickup device in the drive recorder 101 per unit time length, and the light intensity of the incident light entering the image pickup device in the drive recorder 101 can be reduced, therefore, on one hand, the phenomenon that the scenes of at least partial areas in a video frame are unclear due to the fact that the gray values of at least partial areas in the video frame shot by the camera in the automobile data recorder 101 are too high due to strong high beam irradiation is avoided, and therefore the image quality of the video stored in the automobile data recorder 101 is improved; on the other hand, the phenomenon that corresponding components in the camera device in the automobile data recorder 101 are irreversibly damaged by a strong high beam is avoided, so that the service life of the automobile data recorder 101 is prolonged.

An example of an application scenario of the technical solution of the present disclosure is shown in fig. 2.

In fig. 2, the vehicle 200 may implement intelligent driving, for example, the vehicle 200 may implement automatic driving or assisted driving, and the like. The on-board system of the vehicle 200 includes: the imaging device 201, the device for adjusting the incident light of the imaging device of the present disclosure, the control system, and the like.

In the case that the user controls the vehicle 200 to be in the smart driving mode, the camera 201 can obtain the video stream of the road surface where the vehicle 200 is located in real time through the video shooting function, and the camera 201 provides the video stream obtained by shooting to the control system in the on-board system in the vehicle 200 in real time.

During the running of the vehicle 200, the device for adjusting the incident light of the camera device of the present disclosure detects that the light intensity of the incident light of the external light forming camera device 201 meets the predetermined condition, by controlling a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state, and the light valve arranged in front of the light lens of the image pickup device is controlled to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the first duration and the second duration, so that the incident light entering the image pickup device 201 in unit duration can be reduced, therefore, on one hand, the phenomenon that the gray value of at least partial area in each video frame in the video stream output by the camera 201 is too high, so that the scene of at least partial area in the video frame is unclear is avoided; on the other hand, the phenomenon that corresponding components in the image pickup device 201 are irreversibly damaged by strong incident light is avoided, so that the service life of the image pickup device 201 is prolonged.

The control system in the on-board system in the vehicle 200 may generate and issue a corresponding control instruction in real time according to the video stream transmitted by the camera 201; for example, the control system may perform moving object detection in real time for each video frame in the video stream to determine the motion information of the moving object in each video frame in the real three-dimensional space, and may generate and issue a corresponding control instruction according to the obtained motion information and the current driving condition of the vehicle 200, thereby implementing intelligent driving. The control instructions generated and issued by the control system include, but are not limited to: a speed keeping control instruction, a speed adjusting control instruction, a direction keeping control instruction, a direction adjusting control instruction, an early warning prompting control instruction and the like.

An example of an applicable scenario of the technical solution of the present disclosure is shown in fig. 3.

In fig. 3, a traffic light and a road video monitoring device 301 are provided on a road sign post 300. The road video monitoring device 301 is provided with an image pickup device and a device for adjusting incident light of the image pickup device. The road video monitoring apparatus 301 accesses a network and transmits a picture or a video taken by the road video monitoring apparatus to a corresponding network device (for example, a server provided in a traffic administration office) via the network.

In the daytime, the road video monitoring device 301 may be facing the sun. The rays of the sun may pass through the optical lens of the camera in the road video surveillance device 301 at a certain incident angle, enter the inside of the camera in the road video surveillance device 301, and are captured by an image sensor, for example. When the light intensity of the incident light formed by the sunlight meets the preset condition, strong light is formed.

The device for adjusting the incident light of the camera device arranged in the road video monitoring device 301 can reduce the incident light entering the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301 in a unit time length by controlling a first time length corresponding to the first transmission state and a second time length corresponding to the second transmission state and controlling the light valve arranged in front of the light lens of the camera device to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the first time length and the second time length, thereby reducing the light intensity of the incident light entering the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301, on one hand, being beneficial to avoiding the phenomenon that the gray value of at least partial area in the photo or video frame collected by the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301 is too high due to strong sunlight irradiation, thereby causing the phenomenon that the scene of at least partial area in the photo or video frame is unclear, thereby being beneficial to improving the image quality of the pictures or videos uploaded to the network side by the road video monitoring device 301; on the other hand, irreversible damage to corresponding components in the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301 due to strong sunlight is avoided, so that the service life of the road video monitoring device 301 is prolonged.

In a dark environment such as at night, when a vehicle on a road turns on a high beam, light of the high beam may enter the camera in the road video monitor 301 through an optical lens of the camera in the road video monitor 301 at a certain incident angle. And forming strong light when the light intensity of the incident light formed by the high beam meets the preset condition.

