Patent ID: 7684645

Claim:
A method for enhancing wide dynamic range in images, the method comprising: using an imaging device acquiring at least two images of a scene to be imaged, the images acquired using different exposure times; and using a processor performing the following steps: constructing for a first image of said at least two images an illumination mask corresponding to the illumination in the scene, comprising a set of continuous weight values distinctively identifying respective areas of pixels of high or low illumination, over-exposed or underexposed with respect to a predetermined threshold illumination value, assigning one of the weight values to each pixels, whereas other weight value is assigned to other pixels of the other of said at least two images; using a spatial low-pass filter that for a given pixel position takes into account information from pixels that are a plurality of pixels away from the given pixel position in different spatial directions to smooth border zones on the illumination mask, thus assigning pixels in the border zones new continuous weight values in a range between the weight values; and constructing a combined image in the DCT transform domain using combined weight values with image data of pixels assigned with one weight value of the first image and image data of pixels assigned with other weight value of the other of said at least two images and in pixels corresponding to the border zones using image data from said at least two images proportional to the new weight values.