Adaptive configuration of windows-of-interest for accurate and robust focusing in multispot autofocus cameras
View Patent ↗In accordance with the exemplary embodiments of the invention there is at least a method, executable computer program, and apparatus to provide operations including logically separating into a plurality of parts at least one sub-window of interest of a plurality of sub-windows of interest arranged in a grid formation in an autofocus window of interest, assigning a focus value mask to each of the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window, and executing an autofocus algorithm using the assigned focus value masks.
1. A method comprising:
logically separating into a plurality of parts at least one sub-window of interest of a plurality of sub-windows of interest arranged in a grid formation in an autofocus window of interest;
assigning a focus value mask to each of the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window; and
executing an autofocus algorithm using the assigned focus value masks, where the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window of interest comprise a first part closest to a center of the at least one sub-window of interest, a third part farthest from the center of the at least one sub-window of interest, and a second part in between the first part and the second part, where the first part has a weighted focus value of Value 1 , the second part has a weighted focus value of Value 2 , and the third part has a weighted focus value of Value 3 , where Value 1 , Value 2 , and Value 3 each represent a rational value assigned to a corresponding focus value.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the at least one sub-window of interest along at least one row or column of the grid formation partially overlaps an adjacent one of the plurality of sub-window of interest in the grid formation, and where a distance between a center of the at least one sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation remains unchanged.
3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising
computing a focus value of an object of interest based on at least one corresponding focus value mask; and
determining an autofocus setting for the object of interest based on at least the computed focus value.
4. The method according to claim 3 , where computing the autofocus value (FV) uses calculations comprising:
FV subWOI1 =Value 1 *FV Mask1 +Value 2 *FV Mask2 +Value 3 *FV Mask3
where Value 1 , Value 2 , and Value 3 each represent a rational value assigned to a corresponding focus value mask.
5. The method according to claim 1 , where an additional at least one sub-window of interest is placed in at least one row of sub-windows of interest in the grid formation such that a number of sub-windows of interest in the at least one row is greater than in another row of the grid formation, and
where a width of a sub-window of interest in the at least one row of sub-windows remains unchanged, and the sub-window of interest in the at least one row overlaps with at least one adjacent sub-window such that a distance between a center of the sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation decreases.
6. The method according to claim 5 , where the placing the at least one additional sub-window of interest in the at least one row, comprises:
changing the distance between the center of the sub-windows of interest in the at least one row from W subWOI to W subWOI /2 in order to increase the number of sub-windows in the at least one row to 2*M−1, where M refers to the initial number of sub-window columns in a non-overlapping configuration of the grid formation.
7. The method according to claim l, where a focus value mask of a logically separated part of a sub-window that is closer to a center of the sub-window is assigned a higher weighted focus value than a focus value mask of a logically separated part of the sub-window that is farther from the center of the sub-window.
8. The method according to claim 1 , performed in a user equipment.
9. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program executable by a processor to perform actions comprising:
logically separating into a plurality of parts at least one sub-window of interest of a plurality of sub-windows of interest arranged in a grid formation of an autofocus window of interest;
assigning a focus value mask to each of the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window; and
executing an autofocus algorithm using the assigned focus value masks, where the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window of interest comprise a first part closest to a center of the at least one sub-window of interest, a third part farthest from the center of the at least one sub-window of interest, and a second part in between the first part and the second part, where the first part has a weighted focus value of Value 1 , the second part has a weighted focus value of Value 2 , and the third part has a weighted focus value of Value 3 , where Value 1 , Value 2 , and Value 3 each represent a rational value assigned to a corresponding focus value.
10. The non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program according to claim 9 , wherein each of the at least one sub-window of interest along at least one row or column of the grid formation partially overlaps an adjacent one of the plurality of sub-window of interest in the grid formation, and where a distance between a center of the at least one sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation remains unchanged.
11. The non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program according to claim 10 , further comprising
computing a focus value of an object of interest based on at least one corresponding focus value mask; and
determining an autofocus setting for the object of interest based on at least the computed focus value.
12. The non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program according to claim 11 , where computing the autofocus value (FV) uses calculations comprising:
FV subWOI1 =Value 1 *FV Mask1 +Value 2 *FV Mask2 +Value 3 *FV Mask3
where Value 1 , Value 2 , and Value 3 each represent a rational value assigned to a corresponding focus value mask.
13. The non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program according to claim 10 , where a focus value mask of a logically separated part of a sub-window that is closer to a center of the sub-window is assigned a higher weighted focus value than a focus value mask of a logically separated part of the sub-window that is farther from the center of the sub-window.
