Appeal No. 1998-1387 Page 2
Application No. 08/208,791
the luminance level constant, however, does not ensure that a
person's skin is exposed correctly. This is particularly true
when he is backlit or is highlighted against a dark
background.
The invention at issue in this appeal detects the
presence of skin-colored hues suggesting a person. It then
discerns whether the person is the primary subject to be
photographed by determining whether he is in-focus. If so,
the invention controls exposure of the photograph to optimize
the skin-colored portion thereof. Otherwise, it controls
exposure based on landscape other than the skin-colored
portion.
Claim 1, which is representative for our purposes,
follows:
1. An automatic exposure control apparatus
comprising:
skin color extracting means for extracting
a skin-colored portion signal from an input video
signal;
focus condition detecting means for
detecting a focus condition of the skin-colored
portion and providing a focus condition signal; and
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