EP0929977A1 - Camera couleur haute resolution et meilleur marche - Google Patents

Camera couleur haute resolution et meilleur marche

Info

Publication number
EP0929977A1
EP0929977A1 EP97910745A EP97910745A EP0929977A1 EP 0929977 A1 EP0929977 A1 EP 0929977A1 EP 97910745 A EP97910745 A EP 97910745A EP 97910745 A EP97910745 A EP 97910745A EP 0929977 A1 EP0929977 A1 EP 0929977A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
color
camera
pixel
output
monochrome
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP97910745A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Karl L. Chase
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Honeywell Inc
Original Assignee
Honeywell Inc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Honeywell Inc filed Critical Honeywell Inc
Publication of EP0929977A1 publication Critical patent/EP0929977A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N23/00—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
    • H04N23/45—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N23/00—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
    • H04N23/90—Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to cameras and particularly color video cameras which have high resolution and are yet reasonably inexpensive.
  • CCDs small light detectors
  • the output from each detector constitutes a pixel which may be presented to a viewing device such as a TV monitor.
  • the resolution seen by the viewer is dependent on size and the number of pixels being viewed.
  • Color cameras such as conventional TV cameras produce about 480 lines each having 640 pixels which is not considered very high resolution. For purposes of producing a high fidelity image, perhaps five times as much resolution is needed, e.g. 2000 lines with 3000 pixels each.
  • Monochrome cameras with this resolution are fairly easy to construct and are not very expensive but color cameras capable of high resolution are quite complex, rather bulky and very expensive.
  • the present invention combines a high resolution monochrome camera with a lower resolution color camera to produce a combined image which is discerned by the viewer to be high resolution color. Both cameras are trained on the same object and the relatively inexpensive monochrome camera producing a high number of pixels produces one intensity signal for each detector.
  • the relatively inexpensive relatively low resolution color camera produces far fewer pixels and has three outputs per pixel, one for red, one for green and one for blue.
  • the single intensity signal from the monochrome camera is divided into three signals each of which is modified by the intensity of one of the color signals.
  • the resultant output contains three signals for each of the higher number of pixels which is presented to the viewer. It is well known that the human eye needs less color resolution than intensity resolution and accordingly, while each pixel in the resultant image may not be exactly the color of the object at that point, it will be imperceptibly different to the eye.
  • Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the present invention
  • Figure 2 shows one possible pixel arrangement for the two cameras of Figure 1
  • Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the color intensities, the monochrome intensities and the combined intensities of two of the pixels of Figure 2 respectively.
  • Color camera 12 may be a relatively low cost camera such as a conventional TV camera with relatively low resolution of say 512 by 512 pixel image.
  • the pixel image is produced by an array of detectors, such as CCD's each having a small light receiving area (1 pixel) and each producing an output which is used to energize a small area (1 pixel) on a viewer such as a CRT.
  • the individual pixel signals will normally contain three components, Red, Blue and Green in order to provide color signals for the viewer.
  • Monochrome camera 14 may be a relatively low cost camera with a relatively high resolution of say 2048 by 2048 pixel image. In the case of monochrome camera 14, the individual pixel signals will normally only be indicative of the intensity of light falling on the detector. These numbers, 512 and 2048, have been chosen for convenience in the explanation to follow and the actual number of pixels that each camera produces may vary with the desired resolution and the cost/availability of the cameras.
  • the outputs from color camera 12 and monochromatic camera 14 are produced on lines 20 and 22 respectively and are presented to a combiner 26.
  • Combiner 26 may operate either on the analog signals from the cameras 12 and 14 or may include a digitizer which operates to produce digital signals indicative of the analog magnitudes of the signals from the individual pixels in the cameras 12 and 14.
  • Combiner 26 may also include a micro processor which processes the signals from the cameras 12 and 14 in various ways. For example, combiner 26 may compare the wave forms from the two cameras to determine a "best fit" situation and to adjust one or both of the cameras as by a connection shown as dashed line 28, to assure that they are viewing the same scene as closely as possible.
  • the combiner 26 also operates to modify the intensity signals from the monochrome camera 14 in accordance with the three color components for each pixel signal from the color camera. For example, as seen in Figure 2, a small portion 30 of the overall pixel image from the color camera 12 is shown containing 12 pixels arranged in a rectangular form. A substantially equal sized pixel image from the monochrome camera 14 is shown containing 48 pixels in rectangular form and represents the same area of the remote scene as is seen by the color camera 12. Although areas 30 and 36 are substantially the same size, portion 36 for monochrome camera 14 contains four times the number of pixels as the color portion 30 for color camera 12. This gives much greater resolution to camera 14.
