Method and apparatus to provide improved image quality in a camera

An improved camera system including:na camera apparatus including an aperture and an image sensor, the camera apparatus to take a plurality of images;an accelerometer to detect motion of the improved camera system and to generate accelerometer data based on the detected motion;a buffering logic to buffer the plurality of images and to buffer the acceleration data, wherein each of the plurality of images is associated with distinct accelerometer data; anda stabilization logic to utilize the accelerometer data to select an image having a minimal motion from the plurality of images, when a user provides an indication,the stabilization logic including a selection logic to discard each of the plurality of images having acceleration data that indicates a level of motion above a motion threshold and each of the plurality of images that do not have any in-focus portions, andthe selection logic further to select a function to use to evaluate a quality value of each of a remainder of the plurality of images, and to select an image from the remainder of the plurality of images that has a largest quality value, the quality value being a function of stability and time from the indication.

A system comprising:na camera including a shutter indicator and a camera sensor, the camera to take a plurality of images;an accelerometer to detect motion of the system and to generate accelerometer data based on the detected motion; anda stabilization logic to utilize the accelerometer data to select an image having a best image quality from the plurality of images when a user provides an indication, the stabilization logic comprising:na stability detection logic to determine a level of stability for each of the plurality of images based on the accelerometer data;a buffering logic to buffer the plurality of images and to buffer the accelerometer data, wherein each of the plurality of images is associated with an image quality value, the image quality value being a function of the level of stability of the camera and a time from the indication; anda selection logic to discard each of the plurality of images that fail to satisfy one or more image quality criteria, and to select the image having the best image quality from a remainder of the plurality of images, using one of a first image selection function that weights the time from the indication more heavily and a second image selection function that weights the level of stability more heavily.

A stabilization logic, to be used with a camera, comprising:na stability detection logic to detect whether the camera is tending toward stability and whether the camera is stable, wherein the camera is tending toward stability if an acceleration of the camera is getting smaller and a rate of change of the acceleration is getting smaller, and wherein the camera is stable when the acceleration is approximately zero and the rate of change of acceleration is approximately zero;an image acquisition system to enable the camera to acquire a plurality of images and a plurality of motion sensor readings when the stability detection logic detects that the camera is stable, wherein each of the plurality of images is associated with one or more of the plurality of motion sensor readings; anda selection logic to discard each of the plurality of images associated with motion sensor readings that indicate a level of motion above a motion threshold, to further discard each of the plurality of images that do not have any in-focus portions, and to enable selection of one of a remainder of the plurality of images acquired, the selection logic selecting based on a quality of the image, wherein the quality of the image is based, at least in part, on the one or more motion sensor readings associated with the image.