The device for adjusting the incident light of the camera device arranged in the road video monitoring device 301 can reduce the incident light entering the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301 in a unit time length by controlling a first time length corresponding to the first transmission state and a second time length corresponding to the second transmission state and controlling the light valve arranged in front of the light lens of the camera device to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the first time length and the second time length, thereby reducing the light intensity of the incident light entering the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301, on one hand, being beneficial to avoiding the phenomenon that the gray value of at least partial area in the picture or video frame collected by the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301 is too high due to the strong high-beam light illumination, thereby causing the phenomenon that the scene of at least partial area in the picture or video frame is unclear, thereby being beneficial to improving the image quality of the pictures or videos uploaded to the network side by the road video monitoring device 301; on the other hand, irreversible damage to corresponding components in the camera device in the road video monitoring device 301 caused by a strong high beam is avoided, so that the service life of the road video monitoring device 301 is prolonged.

Exemplary method

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method for adjusting light incident on an image capturing apparatus according to the present disclosure. The method shown in fig. 4 includes: s400, S401, and S402. The following describes each step.

And S400, detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device.

The current incident light intensity in the present disclosure may refer to the light intensity of the current incident light. The light intensity in the present disclosure may also be referred to as illumination intensity or light intensity, etc. The light intensity may refer to: the luminous flux of visible light received per unit area. The intensity of the light may be considered to be an amount indicative of the intensity of the illumination and the degree to which the surface area of the object is illuminated. The present disclosure can detect the light intensity of incident light entering the image pickup apparatus through the optical lens of the image pickup apparatus.

S401, under the condition that the current incident light intensity is determined to meet the preset condition, determining a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state.

The preset conditions in the present disclosure may be considered as: the condition set in advance for strong light, that is, the incident light whose light intensity meets the preset condition, may be regarded as strong light. The preset conditions can be set according to actual requirements. The present disclosure is not limited thereto.

The first and second transmission states in this disclosure each correspond to a respective transmittance, and the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is typically higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state. The minimum difference between the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state and the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state may be set according to actual requirements. The first duration and the second duration in this disclosure form one unit duration. For example, the unit time period may be 1 second or 1 minute, etc.

S402, controlling the switching of a light valve arranged in front of an optical lens of the image pickup device between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first time length and the second time length.

Light valves in this disclosure may refer to: an element capable of controlling the transmittance of molecules. For example, the transmittance of the molecules can be controlled by a voltage. Controlling the switching of the light valve between the first transmissive state and the second transmissive state: controlling the switching of the transmissive state of the light valve between the first transmissive state and the second transmissive state.

The light valve in the present disclosure may be a liquid crystal light valve. The transmittance of the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal light valve can be controlled by the voltage applied to the liquid crystal light valve. The control method and the control device can control the intensity of incident light entering the camera device through the optical lens in unit time length by controlling the switching of the light valve between the first transmission state and the second transmission state.

According to the method, the current incident light intensity of the camera device is detected, the transmission state of the light valve is controlled to be switched between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the current incident light intensity, and the corresponding transmissivity of the first transmission state and the second transmission state is different, so that the incident light entering the camera device within unit time can be reduced, the influence of strong incident light on the service life of corresponding components in the camera device is favorably avoided, and the overexposure phenomenon existing in partial areas or all areas in an image in the process of forming the image by the camera device is favorably avoided; furthermore, the method and the device are beneficial to prolonging the service life of the camera device, improving the quality of the image acquired by the camera device and avoiding the adverse effect of the lack of the image quality on the accuracy of the image processing (for example, the processing of target object detection, identification or tracking and the like) result in the field of intelligent driving, thereby greatly improving the driving safety of the vehicle.

In an alternative example, where the light transmittance of the light valve is generally related to the voltage applied to the light valve, the present disclosure may control the switching of the light valve between the first transmissive state and the second transmissive state by controlling a change in the voltage applied to the light valve. Further, since there is generally a certain relationship between the light transmittance of the light valve and the voltage across the light valve, the present disclosure can control the intensity of incident light entering the imaging device through the optical lens by controlling the light transmittance of the light valve based on the relationship.

In an alternative example, the present disclosure may utilize gray-scale values of pixels in an image (such as a photograph or a video frame) currently captured by the camera to achieve detection of the current incident light intensity of the camera. For example, an average value of gray-scale values of pixels of a partial area in an image currently acquired by the camera device is detected, and the current incident light intensity is represented by using the average value. The area of the partial region should generally reach a predetermined area threshold, so as to improve the accuracy of the determined current incident light intensity. For another example, the mean value of the gray values of all pixels in the image currently acquired by the camera device is detected, and the mean value is used to represent the current incident light intensity. And under the condition that the calculated average value reaches or exceeds a preset gray value, determining that the intensity of the current incident light meets a preset condition, namely determining that the current incident light belongs to strong light. The present disclosure may also detect the current incident light intensity of the image capturing device by means of other devices, and the present disclosure does not limit the specific implementation manner of detecting the current incident light intensity of the image capturing device.

The current incident light intensity of the camera device is detected by utilizing the gray value of the pixel in the image acquired by the camera device, and the current incident light intensity of the camera device can be simply and conveniently obtained, so that the real-time performance and the accuracy of detecting the current incident light intensity are improved, and the realization cost of detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device is reduced.

