Zoom algorithm

Abstract

Methods to zoom a region of interest from a digital image have been achieved. The methods invented support according to the scale of zooming the decrease or the increase of the resolution of digital images. The region of interest to be zoomed is variable; the destination image has a fixed size. In case of a decrease of the resolution of the region of interest the method invented combines interpolating source pixels to calculate the color values of the destination pixels and omitting some rows of source pixels. In case of enlargement the method invented combines interpolation of the source pixels to calculate the color values of the destination pixels, extrapolation of the destination pixels being close to the edge of the image, and replication of some of the interpolated rows of the destination image to gain additional rows according to the scale of the increase of resolution (enlargement) of a digital image.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method to zoom a region of interest from a digital source image, wherein a resolution of the region of interest is either decimated reduced or enlarged to fit into a destination image, comprising:
 providing a digital camera to implement the following steps: 
 (1) define defining, with a digital camera, a size and a location of said the region of interest as part of said the source image; 
 (2) calculate scale of conversion in x- and y-direction; 
 (3) calculate number of rows of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in y-direction; 
 (4) calculate number of pixels contained in a row of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in x-direction; 
 (5) calculate interpolating, with the digital camera, multiple pixels in the source image to generate color values of each pixel along the rows of pixels of the destination image by interpolation from nearest row of pixels of said source image wherein the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located corresponding to locations within the region of interest in the source image; 
 replicating, with the digital camera, a first, or correspondingly a last, pixel of a nearest row in the source image for use as color values of pixels in the destination image corresponding to locations between the left side edge of the source image and the a first pixel of the nearest row of pixels of the region of interest of the source image and the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the right side edge of the source image and the a last pixel of the nearest row of the source image are achieved by replicating the color values of said first, or correspondingly said last, pixel of the nearest row of the source image; and 
 (6) displaydisplaying, with the digital camera, the zoomed region of interest in saidthe destination image. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1  wherein interpolating the color values of each pixel along rows of pixels of the destination image is performed by a linear interpolation method has been used from a nearest row of pixels of the source image. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1  wherein the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the left side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest row of pixels of the region of interest of the source image and the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the right side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest row of the source image are achieved by interpolating the color values of said the first, or correspondingly said the last, pixel of the nearest row of the source image with a neighboring pixels pixel outside the region of interest of the source image. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1  wherein said the digital image is a color image using any color space. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4  wherein said the color space is a R-G-B color space. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 4  wherein said the color space is an YCbCr color space. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1  wherein said the digital image is a video image. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1  wherein said the digital image is a still image from a digital camera. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1  wherein said the region of interest has the shape of a rectangle. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1  wherein said the destination image has the shape of a rectangle. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1  wherein said method invented is used the digital camera is configured to convert the resolution of the region of interest in any direction. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1  wherein said method invented is implemented using the digital camera is configured to use one common software program. 
     
     
       13. A method to zoom a region of interest from a digital source image, wherein a resolution of the region of interest is either decimated reduced or enlarged to fit into a destination image, providing a digital camera to implement the following steps the method comprising:
 (1) definedefining, with a digital camera, a size and a location of saidthe region of interest as part of saidthe source image; 
 (2) calculate scale of conversion in x-and y-direction; 
 (3) calculate number of columns of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in x-direction; 
 (4) calculate number of pixels contained in a column of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in y-direction; 
 (5) calculate interpolating, with the digital camera, multiple pixels in the source image to generate color values of columns of pixels of said the destination image by interpolation from nearest column of pixels of source image wherein the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located corresponding to locations within the region of interest in the source image; 
 replicating, with the digital camera, a first, or correspondingly a last, pixel of a nearest column in the source image for use as color values of pixels in the destination image corresponding to locations between the upper side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest column of pixels of the source image and the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the bottom side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest column of the source image are achieved by replicating the color values of said first, or correspondingly said last, pixel of the nearest column of the source image.; and 
 (6) displaydisplaying, with the digital camera, the zoomed region of interest in saidthe destination image. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 13  wherein interpolating the color values of each pixel along rows of pixels of the destination image is performed by a linear interpolation method has been used from the nearest column of pixels of the source image. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 13  wherein the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the left side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest row of pixels of the region of interest of the source image and the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the right side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest row of the source image are achieved by interpolating the color values of said the first, or correspondingly said the last, pixel of the nearest row of the source image with a neighboring pixels pixel outside the region of interest of the source image. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 13  wherein said digital image is a color image using any color space. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 16  wherein said the color space is a R-G-B color space. 
     
