Combined HDR/LDR video streaming

A method for streaming video for high dynamic range (HDR) and low dynamic range (LDR) display, the method comprising:

• receiving incoming light through a lens of an HDR video camera and splitting the received light via at least one beamsplitter onto multiple image sensors, wherein at least 95% of the received light is captured simultaneously by the multiple image sensors;
• receiving frame-independent pixel values from the multiple image sensors at a processor on the HDR video camera;
• producing an HDR signal from the pixel values by streaming the pixel values through a pipeline on the processor that includes:
• a kernel operation that operates on the pixel values in a frame-independent manner and identifies saturated pixel values by momentarily placing a value from a first pixel proximal to values originating from a neighborhood of pixels to make neighborhood comparisons to determine whether to use a replacement value for the first pixel, and
• a merge operation that merges the pixel values by using values from the neighborhood of pixels to estimate the replacement value for the first pixel to produce the HDR signal;
• tone-mapping the HDR signal to produce an LDR signal;
• subtracting the LDR signal from the HDR signal to yield a residual signal;
• producing an output signal comprising the LDR signal and the residual signal;
• and
• transmitting the output signal for HDR and LDR display.