KR100736097B1 - Apparatus and method for making a snapshot image - Google Patents

Abstract

A still image generation device and a method thereof are provided to service a high-quality still image to a user on the basis of an image formed at the time when capturing a target object. An image sequence storage(310) stores plural consecutive images. An image sequence processing unit(320) extracts the plural consecutive images to generate one still image through image sequence processing on the basis of an image formed at the time when capturing a target object. The plural consecutive images consist of the image formed at the time when capturing the target object and consecutive images before and after the capturing time of the image.

Description

Apparatus and method for making a snapshot image}

1 shows a flowchart of conventional still image generation.

2 is a conceptual diagram of a still image generating process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram of a still image generating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart of a still image generating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols on main parts of the drawings>

300: still image generating device

310: image sequence storage unit

320: image sequence processing unit

The present invention relates to a still image generating apparatus and method, and more particularly to a still image generating apparatus and method for providing a high-quality still image to the user based on the image at the time of capturing the target object.

Most digital devices, such as personal video recorders (PVRs), digital cameras, camcorders, and mobile communication terminals with cameras, have still image capture (snapshot) functions in addition to capturing video. Has a broadcast capture function.

The user can make a still image (image) of a stored video, live broadcast or a captured image through the still image capturing function to be useful. For example, camcorders often capture a single still image through image sequence processing, and print or store it. However, since camcorders are focused on capturing multiple frames, they do not respond quickly to the movement of a subject (target object), and thus are poor in quality. Such problems are similar in mobile phone cameras and similar digital devices.

1 shows a flowchart of conventional still image generation.

When the user presses the capture (shutter) button of the camera phone, for example, the still image capturer operates to capture a plurality of frames (called images or images) sequentially for a predetermined time (S11). In general, camera phones usually capture 15 frames per second.

When a plurality of frames are captured, a continuous image before a predetermined number of captured time points among the plurality of frames is stored in a temporary memory in the camera phone (S21). For example, consecutive images of 3 to 4 frames are sequentially stored in the temporary memory. In this case, four or more frames may be stored. However, three to four frames are appropriate in consideration of the capacity of the temporary memory.

In the next step, the continuous image before the predetermined number of captured time points stored in the temporary memory is converted into frequency data through DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) transformation, and frequency components are analyzed for the image converted into frequency data (S31). S41). The DCT algorithm is an effective coding technique for image compression. The DCT algorithm can convert an image into frequency data using the DCT transform.

The image having the most high frequency components among the images converted into the frequency data is selected and stored (S51). If there are many high frequency components in the frequency component, the captured image is composed of data that is well separated in time. On the other hand, a lot of low-frequency components mean that the image is not clear. The reason why the image is not clear may be, for example, that the camera phone is not in focus or the camera shakes at the moment of shooting. Therefore, when the image having the highest frequency component is selected among the images converted into frequency data, the sharpest image can be obtained.

However, such a prior art simply selects the image of the sharpest point of view from a plurality of consecutive frames, and thus, the image of the point of time when the user captures the target object is not selected. Also, for example, when the images between the 3 to 4 frames are not all clear, a clear image cannot be obtained.

Therefore, there is a need to provide a high quality still image (image) based on an image of a viewpoint captured by a user in a series of images.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a still image generating apparatus and method.

The objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In order to achieve the above object, a still image generating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is an image sequence storage unit for storing a plurality of consecutive images and a plurality of consecutive images to extract the image of the time when the target object is captured It includes an image sequence processing unit for generating one still image through image sequence processing as a reference.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a still image generating method includes storing a plurality of consecutive images and extracting a plurality of consecutive images based on an image sequence processing based on an image of a point in time at which a target object is captured. Generating an image.

Specific details of other embodiments are included in the detailed description and the drawings.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but can be implemented in various different forms, and only the embodiments make the disclosure of the present invention complete, and the general knowledge in the art to which the present invention belongs. It is provided to fully inform the person having the scope of the invention, which is defined only by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a conceptual diagram of a still image generating process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2 (a), first, a lens of a camera forms an image of a subject (a target object), and an image sensor (CCD; Charged Coupled Device) outputs an image signal of an image formed by the lens. (S202, S204).

In the next step, the analog-to-digital converter converts the video signal output from the image sensor into a digital signal (S206).

When the user operates the still image capturer, a plurality of consecutive images are extracted from the image sequence storage unit 310 included in the still image generating apparatus 300 of FIG. 3, and the image sequence included in the still image generating apparatus 300. The processing unit 320 generates one high quality still image through image sequence processing on the extracted plurality of consecutive images based on the image at the time of capturing the target object (S208). The extracted plurality of consecutive images includes an image of a time point when a user captures a target object, and a continuous image before and after the time point of capturing the object. The still image generating apparatus 300 will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 3.

Thereafter, the generated still image may be output in the form of, for example, a printer or an LCD screen (S210).

As shown in FIG. 2 (b), the contents of FIG. 2 (a) may be applied to live video of a video and a digital TV (for example, HDTV) as a target object. That is, for example, a user may watch a digital TV live broadcast and generate one high quality still image by the above-described method.

