Image capture device and method of capturing images
AssigneeIsis Innovation Limited
InventorGil Bub
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image capture device (2) includes a sensor (4) having an active area comprising a plurality of pixels (6) and a shutter array (8) for controlling the exposure of individual pixels. The pixels are grouped in a plurality of pixel subsets and are arranged to capture a plurality of time-separated lo-res images, which can be viewed sequentially as a movie or combined to form a hi-res still image.
Claims20
An image capture device including a sensor having an active area comprising a set of pixels, each pixel providing data that represents the exposure of that pixel, and a data storage device for storing data from the pixels,
- wherein said set of pixels comprises a plurality of pixel subsets and said image capture device captures a plurality of time-separated lo-res images by exposing substantially simultaneously the pixels within each pixel subset and exposing sequentially the different pixel subsets by starting the exposure of each pixel subset at a different exposure start time and ending the exposure of each pixel subset at a different exposure end time, wherein each said lo-res image has a resolution of less than the full pixel set and comprises the data from a different pixel subset, and at least one of the pixel subsets includes pixels from substantially the entire active area of the sensor,
- wherein after all of the pixels have been exposed the image capture device digitizes a charge on all the pixels to provide a set of digital data and transfers said digital data to the data storage device,
- and wherein said image capture device captures a hi-res image by using data from all the pixels, the hi-res image having a resolution substantially equal to the full pixel set.
A method of capturing images using an image capture device that includes a sensor having an active area comprising a set of pixels, said pixels comprising plurality of pixel subsets, the method comprising:
- exposing substantially simultaneously the pixels within each pixel subset;
- exposing sequentially the different pixel subsets by starting the exposure of each pixel subset at a different exposure start time and ending the exposure of each pixel subset at a different exposure end time;
- digitizing a charge on all the pixels after all of the pixels have been exposed to provide a set of digital data and transferring said digital data to a data storage device;
- and
- storing data representing the exposure of each pixel to capture a plurality of time-separated lo-res images wherein each said lo-res image has a resolution of less than the full pixel set,
- wherein each lo-res image comprises the data from a different one of said pixel subsets, and wherein at least one of said pixel subsets includes pixels from substantially the entire active area of the sensor;
- and
- creating a hi-res image by using data from all the pixels, the hi-res image having a resolution substantially equal to the full pixel set.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.