Systems and methods for enhancing displayed images

1. A method of enhancing an image, comprising:

acquiring image data;

splitting the image data into a low exposure image data set, a mid-exposure image data set, and a high exposure image data set;

displaying an image using the low exposure image data set;

receiving eye-tracking information associated with the displayed image;

identifying a region of interest in the image using the eye tracking information;

enhancing the region of interest, wherein enhancing the region of interest includes substituting low exposure image data within the region of interest using image data from the mid-exposure image data; and

displaying the enhanced region of interest adjacent to or superimposed on an unenhanced region in a displayed image such that the displayed image in the region of interest has a higher mean exposure than the displayed image outside of the region of interest.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 , further including acquiring an image of a scene at first dynamic range or bit depth resolution, wherein displaying the image includes displaying the image at a second resolution dynamic range or bit depth.

3. A method as recited in claim 2 , wherein the second dynamic range or bit depth resolution is less than the first dynamic range or bit depth resolution.

4. A method as recited in claim 2 , wherein the acquired image is a 12-bit or 14-bit image, wherein the unenhanced region of the displayed image is an 8-bit image region, wherein the enhanced region of the displayed image is an 8-bit image region.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 , further including:

tracking eye movement of an image viewer; and

measuring viewer eye dwell on a first image region and a second image region; and

designating one of the first and second image regions the region of interest based on the measured eye dwell.

6. A method as recited in claim 5 , further including designating the region of interest using median eye dwell duration while orientated at a plurality of image regions including the first and second image portions.

7. A method as recited in claim 5 , further including measuring eye dwell in real time subsequent to displaying the image.

8. A method as recited in claim 7 , further including measuring eye dwell or fixation subsequent to enhancing the region of interest, and further enhancing the image based on eye dwell on the enhanced, displayed region of interest.

9. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein enhancing the region of interest includes applying a localized, dynamic, high dynamic range algorithm to the region of interest.

10. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the region of interest includes at least one image characteristic that corresponds to a relatively bright or a relatively dark portion of the displayed image.

11. A method as recited in claim 1 , further including associating at least one of geographical-based, time-based, activity-based, or user-defined indexing information with the region of interest.

12. A method as recited in claim 1 , further including preserving an image region adjacent the enhanced image region in its initially displayed resolution.

13. An image enhancement system, comprising:

a processor operatively associated with an eye tracker and a display; and

a memory communicative with the processor, wherein the memory has instructions recorded thereon that, when read by the processor, cause the processor to:

acquiring image data;

splitting the image data into a low exposure image data set, a mid-exposure image data set, and a high exposure image data set;

display an image using the low exposure image data set;

acquire eye dwell information associated with a plurality of image regions;

identify one of the plurality of image regions as a region of interest using the eye dwell information;

enhance the region of interest, wherein enhancing the region of interest includes substituting low exposure image data within the region of interest using image data from the mid-exposure image data; and

display the enhanced region of interest adjacent to an unenhanced image region such that the displayed image in the region of interest has a higher mean exposure than the displayed image outside of the region of interest.

14. A system as recited in claim 13 , wherein instructions further cause the processor to associate geographical indexing information with the region of interest.

15. A system as recited in claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the processor to dynamically designate a second region of interest in the displayed image based on eye dwell information acquired subsequent to display of a first region of interest is the image.