In one optional example, the first transmissive state in the present disclosure comprises: a transmissive state having a transmittance greater than or equal to a first preset percentage. For example, the first transmission state may be a transmission state having a transmittance of greater than or equal to 95%, i.e., the first transmission state may be a transmission state having the highest transmittance of the light valve, and thus the first transmission state may be referred to as a high transmission state.

In one optional example, the second transmissive state in the present disclosure comprises: a transmissive state having a transmittance less than or equal to a second predetermined percentage. The second preset percentage in the present disclosure is typically lower than the first preset percentage. For example, the second transmission state may be a transmission state having a transmittance of less than or equal to 5%, that is, the second transmission state may be a transmission state having the lowest transmittance of the light valve, and thus the second transmission state may be referred to as a low transmission state.

Under the condition that the first transmission state is a high transmission state with the transmissivity being greater than or equal to 95% and the second transmission state is a low transmission state with the transmissivity being less than or equal to 5%, if the low transmission state is approximately regarded as a state that the incident light is completely shielded and the high transmission state is approximately regarded as a state that the incident light is not completely shielded, the switching of the light valve between the first transmission state and the second transmission state is controlled according to the first duration and the second duration, so that the current incident light intensity of the camera device can be regarded as being adjusted by using the duty ratio, and therefore the control of the current incident light intensity of the camera device can be conveniently and accurately realized.

In one optional example, one way that the present disclosure determines the first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and the second duration corresponding to the second transmission state may be: and determining a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state according to the current duty ratio.

Alternatively, the current duty cycle may have a preset initial value, and the current duty cycle may be updated during the handover process. That is, the current duty ratio may be changed in the course of controlling the current incident light intensity of the image pickup device, and for example, the current duty ratio may be increased stepwise or decreased stepwise according to the corresponding step size.

Alternatively, the current duty cycle in this disclosure may be considered to be: within a unit time length, the ratio of the time length of the light valve, which is approximate to the time length of completely blocking the current incident light of the image pickup device, to the time length of the light valve, which is approximate to the time length of completely not blocking the current incident light of the image pickup device, is, for example, 1 second, 200 milliseconds, 800 milliseconds, and the current duty ratio is 4. Therefore, the larger the current duty ratio is, the smaller the proportion of the time of the light valve which is approximate to completely shield the current incident light of the camera device to the unit time length is, and the smaller the current duty ratio is, the smaller the proportion of the time of the light valve which is approximate to completely shield the current incident light of the camera device to the unit time length is; further, it can be known that the relationship between the current duty ratio and the current incident light intensity in the present disclosure may be a positive correlation relationship.

According to the method and the device, the first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and the second duration corresponding to the second transmission state are determined by utilizing the current duty ratio, so that the current incident light intensity of the camera device can be conveniently and accurately controlled.

In an alternative example, if it is detected that the current incident light intensity still satisfies the preset condition (i.e., the current incident light still belongs to strong light) during the switching of the light valve in the present disclosure between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, the present disclosure may decrease the first duration and increase the second duration according to the current duty cycle and the first step size for decreasing the duty cycle until the current incident light intensity does not satisfy the preset condition.

Alternatively, the maximum value of the first duration in the present disclosure may be a unit duration, in which case the second duration is zero, such that the present disclosure no longer controls the light valve to switch between the first and second transmissive states. The present disclosure may set a minimum threshold for the first duration. The minimum threshold may be referred to as a first minimum duration, which is typically greater than zero and much less than a unit duration, such as 1 second, and may be 0.1 second or 0.05 second). According to the method, in the process of controlling the light valve to be switched between the first transmission state and the second transmission state and reducing the first time length, if the current first time length is the first minimum time length or is less than the first minimum time length and the current incident light intensity still meets the preset condition, the current first time length and the current second time length can not be adjusted any more, namely, the light valve is controlled to be switched between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the current first time length and the current second time length, so that the phenomenon that the current incident light of the camera device is approximately completely shielded in unit time length and images cannot be collected is avoided.

Optionally, the present disclosure may set a maximum threshold for the first duration, where the maximum threshold may be referred to as the first maximum duration, and the first maximum duration is generally greater than zero and close to the unit duration, for example, the unit duration is 1 second, and the first maximum duration may be 0.8 second or 0.9 second, etc. In the process of controlling the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state and increasing the first duration, if the current first duration is the first maximum duration or longer than the first maximum duration and the current incident light intensity still does not meet the preset condition, the method can suspend the execution of the perspective state switching operation and control the light valve to be in a normally open state, for example, control the light valve to be continuously in the perspective state with the highest transmittance.

