US 8,077,232 B2 · Imaging device for adding signals including same color component

Abstract

An imaging device includes a plurality of photoelectric converting units arrayed in the horizontal and vertical directions, and an adder for adding signals including the same color component from the a plurality of photoelectric converting units such that the centers of gravity of the signals after addition are at the same pitch for respective signals.

Drawings

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Drawings

Claims3

Dependent claims

An imaging device comprising:

a plurality of pixels arrayed in the horizontal and vertical directions, each of the plurality of pixels having a photoelectric converting unit and a pixel amplification unit outputting a signal based on an electrical charge accumulated in the photoelectric converting unit;
a noise removing unit removing noise generated in the pixel;
and
a plurality of color filters arranged in a Bayer pattern,
wherein the pixel array has a plurality of regions each comprising adjacent pixels of five rows by five columns, and a center pixel of one region comprising the pixels of five rows by five columns is adjacent to a center pixel of another region comprising the pixels of five rows by five columns with being two pixels spaced apart from the center pixel of the another region in directions of the rows and the columns, and
wherein the imaging device has an addition mode in which signals from plural pixels in a first, third, and fifth rows and a first, third, and fifth columns in each of the regions comprising the pixels of five rows by five columns are added.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Description3,323 words

Summary629 words

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to an imaging device for taking images of a subject.

#2. Description of the Related Art

Brief description of the drawings11 figures

#FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of array of respective colors before adding pixel signals.

#FIGS. 2A through 2E are explanatory diagrams illustrating color array after adding pixel signals and signals to be added for each color.

#FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an imaging element making up an imaging device.

Detailed description2,519 words

#Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.

#FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of array of respective colors before adding pixel signals, and FIGS. 2A through 2E are diagrams illustrating color array after adding pixel signals and signals to be added for each color.

#With an example of color array in FIG. 1, let us say that color filters G (Green), R (Red), and B (Blue) are configured on each photodiode of an imaging element. In this example, G is arrayed in a checkerboard pattern, and R and B are arrayed every other line, in other words, 2×2, i.e., 4 pixels of R, G, G, and B are disposed two-dimensionally as one unit pixel color matrix.

Facts

Application

12/625,254Filed 24 Nov 2009 · continuation

Priority

JP 2003-31838810 Sep 2003

Published

US 2010/0066875 A118 Mar 2010

Granted

13 Dec 2011

Term ended

9 Sep 2024

Estimated · how

20 years from earliest known nonprovisional domestic filing plus recorded patent term adjustment. Maintenance-fee lapses, terminal disclaimers and statutory extensions have not been checked. The continuity chain may be incomplete; this is not an enforceability determination.

Classification4 codes

H04N 25/46
Extracting pixel data from image sensors by controlling scanning circuits, e.g. by modifying the number of pixels sampled or to be sampled: by…
H04N 23/84
Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof: for processing colour signals
H04N 25/134
Characterised by the spectral characteristics of the filter elements: based on three different wavelength filter elements
H04N
Pictorial communication

Family

Application10/936,904Parent of this continuation · filed 9 Sep 2004

US 2010/0066875 A1Pre-grant publication · published 18 Mar 2010

US 7,646,413 B2Parent of this continuation

US 2005/0052552 A1Published application

US 8,077,232 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Imaging device for adding signals including same color component

Life of this patent

Imaging device for adding signals including same color component

Life of this patent

Life of this patent

Abstract

Drawings

Drawings

Claims3

Description3,323 words

Drawings

Classification4 codes

Life of this patent

Description3,323 words