User interface and method for exposure adjustment in an image capturing device
An image-capturing device and associated method for selective exposure adjustment of an image, wherein, image data of a scene is acquired, the scene is displayed on d display unit, the scene is divided into a plurality of regions, and a level of exposure is chosen for at least one region from the plurality of regions.
1. An image-capturing device comprising:
an image sensing unit configured to acquire a first image of a scene;
a display unit configured to display the first image of the scene;
a dividing unit configured to receive a user selection of a quantity of regions and divide the scene into a plurality of regions according to the user selection of the quantity of regions;
an exposure control unit configured to receive a user selection of a first level of exposure for a first region of the plurality of regions, and receive a user selection of a second level of exposure for a second region of the plurality of regions; and
a control unit configured to adjust a level of exposure of the first region to the user selected first level of exposure and adjust a level of exposure of the second region to the user selected second level of exposure,
wherein the exposure control unit calculates a difference between values in a first luminance histogram, which indicates luminance histogram values before the level of exposure of the first region and the level of exposure of the second region are adjusted, and values in a second luminance histogram, which indicates luminance histogram values after the level of exposure of the first region and the level of exposure of the second region are adjusted, and
wherein the control unit is configured to instruct the image sensing unit to select between capturing an image of the scene in one capture and capturing an image of the scene in multiple captures according to the calculated difference.
2. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein a user selects at least one region on the display unit.
3. The image-capturing device according to claim 2 , wherein a luminance histogram is displayed on the display unit subsequent to the user selecting the region.
4. The image-capturing device according to claim 3 , wherein the level of exposure of a selected region is adjusted by modifying the luminance histogram in accordance with an instruction from the user.
5. The image-capturing device according to claim 4 , wherein the instruction from the user is received from a slider control associated with the luminance histogram.
6. The image-capturing device according to claim 4 , wherein the instruction from the user is received via an operation unit of the image-capturing device.
7. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the display unit displays a luminance histogram corresponding to each of the plurality of regions displayed on the display unit.
8. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the exposure control unit is further configured to determine respective exposure values based on the first level of exposure and the second level of exposure.
9. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the number of the plurality of regions is adjustable and the size of the plurality of regions is adjustable.
10. A method for selective exposure adjustments on an image capturing device, the method comprising:
displaying a first image of a scene to be captured by the image-capturing device;
receiving a user selection of a quantity of regions into which the displayed scene is to be divided;
dividing the displayed scene into a plurality of regions according to the user selection of the quantity of regions and a user selection of a size of each of the plurality of regions;
selecting a first region from the plurality of regions;
adjusting an exposure value of the selected first region to a user selection of a first exposure value;
selecting a second region from the plurality of regions;
adjusting an exposure value of the selected second region to a user selection of a second exposure value;
calculating a difference, using an exposure control unit, between values in a first luminance histogram, which indicates luminance histogram values before the exposure value of the selected first region and the exposure value of the selected second region are adjusted, and values in a second luminance histogram, which indicates luminance histogram values after the exposure value of the selected first region and the exposure value of the selected second region are adjusted; and
selecting between capturing an image of the scene in one capture and capturing the image of the scene in multiple captures according to the calculated difference.
11. A method according to claim 10 , wherein the at least one region is selected via a user interface of the image-capturing device.
12. A method according to claim 11 , wherein the user selects an exposure value for at least one region.
13. A method according to claim 12 , wherein the exposure value is selected by modifying a luminance histogram using a slider control associated with the luminance histogram.
14. A method according to claim 12 , wherein the exposure value is selected by modifying a luminance histogram using an operation unit hardware element of the image-capturing device.
15. A method according to claim 10 , wherein the exposure value is adjusted for the region before the scene is recorded onto a memory device.
16. A method according to claim 10 , wherein the exposure value is adjusted for more than one region from the plurality of regions before the scene is recorded onto a memory device.
17. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the dividing unit is further configured to divide the scene into the plurality of regions according to a user selection of a size of each of the number of regions.
18. The image-capturing device according to claim 17 , wherein the size of each of the plurality of regions is different from each other.
19. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of regions is contiguous.