14. The non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program according to claim 9 , where an additional at least one sub-window of interest is placed in at least one row of sub-windows of interest in the grid formation such that a number of sub-windows of interest in the at least one row is greater than in another row of the grid formation, where
a width of a sub-window of interest in the at least one row of sub-windows remains unchanged, and
the sub-window of interest in the at least one row overlaps with at least one adjacent sub-window such that a distance between a center of the sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation decreases.
15. The non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program according to claim 14 , where the placing the at least one additional sub-window of interest in the at least one of a row of the grid formation, comprises:
changing the distance between the center of the sub-windows of interest in the at least one row from W subWOI to W subWOI /2 in order to increase the number of sub-windows in the at least one row to 2*M−1, where M refers to the initial number of sub-window columns in a non-overlapping configuration of the grid formation.
16. An apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to logically separating into a plurality of parts at least one sub-window of interest of a plurality of sub-windows of interest arranged in a grid formation of an autofocus window of interest;
the processor configured to assign a focus value mask to each of the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window; and
the processor further configured to execute an autofocus algorithm using the assigned focus value mask, where the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window of interest comprise a first part closest to a center of the at least one sub-window of interest, a third part farthest from the center of the at least one sub-window of interest, and a second part in between the first part and the second part, where the first part has a weighted focus value of Value 1 , the second part has a weighted focus value of Value 2 , and the third part has a weighted focus value of Value 3 , where Value 1 , Value 2 , and Value 3 each represent a rational value assigned to a corresponding focus value.
17. The apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein each of the at least one sub-window of interest along at least one row or column of the grid formation partially overlaps with an adjacent one of the plurality of sub-window of interest in the grid formation, and where a distance between a center of the at least one sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation remains unchanged.
18. The apparatus according to claim 17 , further comprising
an executable computer program and a processor configured to compute a focus value of an object of interest based on at least one corresponding focus value mask; and
the processor and a display interface configured to determine an autofocus setting for the object of interest based on at least the computed focus value.
19. The apparatus according to claim 18 , where computing the autofocus value (FV) uses calculations comprising:
FV subWOI1 =Value 1 *FV Mask1 +Value 2 * FV Mask2 +Value 3 *FV Mask3
where Value 1 , Value 2 , and Value 3 each represent a rational value assigned to a corresponding focus value mask.
20. The apparatus according to claim 16 , where an additional at least one sub-window of interest is placed in at least one row of sub-windows of interest in the grid formation such that a number of sub-windows of interest in the at least one row is greater than in another row of the grid formation, where
a width of a sub-window of interest in the at least one row of sub-windows remains unchanged, and
the sub-window of interest in the at least one row overlaps with at least one adjacent sub-window such that a distance between a center of the sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation decreases.
21. The apparatus according to claim 20 , where the placing the at least one additional sub-window of interest in the at least one of a row of the grid formation, comprises:
the processor configured to change the distance between the center of the sub-windows of interest in the at least one row from W subWOI to W subWOI /2 in order to increase the number of sub-windows in the at least one row to 2*M−1, where M refers to the initial number of sub-window columns in a non-overlapping configuration of the grid formation.
22. The apparatus according to claim 16 , where a focus value mask of a logically separated part of a sub-window that is closer to a center of the sub-window is assigned a higher weighted focus value than a focus value mask of a logically separated part of the sub-window that is farther from the center of the sub-window.
23. The apparatus according to claim 16 , embodied in a user equipment.
24. An apparatus, comprising:
means for logically separating into a plurality of parts at least one sub-window of interest of a plurality of sub-windows of interest arranged in a grid formation in an autofocus window of interest;
means for assigning a focus value mask to each of the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window; and
means for executing an autofocus algorithm using the assigned focus value masks, where the plurality of parts of the at least one sub-window of interest comprise a first part closest to a center of the at least one sub-window of interest, a third part farthest from the center of the at least one sub-window of interest, and a second part in between the first part and the second part, where the first part has a weighted focus value of Value 1 , the second part has a weighted focus value of Value 2 , and the third part has a weighted focus value of Value 3 , where Value 1 , Value 2 , and Value 3 each represent a rational value assigned to a corresponding focus value.
25. The apparatus according to claim 24 , wherein each of the at least one sub-window of interest along at least one row or column of the grid formation partially overlaps an adjacent one of the plurality of sub-window of interest in the grid formation, and where a distance between a center of the at least one sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation remains unchanged.
26. The apparatus according to claim 24 , where an additional at least one sub-window of interest is placed in at least one row of sub-windows of interest in the grid formation such that a number of sub-windows of interest in the at least one row is greater than in another row of the grid formation, where a width of a sub-window of interest in the at least one row of sub-windows remains unchanged, and the sub-window of interest in the at least one row overlaps with at least one adjacent sub-window such that a distance between a center of the sub-window of interest and the adjacent sub-window of interest in the grid formation decreases.