Bayer-Clear HDR Array Camera Sensor Architecture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional camera devices face challenges in capturing high dynamic range images with Bayer sensors, which often result in resolution loss and reduced sharpness due to the need for varying exposure times across different pixel lines, leading to suboptimal image quality.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a Bayer-Clear HDR array camera with interlaced or checkerboard pixel patterns, where odd and even numbered lines or white and black pixels have different exposure times, and using image fusion algorithms to combine HDR monochromatic and Bayer images, enhancing the dynamic range and resolution of captured images.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If conventional Bayer sensors are used for HDR imaging with varying exposure times across different pixel lines, then dynamic range is improved, but resolution and sharpness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor array is segmented into multiple types of pixels including clear pixels, red pixels, green pixels, and blue pixels arranged in an interlaced pattern. This segmentation allows different pixel types to capture different exposure information simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between dynamic range and resolution by assigning specialized functions to different segments rather than using uniform exposure across all pixels
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a temporal dimension by capturing multiple exposures at different time points (first exposure time for clear pixels, second exposure time for color pixels) and combines this with spatial arrangement. This multi-dimensional approach allows simultaneous capture of high dynamic range information and high resolution color information without the resolution loss associated with conventional line-by-line exposure variations
2Illumination intensity
If monochromatic sensor is used to capture clear image, then dynamic range is improved, but color information is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple sensor types (clear pixels for luminance and dynamic range, red/green/blue pixels for color) into a single integrated sensor array. The image processing system combines the clear image data with the Bayer pattern color data through merging operations, producing an HDR color image that retains both the high dynamic range from clear pixels and the color information from colored pixels
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor array functions as a composite structure combining clear photodetectors with color-filtered photodetectors in an interlaced arrangement. This composite sensor design allows simultaneous capture of high dynamic range luminance information and color information, eliminating the need to choose between monochromatic high-DR sensors and color sensors with limited dynamic range
3Loss of information
If Bayer sensor with interlaced HDR pattern is used, then color capture is improved, but resolution is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the sensor array are assigned different qualities and functions: clear pixels provide high-resolution luminance information, while red/green/blue pixels provide color information. The interlaced arrangement ensures that each local region contributes its specialized information, and the image processing system reconstructs the full image by combining these locally optimized data streams, achieving both color accuracy and high resolution
Data Source
AI summary
In embodiments, a camera device includes HDR monochromatic image sensors that capture an image as an HDR clear image in monochrome, and the camera device includes HDR color image sensors that capture the image as a Bayer image. The HDR monochromatic image sensors may be implemented as interlaced pixel lines having alternating higher exposure times and lower exposure times, or may be implemented as a checkerboard pixel pattern with white pixels of the checkerboard pixel pattern having an exposure duration and black pixels of the checkerboard pixel pattern having a different exposure duration. The camera device implements image processing algorithms that demosaic the Bayer image to generate an initial color image, and demosaic the HDR clear image to generate a clear image. An image fusion application then produces an enhanced, high-resolution HDR color image based on the initial color image and the clear image.