Optionally, the present disclosure may set a maximum threshold for the second duration. The maximum threshold may be referred to as a second maximum duration, which is usually less than the unit duration and much greater than zero, for example, the unit duration is 1 second, and the second maximum duration may be 0.9 second or 0.95 second. According to the method, in the process of controlling the light valve to be switched between the first transmission state and the second transmission state and increasing the second duration, if the current second duration is the second maximum duration or is greater than the second maximum duration and the current incident light intensity still meets the preset condition, the first duration and the second duration can not be adjusted any more, namely, the light valve is controlled to be switched between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the current first duration and the current second duration, so that the phenomenon that the current incident light of the camera device is approximate to be completely shielded in the unit duration and the image cannot be acquired is avoided.

Optionally, the present disclosure may set a minimum threshold for the second duration. The minimum threshold may be referred to as a second minimum duration, which is typically greater than zero and much less than the unit duration, e.g., 1 second, 0.1 second or 0.2 second, etc. In the process of controlling the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state and reducing the second duration, if the current second duration is the second minimum duration or is less than the second minimum duration and the current incident light intensity still does not meet the preset condition, the method can pause the execution of the perspective state switching operation and control the light valve to be in a normally open state, for example, control the light valve to be continuously in the perspective state with the highest transmittance.

Optionally, the first step in the present disclosure may be: a known step value is preset for the duty cycle. Compared with the unit duration, the value of the first step size is usually not large (for example, the first step size may be 0.05, etc., and the value range of the first step size may be [0.02-0.1], etc.), so as to gradually adjust the current duty ratio, and to avoid the ping-pong phenomenon occurring in the current duty ratio as much as possible.

The first step in the present disclosure is to reduce the current duty ratio, and reducing the current duty ratio means reducing the current incident light into the image pickup device per unit time length. Since the first transmission state corresponding to the first duration is generally the high transmission state and the second transmission state corresponding to the second duration is generally the low transmission state, the present disclosure reduces the first duration and increases the second duration, meaning that the high transmission state is compressed and the low transmission state is expanded within the unit duration, thereby achieving the purpose of reducing the current incident light entering the image pickup apparatus within the unit duration.

Alternatively, in the case where the present disclosure controls the light valve by controlling the voltage applied to the light valve, the present disclosure may determine, according to the relationship between the light transmittance and the voltage of the light valve, the adjustment to be performed on the voltage applied to the light valve each time the current duty ratio is reduced.

According to the method, the current duty ratio is gradually reduced until the current incident light intensity does not meet the preset condition, the light intensity of the current incident light entering the camera device can be gradually improved, the phenomenon that the image collected by the camera device is unclear due to the fact that the light is too dark due to the fact that the current duty ratio is directly set to be too small is avoided, and therefore the method for adjusting the incident light intensity of the camera device is more perfect.

In an alternative example, if the current incident light intensity is detected to not satisfy the preset condition (i.e., the current incident light is no longer strong light) during the switching of the light valve in the present disclosure between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, the present disclosure may increase the first duration and decrease the second duration according to the current duty cycle and the second step size for increasing the duty cycle until the second duration is zero or the second minimum duration. When the second duration is zero, the light valve ceases to switch between the first transmissive state and the second transmissive state.

Alternatively, the second step in the present disclosure may be: a known step value is preset for the duty cycle. Compared with the unit duration, the value of the second step size is usually not large (for example, the second step size may be 0.05, etc., and the value range of the second step size may be [0.02-0.1], etc.), so as to gradually adjust the current duty ratio, and to avoid the ping-pong phenomenon from occurring in the current duty ratio as much as possible. In addition, the numerical values of the first step size and the second step size in the present disclosure may be the same.

The second step in the present disclosure is to increase the current duty ratio, and increasing the current duty ratio means increasing the current incident light into the image pickup device per unit time length. Since the first transmission state corresponding to the first duration is generally the high transmission state and the second transmission state corresponding to the second duration is generally the low transmission state, increasing the first duration and decreasing the second duration means that the low transmission state per duration is compressed and the high transmission state is expanded, thereby achieving the purpose of increasing the current incident light entering the image pickup apparatus per duration.

Alternatively, in the case where the present disclosure controls the light valve by controlling the voltage applied to the light valve, the present disclosure may determine, according to the relationship between the light transmittance and the voltage of the light valve, the adjustment to be performed on the voltage applied to the light valve each time the current duty ratio is increased.

The method for adjusting the incident light intensity of the camera device is favorable for dealing with discontinuous strong incident light by gradually increasing the current duty ratio, so that the method for adjusting the incident light intensity of the camera device is more perfect.

The flow of one embodiment of the method of adjusting the incident light of the image pickup apparatus of the present disclosure is shown in fig. 5.

In fig. 5, S500, the image capturing device is turned on and is in an image capturing state. For example, the image pickup apparatus is put in a video shooting state. At this time, the light valve disposed in front of the optical lens of the image pickup device may be in the first transmissive state. The first transmissive state may be a state in which the light valve has the highest transmittance.

S501, calculating the mean value of the gray values of all pixels in an image aiming at the image currently acquired by the camera device.

