Patent · US Expired

Automatic white balance detection and correction of an image captured in a digital camera

US6411331B1 · kind B1 · utility

29Cited by
25References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 28, 1997
Grant dateJun 25, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 28, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N23/88
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A digital camera includes a lens and a plurality of color filters adjacent the lens. An array of detectors such as CCDs each receive, through the lens and a corresponding one of the color filters, light reflected from a scene. Each detector outputs a signal representative of an amount of light it receives. Circuitry is connected to the array for processing the signals from the detectors and generating a set of digital image data including a chromaticity value and a luminance value of a plurality of pixels representing an uncorrected image of the scene. A control circuit maps a two-dimensional representation of the digital image data into a two-dimensional representation of a set of reference image data and adjusts selected ones of the values of the set of digital image data in accordance with a predetermined transform to white balance the uncorrected image of the scene and produce a modified set of digital image data representing a corrected image of the scene.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.