4795results about "Television system scanning details" patented technology

An image sensor for capturing a color image is disclosed having a two-dimensional array having first and second groups of pixels wherein pixels from the first group of pixels have narrower spectral photoresponses than pixels from the second group of pixels and wherein the first group of pixels has individual pixels that have spectral photoresponses that correspond to a set of at least two colors. Further, the placement of the first and second groups of pixels defines a pattern that has a minimal repeating unit including at least twelve pixels. The minimal repeating unit has a plurality of cells wherein each cell has at least two pixels representing a specific color selected from the first group of pixels and a plurality of pixels selected from the second group of pixels arranged to permit the reproduction of a captured color image under different lighting conditions.

A digital imaging system and method using multiple cameras arranged and aligned to create a much larger virtual image sensor array. Each camera has a lens with an optical axis aligned parallel to the optical axes of the other camera lenses, and a digital image sensor array with one or more non-contiguous pixelated sensors. The non-contiguous sensor arrays are spatially arranged relative to their respective optical axes so that each sensor images a portion of a target region that is substantially different from other portions of the target region imaged by other sensors, and preferably overlaps adjacent portions imaged by the other sensors. In this manner, the portions imaged by one set of sensors completely fill the image gaps found between other portions imaged by other sets of sensors, so that a seamless mosaic image of the target region may be produced.

Designs and operational methods to increase the dynamic range of image sensors and APS devices in particular by achieving more than one integration times for each pixel thereof. An APS system with more than one column-parallel signal chains for readout are described for maintaining a high frame rate in readout. Each active pixel is sampled for multiple times during a single frame readout, thus resulting in multiple integration times. The operation methods can also be used to obtain multiple integration times for each pixel with an APS design having a single column-parallel signal chain for readout. Furthermore, analog-to-digital conversion of high speed and high resolution can be implemented.

A camera solution includes an image sensor and an image processing and control system. At least two different operating modes are supported, with one of the modes having a higher dynamic range. Control of the dynamic range is provided at the system level. The system supports statically or dynamically selecting an operating mode that determines the dynamic range of a camera. In one implementation, the system supports the use of either a conventional image sensor that does not natively support a high dynamic range or a dual-mode image sensor.

A full service cable television system and method are provided. The system comprises a cable headend, at least one fiber transport, at least one distribution hub, at least one hybrid fiber coax plant, and a plurality of set-top terminals. The system delivers television programs, advanced cable services, and online services. Programs and services are transmitted to the set-top terminals in both digital and analog formats to maintain downward compatibility with existing systems. The set-top terminal includes a central processing unit, a unified memory architecture, a memory management unit, communications circuitry, I/O control circuitry, and audio and video output circuitry. Through these components, the set-top terminal provides advanced cable services such as a comprehensive channel navigator, an interactive program guide, impulse Pay-Per-View, Near-Video-On-Demand and Video-On-Demand programming, and advanced configuration controls. The set-top terminal also provides online services such as World Wide Web browsing, Internet e-mail, and home shopping.

Method and apparatus for a fast (low F/number) computational camera that incorporates two arrays of lenses. The arrays include a lenslet array in front of a photosensor and an objective lens array of two or more lenses. Each lens in the objective lens array captures light from a subject. Each lenslet in the lenslet array captures light from each objective lens and separates the captured light to project microimages corresponding to the objective lenses on a region of the photosensor under the lenslet. Thus, a plurality of microimages are projected onto and captured by the photosensor. The captured microimages may be processed in accordance with the geometry of the objective lenses to align the microimages to generate a final image. One or more other algorithms may be applied to the image data in accordance with radiance information captured by the camera, such as automatic refocusing of an out-of-focus image.

A system for automatically controlling vehicle equipment includes a controller to generate control signals. The control signals are derived based on information obtained from the image sensor as well as other detected parameters pertaining to the detected light source(s), the vehicle having the inventive control system, and the ambient environment. The control circuit may simply turn certain vehicle equipment, for example exterior lights, on or off, or change the brightness, aim, focus, etc. to produce various beam patterns that maximize the illuminated area in front of the vehicle without causing excessive glare in the eyes of other drivers.