     
       18. The method of claim  16  wherein said the color space is an YCbCr color space. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 13  wherein said the digital image is a video image. 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 13  wherein said the digital image is a still image from a digit digital camera. 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 13  wherein said method invented is used the digital camera is configured to convert the resolution of the region of interest in any direction. 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 13  wherein said the region of interest has the shape of a rectangle. 
     
     
       23. The method of  claim 13  wherein said the destination image has the shape of a rectangle. 
     
     
       24. The method of  claim 13  wherein said method invented is implemented using the digital camera is configured to use one common software program. 
     
     
       25. A method to zoom a region of interest from a digital source image, wherein a resolution of the region of interest is either decimated reduced or enlarged to fit into a destination image, comprising:
 providing a digital camera to implement the following steps: 
 (1) define size and location of said region of interest as part of said source image; 
 (2) calculate the scale of conversion of the resolution in x-and y-direction; 
 (3) calculate number of rows of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in y-direction; 
 (4) calculate number of pixels contained in a row of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in x-direction; 
 (5) calculate x, y virtual starting point of said destination pixel for each frame; 
 (6) calculate calculating, with a digital camera, a virtual location of first destination pixel for a new row in an x-direction and interpolate; 
 replicating, with the digital camera, a first, or correspondingly, a last, pixel of a nearest row of a source image to generate a new color values value of color space of said the first destination pixel from nearest source pixels located at nearest row of source pixels in y-direction wherein the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located corresponding to a location between the left side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest row of pixels of the source image and the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located or between the right side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest row of the source image are achieved by replicating the color values of said first, or correspondingly said last, pixel of the nearest row of the source image; 
 (7) calculatecalculating, with the digital camera, a virtual position of next destination pixel in the x-direction according to a scale factor and interpolatebetween the region of interest of the source image and the destination image, wherein the virtual position of next destination pixel corresponds to a location within the region of interest in the source image; 
 interpolating, with the digital camera, new color values of color space used of said the next destination pixel from nearest source pixels located at a nearest row of source pixels in the y-direction wherein the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the left side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest row of pixels of the source image and the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the right side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest row of the source image are achieved by replicating the color values of said first, or correspondingly said last, pixel of the nearest row of the source image; and  
 (8) go to next step (9) if last destination pixel in x-direction has been reached otherwise go to step (6); 
 (9) go to step (11) if last row of destination pixels has been reached otherwise go to next step (10); 
 (10) calculate virtual location of next row in y-direction according to scale factor in y-direction and go to step (5); and 
 (11) display displaying, with the digital camera, the zoomed region of interest in said the destination image. 
 
     
     
       26. The method of  claim 25  wherein a interpolating the new color values of color space is performed through linear interpolation method has been used. 
     
     
       27. The method of  claim 25  wherein the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the left side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest row of pixels of the region of interest of the source image and the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between the right side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest row of the source image are achieved by interpolating the color values of said the first, or correspondingly said the last, pixel of the nearest row of the source image with a neighboring pixels pixel outside the region of interest of the source image. 
     
     
       28. The method of  claim 25  wherein said the digital image is a color image using any color space. 
     
     
       29. The method of  claim 28  wherein said the color space is a R-G-B color space. 
     
     
       30. The method of  claim 25  wherein said the color space is an YCbCr color space. 
     
     
       31. The method of  claim 25  wherein said the digital image is a video image. 
     
     
       32. The method of  claim 25  wherein said the digital image is a still image from a digital camera. 
     
     
       33. The method of  claim 25  wherein said method invented is used the digital camera is configured to convert the resolution of the region of interest in any direction. 
     
     
       34. The method of  claim 25  wherein said the region of interest has the shape of a rectangle. 
     
     
       35. The method of  claim 25  wherein said the destination image has the shape of a rectangle. 
     
     
       36. The method of  claim 25  wherein said method invented is implemented using the digital camera is configured to use one common software program. 
     
