Image data processing for digital overlap wide dynamic range sensors
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorShashank Dabral
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and integrated circuits to process image data from single or multiple digital overlap (DOL) wide dynamic range (WDR) sensors, in which first received pixel data associated with a first exposure of a sensor image is stored in a DDR memory circuit, second received pixel data associated with a second exposure of the image is stored in the first buffer, third received pixel data associated with a third exposure of the image is stored in a second buffer, and fourth received pixel data associated with a fourth exposure of the image is provided to a merge circuit, and merged pixel data is stored in a dynamically partitioned line buffer for processing by an image pipeline circuit to facilitate interfacing multiple DOL WDR sensors in an interleaved fashion.
Claims7
An integrated circuit comprising:
- a dual data rate (DDR) memory circuit;
- a memory buffer;
- a first pixel data interface circuit adapted to be coupled to a first digital overlap (DOL) wide dynamic range (WDR) sensor and configured to:
- receive a first pixel data from the first DOL WDR sensor for a first exposure;
- receive a second pixel data from the first DOL WDR sensor for a second exposure, the first exposure having a longer exposure time than the second exposure;
- store the first pixel data in the DDR memory circuit;
- store the second pixel data in the memory buffer;
- a second pixel data interface circuit adapted to be coupled to a second DOL WDR sensor and configured to:
- receive a third pixel data from the second DOL WDR sensor for a third exposure;
- receive a fourth pixel data from the second DOL WDR sensor for a fourth exposure;
- store the third pixel data in the memory buffer;
- communicate the fourth pixel data to the processing circuit without any buffering;
- and
- a processing circuit coupled to the DDR memory circuit and the memory buffer, the processing circuit configured to:
- generate a higher dynamic range image by merging the first pixel data in the DDR memory circuit, the second pixel data in the memory buffer, the third pixel data in the DDR memory circuit, and the fourth pixel data;
- and
- generate statistical data for the first DOL WDR sensor and second DOL WDR sensor.
A method comprising:
- receiving a first pixel data from a first digital overlap (DOL) wide dynamic range (WDR) sensor for a first exposure;
- receiving a second pixel data from the first DOL WDR sensor for a second exposure, the first exposure having a longer exposure time than the second exposure;
- receiving a third pixel data from a second DOL WDR sensor for a third exposure;
- receiving a fourth pixel data from a second DOL WDR sensor for a fourth exposure, the third exposure having a longer exposure time than the fourth exposure;
- storing the first pixel data in a dual data rate (DDR) memory circuit;
- storing the second pixel data and third pixel data in a memory buffer;
- communicating the fourth pixel data to a processing circuit without any buffering
- generating, by the processing circuit, a higher dynamic range image by merging the first pixel data in the DDR memory circuit, the second pixel data in the memory buffer, the third pixel data in the memory buffer, and the fourth pixel data;
- and
- generating statistical data for the first DOL WDR sensor and second DOL WDR sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.