HDR Sensor Row Increment for Buffer Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
High dynamic range (HDR) sensor systems face alignment issues when storing multiple exposure levels across different frames and exposure levels, leading to potential misalignment and increased hardware complexity due to overlapping regions during image capture.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a row increment operation mechanism that allows for independent image buffers for each frame, storing each frame at a unique base address, eliminating sensor overlap regions, and maintaining alignment without increasing memory bandwidth, while only storing active data and issuing row increment operations to ensure proper address accounting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple exposure levels are stored through a single interface port in an interleaved format, then the HDR sensor can capture images across different exposure levels simultaneously, but the alignment of exposure levels may be incorrect due to different capture times and frame ranges
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the image data into separate buffers for each frame and exposure level, allowing independent management and tracking of each segment. This segmentation enables the system to handle multiple exposures simultaneously while maintaining proper alignment through dedicated buffer management for each segment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a buffer management system that acts as an intermediary between the sensor and the final image output. This intermediary layer tracks and manages the alignment of multiple exposure levels, resolving the alignment issue caused by simultaneous capture through a single interface port.
2Manufacturing precision
If row increment operations are implemented during blanking periods and sensor overlap regions, then proper alignment of exposure levels is maintained, but the hardware complexity increases due to the need to manage overlapping regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs row increment operations during blanking periods before the actual image data is fully captured. This preliminary action ensures that the buffer is properly positioned and aligned before the overlapping region data arrives, simplifying the overall hardware management by preparing the system in advance rather than handling complexity during active capture.
3Manufacturing precision
If independent image buffers are used for each frame with unique base addresses, then alignment of exposure levels is maintained without increasing memory bandwidth, but the memory usage and address management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal buffer management system that handles multiple frames and exposure levels through a standardized interface and address management mechanism. This multi-functional approach allows the same buffer management logic to serve multiple purposes (managing different frames, exposures, and alignments) without proportionally increasing complexity, as the system reuses the same infrastructure for various functions.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus includes an input interface circuit and a processing circuit. The input interface circuit may be configured to receive a high dynamic range (HDR) image data stream. The HDR image data stream generally comprises a plurality of HDR image frames comprising a plurality of exposure regions having different exposure levels. The processing circuit may be configured to store image data for the plurality of HDR image frames in a memory. The processing circuit generally issues write commands to store the image data of all of the exposure regions for a particular HDR image frame in one of a plurality of memory buffers in the memory. The processing circuit generally issues row increment commands during one or both of blanking periods and sensor overlap regions of the HDR image frames based upon symbols in the HDR image data stream.