  • Each of the pixels of the color portion 30 produces a signal having three components, representing the intensity of red, green and blue received by each detector pixel and these combine to give each color pixel its desired color.
  • Each of the pixels from the monochrome portion 36 has a single component indicative of the intensity of light on that pixel. As seen in Figure 2, an area 40 from portion 30 is located in the lower left corner of the portion 30 and area
  • a line 50 is shown representing that the R,G and B values from area 40 are to be combined with the four intensity values from the pixels in area 46 as will be described in connection with Figures 3, 4 and 5.
  • a random lookup table associating the Xm and Ym positions with the Xc and Yc positions may be used.
  • the color information should be normalized so that luminance of the sum of red, blue and green components is a constant value and then calculate the ratio each color component has to the whole and use the ratio as a multiplier to determine a normalized red, blue and green value which may then be multiplied by the individual pixel values of the monochrome array.
  • area 40 from Figure 2, is shown having an output consisting of three components: the red component, R, shown by arrow 54 is relatively large, the green component, G, shown by arrow 56 is relatively small and the blue component, B, shown by arrow 58 is in-between. These components combine to produce a particular color to be displayed.
  • Pixel 60 produces a single output, 1, shown by arrow 70 indicative of the intensity of light for pixel 60
  • pixel 62 produces a single output, 2 shown by arrow 72 indicative of the intensity of light for pixel 62
  • pixel 64 produces a single output, 3, shown by arrow 74 indicative of the intensity of light for pixel 64
  • pixel 66 produces a single output, 4, shown by arrow 76 indicative of the intensity of light for pixel 66. It is seen that pixel 60 is relatively dim, pixels 62 and 66 are somewhat brighter, while pixel 64 is brightest.
  • Figure 5 shows an example of what happens when the combiner operates on the values from the monochrome and color intensities as described above. More particularly, the intensities of light 70, 72, 74 and 76 from Figure 4 are combined, as described above, with the color components 54, 56 and 58 of Figure 3.
  • area 80 which is the same size as areas 40 and 46, is shown divided into four pixels 82, 84, 86 and 88.
  • Pixel 82 is shown producing three components each of which is a combination of the R, G and B components of Figure 3 and the intensity 70 of Figure 4.
  • a relatively large red component, Rl, shown by arrow 101, a relatively small green component, Gl, shown by arrow 103 and a middle sized blue component, Bl, shown by arrow 105 represent the light for pixel 82.
  • These components will combine to produce a color close, but probably not exactly the same as the color from pixel 40 of Figure 3.
  • Pixel 84 is shown producing three components each of which is a combination of the R, G and B components of Figure 3 and the intensity 72 of Figure 4. It is seen that a relatively large red component, R2, shown by arrow 111, a relatively small green component, G2, shown by arrow 113 and a middle sized blue component, B2, shown by arrow 115 represent the light for pixel 84.
  • Pixel 84 is shown producing three components each of which is a combination of the R, G and B components of Figure 3 and the intensity 74 of Figure 4. It is seen that a relatively large red component, R3, shown by arrow 121, a relatively small green component, G3, shown by arrow 123 and a middle sized blue component, B3, shown by arrow 125 represent the light for pixel 86. These components will also combine to produce a color close to, but probably not exactly the same as, the color from pixel 40 of Figure 3. Finally, pixel 88 is shown producing three components each of which is a combination of the R, G and B components of Figure 3 and the intensity 76 of Figure 4.
  • the red component 54 is 6 units in length
  • the blue component is 4 units in length
  • the green components 2 units in length.
  • the output 70 of Figure 4 is 10 units
  • output 72 is 16 units
  • output 74 is 20 units
  • output 76 is 18 units.
  • Combiner 26 operates to produce the ratios 6/12 for red, 4/12 for blue and 2/12 for green which are then used to adjust the monochrome intensities 70, 72 , 74 and 76 accordingly.
  • intensity 101 in Figure 5 would be proportional to 6/12(10)
  • output 103 would be proportional to 2/12(10)
  • output 105 would be proportional to 4/12(10).
  • output 111 would be proportional to 6/12(16)
  • the combiner 26 of Figure 1 produces the outputs 101 - 135 on a line 140 to a utilization device such as a viewer 144 which may be a CRT with the higher resolution produced by the monochrome camera 14 with the color from the color camera 12.
  • a utilization device such as a viewer 144 which may be a CRT with the higher resolution produced by the monochrome camera 14 with the color from the color camera 12.
  • the human eye will not be able to discern the different colors even though they will vary slightly from pixel to pixel. After all pixels in the image have been processed and submitted to the viewer 144, the resultant image will appear of high resolution and excellent color without the expense of a high resolution color camera.
  • the two cameras 12 and 14 can be automatically aligned by comparing the peaks and the valleys in their output signals and moving one or both cameras until a "best fit" occurs. Adjustments can also be made electronically by altering the positions of the signals in the combiner. The quality of the image can also be monitored by comparing the two independent signals from the camera. The present invention also assures a "fail-safe" system in the event that either camera fails, because the other camera will still provide an emergency picture which will be temporarily satisfactory even though it may lack either color or high resolution.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
  • Color Television Image Signal Generators (AREA)
  • Image Analysis (AREA)

