Real-Time Digital Image Exposure Status Detection and Circuit Implementation

Auto exposure is an important part of digital image signal processing. We studied the detection of the exposure status in this paper, and fast and parallel detection method was presented. The method comprises the following steps: first obtaining the current image, counting the numbers of pixels in bright and dark regions of the image and obtaining these pixels brightness; then determining exposure parameters based on the proportions of the counted numbers of pixels in bright and dark regions with preset value respectively; if the actual proportion is lower than preset value, then continue to adjust exposure parameters until pixel brightness value reaches preset brightness threshold. Experiments show that the computational complexity and operation demand is low, which can quickly determine the exposure status of the image, improving the real-time capability in image exposure control. The proposed method will make the whole digital image signal processing system works smoothly and be reliable. The circuit implementation of this method is simple with high real-time controllability. This method has been applied for China patent successfully. Keywords—real-time; auto exposure; fast and parallel method