Patent · US Active

Methods to automatically fix flash reflection at capture time

US9900503B1 · kind B1 · utility

5Cited by
0References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 12, 2017
Grant dateFeb 20, 2018
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 12, 2037

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N23/741
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A reflection removal system is capable of automatically removing from digital images reflections related to photographic illumination sources (“flash”), at the time of capture, without user intervention. In an embodiment, the reflection removal system receives a set of digital images taken at substantially the same time from a camera, where one of the image is affected by flash. The images are divided into blocks, and a threshold is determined for each block, indicating the brightest pixel value related to the content of the block. The reflection removal system compares each pixel in the flash-affected image to the corresponding threshold, and generates a digital mask based on the comparison. The reflection removal system creates a corrected image based on the digital mask, such that pixels affected by flash are modified based on corresponding pixels in the other images. In an embodiment, the corrected image is color blended.

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