Abstract

Cette caméra couleur haute résolution résulte de la combinaison d'une sortie de caméra monochrome haute résolution et d'une sortie de caméra couleur moins haute résolution et meilleur marché. On réalise cette combinaison en exposant les deux caméras à la même scène et en modulant les intensités des sorties, à partir des pixels de la caméra monochrome, avec les sorties des composantes couleur, à partir des pixels de la caméra couleur, approximativement sur les mêmes zones de pixels. Le dispositif combinateur compare la sortie de la caméra couleur avec celle de la caméra monochrome et règle au moins l'une des caméras afin que les scènes visionnées par les deux caméras soient sensiblement les mêmes.
EP97910745A 1996-09-30 1997-09-30 Camera couleur haute resolution et meilleur marche Withdrawn EP0929977A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US72039796A 1996-09-30 1996-09-30
PCT/US1997/017670 WO1998015126A1 (fr) 1996-09-30 1997-09-30 Camera couleur haute resolution et meilleur marche
US720397 2003-11-24

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0929977A1 true EP0929977A1 (fr) 1999-07-21

Family

ID=24893878

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP97910745A Withdrawn EP0929977A1 (fr) 1996-09-30 1997-09-30 Camera couleur haute resolution et meilleur marche

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0929977A1 (fr)
JP (1) JP2001506812A (fr)
CA (1) CA2264777A1 (fr)
WO (1) WO1998015126A1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2016061757A1 (fr) * 2014-10-22 2016-04-28 宇龙计算机通信科技(深圳)有限公司 Procédé de génération d'image basé sur un module de caméra double et module de caméra double
KR102519803B1 (ko) 2016-04-11 2023-04-10 삼성전자주식회사 촬영 장치 및 그 제어 방법
WO2018028585A1 (fr) * 2016-08-10 2018-02-15 宁波舜宇光电信息有限公司 Module multicaméra à diaphragmes de tailles différentes, et application associée
EP3525447B1 (fr) * 2016-10-28 2023-10-25 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Procédé de photographie destiné à un terminal, et terminal
WO2018082165A1 (fr) * 2016-11-03 2018-05-11 华为技术有限公司 Procédé et appareil d'imagerie optique
KR20240049211A (ko) * 2022-10-04 2024-04-16 구글 엘엘씨 글로벌 셔터 센서를 갖는 흑백 카메라와 컬러 카메라를 포함하는 카메라 시스템

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP2849813B2 (ja) * 1986-12-19 1999-01-27 富士写真フイルム株式会社 映像信号の形成装置
US5045932A (en) * 1989-06-29 1991-09-03 Eastman Kodak Company Method and apparatus for generating a high definition electronic signal from a line scan of a color original
DE69215760T2 (de) * 1991-06-10 1998-02-05 Eastman Kodak Co Kreuzkorrelationsausrichtsystem für einen Bildsensor
JP3392886B2 (ja) * 1992-06-18 2003-03-31 ペンタックス株式会社 スチルビデオカメラ

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of WO9815126A1 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JP2001506812A (ja) 2001-05-22
CA2264777A1 (fr) 1998-04-09
WO1998015126A1 (fr) 1998-04-09

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