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US 2003/0169354 A1Published application
Solid state image pickup device capable of distinguishing between light sources and image pickup apparatus using such solid state image pickup device
AssigneeFuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
InventorYasuo Aotsuka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There are photographing scenes which are difficult, for a conventional image pickup apparatus having a solid state image pickup device with primary color filters, to correctly judge whether an illumination light source is the sun or a fluorescent lamp. The solid image pickup device of an image pickup apparatus uses two types of red or green pixels having different spectral sensitivities. The type of a light source can be judged by using signals from the two types of the pixels.
Claims22
A solid state image pickup device comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a number of pixels disposed on one surface of said semiconductor substrate along rows and columns in a matrix shape, each pixel including a photoelectric conversion element for accumulating electric charges and a color filter disposed above the photoelectric conversion element for transmitting at least one of red, green and blue light fluxes of incidence light, including pixels of a same color including two types of pixels having different spectral sensitivities;
- and
- an output signal generator for generating an output signal in accordance with charges accumulated in said number of pixels.
1 more element
An image pickup apparatus comprising:
- at least one solid image pickup device capable of converting an optical image of an object into an electric signal and outputting the electric signal, said at least one solid image pickup device having a number of pixels including two types of same color pixels having different spectral sensitivities;
- an image pickup optical system for focusing an object image on said at least one solid state image pickup device;
- a digital signal generator for converting an output signal from said at least one solid state image pickup device into a digital signal and outputting the digital signal;
- a video signal generator for generating red, green and blue signals from the digital signal output from said digital signal generator and generating a pixel signal for image reproduction by using the red, green and blue signals;
- and
- an auto white balance circuit for receiving the red, green and blue signals, detecting a color temperature of a light source, judging a type of the light source from a difference between intensities of light incident upon ones and others of the two types of the same color pixels, and adjusting levels of the red, green and blue signals in said video signal generator in accordance with a detection result of the color temperature and a judgement result of the type of the light source.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.