S502, judging whether the calculated average value reaches a preset gray value or not, and judging whether the light valve is in a switching state between a first transmission state and a second transmission state or not. If the preset gray value is not reached and the light valve is not currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S503 is reached; if the predetermined gray value is reached and the light valve is currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, go to S504; if the predetermined gray value is reached and the light valve is not currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S505 is reached; if the predetermined gray scale value is not reached and the light valve is currently in a switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S506 is reached.

And S503, controlling the light valve to be in a normally open state. For example, the light valve is controlled to be continuously in the first transmissive state.

S504, judging whether the first time length corresponding to the current duty ratio is the first minimum time length; if not, go to S507; if it is already the first minimum duration, go to S505.

And S505, controlling the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and the second duration corresponding to the second transmission state determined by the current duty ratio.

Optionally, the present disclosure may control the light valve to switch between the first transmissive state and the second transmissive state at a switching frequency of fifty times per second, and within one second, a sum of durations that the light valve is in the first transmissive state is the first duration and a sum of durations that the light valve is in the second transmissive state is the second duration. The sum of the first duration and the second duration is one unit duration.

S506, determining whether a second time duration corresponding to the current duty ratio is a second minimum time duration (the second minimum time duration may be zero, or greater than zero, and less than 0.1, etc.); if not, go to S508; if it is already the second minimum duration, go to S509.

And S507, reducing the current duty ratio according to the first step length, namely reducing the first time length, and increasing the second time length, so that the light intensity of the current incident light entering the camera device in unit time length is reduced. To S505.

And S508, increasing the current duty ratio according to the second step length, namely, increasing the first time length and decreasing the second time length, so that the light intensity of the current incident light entering the camera device in unit time length is increased. To S505.

And S509, controlling the light valve to be in a normally open state. For example, the light valve is controlled to be continuously in the first transmissive state.

In the above embodiment, the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state and the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state do not change, and the embodiment controls the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state by adjusting the first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and the second duration corresponding to the second transmission state, and controlling the intensity of the light entering the image pickup device based on the first duration and the second duration.

In other embodiments, the present disclosure may also set the transmittance and the first duration for the first transmission state, and set the transmittance and the second duration for the second transmission state in advance, and in the process of controlling the current incident light intensity of the image pickup apparatus, the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state and the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state are changed by keeping the first duration and the second duration unchanged, and the control valve is switched between the first transmission state and the second transmission state to implement the control of the current incident light intensity entering the image pickup apparatus. Two examples of methods of adjusting the incident light of the image pickup apparatus are shown in fig. 6 and 7 described below.

In fig. 6, S600, the image capturing device is turned on and is in an image capturing state. For example, the image pickup apparatus is put in a video shooting state. At this time, the light valve disposed in front of the optical lens of the image pickup device may be in the first transmissive state. The first transmissive state may be the transmissive state in which the light valve has the highest transmittance.

S601, calculating the mean value of the gray values of all pixels in an image aiming at the image currently acquired by the camera device.

S602, judging whether the calculated average value reaches a preset gray value or not, and judging whether the light valve is in a switching state between a first transmission state and a second transmission state or not. If the preset gray value is not reached and the light valve is not currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S603 is reached; if the predetermined gray value is reached and the light valve is currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, go to S604; if the predetermined gray value is reached and the light valve is not currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S605 is reached; if the predetermined gray scale value is not reached and the light valve is currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S606 is reached.

And S603, controlling the light valve to be in a normally open state. For example, the voltage of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the minimum voltage value (e.g., the voltage value is 0), so that the transmittance of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the maximum transmittance thereof.

S604, judging whether the transmissivity corresponding to the first transmission state reaches a first minimum transmissivity or not; if the first minimum transmittance is not reached, go to S607; if the first minimum transmittance has been reached, then go to S605.

S605, controlling the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and the second duration corresponding to the second transmission state.

Optionally, the present disclosure may control the light valve to switch between the first and second transmissive states at a switching frequency of fifty times per second, and within one second, the sum of the durations of the light valve discontinuity in the first transmissive state is the first duration and the sum of the durations of the light valve discontinuity in the second transmissive state is the second duration. The sum of the first duration and the second duration is one unit duration.

S606, judging whether the transmissivity corresponding to the second transmission state reaches a second maximum transmissivity or not; if the second maximum transmittance is not reached, go to S608; if the second maximum transmittance has been reached, S609 is reached.

And S607, reducing the transmissivity corresponding to the first transmission state according to the third step length. The third step in the present disclosure is a step set for transmittance. By using the third step size, the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state can be made the same value every time it is decreased.

And S608, increasing the transmissivity corresponding to the second transmission state according to the fourth step. The fourth step in the present disclosure is a step set for transmittance. By using the fourth step size, the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state can be made to have the same value for each increase. In addition, the third step size and the fourth step size may be the same value.