A back-illuminated type MOS (metal-oxide semiconductor) solid-state image pickup device 32 in which micro pads 34, 37 are formed on the wiring layer side and a signal processing chip 33 having micro pads 35, 38 formed on the wiring layer at the positions corresponding to the micro pads 34, 37 of the MOS solid-state image pickup device 32 are connected by micro bumps 36, 39. In a semiconductor module including the MOS type solid-state image pickup device, at the same time an image processing speed can be increased, simultaneity within the picture can be realized and image quality can be improved, a manufacturing process can be facilitated, and a yield can be improved. Also, it becomes possible to decrease a power consumption required when all pixels or a large number of pixels is driven at the same time.

An image acquisition system that is used to acquire digital images of objects or scenes is disclosed. The image acquisition system supports multiple modes of operation. The image acquisition system can be used to acquire and store not only video images but also still images. The image acquisition system is typically part of, or within, a digital camera, but could also itself be a digital camera.

A digital camera includes a CCD imager having an interline transfer scheme. A first charge produced due to first exposure is read from light receiving elements positioned vertically intermittently. A second charge produced due to second exposure is also read from the same light receiving elements to vertical transfer regions. Here, the first charge is vertically moved simultaneously with or prior to reading out the second charge. The moving distance, at this time, is equal to or greater than a distance that the light receiving elements continue in the vertical direction. As a result of this, the second charge will not be mixed with the first charge. The first and second charges are subjected to a compositing process to display a composite image on an LCD.

Imaging systems and methods are provided. One exemplary system incorporates multiple lenses that are individually configured to receive visible light from an object to be imaged, and to direct this light upon a corresponding sensor array. Luminance information is then derived from signals generated in one or more of the sensor arrays. When chrominance information is desired, an optical filter is interposed between a lens and the corresponding sensor array. The mosaic pattern contained in the optical filter is tailored to provide advantageous chrominance information. One or more such filters with different mosaic patterns may be employed. The luminance and chrominance information obtained from the sensor arrays are combined to generate an image of the object.

A storage pixel sensor disposed on a semiconductor substrate comprises a photosensor. At least one nonlinear capacitive element is coupled to the photosensor. At least one nonlinear capacitive element is arranged to have a compressive photocharge-to-voltage gain function. An amplifier has an input coupled to the nonlinear capacitor and an output. Other, non-capacitive elements may be employed to produce a compressive photo-charge-to-voltage gain having at least one breakpoint.

The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software product for enhancing a dynamic range of an image with a multi-exposure pixel pattern taken by an image sensor of a camera for one or more color channels, wherein a plurality of groups of pixels of the image sensor have different exposure times (e.g., pre-selected or adjusted by a user through a user interface using a viewfinder feedback, or adjusted by a user through a user interface after taking and storing RAW image, etc.). Processing of the captured image for constructing an enhanced image of the image for each of the one or more color channels can be performed using weighted combination of exposure times of pixels having different pre-selected exposure times according to a predetermined criterion.

To provide a drive method for finding out an optimum storage period quickly. In the method for driving the MOS sensor having a plurality of pixels, after all the plurality of pixels are simultaneously reset, signals are then sequentially outputted from said plurality of pixels. The period from the reset time to the time just before said plurality of pixels output saturated signals is termed as the storage period.

Architectures for imager arrays configured for use in array cameras in accordance with embodiments of the invention are described. One embodiment of the invention includes a plurality of focal planes, where each focal plane comprises a two dimensional arrangement of pixels having at least two pixels in each dimension and each focal plane is contained within a region of the imager array that does not contain pixels from another focal plane, control circuitry configured to control the capture of image information by the pixels within the focal planes, where the control circuitry is configured so that the capture of image information by the pixels in at least two of the focal planes is separately controllable, sampling circuitry configured to convert pixel outputs into digital pixel data, and output interface circuitry configured to transmit pixel data via an output interface.

According to an image sensor disclosed, a pixel circuit includes a photo-diode 14 for generating a photo-electric conversion voltage which corresponds to an input optical level, a transistor 11 which is activated in response to a Reset signal RST, to initialize the photo-diode 14 from a power supply VDD, a transistor 12 which, when connected between the power supply VDD and a bit line BL, amplifies a photo-electric conversion voltage and outputs it onto the bit line BL, and a transistor 13 which is activated by a word-line readout control signal WL, to interconnect the transistor 12 and the bit line BL, in which the transistor 11 is of a depletion type.

