Back to results
US 7,071,456 B2Granted
Camera module with ambient light detection
OwnerDwight D. Poplininventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A camera module forms digital images and measures an ambient light level. A device such as a digital camera, a telephone, or a PDA containing the camera module can set lighting levels of I/O systems such as keypads or displays according to the ambient light level to thereby save power or optimize functionality of the I/O systems. A dedicated sensor in the camera module or one or more selected sensors in the imaging array of the camera module can measure the ambient light level.
Claims10
A device comprising:
- a camera module, wherein the camera module comprises an array of pixel sensors;
- an I/O system;
- and
- a controller connected to the camera module and the I/O system, wherein the controller sets power consumption of lighting of the I/O system in response to a signal from the camera module indicating an ambient light level, and the signal from the camera module indicates an intensity measured by a selected one of the pixel sensors in the array.
1 more element
A method for operating a device, comprising:
- operating a camera module to measure an ambient light level, wherein operating the camera module comprises:
- activating a pixel sensor in an imaging array of the camera module, wherein pixel sensors in the array have associated color filters, and the pixel sensor activated has a green filter;
- and
- measuring the ambient light using the pixel sensor activated;
- and
- adjusting power consumption of lighting of an I/O system according to the ambient light level measured by the camera module.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.