Patent ID: 8049789

Claim:
A method, comprising: calculating a weighted average of color coordinates of points in a color image to determine an estimated illuminant of the color image in a color space of an image sensor by determining possibly white points in the color image based on color balance of each point in the color image in the color space of the image sensor and not luminosity of the point, and giving greater weight to the possibly white points in the color image relative to other points in the color image; and selecting white balance correction factors for the color image using the estimated illuminant of the color image and color coordinates of one or more of a plurality of reference illuminant points in the color space of the image sensor, wherein selecting white balance correction factors comprises: projecting the estimated illuminant of the color image of a line of the plurality of reference illuminant points in the color space of the image sensor, determining a reference illuminant point closest to the estimated illuminant of the color image; and selecting white balance correction factors using color coordinates of the closest reference illuminant point as an entry point to a lookup table that holds correction factors for each reference illuminant point.