Capturing high dynamic range images with partial re-exposures

In this paper we present an optimized approach to capture high dynamic range (HDR) images. It is based on existing methods of creating HDR images by fusing a set of differently exposed low dynamic range (LDR) images. We optimize the capturing process of LDR images towards improved capture speed by using partial re-exposures. That is, we make use of the idea that it is not always necessary to capture full size images when only small portions of the scene require HDR. By analyzing captured images for badly exposed regions and re-exposing selectively, we save overall capture time and increase the frame rate when image sequences are recorded.

[1]  Eiichiro Ikeda Image data processing apparatus for processing combined image signals in order to extend dynamic range , 1994 .

[2]  Robert L. Stevenson,et al.  Estimation-theoretic approach to dynamic range enhancement using multiple exposures , 2003, J. Electronic Imaging.

[3]  Narendra Ahuja,et al.  Split Aperture Imaging for High Dynamic Range , 2004, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[4]  Steve Mann,et al.  ON BEING `UNDIGITAL' WITH DIGITAL CAMERAS: EXTENDING DYNAMIC RANGE BY COMBINING DIFFERENTLY EXPOSED PICTURES , 1995 .

[5]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  Radiometric self calibration , 1999, Proceedings. 1999 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (Cat. No PR00149).

[6]  B. C. Madden,et al.  Extended Intensity Range Imaging , 1993 .

[7]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  Adaptive dynamic range imaging: optical control of pixel exposures over space and time , 2003, Proceedings Ninth IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision.

[8]  Marc Levoy,et al.  High performance imaging using large camera arrays , 2005, SIGGRAPH 2005.

[9]  Jitendra Malik,et al.  Recovering high dynamic range radiance maps from photographs , 1997, SIGGRAPH '08.

[10]  Erik Reinhard,et al.  High Dynamic Range Imaging: Acquisition, Display, and Image-Based Lighting (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) , 2005 .

[11]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  High dynamic range imaging: spatially varying pixel exposures , 2000, Proceedings IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. CVPR 2000 (Cat. No.PR00662).

[12]  Marc Levoy,et al.  High performance imaging using large camera arrays , 2005, ACM Trans. Graph..

[13]  Erik Reinhard,et al.  High Dynamic Range Imaging: Acquisition, Display, and Image-Based Lighting , 2010 .

[14]  Takeo Kanade,et al.  A sorting image sensor: an example of massively parallel intensity-to-time processing for low-latency computational sensors , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.