Patent ID: 8339508

Claim:
A method for low-light imaging enhancement by a digital imaging device, the method comprising the acts of: detecting an image, by the digital imaging device, associated with ambient lighting of a scene; detecting an image, by the digital imaging device, associated with artificial lighting of the scene; aligning the image associated with ambient lighting relative to the image associated with artificial lighting based on a motion parameter of ambient lighting image data and artificial lighting image data; calculating data for a combined image based on aligned ambient lighting image data and artificial lighting image data, wherein the image data of either the aligned ambient lighting image or the artificial lighting image is selected for each pixel of the combined image to maximize a signal to noise ratio of the combined image; determining an image parameter based on the ambient lighting image data; blending the image data associated with the artificial lighting image and the combined image based on the image parameter to generate a tone rendered image; and storing, by the digital imaging device, the tone rendered image.