Patent Document ID: 7535501
Application ID: 10963124
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for detecting the presence of sensor dust in digital cameras comprising steps of: (a) capturing a single test image of a selected predetermined, calibration target, said target having a generally uniform pixel intensity value throughout; (b) verifying that the test image is suitable for dust detecting analysis by verifying image capture and target identity and preparing the test image for an analysis performed in accordance with steps (c) and (d); (c) checking for dust effects by creating a binary image and performing a morphological analysis on said binary image to find and consider clusters containing collections of connected pixels to locate, identify and label areas that exceed a threshold size and are darker than a threshold intensity; and (d) activating an indicator that indicates that dust is present if a predetermined number of areas are identified that exceed said threshold size and are darker than said threshold intensity.