US 7,502,523 B2
Auto focusing apparatus and method using discrete cosine transform coefficients
Tae Eung Kim, Gyeonggi-do (Korea, Republic of)
Assigned to Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd., Kyunggi-Do (Korea, Republic of)
Filed on Jun. 23, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/165,767.
Claims priority of application No. 10-2004-0103833 (KR), filed on Dec. 09, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2006/0127077 A1, Jun. 15, 2006
Int. Cl. G06K 9/46 (2006.01); G06K 9/40 (2006.01); H04N 5/228 (2006.01); G03B 17/00 (2006.01); G03B 3/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 382—255  [382/250; 348/208.12; 396/77; 396/89] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An auto focusing apparatus for a camera, comprising:
an image sensor unit for transforming an optical signal into an electrical signal;
an Image Signal Processor (ISP) unit for receiving the electrical signal from the image sensor unit and outputting digitized image data;
a compression module containing memory, the compression module classifying image data according to frame when the image data are input, blocking each frame into a plurality of blocks having a predetermined size, performing Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) on the individual blocks and then outputting DCT values related to the blocks;
a focus value calculating unit for receiving DCT coefficient values related to the plurality of blocks of a frame, quantizing the received DCT coefficient values using a fixed step size with respect to blocks in a window set region, and calculating focus values by integrating predetermined degrees of quantized DCT coefficient values; and
an auto focus Digital Signal Processor (DSP) for detecting a maximal focus value while moving a focus lens and performing auto focus adjustment when the focus values are input from the focus value calculating unit.