First, a tuner of a digital TV extracts a transport stream (TS) of a received broadcast, and extracts moving picture expert group (MPEG) image (eg, MPEG-2) data from the transport stream (S212). ). In this case, since the video is already MPEG video data without extracting the transport stream, the following process is immediately performed.

The extracted MPEG image data is decoded into an actual image reconstructed through an MPEG decoder (S214). Thereafter, the decoded image (image) is stored in the image sequence storage unit 310, and the following process is overlapped with FIG. 2 (a), so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

3 is a block diagram of a still image generating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The still image generating apparatus 300 includes an image sequence storage unit 310 and an image sequence processing unit 320.

The image sequence storage unit 210 stores a plurality of consecutive images (data). The plurality of consecutive images includes an image of a time point when a user captures a target object, and a continuous image before and after the time point of capturing the object. The continuous image before the captured point of view is an image (image) received from the lens of the camera through an image sensor and an analog / digital converter, and is an image received through the lens of the camera before the still image capture device is operated. It is preferable to store the most recent image. Therefore, in order to obtain a continuous image before the captured point in time, it is preferable that the image sequence storage unit 310 previously stores a predetermined number of consecutive images before the captured point in time, and the predetermined number of images is appropriate by the user. The number can be set and stored.

The image sequence processing unit 320 extracts the plurality of consecutive images and generates one still image through image sequence processing based on the image at the time when the target object is captured. That is, a plurality of consecutive images are extracted from the image sequence storage unit 310 based on a capture time point at which the user operates a still image capture device (for example, a shutter button), and based on the image point at which the target object is captured. Image sequence processing produces a single high quality still image. Briefly describing a method of generating a high quality still image, a plurality of consecutive images have pixels of color values that coincide with each other. The motion vector between images can be obtained through pixels of color values that coincide with each other. For example, a pixel of a predetermined position in the first image corresponds to which position of the second image. One still image may be generated or corrected through image sequence processing based on the image at the time of capturing the target object through the motion vector. At this time, the motion vector can be extracted several times according to the number of images and the error value of the motion vector can be reduced by interpolation between the motion vectors. For further details, see “Extraction of High-Resolution Frames from Video Sequences, IEEE 1996, Richard R. Schultz” in the background.

The 'unit' may be expressed as a 'module', and the 'module' refers to a hardware component such as software or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Play some roles However, modules are not meant to be limited to software or hardware. The module may be configured to be in an addressable storage medium and may be configured to execute one or more processors. Thus, as an example, a module may include components such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components, and task components, and processes, functions, properties, procedures, subroutines. , Segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuits, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. The functionality provided by the components and modules may be combined into a smaller number of components and modules or further separated into additional components and modules.

4 is a flowchart of a still image generating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the user operates a still image capturer (for example, a shutter button), the image sequence storage 310 extracts a plurality of consecutive images through the image sequence processor 320 (S401 and S411). The plurality of consecutive images includes an image of a time point at which the user captures a target object, and a continuous image before and after the time point of capturing the object. In order to obtain a continuous image before the captured point in time, the image sequence storage unit 310 preferably stores a predetermined number of consecutive images before the captured point in time. The number can be set and stored.

In a next step, the image sequence processing unit 320 generates one high quality still image through image sequence processing based on the extracted plurality of consecutive images based on the image at the time of capturing the target object (S421).

The still image (image) generated by the image sequence processing unit 320 is stored and output in the form of a printer or LCD screen (S431).

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the present invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features thereof. I can understand that. Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive.

According to the still image generating apparatus and method of the present invention as described above has the advantage of providing a high quality still image based on the image of the time when the user captured the target object.

Claims (4)

An image sequence storage unit for storing a plurality of consecutive images; And An image sequence processor configured to generate one still image through image sequence processing based on an image of a point in time at which the target object is captured by extracting the plurality of consecutive images, wherein the plurality of continuous images include the target object; And an image of a captured viewpoint and a continuous image before and after the captured viewpoint, wherein the image sequence processing coincides with an image of the viewpoint of capturing the target object and a continuous image before and after the captured viewpoint. And generating the one still image based on the image at the time of capturing the target object by using the pixel of the color value. The method of claim 1, And the image sequence processing is applicable to at least one of a camera, a camcorder, a digital TV, a mobile communication terminal, and a personal video recorder. Storing a plurality of consecutive images; And Extracting the plurality of continuous images and generating one still image through image sequence processing based on an image of a time point at which the target object is captured, wherein the plurality of continuous images captures the target object. And an image of a viewpoint and successive images before and after the captured viewpoint, wherein the image sequence processing is a color coincident with the image of the viewpoint at which the target object was captured and the successive images before and after the captured viewpoint And generating one still image based on an image of a point in time at which the target object is captured by using a pixel of a value. The method of claim 3, wherein And the image sequence processing is applicable to at least one of a camera, a camcorder, a digital TV, a mobile communication terminal, and a personal video recorder.

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