     
       37. A method to zoom a region of interest from a digital source image, wherein a resolution of the region of interest is either decimated reduced or enlarged to fit into a destination image, comprising:
 providing a digital camera to implement the following steps: 
 (1) define size and location of said region of interest as part of said source image; 
 (2) calculate the scale of decimation in x-and y-direction; 
 (3) calculate number of columns of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in x-direction; 
 (4) calculate number of pixels contained in a column of pixels of said destination image according to scale of conversion desired in y-direction; 
 (5) calculate x, y virtual starting point of a destination pixel for each frame; 
 (6) calculate calculating, with a digital camera, a virtual location of first destination pixel for new column in a y-direction and interpolate new; 
 determining, with the digital camera, a color values value of color space of said the first destination pixel, wherein the determining of the color value comprises selecting, based on a location of the first destination pixel relative to the region of interest, between interpolating the color value from nearest source pixels located at nearest column of source pixels in a x-direction replicating the color value corresponding to the first destination pixel in the source image; 
 (7) calculatecalculating, with the digital camera, a virtual position of next destination pixel in the y-direction according to a scale factor and interpolate newbetween the region of interest and the destination image; 
 determining, with the digital camera, a color values value of color space used of said the next destination pixel, wherein the determining of the color value comprises selecting, based on a location of the next destination pixel relative to the region of interest, between interpolating the color value from nearest source pixels located at nearest column of source pixels in x-direction or replicating the color value corresponding to the next destination pixel in the source image; and  
 (8) go to next step (9) if last destination pixel in y-direction has been reached otherwise go to step (6); 
 (9) go to step (11) if last column of destination pixels has been reached otherwise go to next step (10); 
 (10) calculate virtual location of next column in x-direction according to scale factor in x-direction and go to step (5); and 
 (11) display displaying, with a digital camera, the zoomed region of interest in said the destination image. 
 
     
     
       38. An apparatus comprising:
 a digital camera configured to reduce or enlarge a region of interest in a source image to fit into a destination image and to interpolate color values for pixels in the destination image corresponding to locations within the region of interest from multiple pixels in the source image, wherein the digital camera is configured to replicate a color value of a first pixel or a last pixel of a nearest row of the source image to achieve the color values of the pixels of the destination image located between a left side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest row of pixels in the region of interest of the source image or to achieve the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between a right side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest row of the source image.   
     
     
       39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the digital camera is configured to display the enlarged region of interest in the destination image. 
     
     
       40. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the digital camera is configured to display the reduced region of interest in the destination image. 
     
     
       41. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the digital camera is configured to determine a scaling factor between the region of interest in the source image and the destination image, and to reduce or enlarge the region of interest to fit into the destination image based on the scaling factor. 
     
     
       42. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the digital camera is configured to identify a location of the region of interest in the source image from a point in the source image and a size of sides of the region of interest. 
     
     
       43. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the digital camera is configured to determine a number of rows or columns in the destination image. 
     
     
       44. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the digital camera is configured to eliminate at least one row or column from the source image to fit the region of interest in the destination image. 
     
     
       45. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the digital camera is configured to interpolate at least one additional row or column from the source image to fit the region of interest in the destination image. 
     
     
       46. An apparatus comprising:
 a digital camera configured to reduce or enlarge a region of interest in a source image to fit into a destination image and to interpolate color values for pixels in the destination image corresponding to locations within the region of interest from multiple pixels in the source image, wherein the digital camera is configured to replicate a color value of a first pixel or a last pixel of a nearest column of the source image to achieve the color values of the pixels of the destination image located between an upper side edge of the source image and the first pixel of the nearest column of pixels in the region of interest of the source image or to achieve the color values of the pixels of the destination image being located between a bottom side edge of the source image and the last pixel of the nearest column of the source image.   
     
     
       47. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the digital camera is configured to display the enlarged region of interest in the destination image. 
     
     
       48. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the digital camera is configured to display the reduced region of interest in the destination image. 
     
     
       49. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the digital camera is configured to determine a sealing factor between the region of interest in the source image and the destination image, and to reduce or enlarge the region of interest to fit into the destination image based on the scaling factor. 
     
     
       50. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the digital camera is configured to identify a location of the region of interest in the source image from a point in the source image and a size of sides of the region of interest. 
     
     
       51. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the digital camera is configured to determine a number of rows or columns in the destination image. 
     
     
       52. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the digital camera is configured to eliminate at least one row or column from the source image to fit the region of interest in the destination image. 
     
     
       53. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the digital camera is configured to interpolate at least one additional row or column from the source image to fit the region of interest in the destination image.