Integrated light sensor for dynamic exposure adjustment

摘要

The amount of resources needed to provide automatic exposure control (AEC) for a camera of a computing device, as well as the amount of latency required to determine an appropriate exposure setting for current conditions, can be improved utilizing an ambient light sensor (ALS) that is integrated with a camera module corresponding to the camera. The ALS can capture data regarding the amount of ambient light around the device, and a microprocessor or other component of the camera module can analyze the data using an AEC algorithm or other such process to determine one or more initial exposure settings for the camera. This process can be completed without sending image data to a host processor or other such component. Providing relatively accurate initial exposure settings can, in at least many situations, enable the AEC algorithm to more quickly converge to proper settings than is possible using conventional approaches.

主权项

1. A computing device, comprising:
a first processor; a camera module including:
a camera configured to capture first image data,a camera controller configured to control at least an exposure setting of the camera,an ambient light sensor configured to detect an intensity of ambient light proximate the computing device,a second processor configured to receive data regarding the intensity of ambient light from the ambient light sensor and analyze the data using an automatic exposure control algorithm, the second processor configured to utilize a result from the automatic exposure control algorithm to determine an initial exposure setting for the camera, the second processor further configured to provide an instruction to the camera controller to apply the initial exposure setting; andmemory storing instructions that, when executed by the first processor, cause the computing device to:
capture second image data using the camera with the initial exposure setting,determine at least one image parameter value for the second image data,determine that the at least one image parameter value is outside an allowable range, andexecute the automatic exposure control algorithm using at least one of the first processor or the second processor to determine an updated exposure setting for the camera.