Granted Patent E1

US 50,923 · App. 18/199,123 · Granted Jun 16, 2026

Inventors: Digadari Suman (Bangalore, IN); Abhijit Dey (Bangalore, IN); Apurbaa Bhattacharjee (Bangalore, IN); Gaurav Khandelwal (Bangalore, IN); Kiran Nataraju (Bangalore, IN)

Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

H04N23/45G02B7/09H04N23/10H04N23/667H04N23/67H04N23/73

Abstract

Claims (116)

1 . An apparatus comprising:

a first camera;

a second camera;

at least one memory configured to store instructions; and

at least one processor,

wherein the at least one processor is, when the instructions are executed, configured to:

obtain at least one preview frame from a the first camera in response to enabling an image capture application of an electronic device;

determine a first ambient light parameter of the obtained at least one preview frame;

activate a the second camera, in response to the determined first ambient light parameter being lower than a first pre-defined threshold;

perform a setting of the second camera within a time interval between the activation of the second camera and a deactivation of the first camera, wherein the time interval is determined based on a difference between the determined first ambient light parameter and the first pre-defined threshold includes a duration for adjusting at least one of auto focusing (AF) setting, automatic white balancing (AWB) setting, or automatic exposure controlling (AEC) setting;

deactivate the first camera after the time interval; and

control to capture a scene using the second camera associated with the electronic device,

wherein the first camera comprises a first image sensor which provides a first sensitivity,

wherein the second camera comprises a second image sensor which provides a second sensitivity, and

wherein the second sensitivity is higher than the first sensitivity.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine a second ambient light parameter by using the second camera;

activate the first camera, in response to the determined second ambient light parameter being above a second pre-defined threshold;

perform a setting of the first camera within an another time interval between the activation of the first camera and a deactivation of the second camera, wherein the another time interval is determined based on a difference between the determined second ambient light parameter and the second pre-defined threshold includes another duration for adjusting at least one of the AF setting, the AWB setting, or the AEC setting;

deactivate the second camera after the another time interval; and

capture a scene using the first camera associated with the electronic device,

wherein the second pre-defined threshold is greater than the first pre-defined threshold.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

analyze the first ambient light parameter for at least one portion of a preview image obtained from the first camera; and

determine a switching of a camera operation from the first camera to the second camera based on determining of the first ambient light parameter for at least one portion of the preview image obtained from the first camera; and

provide an indication while the switching of the camera operation.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 ,

wherein the first image sensor comprises a bayer sensor, and

wherein the second image sensor comprises a quadra sensor.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first ambient light parameter comprises at least one of a lux value, a sensor data, a scene analysis data, a face recognition data, and a light intensity.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the setting of the second camera comprises at least one of an automatic focus (AF) setting, an automatic white balance (AWB) setting, or an automatic exposure control (AEC) setting.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

cause the first image sensor to enter into low power mode in response to the activation of the second camera; and

perform at least one of stopping generating frame from the first image sensor and discarding frames by an image signal processor (ISP) received from the first camera.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is, to determine the first ambient light parameter, configured to:

identify a face region of the at least one preview image; and

determine a lux value of the identified face region as the first ambient light parameter.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 ,

wherein the first image sensor is configured to output data for pixels, and

wherein the second image sensor is configured to output binning data by combining pixels based on a pixel binning.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

perform a process of highlighting an object in the captured scene using the second camera.

11 . A method comprising:

obtaining at least one preview frame from a first camera in response to enabling an image capture application of an electronic device;

determining a first ambient light parameter of the obtained at least one preview frame;

activating a second camera, in response to the determined first ambient light parameter being lower than a first pre-defined threshold;

performing a setting of the second camera within a time interval between the activation of the second camera and a deactivation of the first camera, wherein the time interval is determined based on a difference between the determined first ambient light parameter and the first pre-defined threshold includes a duration for adjusting at least one of auto focusing (AF) setting, automatic which balancing (AWB) setting, or automatic exposure controlling (AEC) setting;

deactivating the first camera after the time interval; and

capturing a scene using the second camera associated with the electronic device,

wherein the first camera comprises includes a first image sensor which provides a first sensitivity,

wherein the second camera comprises includes a second image sensor which provides a second sensitivity, and

wherein the second sensitivity is higher than the first sensitivity.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining, by the electronic device, a second ambient light parameter by using the second camera;

activating the first camera, in response to the determined second ambient light parameter being above a second pre-defined threshold;

performing a setting of the first camera within an another time interval between the activation of the first camera and a deactivation of the second camera, wherein the another time interval is determined based on a difference between the determined second ambient light parameter and the second pre-defined threshold includes another duration for adjusting at least one of the AF setting, the AWB setting, or the AEC setting;

deactivating the second camera after the another time interval; and

capturing, by the electronic device, a scene using the first camera associated with the electronic device,

wherein the second pre-defined threshold is greater than the first pre-defined threshold.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

analyzing, by the electronic device, the first ambient light parameter for at least one portion of a preview image obtained from the first camera; and

determining, by the electronic device, a switching of a camera operation from the first camera to the second camera based on determining of the first ambient light parameter for at least one portion of the preview image obtained from the first camera; and

providing, by the electronic device, an indication while the switching of the camera operation.

