US 11,856,293 B2
Camera autofocus using time-of-flight assistance
Mark N. Gamadia, Campbell, CA (US); Abhishek Dhanda, San Ramon, CA (US); Gregory Guyomarc'h, San Francisco, CA (US); Andrew D. Fernandez, San Jose, CA (US); and Moshe Laifenfeld, Haifa (IL)
Assigned to Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed by Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 2, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/061,395.
Application 18/061,395 is a continuation of application No. 17/485,258, filed on Sep. 24, 2021, granted, now 11,523,043.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/090,594, filed on Oct. 12, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0094971 A1, Mar. 30, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04N 23/67 (2023.01)
CPC H04N 23/671 (2023.01) 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
illuminating a subject in a field of view of a camera system with illumination from a time-of-flight imaging system;
determining a depth of the subject based on time-of-flight values assessed by the time-of-flight imaging system;
in response to the depth of the subject being above a depth threshold, determining a focus position of the camera system based on the determined depth of the subject; and
in response to the depth of the subject being below the depth threshold, operating a contrast based autofocus process to determine the focus position of the camera system.