Abstract: Quantities of motion regarding an imaging device such as an electronic camera are calculated and used to adjust the exposure time and one or more other exposure parameters used to capture an image to improve the quality of the image. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters. Further, when there is little or no motion detected, the exposure parameters may be selected to improve the depth of field and reduce the noise in the captured image.

Abstract: Quantities of motion between images of an electronic camera are calculated and used to adjust the exposure time and one or more other exposure parameters used to capture an image in order to improve the quality of the image. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters. Further, when there is little or no motion detected, the exposure parameters may be selected to improve the depth of field and reduce the noise in the captured image.

Abstract: Motion of an image of a scene being captured by a digital image acquisition device is detected and used to control parameters of illumination of the scene by a flash lamp that is typically built into the device. Parameters that may be controlled include the intensity, duration and timing of light emitted by the flash lamp. Such control of the flash illumination is preferably performed in conjunction with adjusting one or more exposure parameters used to capture an image. Such exposure parameters include duration, aperture and sensor gain. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters and flash light characteristics.

Abstract: An image capture system is presented where the dynamic range of photo imaging devices, such as a still or video camera, is increased by varying sensor exposure time on a pixel-by-pixel basis under digital camera processor control. The systems photo sensors are continuously illuminated without reset over the exposure interval. In addition to being interrogated at the end of the exposure interval, the pixels are also non-destructively interrogated at one or more intermediate times during the interval. At each interrogation, the image capture system determines individually whether the pixels have saturated and if not, the parameter value is recorded; if the pixel has saturated, the previously stored value from the preceding interval is maintained. To produce the final sensor value for the whole exposure interval, the data for pixels that reached the saturation level are adjusted to compensate for their shortened exposure.

Abstract: A parameter of a digital camera or other digital image acquisition device is adjusted to maintain the resulting digital signal within a range carried by a digital processing path that carries a limited number of bits. The magnitude of the parameter is then also used to represent the image. Examples of the parameter include analog signal gain and exposure time. This is a cost effective way to increase the dynamic range of a digital camera, instead of increasing the width of its digital processing path. The digital data may be processed to obtain either tone mapped images, which are compatible with current cameras and other equipment, or to obtain images with a greater dynamic range for use with suitable displays and the like.

Abstract: Annotations are associated with individual digital pictures that represent a characteristic of the pictures, such as their content, place of taking, etc. An annotation is directly entered into a digital camera and selected for association with pictures to be taken after that. The association of the selected annotation occurs automatically within the camera until another annotation is selected. An annotation is preferably entered into the camera by the voice of the user prior to taking pictures that are characterized by the annotation. The pictures may then be conveniently sorted by subject matter through use of the annotations. The same technique may be used to annotate audio segments.

Abstract: Techniques for modifying data of an image that can be implemented in a digital camera, video image capturing device and other optical systems are provided to correct for non-uniform illumination and/or effects of saturation appearing in data obtained using one or more artificial illumination sources. In an implementation, correction factors are derived using data from at least two images that have been captured with different illumination levels of the object scene and close in time to the capture of the image of interest. Typically, the image of interest is of higher resolution than at least one of the at least two images.

Abstract: Techniques for modifying data of an image that can be implemented in a digital camera, video image capturing device and other optical systems are provided to correct for non-uniform illumination appearing in data obtained using one or more illumination sources from a two-dimensional photo-sensor. In order to correct for these variations, a small amount of modification data is stored in a small memory within the optical system. According to a specific embodiment, non-uniform illumination correction factors are derived during a calibration procedure by illuminating a surface having uniform optical properties with the non-uniform illumination source and imaging that illuminated surface onto the photo-sensor.

Abstract: Quantities of motion between images of an electronic camera are calculated and used to adjust the exposure time and one or more other exposure parameters used to capture an image in order to improve the quality of the image. Motion blur caused by movement of the camera or by movement of an object within the scene being photographed is reduced by selecting appropriate exposure parameters. Further, when there is little or no motion detected, the exposure parameters may be selected to improve the depth of field and reduce the noise in the captured image.

Abstract: A digital camera acquires a first image in a sequence of images by loading it into a unified memory space of the digital camera in a first order and processing it in a second order. Before the first image is completely processed, the digital camera starts acquiring a second image and overwriting at least a processed portion of the first image in the unified memory space with image data of the second image.

Abstract: Data of updated or new advertising messages are loaded into a non-volatile memory of a digital camera in the course of it being recycled. The user of the camera therefore receives the updated or new advertising messages as a part of recycling the camera. There are a number of ways the advertising message can be displayed on a picture preview screen of the camera and/or reproduced by a loudspeaker on the camera. The advertising message can either be displayed along with a picture acquired by the camera or at separate times.