14 . The method of claim 11 ,

wherein the first image sensor comprises includes a Bayer sensor, and

wherein the second image sensor comprises includes a quadra sensor.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first ambient light parameter comprises at least one of a lux value, a sensor data, a scene analysis data, a face recognition data, and a light intensity.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein setting the second camera comprises at least one of an automatic focus (AF) setting, an automatic white balance (AWB) setting, or an automatic exposure control (AEC) setting.

17 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

causing the first image sensor to enter into low power mode in response to the activation of the second camera; and

performing at least one of stopping generating frame from the first image sensor and discarding frames by an image signal processor (ISP) received from the first camera.

18 . The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the first ambient light parameter comprises:

identifying a face region of the at least one preview image; and

determining a lux value of the identified face region as the first ambient light parameter.

19 . The method of claim 11 ,

wherein the obtaining the at least one preview frame from the first camera includes the first image sensor is configured to output outputting data for pixels, and

wherein the capturing the scene using the second camera includes the second image sensor is configured to output outputting binning data by combining pixels based on a pixel binning.

20 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

performing a process of highlighting an object in the captured scene using the second camera.

21. An electronic device comprising:

a first camera;

a second camera;

memory storing instructions; and

at least one processor,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions to:

enable an image capture application of the electronic device;

control to display a first preview image from the first camera, after enabling the image capture application;

obtain a lux value based on at least one of a first sensor data from the first camera or a second sensor data from the second camera; and

based on the obtained lux value being smaller than a first threshold, switch from displaying the first preview image to displaying a second preview image from the second camera,

wherein, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

perform a setting of the second camera by adjusting a default value of the setting of the second camera within a time interval, and the time interval including a duration for adjusting at least one of auto focusing (AF) setting, automatic white balancing (AWB) setting, or automatic exposure controlling (AEC) setting,

after a stabilization time, display the second preview image, the stabilization time including the time interval,

control to no longer display the first preview image after the time interval,

control to capture the second preview image using the second camera,

wherein the first camera includes a first image sensor of a first sensitivity, and the second camera includes a second image sensor of a second sensitivity, and

wherein the second sensitivity is higher than the first sensitivity.

22. A method for an electronic device including a first camera and a second camera, the method comprising:

enabling an image capture application of the electronic device;

displaying a first preview image from the first camera, after enabling the image capture application;

obtaining a lux value based on at least one of a first sensor data from the first camera or a second sensor data from the second camera; and

based on the obtained lux value being smaller than a first threshold, switching from displaying the first preview image to displaying a second preview image from the second camera, the switching comprising:

after a stabilization time, displaying the second preview image, the stabilization time including a time interval, and the time interval including a duration for adjusting at least one of auto focusing (AF) setting, automatic white balancing (AWB) setting, or automatic exposure controlling (AEC) setting,

no longer displaying the first preview image after the time interval,

capturing the second preview image using the second camera,

wherein the first camera includes a first image sensor of a first sensitivity, the first preview image being captured by the first image sensor, and the second camera includes a second image sensor of a second sensitivity, the second preview image being captured by the second image sensor and

wherein the second sensitivity is higher than the first sensitivity.

23. A non-transitory computer readable medium having recorded thereon instructions executable by at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:

enabling an image capture application of the electronic device;

displaying a first preview image from the first camera, after enabling the image capture application;

obtaining a lux value based on at least one of a first sensor data from the first camera or a second sensor data from the second camera; and

based on the obtained lux value being smaller than a first threshold, switching from displaying the first preview image to displaying a second preview image from the second camera, the switching including:

after a stabilization time, displaying the second preview image, the stabilization time including a time interval, and the time interval including a duration for adjusting at least one of auto focusing (AF) setting, automatic white balancing (AWB) setting, or automatic exposure controlling (AEC) setting,

no longer displaying the first preview image after the time interval,

capturing the second preview image using the second camera,

wherein the first camera includes a first image sensor of a first sensitivity, the first preview image being captured by the first image sensor, and the second camera includes a second image sensor of a second sensitivity, the second preview image being captured by the second image sensor and

wherein the second sensitivity is higher than the first sensitivity.

Priority Claims (3)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (39)