Patent ID: 7590305

Claim:
A digital camera that automatically corrects dust artifact regions within acquired images, comprising: (a) an optical system for acquiring an image including a lens assembly and an aperture stop; (b) an electronic sensor array for collecting image data with multiple pixels that collectively correspond to the acquired image; (c) a lens calibration table corresponding to said optical system that includes information describing dust location and appearance as a function of optical parameters at least including exit pupil dimension of the lens assembly, or distance of dust from a surface of the electronic sensor array that corresponds to a focal plane of the lens assembly, or both; (d) a master dust map describing a physical manifestation of dust artifacts on said sensor array; (e) a manifestation of the master dust map for a specific lens and focal length, calculated as a transformation of the master dust map based on the lens calibration table; and (f) digital processing electronics including a processor for converting processing the digital data according to programming instructions; and (g) wherein said dust artifacts are corrected for said acquired image based on the manifestation of the master dust map.