Digital cameras using multiple sensors with multiple lenses
OwnerYanbin Yu, Zhongxuan Zhanginventors
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Abstract
An improved digital camera that produces digital images of high qualities without using expensive image sensors and optics is disclosed. The disclosed digital cameras use multiple image sensors with multiple lenses. One of the multiple image sensors is made to be responsive to all intensity information in visible color spectrum and a (gray intensity) image resulting from the sensor is used to compensate lost information in images from other image sensors responsive to certain colors. A final color image is obtained by a digital image processing circuitry that performs pixel registration process with reference to the gray intensity image so that a true color image with true resolution is obtained therefrom.
Claims31
An improved digital camera comprising:
- a first and a second image sensor closely positioned with respect to a common plane, said second image sensor sensitive to a full region of visible color spectrum;
- two lenses, each being mounted in front of one of said two image sensors;
- said first image sensor producing a first image and said second image sensor producing a second image;
- an analog-to-digital converting circuitry coupled to said first and said second image sensor and digitizing said first and said second intensity images to produce correspondingly a first digital image and a second digital image;
- an image memory, coupled to said analog-to-digital converting circuitry, for storing said first digital image and said second digital image;
- and
- a digital image processor, coupled to said image memory and receiving said first digital image and said second digital image, producing a resultant digital image from said first digital image enhanced with said second digital image.
An improved digital camera comprising;
- four image sensors, closely positioned with respect to a common plane,
- four lenses, each mounted in front of one of the four image sensors;
- first three of said four image sensors being respectively sensitive to three different regions of visible color spectrum, a fourth sensor of said four image sensors being sensitive to a full region of said visible color spectrum, said full region including said three different regions in said visible color spectrum;
- said four image sensors producing, independently and respectively, four intensity images when being exposed to an imaging target, first three images of said four intensity images respectively from said first three of said four image sensors and a fourth image of said four intensity images from said fourth sensor of said four image sensors;
- an analog-to-digital converting circuitry coupled to said four image sensors and digitizing said four intensity images to produce four digital images, first three of said four digital images corresponding to said first three images and a fourth digital image of said four digital images corresponding to said fourth image of said four intensity images;
- an image memory, coupled to said analog-to-digital converting circuitry, for storing said four digital images;
- and
- a digital image processing circuitry coupled to said image memory and receiving said four digital images, producing a color image of said imaging target from said four digital images.
A method for generating color images of high quality in a digital camera, said method comprising:
- obtaining three scalar images from three image sensors closely positioned in a common plane with reference to an image target;
- obtaining a gray intensity image from a fourth image sensor, said fourth image sensor closely positioned in said common plane with said three image sensors;
- digitizing said three scalar intensity images and said gray intensity image to produce three scalar digital images and a gray digital image;
- buffering said three scalar digital images and said gray digital image in an image memory;
- producing a color Image from said three scalar digital images processed in conjunction with said gray digital image;
- and
- wherein said three image sensors and said fourth image sensors are monochromatic and identical in resolution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.