Camera module
AssigneeLG Innotek Co., Ltd.
InventorsSeok Hyen Kim, Hyo Seon Yoon, Eun Song Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A camera module includes an image sensor configured to output a plurality of image frames, a lens assembly disposed on the image sensor, the lens assembly including at least one lens unit disposed on an optical path and a variable filter unit configured to adjust the optical path of light incident on the image sensor from outside, a controller configured to generate a control signal to control the variable filter unit, and an image synthesizer configured to synthesize the plurality of image frames to generate a composite image, wherein the composite image has a higher resolution than the image frames, and wherein the plurality of image frames includes image frames generated along respectively different optical paths changed by the variable filter unit.
Claims18
A camera module, comprising:
- an image sensor configured to output a plurality of image frames;
- a lens assembly disposed on the image sensor,
- wherein the lens assembly comprises:
- at least one lens unit;
- a holder holding the at least one lens unit disposed on an optical path;
- and
- a variable filter unit configured to perform a pixel shift in response to a control signal to adjust the optical path of light incident on the image sensor,
- wherein the variable filter unit comprises:
- a filter configured to filter light within a predetermined wavelength range, the filter and the at least one lens unit being separately held by the holder;
- and
- an actuator configured to adjust an angle of the filter with respect to an optical axis of the at least one lens unit in response to the control signal, thereby changing the optical path,
- wherein the changing the optical path includes changing an angle of a field of view of an optical signal or a direction of the field of view,
- wherein the plurality of image frames comprises image frames generated along respectively different optical paths changed by the variable filter unit, and
- wherein the image sensor generates an image frame when the pixel shift has been performed by the variable filter unit;
- a controller configured to generate the control signal;
- and
- an image synthesizer configured to generate a composite image,
- wherein the composite image has a resolution N (N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 4) times higher than that of each of the plurality of image frames,
- wherein the image synthesizer sequentially receives the image frames from the image sensor, and
- wherein the image synthesizer is configured to successively generate a plurality of composite images by generating a composite image, when a current image frame is received, based on the current image frame that is currently received from the image sensor thereto and N−1 image frames received immediately before the current image frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.