Method and apparatus for super resolution imaging and eye tracking devices
View Patent ↗An eyewear camera as a system is introduced that includes many subsystems. These subsystems include: scene imaging, control methods, tracking a user's eye, methods and techniques to increase the resolution of an image captured by a scene camera, methods to create a viewfinder, and methods to capture an image of a user's eye while simultaneously projecting an image into the user's eye. Such an eyewear will allow a user to capture a scene effortlessly, select an object within the scene, get extra information about the object via a digital personal assistant, or even modify a subset of the scene. Specific applications will be discussed that include visual aid for people with low vision and upgrading existing security cameras via proposed single camera super resolution techniques.
1. A security imaging system comprising:
a camera for capturing at least one image of a scene wherein the scene includes a poster of at least one predetermined resolution test pattern;
an electronic storage unit for storing at least one image of the at least one predetermined resolution test pattern; and
at least one processor, in communication with the camera and the electronic storage unit, the at least one processor configured to:
receive the at least one image of the scene from the camera, and
initiate, upon detecting a motion in the scene based upon the at least one image of the scene, an iterative bandwidth extrapolation procedure to increase the image resolution of a subset of the least one image of the scene based upon the at least one image of the scene and the at least one image of the at least one predetermined resolution test pattern wherein the one subset of the at least one image of the scene has no overlap with the image of the poster in the at least one image of the scene.
2. The security imaging system of claim 1 further comprising an enclosure wherein the camera, the electronic storage unit and the at least one processor are disposed on or in the enclosure.
3. The security imaging system of claim 1 wherein the camera resides in a first enclosure and the at least one processor resides in a second enclosure.
4. The security imaging system of claim 3 wherein the camera is in communication with the at least one processor via at least one wireless link.
5. The security imaging system of claim 4 wherein the at least one wireless link is provided by a wireless router.
6. The security imaging system of claim 5 wherein the wireless router is a mesh wireless router.
7. The security imaging system of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform face recognition and object recognition in the at least one image of the scene.
8. The security imaging system of claim 1 further comprising a second camera for capturing a second image of the scene.
9. The security imaging system of claim 8 wherein the first and the second cameras have rectangular pixels and the ratio of the length to the width of each pixel is equal or larger than 2.
10. The security imaging system of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
recognize a face in the at least one image of the scene,
maintain a history of the at least one recognized face, and
take an action when a new face is detected.
11. The security imaging system of claim 1 wherein the camera is a CCTV camera.
12. An imaging method comprising:
capturing, via a camera, at least one image of a scene wherein the scene includes a poster of at least one predetermined resolution test pattern;
storing at least one image of the at least one predetermined resolution test pattern; and
initiating, via at least one processor and upon detecting a motion in the scene, an iterative image resolution enhancement procedure to increase the image resolution of a subset of the least one image of the scene based upon the at least one image of the scene and the at least one image of the at least one predetermined resolution test pattern wherein the one subset of the at least one image of the scene has no overlap with the image of the poster in the at least one image of the scene.
13. The imaging method of claim 12 wherein the iterative image resolution enhancement procedure includes at least a bandwidth extrapolation technique.
14. The imaging method of claim 12 further comprising:
initiating a face recognition procedure based upon the at least one image of the scene,
maintaining a history of the at least one recognized face, and
taking an action when a new face is detected.
15. The imaging method of claim 12 wherein the camera resides in a first enclosure and the at least one processor resides in a second enclosure and the camera and the at least one processor are in communication via a wireless link.
16. The imaging method of claim 12 wherein the camera is a CCTV camera.
17. A security imaging system comprising:
a CCTV camera for capturing at least one image of a scene wherein the scene includes a poster of at least one predetermined resolution test pattern;
an electronic storage unit for storing at least one image of the at least one predetermined resolution test pattern; and
at least one processor in communication with the CCTV camera and the electronic storage unit, the at least one processor configured to:
receive the at least one image of the scene from the CCTV camera,
initiate, upon detecting a motion in the scene based upon the at least one image of the scene, an iterative bandwidth extrapolation procedure to increase the image resolution of a subset of the least one image of the scene based upon the at least one image of the scene and the at least one image of the at least one predetermined resolution test pattern wherein the one subset of the at least one image of the scene has no overlap with the image of the poster in the at least one image of the scene.
18. The security imaging system of claim 15 wherein the iterative bandwidth extrapolation procedure uses at least a portion of the spatial frequency spectra of the at least one image of the at least one predetermined resolution test pattern in order to increase the image resolution of the subset of the at least one image of the scene.