And S609, controlling the light valve to be in a normally open state. For example, the voltage of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the minimum voltage value (e.g., the voltage value is 0, or the voltage value is greater than 0 and less than 0.1, etc.), so that the transmittance of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the maximum transmittance thereof.

In fig. 7, S700, the image capturing device is turned on and is in an image capturing state. For example, the image pickup apparatus is put in a video shooting state. At this time, the light valve disposed in front of the optical lens of the image pickup device may be in the first transmissive state. The first transmissive state may be the transmissive state in which the light valve has the highest transmittance.

S701, calculating the mean value of the gray values of all pixels in an image aiming at the image currently acquired by the camera device.

S702, judging whether the calculated average value reaches a preset gray value or not, and judging whether the light valve is in a switching state between a first transmission state and a second transmission state or not. If the preset gray value is not reached and the light valve is not currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, the process goes to S703; if the predetermined gray value is reached and the light valve is currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S704 is reached; if the predetermined gray value is reached and the light valve is not currently in the switching state between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, S705 is reached; if the predetermined gray scale value is not reached and the light valve is currently in a switching state between the first transmissive state and the second transmissive state, S706 is reached.

And S703, controlling the light valve to be in a normally open state. For example, the voltage of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the minimum voltage value (e.g., the voltage value is 0, or the voltage value is greater than 0 and less than 0.1, etc.), so that the transmittance of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the maximum transmittance thereof.

S704, judging whether the voltage value corresponding to the first transmission state reaches a first maximum voltage; if the first maximum voltage is not reached, go to S707; if the first maximum voltage has been reached, then S705 is reached.

S705, controlling the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state according to the first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and the second duration corresponding to the second transmission state.

Optionally, the present disclosure may control the light valve to switch between the first and second transmissive states at a switching frequency of fifty times per second, and within one second, the sum of the durations that the light valve discontinuity is in the first transmissive state is the first duration and the sum of the durations that the light valve discontinuity is in the second transmissive state is the second duration. The sum of the first duration and the second duration is one unit duration.

S706, judging whether the voltage value corresponding to the second transmission state reaches a second minimum voltage; if the second minimum voltage has not been reached, go to S708; if the second minimum voltage has been reached, then go to S709.

And S707, increasing the voltage value corresponding to the first transmission state according to a fifth step. The fifth step in the present disclosure is a step set for voltage. By using the fifth step size, the voltage value corresponding to the first transmission state may be decreased by the same value each time, however, the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state may not be decreased by the same value each time.

And S708, reducing the voltage value corresponding to the second transmission state according to the sixth step. The sixth step in the present disclosure is a step set for voltage. By using the sixth step size, the voltage value corresponding to the second transmission state may be increased by the same value, however, the transmittance value corresponding to the second transmission state may not be the same value. In addition, the fifth step size and the sixth step size may be the same value.

And S709, controlling the light valve to be in a normally open state. For example, the voltage of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the minimum voltage value (e.g., the voltage value is 0, or the voltage value is greater than 0 and less than 0.1), i.e., the transmittance of the light valve is controlled to be continuously at the maximum transmittance thereof.

Exemplary devices

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of an apparatus for adjusting incident light of an image pickup apparatus according to the present disclosure. The device of the embodiment can be used for realizing the corresponding method embodiment of the disclosure. The apparatus shown in fig. 8 comprises: a detection module 800, a duration determination module 801, and a light valve control module 802.

The detection module 800 is used for detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device. For example, the detection module 800 may determine the current incident light intensity of the image capturing device according to the gray-scale values of at least some pixels of the image currently captured by the image capturing device.

The duration determining module 801 is configured to determine a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state when it is determined that the current incident light intensity detected by the detecting module 800 satisfies a preset condition. Wherein the first duration and the second duration form a unit duration.

Optionally, the first transmissive state in the present disclosure may include: a transmissive state having a transmittance greater than or equal to a first preset percentage. The second transmissive state in the present disclosure may include: a transmissive state having a transmittance less than or equal to a second predetermined percentage. Wherein the first predetermined percentage is higher than the second predetermined percentage.

Optionally, the duration determining module 801 may determine, according to the current duty ratio, a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state.

The light valve control module 802 is configured to control switching of a light valve disposed in front of an optical lens of the image capturing apparatus between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first duration and the second duration determined by the duration determining module 801. Wherein the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state.

Optionally, in the process of controlling the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state by the light valve control module 802, if the duration determining module 801 determines that the current incident light intensity still satisfies the preset condition, the duration determining module 801 may decrease the first duration according to the current duty ratio and the first step length for decreasing the duty ratio, and increase the second duration until the current incident light intensity does not satisfy the preset condition.

Optionally, in the process of controlling the light valve to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state by the light valve control module 802, if the duration determining module 801 determines that the current incident light intensity does not satisfy the preset condition, the light valve control module 802 may increase the first duration and decrease the second duration according to the current duty ratio and the second step length used for increasing the duty ratio until the second duration is zero.

