Patent Application
20130343741
This disclosure relates generally to camera systems and, more particularly, to a method, an apparatus and/or a system of user control of flash light characteristics in a camera system.
A camera system (e.g., a digital camera, a mobile phone with a camera, a laptop with a camera, a desktop Personal Computer (PC) with a camera) may provide for white light being emitted from a flash thereof when the camera therein is clicked. When a user of the camera system desires a specific color of a background environment of the camera system for taking pictures and/or shooting videos, he/she may have to utilize an additional source of light corresponding to the specific color. The aforementioned additional source of light may be cumbersome to carry/install and/or may be an additional expense. Further, the process associated with the capturing of images and/or the shooting of videos may be inefficient when the additional source of light is used. In addition, the user may have to perform post-processing of the captured images and/or the videos in order to achieve desired effects thereon.
Disclosed are a method, an apparatus and/or a system of user control of flash light characteristics in a camera system.
In one aspect, a method includes providing, in a camera system, a flash light including one or more Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) having color changing ability based on the one or more LEDs being constituted by a combination of semiconductor compounds, and providing a user interface on the camera system to enable a user of the camera system to modify a number of settings on the camera system. The method also includes modifying, through a flash light driver component, an intensity level of the flash light and/or a voltage supplied thereto through a flash light driver circuit of the flash light in accordance with an appropriate modified setting by the user on the user interface. The modification of the voltage supplied to the flash light enables an appropriate modification of a color of a light emitted by the flash light.
In another aspect, a camera system includes a flash light having one or more LEDs with color changing ability based on the one or more LEDs being constituted by a combination of semiconductor compounds, a user interface to enable a user of the camera system to modify a number of settings thereon, a flash light driver circuit of the flash light, and a flash light driver component. The flash light driver component is specific to an application enabling the user to modify the number of settings on the camera system, and is configured to modify an intensity level of the flash light and/or a voltage supplied thereto through the flash light driver circuit in accordance with an appropriate modified setting by the user on the user interface. The modification of the voltage supplied to the
flash light enables an appropriate modification of a color of a light emitted by the flash light.
In yet another aspect, a camera system includes a flash light having one or more LEDs with color changing ability based on the one or more LEDs being constituted by a combination of semiconductor compounds, a user interface to enable a user of the camera system to modify a number of settings thereon, a flash light driver circuit of the flash light, an operating system loaded in a memory of the camera system, and a flash light driver component integrated with the operating system. The flash light driver component is configured to modify an intensity level of the flash light and/or a voltage supplied thereto through the flash light driver circuit in accordance with an appropriate modified setting by the user on the user interface. The modification of the voltage supplied to the flash light enables an appropriate modification of a color of a light emitted by the flash light.
The methods and systems disclosed herein may be implemented in any means for achieving various aspects, and may be executed in a form of a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform any of the operations disclosed herein. Other features will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.
The embodiments of this invention are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which:
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.
Example embodiments, as described below, may be used to provide a method, a system and/or an apparatus of user control of flash light characteristics in a camera system. Although the present embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the various embodiments.
In one or more embodiments, memory 170 shown in
In one or more embodiments, as data processing system 100 may be configured to derive power from a battery 102, battery 102 is shown as being interfaced with control module 150. It is obvious that control module 150 may include other elements necessary for the functioning of camera system 100 but not relevant to the concepts associated with the exemplary embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, discussion associated with the aforementioned other elements have been skipped for the sake of clarity and convenience.
In one or more embodiments, camera system 100 may include a user interface 180 coupled to controller 110 in order to enable a user 190 of camera system 100 to input options associated with the intensity control of flash light 104 and/or the voltage supplied to flash light 104. In one or more embodiments, the color of flash light 104 may depend on the semiconductor material utilized in flash light 104 (e.g., LED device) and the voltage supplied thereto. For example, user 190 of camera system 100 may want a specific colored light from flash light 104 in order to create a desired ambience/environment for taking a picture/shooting a video. Therefore, in one or more embodiments, flash light 104 may include one or more LEDs having color changing ability and being constituted by a combination of material(s). In one or more embodiments, controller 110 may be programmed to alter a voltage supplied to flash light 104 in order to alter the color of light emitted from flash light 104.
LEDs may be manufactured from semiconductor compounds such as Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Gallium Phosphide (GaP), Gallium Arsenide Phosphide (GaAsP), Silicon Carbide (SiC), Gallium Indium Nitride (GaInN) and Aluminum Gallium Phosphide (AlGaP), a number of which is mixed together at different ratios to produce a distinct color wavelength corresponding to a voltage applied to flash light 104. The aforementioned semiconductor compounds may emit light in specific regions of the visible light spectrum, and, therefore, produce different intensity levels of light therefrom. The exact choice of semiconductor material used in forming a P-N junction may, thus, determine the wavelength of photon light emissions and, thereby, the resulting color of the light emitted.
In an example embodiment, whenever user 190 desires to modify intensity levels of flash light 104 and/or voltage levels applied thereto, user 190 may access user interface 180 as discussed with regard to
Thus, flash light driver component 502, in conjunction with flash light driver circuit 122, may modify the intensity of flash light 104 and/or voltage applied thereto in accordance with the input from user 190. Alternately, user interface 180 may be a multi-way switch configured to be operated by user 190 to modify the intensity level of flash light 104 and/or the voltage applied thereto. Other forms of user interface 180 are within the scope of the exemplary embodiments. In one or more embodiments, when camera system 100 includes embedded OS 172 or a non-embedded OS, the intensity level modification and/or the voltage level modification functionalities may also be enabled and/or disabled through the registry settings associated therewith.
Thus, exemplary embodiments discussed above dispense with a need for an additional light source to provide for ambient light during shooting pictures/videos with camera system 100. This, in addition to the intensity level modification functionality, may reduce or dispense with post-processing requirements of images and/or videos captured through camera system 100.
In one or more embodiments, operation 606 may then involve modifying, through flash light driver component 502, an intensity level of flash light 104 and/or a voltage supplied thereto through flash light driver circuit 122 of flash light 104 in accordance with an appropriate modified setting by user 190 on user interface 180. In one or more embodiments, the modification of the voltage supplied to flash light 104 may enable an appropriate modification of a color of a light emitted by flash light 104.
Although the present embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the various embodiments. For example, the various devices and modules described herein may be enabled and operated using hardware circuitry (e.g., CMOS based logic circuitry), firmware, software or any combination of hardware, firmware, and software (e.g., embodied in a machine readable medium). For example, the various electrical structure and methods may be embodied using transistors, logic gates, and electrical circuits (e.g., application specific integrated (ASIC) circuitry and/or Digital Signal Processor (DSP) circuitry).
In addition, it will be appreciated that the various operations, processes, and methods disclosed herein may be embodied in a machine-readable medium and/or a machine accessible medium compatible with a data processing system (e.g., a computer device). Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
