CMOS Digital Image Stabilization

• Published in: IEEE transactions on consumer electronics Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 979 - 986
• Main Authors: Cho, Won-ho, Kim, Dae-woong, Hong, Ki-sang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-08-2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Charge coupled devices; Charge-coupled image sensors; CMOS; CMOS image sensors; CMOS technology; Digital; Digital cameras; Digital images; Distortion; Frames; Motion estimation; Semiconductor device modeling; Stabilization; Video equipment; Video sequences
• ISSN: 0098-3063; 1558-4127
• DOI: 10.1109/TCE.2007.4341576

In this paper, we present a CMOS digital image stabilization algorithm based on the characteristics of a rolling shutter camera. Due to the rolling shuttering mechanism of a CMOS sensor, a CMOS video frame shows CMOS distortions which are not observed in a CCD video frame, and previous video stabilization techniques cannot handle these distortions properly even though they can make a visually stable CMOS video sequence. In our proposed algorithm, we first suggest a CMOS distortion model. This model is based on a rolling shutter mechanism which provides a solution to solve the CMOS distortion problem. Next, we estimate the global image motion and the CMOS distortion transformation directly from the homography between CMOS frames. Using the two transformations, we remove CMOS distortions as well as jittering motions in a CMOS video. In the experimental results, we demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can handle the CMOS distortion problem more effectively as well as the jittering problem in a CMOS video compared to previous CCD-based digital image stabilization techniques.