Fig. 9-12 are schematic structural views of an embodiment of the camera system of the present disclosure. The system of this embodiment may be used to implement the corresponding method embodiments of the present disclosure. The system as shown in fig. 9-12 comprises: an imaging device 900, a light valve 901, and a device 902 for adjusting light incident on the imaging device.

The camera 900 is used to capture images.

The light valve 901 is disposed in front of an optical lens of the image pickup apparatus 900, and incident light from the image pickup apparatus 900 passes through the light valve 901 and then enters the image pickup apparatus 900 through the optical lens of the image pickup apparatus 900.

The means 902 for adjusting the light incident on the image pick-up device is used to control the current incident light intensity of the image pick-up device 900.

The means 902 for adjusting light incident on the image capture device may comprise: a detection module 9021, a duration determining module 9022, and a light valve control module 9023.

The detection module 9021 is configured to detect a current incident light intensity of the image capturing apparatus 900. For example, the detection module 9021 may determine the current incident light intensity of the image capturing device 900 according to the gray scale value of at least a part of pixels of the image currently captured by the image capturing device 900.

The duration determining module 9022 is configured to determine a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state when it is determined that the current incident light intensity detected by the detecting module 9021 meets a preset condition. Wherein the first duration and the second duration form a unit duration.

Optionally, the duration determining module 9022 may determine, according to the current duty ratio, a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state.

The light valve control module 9023 is configured to control switching of the light valve 901, which is disposed in front of the optical lens of the image capturing apparatus 900, between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first duration and the second duration determined by the duration determining module 9022. Wherein the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state.

Optionally, in the process that the light valve control module 9023 controls the light valve 901 to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, if the duration determining module 9022 determines that the current incident light intensity still meets the preset condition, the duration determining module 9022 may decrease the first duration according to the current duty ratio and the first step length for decreasing the duty ratio, and increase the second duration until the current incident light intensity does not meet the preset condition.

Optionally, in the process that the light valve control module 9023 controls the light valve 901 to switch between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, if the duration determining module 9022 determines that the current incident light intensity does not satisfy the preset condition, the light valve control module 9023 may increase the first duration according to the current duty ratio and the second step length used for increasing the duty ratio, and decrease the second duration until the second duration is zero.

Exemplary electronic device

An electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 13. FIG. 13 shows a block diagram of an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 13, electronic device 131 includes one or more processors 1311 and memory 1312.

The processor 1311 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or other form of processing unit having data processing capabilities and/or instruction execution capabilities, and may control other components in the electronic device 131 to perform desired functions.

Memory 1312 may include one or more computer program products, which may include various forms of computer-readable storage media, such as volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The volatile memory, for example, may include: random Access Memory (RAM) and/or cache memory (cache), etc. The nonvolatile memory, for example, may include: read Only Memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, and the like. One or more computer program instructions may be stored on the computer-readable storage medium and executed by the processor 1311 to implement the methods of adjusting incident light of an image capture device of the various embodiments of the disclosure described above and/or other desired functions. Various contents such as an input signal, a signal component, a noise component, etc. may also be stored in the computer-readable storage medium.

In one example, the electronic device 131 may further include: an input device 1313, and an output device 1314, among others, interconnected by a bus system and/or other form of connection mechanism (not shown). The input device 1313 may also include, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, and the like. The output unit 1314 may output various information to the outside. The output devices 1314 may include, for example, a display, speakers, a printer, and a communication network and its connected remote output devices, among others.

Of course, for simplicity, only some of the components of the electronic device 131 relevant to the present disclosure are shown in fig. 13, omitting components such as buses, input/output interfaces, and the like. In addition, electronic device 131 may include any other suitable components, depending on the particular application.

Exemplary computer program product and computer-readable storage Medium

In addition to the above-described methods and apparatus, embodiments of the present disclosure may also be a computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps in the method of adjusting incident light of an image capture device according to various embodiments of the present disclosure described in the "exemplary methods" section of this specification above.

The computer program product may write program code for carrying out operations for embodiments of the present disclosure in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server.

Furthermore, embodiments of the present disclosure may also be a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps in a method of adjusting incident light of an image pickup apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure described in the "exemplary methods" section above in this specification.

The computer-readable storage medium may take any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. A readable storage medium may include, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or a combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium may include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

The foregoing describes the general principles of the present disclosure in conjunction with specific embodiments, however, it is noted that the advantages, effects, etc. mentioned in the present disclosure are merely examples and are not limiting, and they should not be considered essential to the various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the foregoing disclosure of specific details is for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to be limiting, since the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the specific details so described.

In the present specification, the embodiments are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same or similar parts in the embodiments are referred to each other. For the system embodiment, since it basically corresponds to the method embodiment, the description is relatively simple, and for the relevant points, reference may be made to the partial description of the method embodiment.

