Luminance Chrominance Sensor Array Blind Region Alignment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing image capture devices that separate luminance and chrominance sensors often experience blind regions due to occlusions, leading to loss of color information and compromised image resolution, as the blind regions of these sensors do not completely overlap, causing incomplete capture of color data.

Innovation Solution

An image sensing device comprising a luminance sensor positioned between two chrominance sensors, with the chrominance sensors' fields of view offset to prevent overlapping blind regions, and an image processing module that generates a stereo disparity map to align and combine the images, ensuring complete chrominance information capture and improved resolution.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If separate luminance and chrominance sensors are used, then luminance resolution is improved, but chrominance information is lost in blind regions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveluminance resolutionVSAvoidchrominance information
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The imaging system is segmented into separate luminance and chrominance sensor paths, allowing dedicated optimization of each function while maintaining overall system performance

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

A processing unit acts as an intermediary that receives data from both sensor types and synthesizes the final image, compensating for blind regions by integrating information from multiple sources

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If chrominance sensors are offset to prevent overlapping blind regions, then complete chrominance coverage is achieved, but image alignment complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvechrominance coverageVSAvoidimage alignment complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The processing unit uses feedback mechanisms to analyze the relative positions of chrominance sensors and dynamically adjust alignment parameters, ensuring accurate image registration despite offset configurations

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system transitions from simple spatial alignment to multi-dimensional alignment by incorporating stereo disparity maps and geometric distortion corrections in addition to basic positional alignment

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Measurement precision

If stereo disparity mapping is used to align chrominance images, then alignment accuracy is improved, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvealignment accuracyVSAvoidprocessing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary alignment using simplified methods before applying more complex stereo disparity mapping, reducing the computational burden and processing time of the final alignment stage

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2589226B1Image capture using luminance and chrominance sensors
Publication Date: 2020.03.11 APPLE INC
  • EP2589226B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2589226B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2589226B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Methods and apparatuses disclosed herein relate to image sensing devices. One embodiment may take the form of an image sensing device that includes a first image sensor for capturing a luminance image, a second image sensor for capturing a first chrominance, and a third image sensor for capturing a second chrominance image. The image sensing device may further include an image processing module for combining the luminance image captured by the first image sensor, the first chrominance image captured by the second image sensor, and the second chrominance image captured by the third image sensor, to form a composite image.