Patent ID: 9654698
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: H04N

Claim:
1. A method performed by a digital camera, the method comprising: calculating brightness of image data captured by an imaging device; determining whether the brightness of the image data is within a valid range for controlling a set exposure value of the imaging device; changing the set exposure value for each frame until the brightness of the image data becomes within the valid range, based on a difference between a first exposure value corresponding to a lower limit of the valid range and a second exposure value corresponding to an upper limit of the valid range; after the brightness of the image data becomes within the valid range, controlling the set exposure value based on the brightness of the image data within the valid range and a valid exposure value corresponding to the brightness of the image data within the valid range; reading, from the imaging device, a part of the image data corresponding to lines in a middle portion of the image data during a first period before the brightness of the image data becomes within the valid range; and reading, from the imaging device, entire data of the image data during a second period after the set exposure value is controlled based on the brightness of the image data within the valid range and the valid exposure value, wherein the image data is captured by the imaging device in a full pixel mode where an image is captured without skipping pixels in the first period and the second period, and wherein a number of lines of the part of the image data is 1/k of a number of lines of the entire data of the image data, and the part of the image data is read in the first period at a frame rate that is k times greater than a frame rate in the second period, wherein k is greater than 1.