The block diagrams of devices, apparatuses, systems referred to in this disclosure are only given as illustrative examples and are not intended to require or imply that the connections, arrangements, configurations, etc. must be made in the manner shown in the block diagrams. These devices, apparatuses, devices, and systems may be connected, arranged, configured in any manner, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Words such as "including," comprising, "having," and the like are open-ended words that mean "including, but not limited to," and are used interchangeably therewith. The words "or" and "as used herein mean, and are used interchangeably with, the word" and/or, "unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The word "such as" is used herein to mean, and is used interchangeably with, the phrase "such as but not limited to".

The methods and apparatus of the present disclosure may be implemented in a number of ways. For example, the methods and apparatus of the present disclosure may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination of software, hardware, and firmware. The above-described order for the steps of the method is for illustration only, and the steps of the method of the present disclosure are not limited to the order specifically described above unless specifically stated otherwise. Further, in some embodiments, the present disclosure may also be embodied as programs recorded in a recording medium, the programs including machine-readable instructions for implementing the methods according to the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure also covers a recording medium storing a program for executing the method according to the present disclosure.

It is also noted that in the devices, apparatuses, and methods of the present disclosure, each component or step can be decomposed and/or recombined. These decompositions and/or recombinations are to be considered equivalents of the present disclosure.

The previous description of the disclosed aspects is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to these aspects, and the like, will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

The foregoing description has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. Furthermore, the description is not intended to limit embodiments of the disclosure to the form disclosed herein. While a number of example aspects and embodiments have been discussed above, those of skill in the art will recognize certain variations, modifications, alterations, additions and sub-combinations thereof.

Claims

1. A method of adjusting incident light of an image pickup apparatus, comprising:

detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device;

under the condition that the current incident light intensity is determined to meet the preset condition, determining a first duration corresponding to a first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to a second transmission state; the first time length and the second time length form a unit time length, and strong light is formed when the incident light intensity meets the preset condition;

controlling the switching of the transmission state of a light valve arranged in front of an optical lens of the image pickup device between a first transmission state and a second transmission state based on the first duration and the second duration so as to control the intensity of incident light entering the image pickup device through the optical lens within the unit duration, wherein the intensity of the incident light is the luminous flux of the received visible light on a unit area; wherein the light valve is an element capable of controlling the transmittance of molecules;

wherein the transmittance corresponding to the first transmission state is higher than the transmittance corresponding to the second transmission state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting a current incident light intensity of the image capture device comprises:

and determining the current incident light intensity of the camera device according to the gray value of at least part of pixels of the image currently acquired by the camera device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first transmissive state includes: a transmissive state having a transmittance greater than or equal to a first preset percentage;

the second transmissive state includes: a transmission state in which the transmittance is less than or equal to a second preset percentage;

wherein the first predetermined percentage is higher than the second predetermined percentage.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the determining a first duration for the first transmission state and a second duration for the second transmission state comprises:

and determining a first duration corresponding to the first transmission state and a second duration corresponding to the second transmission state according to the current duty ratio.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

in the process of switching the light valve between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, if the current incident light intensity still meets the preset condition, the first duration is reduced according to the current duty ratio and the first step length for reducing the duty ratio, and the second duration is increased until the current incident light intensity does not meet the preset condition.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

in the process of switching the light valve between the first transmission state and the second transmission state, if the current incident light intensity does not meet the preset condition, the first duration is increased and the second duration is decreased according to the current duty ratio and the second step length for increasing the duty ratio until the second duration is zero.

7. An apparatus for adjusting incident light to an image pickup apparatus, comprising:

the detection module is used for detecting the current incident light intensity of the camera device;

the time length determining module is used for determining a first time length corresponding to the first transmission state and a second time length corresponding to the second transmission state under the condition that the current incident light intensity detected by the detecting module meets the preset condition; the first time length and the second time length form a unit time length, and strong light is formed when the incident light intensity meets the preset condition;

a light valve control module, configured to control, based on the first duration and the second duration determined by the duration determining module, switching of a transmission state of a light valve disposed in front of an optical lens of the image capturing apparatus between a first transmission state and a second transmission state, so as to control intensity of incident light entering the image capturing apparatus through the optical lens within the unit duration, where the intensity of the incident light is a luminous flux of the received visible light in a unit area; wherein the light valve is an element capable of controlling the transmittance of molecules;

8. A camera system, comprising:

the camera device is used for collecting images;

the light valve is arranged in front of the optical lens of the camera device, and the incident light of the camera device enters the camera device through the optical lens of the camera device after passing through the light valve; and

apparatus for adjusting light incident on an image capture device, the apparatus comprising:

9. A computer-readable storage medium, the storage medium storing a computer program for performing the method of any of the preceding claims 1-6.

10. An electronic device, the electronic device comprising:

a processor;

a memory for storing the processor-executable instructions;

the processor is configured to read the executable instructions from the memory and execute the instructions to implement the method of any one of claims 1-6.