A technique, associated system and computer executable program code, for projecting a superimposed image onto a target display surface under observation of one or more cameras. A projective relationship between each projector being used and the target display surface is determined using a suitable calibration technique. A component image for each projector is then estimated using the information from the calibration, and represented in the frequency domain. Each component image is estimated by: Using the projective relationship, determine a set of sub-sampled, regionally shifted images, represented in the frequency domain; each component image is then composed of a respective set of the sub-sampled, regionally shifted images. In an optimization step, the difference between a sum of the component images and a frequency domain representation of a target image is minimized to produce a second, or subsequent, component image for each projector. Here, a second set of frequency domain coefficients for use in producing a frequency domain representation of the second component image for each projector is identified. Taking the inverse Fourier transform of the frequency domain representation of the second component image, converts the information into a spatial signal that is placed into the framebuffer of each component projector and projected therefrom to produce the superimposed image.

A displaying optical system is disclosed, which is capable of reducing a speckle noise. The displaying optical system comprises a light source emitting coherent light, a scanning device scanning the light, a first optical system causing the light from the scanning device to form an intermediate image, a second optical system causing the light from the intermediate image to form an image on a real display surface, and an optical element arranged between the first and second optical systems. The optical element widens the divergence angle of the light emerged from the optical element toward the second optical system more than the incident angle of the light on the optical element from the first optical system.

Systems, methods and devices related to detecting and transmitting images. Imaging system and devices, as well as methods of using such that are provided herein include flicker detection and/or correction; and/or built-in self test (170) associated with various analog circuitry in the imaging devices; and/or power reduction ability; and/or pixels with charge evacuation functionality; and/or parallel to serial conversion (190) unit and associated serial output interface (106); and/or other advanced functionality.

A system for transferring real time video information from a source device to one of a plurality of output devices includes an image capturing device for acquiring video information, the image capturing device comprising a processor, a graphics module coupled to the processor, a browsing device coupled to the processor, a packetizing portion coupled to the processor, the packetizing portion being adapted to convert the video information into a packetized stream of information, the packetized stream of information being in a first format, and an output device coupled to the processor for transferring the packetized stream of information to a network, a network gateway coupled to the image capturing device through the network, the network gateway being coupled to a worldwide network of computers, the network gateway comprising a gateway transcoding device for converting the packetized stream of information from the first format to a second format, the network gateway also comprising a packetizing portion for transferring the packetized stream of information in the second format to the network, and a display device coupled to the network gateway through the world wide network of computers, the display device comprising a display device for converting the packetized stream of information into video information for display, the display device also comprising a display for displaying the video information on the display device.

An image processing system includes a combined display-camera having an array of interspersed display elements and camera elements, arranged substantially in a common plane of a flat panel or other display. Each of at least a subset of the camera elements has one or more imaging angles associated therewith, with the one or more imaging angles being selected to provide a desired imaging operation for the combined display-camera. The imaging angles of the camera elements can be selected to provide an imaging operation which approximates that of a lens-based single-camera system, a pin-hole camera system or other type of system. Each of the camera elements may include multiple image sensors, such that different imaging angles can be set for the different image sensors of a given camera element, and different perspectives of a scene can be generated in the image processing system.

The invention, in various exemplary embodiments, incorporates multiple image sensor arrays, with separate respective color filters, on the same imager die. One exemplary embodiment is an image sensor comprising a plurality of arrays of pixel cells at a surface of a substrate, wherein each pixel cell comprises a photo-conversion device. The arrays are configured to commonly capture an image. An image processor circuit is connected to said plurality of arrays and configured to combine the captured images, captured by the plurality of arrays, and output a color image.

On-chip multispectral imaging and data management is provided in the form of an Adaptive Focal Plane Array (AFPA) that is capable of spectral tunability at the pixel level. Layers of photonic crystals are registered with pixels of a broadband focal plane array. Spectral tuning is accomplished by switching the photonic crystal layers on/off and/or by changing their material structure to tune their photonic band gaps and provide a passband for incident photons. The photonic crystal layers are preferably segmented to independently address different regions or “cells” of pixels down to a pixel-by-pixel resolution. The AFPA may simultaneously sense different regions of a scene at different spectral wavelengths, spatial resolutions and sensitivities.

