Granted Patent B2

US 12,250,357 · App. 18/450,569 · Granted Mar 11, 2025

Inventors: Willie C. Kiser (Albuquerque, NM); Nora Tocci (Albuquerque, NM); Michael D. Tocci (Albuquerque, NM)

Assignee: CONTRAST, INC.

H04N1/6027G02B27/1013G06T5/70G06T7/90G06T11/60H04N1/00068H04N1/603H04N5/265H04N9/646H04N9/67H04N17/002H04N21/23439H04N21/2365H04N23/13H04N23/45H04N23/741G06T2207/10024G06T2207/10144G06T2207/20208G06T2207/20221

Abstract

Claims (18)

1. A method for streaming video for high dynamic range (HDR) and low dynamic range (LDR) display, the method comprising:

receiving frame-independent streams of pixel values from multiple image sensors onto a processing device in an HDR video camera;

streaming the pixel values through a pipeline on the processing device, wherein the pipeline includes a synchronization module that synchronizes the streams of pixel values, a kernel operation that identifies saturated pixel values, and a merge operation that merges the pixel values thereby producing an HDR signal;

tone-mapping the HDR signal to produce an LDR signal;

subtracting the LDR signal from the HDR signal to give a residual signal; and

transmitting an output signal comprising the LDR signal and the residual signal wherein the output signal is displayable as an 8-bit video by an LDR display, and displayable as HDR video by an HDR display.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising compressing the LDR video using an MPEG encoder.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the HDR video camera receives incoming light through a lens and a beamsplitter onto the images sensors.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein image sensors include at least a first sensor and a second sensor and wherein the HDR video camera further includes a lens and the at least one beamsplitter that are arranged to receive an incoming beam of light and split the beam of light into at least a first path that impinges and first sensor and a second path that impinges on the second sensor.

5. The method of claim 4 , the image sensors all capture images simultaneously through the lens.

6. The method of claim 5 , further wherein at least 95% of the light gathered by the lens is captured by the image sensors.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the multiple image sensors all capture the images such that the captured images are optically identical except for their light levels.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising beginning to merge portions of the pixel values while still streaming later-arriving pixel values through the kernel operation.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the processing device selected from the group consisting of a field-programmable gate array and an application-specific integrated circuit.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein multiple image sensors capture images that are optically identical except for light level.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein each of the image sensors comprises a color filter array.

12. The method of claim 3 , wherein the multiple sensors include at least three sensors and wherein the multiple sensors capture all but about 0.04% of the light received through the lens.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synchronization module comprises line buffers that circulate early-arriving pixel values and releases the early-arriving pixel values simultaneous with corresponding later-arriving pixel values.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (6)

References Cited (400)