Patent Document ID: 9990738
Application ID: 15550975
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An image processing method for determining depth in an original digital plenoptic image captured by a light field image capture device, the method comprising: applying a light field analysis algorithm a plurality of times to said original digital plenoptic image, changing the focus setting each time, so as to generate a respective plurality of scene images focused at different depths; performing edge detection in respect of each of said scene images to generate a respective plurality of edge detected images; performing area identification in respect of each edge detected image to generate a respective plurality of area identification images indicative of areas of respective edge detected images in which edges have been detected; and applying said area identification images to respective scene images so as to extract from said scene images respective image segments corresponding to said areas in which edges have been detected; wherein said plurality of scene images is generated by applying a different respective focus setting to said original digital plenoptic image and storing the image thus generated, wherein the focus setting is first set to a starting depth to generate a first scene image and then stepped at intervals to generate the remaining scene images, and wherein each image segment is stored in association with data representative of a corresponding respective depth value.