A semiconductor device is provided as a back-illuminated solid-state imaging device. The device is manufactured by bonding a first semiconductor wafer with a pixel array in a half-finished product state and a second semiconductor wafer with a logic circuit in a half-finished product state together, making the first semiconductor wafer into a thin film, electrically connecting the pixel array and the logic circuit, making the pixel array and the logic circuit into a finished product state, and dividing the first semiconductor wafer and the second semiconductor being bonded together into microchips.

Camera system and methods to capture panoramic imagery from a camera mounted on a moving platform, using low-cost digital image sensors. The panoramic imagery appears seamless and natural to the eye. The panoramic imaging system and methods are specifically designed to accommodate the long acquisition times of low-cost digital image sensors, despite the motion of the camera during image capture. Pairs of cameras are arranged about an axis and a pairwise firing sequence enables capturing a series of adjacent images without gap or overlap. Additionally, when combined with suitable supplemental sensors, the image data provide location information about objects in the image for use in elementary photogrammetry.

An image sensing apparatus including: an image sensor including a plurality of focus detection pixel pairs that perform photoelectric conversion on each pair of light beams that have passed through different regions of a photographing lens and output an image signal pair; a flash memory that stores shift information on relative shift between an optical axis of the photographing lens and a central axis of the focus detection pixel pairs; a correction unit that corrects a signal level of the image signal pair based on the shift information and exit pupil information of the photographing lens so as to compensate for an unbalanced amount of light that enters each of the focus detection pixel pairs; and a focus detection unit that detects a focus of the photographing lens using the image signal pair corrected by the correction unit.

An active pixel sensor (APS) image sensor comprises an array of pixel circuits corresponding to rows and columns of pixels, a plurality of amplifiers that buffer signals output by the array of pixel circuits, and a plurality of sample and hold circuits that read the buffered signals. A routing mechanism is positioned between the array of pixel circuits and the plurality of amplifiers. A controller selects a set of the pixel circuits for sampling and is configured to control the routing mechanism to couple each pixel circuit in the set to a different one of the amplifiers during a normal mode of operation and to couple each pixel circuit of a subset of pixel circuits in a first set of pixel circuits to a different amplifier of a first subset of the amplifiers, to couple each pixel circuit of a subset of pixel circuits in a second set of pixel circuits to a different amplifier of a second subset of the amplifiers, and to connect the amplifiers of the first and second subsets of amplifiers in pairs to a common one of the sample and hold circuits during a sub-sampling mode of operation.

Present embodiments relate to techniques for capturing images. One embodiment may include an image sensor, comprising a substrate, a first pixel cell array disposed on the substrate, a first photographic lens arranged to focus light onto the first pixel cell array, a second pixel cell array disposed on the substrate, a second photographic lens arranged to focus light onto the second pixel cell array, and an image coordination circuit configured to coordinate the first array and lens with the second array and lens to provide an image. The first pixel cell array and the first photographic lens may be configured to cooperate to capture a first image of a scene, and the second pixel cell array and the second photographic lens may be configured to cooperate to capture a second image of the scene.

Disclosed herein is a solid-state image pickup device including: a plurality of unit pixels each having: a charge generating section for generating a charge, a charge storage section for storing the charge generated by the charge generating section, a transfer gate section disposed between the charge generating section and the charge storage section for transferring the charge generated by the charge generating section to the charge storage section, and a pixel signal generating section for generating a pixel signal corresponding to the charge stored in the charge storage section; an unnecessary charge discharging gate section in each the unit pixel, switchable to block a flow of an unnecessary charge that is generated in the charge generating section and does not contribute to image formation, according to height of an electric barrier; and an unnecessary charge drain section disposed on an opposite side of the unnecessary charge discharging gate section from the charge generating section for receiving the unnecessary charge swept out of the charge generating section through the unnecessary charge discharging gate section.

Many electrical sensing devices include an array of transducer elements for converting external stimuli to electrical indications. Novel technologies to realize improvements in low power consumption, low noise, and analog output path which occupies minimal die area while maintaining certain data rates are disclosed. A two stage pipeline architecture of the invention in the analog output path maintains fast pixel rates with minimal ADC (analog digital converter) arrangement. A novel power supply and the use of differential amplifiers in connection with a black signal level as a reference voltage are also described.