Patent ID: 8488958

Claim:
A scene adaptive auto exposure system comprising: an image sensor for capturing an image representative of a scene; a memory coupled to the image sensor; and a programmable control device communicatively coupled to the image sensor and the memory, wherein the memory includes instructions for causing the programmable control device to perform a scene adaptive auto exposure method on image information received from the image sensor, the method comprising: defining a first exposure metering region over a desired area of the image; defining a plurality of second exposure metering regions, wherein each second exposure metering region covers a desired area of the image; comparing a value for each of the second exposure metering regions to a value for the first exposure metering region; determining a scene identifier based on the compared values; determining a metering value for the scene based at least in part on the determined scene identifier; and setting an exposure parameter for the image sensor based at least in part on the determined metering value.