Combined spectral measurement and imaging sensor

A system for inspecting the color of an image printed on a web, the system comprising:

• a camera, said camera including a line scan sensor, said camera configured to acquire a plurality of combined line images and spectral measurements, said line scan sensor including:
• a plurality of pixel lines, each pixel line including a plurality of pixels, said plurality of pixel lines including one or more imaging lines configured to acquire at least one image of an object, and one or more spectral measurement lines configured to acquire a spectral measurement of light received from said object, each of said one or more imaging lines associated with a single respective spectral response within a spectral range, each pixel in said one or more spectral measurement lines associated with a respective spectral band, each of at least three pixels in each of said one or more spectral measurement lines associated with different respective pixel spectral bands, each of said different respective pixel spectral bands non-identical to any single spectral response associated with any of said one or more imaging lines;
• a composite filter exhibiting a multi-band spectral response, each band in said multi-band spectral response corresponding to the respective pixel spectral band associated with one of said plurality of pixels, said composite filter comprising at least three pairs of filters, each pair of filters including a respective wideband filter and a respective multi-band filter, wherein one of said pair is placed between the other of said pair and respective pixels of said plurality of pixels;
• and
• a processor coupled to said camera, configured to receive said plurality of combined line images and one or more spectral measurements from said camera, said processor configured to render a two dimensional image from said at least one image acquired by said one or more imaging lines, said processor further configured to determine spectral measurement information associated with each color target from one or more of said plurality of pixels in said one or more spectral measurement lines corresponding to a location of said color target.

A combined imaging and spectral measurement line-scan imaging sensor, integrated on a single semiconductor substrate, said sensor comprising:

• a plurality of pixel lines, each pixel line including a plurality of pixels, the plurality of pixel lines including:
• at least one imaging line designated for acquiring at least one image of an object, and
• at least one spectral measurement line, different from said at least one imaging line, designated for acquiring a spectral measurement of light received from said object;
• each at least one imaging line associated with a single respective spectral response within a spectral range;
• each at least one pixel in each spectral measurement line associated with a respective pixel spectral band;
• each of at least three pixels in each said at least one spectral measurement line respectively associated with different respective pixel spectral bands, said different respective pixel spectral bands each non-identical to the single spectral response associated with each said at least one imaging line;
• wherein each of at least some of said pixels said imaging line is associated with a corresponding pixel in said spectral measurement line, and thus associated with the respective pixel spectral band of said corresponding pixel.