Disclosed examples include integrated circuits, merge circuits and methods of processing multiple-exposure image data, in which a single pre-processing circuit is used for pre-processing first input exposure data associated with a first exposure of the image, and then for pre-processing second input exposure data associated with a second exposure of the image, and the first and second pre-processed exposure data are merged to generate merged image data for tone mapping and other post-processing. An example merge circuit includes a configurable gain circuit to apply a gain to the first and/or second exposure data, as well as a configurable weighting circuit with a weight calculation circuit and a motion adaptive filter circuit to compute a first and second weight values for merging the pre-processed first and second exposure data.

A method of calibrating an image sensor including a color filter array having a first-type array pattern, the method includes capturing a target using the image sensor to generate first image data, performing a white balance operation on the first image data to generate second image data, performing an inverse white balance operation on the second image data based on a second-type array pattern to generate third image data, the second-type array pattern being different from the first-type array pattern, and calibrating the image sensor based on the third image data.

An image capturing unit captures an image including an embedded image that is printed on the basis of image data in which at least a color component has been modulated according to additional information. An adjustment unit adjusts a white balance of the image captured by the image capturing unit on the basis of an adjustment value associated with the embedded image. A processing unit processes image data of the image captured by the image capturing unit whose white balance has been adjusted by the adjustment unit to read the additional information in the image captured by the image capturing unit.

An image acquisition apparatus includes: a first image sensor configured to acquire a first image based on a first wavelength band; a second image sensor configured to acquire a second image based on a second wavelength band of 10 nm to 1,000 nm, and a processor configured to register the first image and the second image, which are respectively output from the first image sensor and the second image sensor, to obtain a registration image based on the first image and the second image, and perform color conversion on the registration image by using an illumination value estimated from the second image.

A method for generating a composite image comprises: detecting a color temperature of a background image; acquiring from a camera through an image signal processor, ISP, performing white balance correction of acquired image data, an image including a foreground region including face of a user; and detecting a color temperature of the foreground region. Responsive to the color temperature for the foreground region differing from that of the background image by more than a threshold amount, a color temperature for white balance correction of a subsequently acquired image is set which causes skin pixels within the foreground region of the subsequently acquired image to have a color temperature closer to the color temperature for the background image. Pixel values of the foreground region are combined with pixel values of the background image corresponding to a background region of the acquired image to provide the composite image.

The present disclosure relates to an imaging device, an imaging method, and a program that make it possible to implement an appropriate auto white balance (AWB) lock desired by a user. As a shutter button setting for applying the AWB lock, any one of Shutter Halfway Down, Continuous Shooting, or Off can be select and set. Furthermore, a setting is configured in which an AWBL button is assigned to a custom button so that the AEB lock can be applied by either a hold operation or a toggle operation. The present disclosure can be applied to an imaging device.

An auto white balance adjusting method includes determining a white pixel area according to a standard of a first color space, selecting a plurality of pixels of an image according to the white pixel area, generating an average color value of the plurality of pixels in the first color space, converting the average color value in the first color space to three primary color gains in a second color space, generating three primary color target gains according to the three primary color gains and a color temperature curve, and gradually adjusting a white balance of the image to meet the three primary color target gains according to the average color value in the first color space and the three primary color gains in the second color space. The first color space and the second color space are different.

An image sensing device includes an image sensor including at least one pixel including a plurality of color channels and an image processor for processing an input image, based on brightness intensity values of the plurality of color channels. The image processor includes: a transmission map generator for generating color channel transmission maps including transmission values that are obtained by respectively converting brightness intensity values of the plurality of color channels, and generating a target transmission map including target transmission values that are obtained by multiplying transmission values among the transmission values that correspond to color channels; a white pixel detector for determining target pixels that are included in a white area, based on the target transmission map; and a white balance adjuster for adjusting white balance, based on average brightness intensity values of respective color channels.

In order to suppress degradation of color reproducibility in a visible light image or a composite image obtained by compositing the visible light image and an infrared light image, an image processing apparatus obtains a first image obtained by a first image capturing element that generates a visible-range image based on incident light from an imaging optical system, estimates received light intensity of infrared light that enters the first image capturing element, and controls a white balance adjustment on the first image based on the received light intensity estimated by the estimation unit.

Various methods for utilizing a saliency heatmaps are described. The methods include obtaining image data corresponding to an image of a scene, obtaining a saliency heatmap for the image of the scene based on a saliency network, wherein the saliency heatmap indicates a likelihood of saliency for a corresponding portion of the scene, and manipulating the image data based on the saliency heatmap. In embodiments, the saliency heatmap may be produced using a trained machine learning model. The saliency heatmap may be used for various image processing tasks, such as determining which portion(s) of a scene to base an image capture device's autofocus, auto exposure, and/or white balance operations upon. According to some embodiments, one or more bounding boxes may be generated based on the saliency heatmap, e.g., using an optimization operation, which bounding box(es) may be used to assist or enhance the performance of various image processing tasks.