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US 6,552,332 B2Granted
Image-sensing apparatus
AssigneeMinolta Co., Ltd.
InventorsYasushi Kusaka, Satoshi Nakamura, So Yano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an image-sensing apparatus, shading data obtained when a sensor 1 is irradiated with uniform light is compressed by a COM 6 and is then stored in a memory 3. During image sensing, the data stored in the memory 3 is decompressed back into the shading data by an EXP 7. By a COR 4, this shading data is subtracted from the image data obtained from the sensor 1, and thereby the unevenness in the outputs from the individual pixels of the sensor 1 is corrected.
Claims26
An image-sensing apparatus comprising:
- a solid-state image-sensing device composed of a plurality of pixels each having a characteristic that an output voltage thereof varies natural-logarithmically in accordance with an amount of light received;
- a compressor for performing data compression on calibration data used to correct variations in the output voltages of the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device;
- a memory for storing the calibration data compressed by the compressor;
- an expander for performing data decompression on the calibration data stored in the memory;
- and
- a calibrator for calibrating, in accordance with the calibration data decompressed by the expander, output data representing the output voltages obtained from the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device during image sensing.
3 more elements
An image-sensing apparatus comprising:
- a solid-state image-sensing device composed of a plurality of pixels each having an output voltage that varies in accordance with an amount of light received;
- a compressor for performing data compression on calibration data used to correct variations in the output voltages of the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device;
- a memory for storing the calibration data compressed by the compressor;
- an expander for performing data decompression on the calibration data stored in the memory;
- and
- a calibrator for calibrating, in accordance with the calibration data decompressed by the expander, output data representing the output voltages obtained from the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device during image sensing.
3 more elements
An image-sensing apparatus comprising:
- a solid-state image-sensing device composed of a plurality of pixels each having an output voltage that varies in accordance with an amount of light received;
- a compressor for performing data compression on calibration data used to correct variations in the output voltages of the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device;
- a memory for storing the calibration data compressed by the compressor;
- an expander for performing data decompression on the calibration data stored in the memory;
- a calibrator for calibrating, in accordance with the calibration data decompressed by the expander, output data representing the output voltages obtained from the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device during image sensing;
- a temperature detector for detecting a temperature of the solid-state image-sensing device;
- and
- a temperature compensator for calculating a difference between the temperatures of the solid-state image-sensing device as measured by the temperature detector during uniform-light irradiation and during image sensing and correcting the calibration data in accordance with the difference.
5 more elements
A method for sensing an image, comprising the steps of:
- providing a solid-state image-sensing device composed of a plurality of pixels each having an output voltage that varies in accordance with an amount of light received;
- performing data compression on calibration data used to correct variations in the output voltages of the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device;
- storing the calibration data compressed by the compressor;
- performing data decompression on the calibration data stored in the memory;
- and
- calibrating, in accordance with the calibration data decompressed by the expander, output data representing the output voltages obtained from the individual pixels of the solid-state image-sensing device during image sensing.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.