METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIMULATING A CAMERA PANNING EFFECT
A digital image acquisition system determines a motion function of a subject/object in an acquired image scene based on a comparison of a reference image of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of the acquired image and at least one other image. The acquired image is segmented into a foreground portion and a background portion and a background portion of the acquired image is convolved according to the motion function. The foreground portion and the convolved background portion are composited to produce a final image in which panning of a camera during image acquisition is simulated.
1 . A method operable in a digital image acquisition system having no photographic film, said method comprising:
acquiring a digital image of a scene;
determining a motion function of a subject/object in said scene based on a comparison of a sequence of reference images of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of said acquired image and at least one other image;
segmenting said acquired image into a foreground portion and a background portion;
convolving said background portion of said acquired image according to said motion function; and
compositing said foreground portion and said convolved background portion to produce a final image.
2 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising:
merging and smoothing said foreground portion and said convolved background portion in said final image.
3 . The method according to any preceding claim wherein said motion function is a Point Spread Function, PSF.
4 . The method according to any preceding claim wherein said sequence of reference images comprises a single image.
5 . The method according to claim 1 wherein said segmenting of said acquired image comprises analyzing said acquired image and one of said sequence of reference images.
6 . A digital image acquisition system comprising:
an apparatus for capturing digital images;
a digital processing component for determining a motion function of a subject/object in said scene based on a comparison of a reference image of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of said acquired image and at least one other image;
a segmentation tool for segmenting said acquired image into a foreground portion and a background portion;
a convolver for convolving said background portion of said acquired image according to said motion function; and
a compositor for compositing said foreground portion and said convolved background portion to produce a final image.
7 . The digital image acquisition system according to claim 6 further comprising:
a blur adjustment module for selectively altering a motion function scaling parameter to alter the degree to which the background portion is to be blurred.
8 . The digital image acquisition system according to claim 7 , wherein said blur adjustment module is implemented as a user adjustable slider.
9 . The digital image acquisition system according to claim 7 , wherein said blur adjustment module is implemented as at least one user adjustable button.
10 . The digital image acquisition system according to claim 7 comprising one of a digital stills camera, a digital video camera, or a camera phone.