Array camera imaging system having distributed memory
AssigneeAqueti Incorporated
InventorsDavid Jones Brady, Scott Thomas McCain, Steven Douglas Feller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An array-camera imaging system and method for producing a rendered image are presented, wherein the system includes a plurality of imagers, a plurality of image processors, and a plurality of memory modules that are networked with the image processors via a communications bus. Each image processor provides processed and processed image data from at least one imager to the memory modules. Preferably, the processed image data is distributed among the memory modules at multiple resolution scales. In response to a request from an image rendering system, image data is read out from the memory modules at the resolution scale of the request.
Claims18
A system for forming an image of a scene, the system comprising:
- (1) a plurality of imagers that is operative for providing a plurality of image-data sets, each imager including:
- a first lens;
- and
- a sensor array that is operative for receiving an optical sub-image of the scene from the first lens and providing an image-data set of the plurality thereof, the image-data set being based on the received optical sub-image;
- (2) a plurality of processors that is operative for receiving the plurality of image-data sets and providing a plurality of processed image-data sets;
- and
- (3) a plurality of memory modules, each of the plurality of memory modules being operative for storing a processed image-data set from each of at least two of the plurality of imagers, wherein said processed image-data at different resolution scales are distributed across the plurality of memory modules based on the resolution scale.
A method for forming an image of a scene, the method comprising:
- providing a plurality of imagers, each imager comprising a sensor array and a lens that forms an optical sub-image of the scene on the sensor array;
- providing a plurality of first image-data sets, wherein each first image-data set of the plurality thereof is based on a different optical sub-image of the plurality thereof;
- and
- storing the plurality of first image-data sets in a plurality of memory modules such that each first image-data set is distributed among a plurality of memory modules wherein said processed image-data at different resolution scales are distributed across the plurality of memory modules based on the resolution scale.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.