According to a list recently published by the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO), Apple has obtained a patent for the iPhone camera, with the goal of eliminating the red-eye phenomenon.
Note: The “red eye” phenomenon occurs because the flash axis of the flash is too close to the optical axis of the lens. When the external light is very dark, the human pupil will become larger accordingly. When the flash flash shines through the pupil, In the fundus of the eye, the densely packed micro blood vessels appear bright red under the light and are reflected back. The natural phenomenon that looks like “red dots” on the eyes is “red eye”.
Apple stated in the patent that it will introduce a spatial adjustment lighting curve based on the camera flash module based on the target area identified in the scene, aiming to eliminate or reduce the red-eye effect at the camera level.
Apple notes that in low-light conditions, the flash module can be used to illuminate the scene to facilitate image capture. During image capture, flash lighting may produce artifacts in the captured image, such as red-eye effect, flash reflections, etc. Flash modules would ideally be flexible enough to reduce these artifacts. Apple’s patent-pending invention aims to solve this problem.
In Apple’s patent example, it introduces a device with a flash module. The flash module includes a luminous body array composed of multiple luminous bodies, a lens assembly for imaging the luminous body array into an illuminated area, and a device for controlling multiple luminous bodies. A flash controller that emits light to produce light.
The flash controller is configured to determine that a portion of the user’s face including the user’s eyes is located within the lighting area, select a first set of light emitters associated with the eye portion from the plurality of light emitters, and select a first set of light emitters associated with the eye portion from the plurality of light emitters. A second set of light emitters associated with the area around the eye part.
