Utilizing Changing Photographer Pupil Size Information To Determine Appropriate Camera Settings

Abstract

The changing size of a person's pupil looking through a camera's viewfinder can be used to calculate more accurate exposure settings to allow for pictures to be taken more optimally exposed. Relative pupil size information can also indicate that the photographer is looking at one object in the frame with certain light values versus another object, helping auto tracking systems determine which object should be tracked. When a single object has a wide divergence of light values on it, the photographer's pupil size may help indicate which would be most appropriate to use to automatically calculate the appropriate exposure settings.

Claims

1. An automatic camera settings adjustment method, comprising: a means of measuring changes in user pupil diameter; a means to communicate that value to one of the camera's computer processors; a means for the camera to incorporate that information into its updating calculations for optimal exposure settings; and a means to adjust relevant camera settings of exposure time, aperture size, ISO, exposure compensation, or optimal focus point selection.

2. Software stored on a computer readable medium, the software including instructions to cause a computer processor to: use a detected increase in user pupil size to calculate an adjustment factor for one or more exposure settings to increase the exposure value; and to use a decrease in user pupil size to calculate an adjustment adjust factor for one or more exposure settings to decrease the exposure value.

3. Software stored on a computer readable medium, the software including instructions to cause a computer processor to: cause a camera with a subject tracking system that detects multiple subject options from which to choose to select the subject option that is most appropriately matched to the desired exposure value implied by the size of the user's pupil.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0014] FIG. 1 Is an exemplary depiction of the light path when a person uses a camera.

[0015] FIG. 2 Is an exemplary depiction of pupil reactions when a person views a different portion of the field of view when it has a different set of light values.

[0016] FIG. 3 Is an exemplary depiction of the direction in which a photographer's brain signals to the pupils to contract or dilate depending on the viewfinder information received.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] Modern digital cameras typically provide multiple processes for determining the proper focus point within an image and to set the appropriate exposure values. The focus point is important for focus control, but it also can also help determine other information, such as what might be the desired exposure adjustments for a user.

[0018] Among the methods for determining the appropriate focus point is one that tracks a user's eye part position to determine the direction of gaze, thus determining what the user wishes to photograph. Some cameras also use the determined focus point to calculate a more accurate assessment of what would be appropriate exposure values. An example: if, within a generally dark scene, the focus point selected happens to be on a subject that has brighter values, the camera's current exposure settings can be automatically adjusted to the brighter area, despite it being a small portion of the field of view.

[0019] The focus areas used to determine the appropriate adjustment may cover a small part of the camera's view, or large part. In both cases, the light values are generally averaged or employ an alternate algorithm to determine an appropriate adjustment. Subject recognition technology may also be employed to improve the camera's estimated appropriate exposure adjustment.

[0020] The human brain controls eye pupil dilation based generally on the amount of light reflecting off a viewed subject. It is further adjusted based on the light values reflecting off the particular part about which the person is thinking. For example, if a viewer observes a sphere half in shadow, the pupil may be set by the brain at a width of x. Were the viewer to maintain the same eye and pupil direction but think about the dark side of that sphere, the brain has been shown to open the pupil further than x to provide more light in compensation. If the viewer opts to think about the light side of the sphere, the brain will similarly adjust the pupil to a smaller size than x.

[0021] These two biological mechanisms—firstly adjusting the size of the pupil to let in the appropriate amount of light; and secondly the further adjustment of the size of the pupil due to the brain's concentration on a specific part of the subject—together provide critical exposure information that can be conveyed quickly to a camera by measuring the current pupil width. This may prove especially useful when there is a wide divergence of light values within a small area.

[0022] In addition to providing potentially more accurate exposure desire information, the speed with which a user provides that data to the camera can be vastly accelerated, as it does not require manual settings adjustments.

[0023] Additionally, the user's pupil size can give information as to what the user desires to make the subject of a photo. Many current subject recognition systems use deep learning methods to train a system to recognize likely desired subjects, such as a bird, or the eye of a model. When a system's algorithm is choosing from among the best recognized objects options, the pupil size of the user may imply the user is favoring one of the objects over another to be the prime subject.

REFERENCES

[0024] There is prior art not for this invention, but in the nearby fields of pupil size detection and the use of pupil size to control lighting for a person. Two examples of the former would be:

TABLE-US-00001 20529735 March 2019 CN 2020/0100670 November 2020 Hoggarth, et al.

[0025] The latter, dealing with controlling lighting can be seen in the Japanese patent application below:

TABLE-US-00002 JP2005219583 February 2004 JP

[0026] More specific to the camera industry, several important developments in eye tracking happened through the 70s and 80s, culminating in Canon's actual release of an eye-tracking camera, the EOS 3 that used a face detection sensor to determine what the photographer was viewing through the viewfinder.

[0027] Pupil detection has been used for numerous applications, such as creating heat maps to indicate what people actually read on a page, and to help people operate computers who can't use theft hands.

[0028] My search failed to turn up instances of the use of pupil size changes used to determine the desired exposure levels of a scene based on the combination of a viewer's subject selection and the autonomic responses of his brain.