Image capture device and method
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 data from all the pixels can be used to form a hi-res still image.
Claims30
An image capture device for capturing a sequence of images, the image capture device including a sensor having an active area comprising a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel provides data that represents the exposure of that pixel, and a data storage device for storing data from the pixels, wherein said pixels comprise a plurality of pixel subsets and a plurality of pixel groups, wherein the pixel groups cover substantially the entire active area of the sensor and each pixel group contains at least one pixel from each pixel subset, and wherein said image capture device includes a control device that controls the exposure of the pixel subsets, wherein said control device exposes the pixel subsets sequentially 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 to capture a plurality of time-separated lo-res images, wherein each said lo-res image comprises the data from a different pixel subset, and wherein after all of the pixels have been exposed, the image capture device digitizes a charge on all of the pixels to provide a set of digital data and transfers said digital data to the data storage device.
A method of capturing a sequence of images using an image capture device that includes a sensor having an active area comprising a plurality of pixels, the method comprising:
- exposing the sensor;
- storing data representing the exposure of each pixel;
- and
- capturing a plurality of time-separated lo-res images,
- wherein said pixels comprise a plurality of pixel subsets and a plurality of pixel groups, wherein the pixel groups cover substantially the entire active area of the sensor and each pixel group contains at least one pixel from each pixel subset,
- wherein exposing the sensor comprises exposing the pixel subsets sequentially 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, whereby each lo-res image comprises the data from a different one of said pixel subsets, and
- wherein after all of the pixel subsets have been exposed the charge on all the pixels is digitized to provide a set of digital data and said digital data is transferred to the data storage device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.