Image Modification Based on Red-Eye Filter Analysis

Abstract

A digital camera has an integral flash and stores and displays a digital image. Under certain conditions, a flash photograph taken with the camera may result in a red-eye phenomenon due to a reflection within an eye of a subject of the photograph. A digital apparatus has a red-eye filter which analyzes the stored image for the red-eye phenomenon and modifies the stored image to eliminate the red-eye phenomenon by changing the red area to black. The modification of the image is enabled when a photograph is taken under conditions indicative of the red-eye phenomenon. The modification is subject to anti-falsing analysis which further examines the area around the red-eye area for indicia of the eye of the subject. The detection and correction can be optimized for performance and quality by operating on subsample versions of the image when appropriate.

1 . A portable digital camera having no photographic film, comprising:
 (a) an integral flash for providing illumination during image acquisition;   (b) a digital image capturing apparatus for acquiring an image; and   (c) a red-eye filter for modifying an area within the image indicative of a red-eye phenomenon based on an analysis of a subsample representation of selected regions of the image.