Exposure timing manipulation in a multi-lens camera
AssigneeLinX Computational Imaging Ltd.
InventorsZiv Attar, Chen Aharon-Attar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The exposure of pixel lines in one or more image sensor regions is substantially synchronized. Each image sensor region is associated with a different lens in a multi-lens camera system. For a first pixel line in a first image sensor region and a second pixel line in a second image sensor region corresponding to the same portion of a field of view, the first pixel line and the second pixel line are sequentially or substantially simultaneously exposed. After exposing the first pixel line and the second pixel line, image information associated with the exposures is combined and output on the same readout line.
Claims22
A multi-lens camera system, comprising:
- a plurality of lenses configured to collect light from a field of view and direct the light onto at least one image sensor;
- the at least one image sensor comprising a plurality of image sensor regions, wherein each image sensor region is associated with a different lens and comprises a plurality of pixel lines;
- and
- an image sensor controller configured to expose, in accordance with an exposure sequence, line-by-line the pixel lines of the image sensor regions to incident light for a time period so as to capture an image representative of the field of view,
- wherein the exposure sequence is adapted to:
- expose a first number of pixel lines, x, in a first image sensor region of the plurality of image sensor regions, the first image sensor region comprising pixel lines 1 to n;
- followed by exposing the corresponding first number of pixel lines in a second image sensor region of the plurality of image sensor regions, the second image sensor region comprising pixel lines n+1 to 2n;
- followed by exposing alternating sequences of x pixel lines from the first sensor region followed by the corresponding x pixel lines from the second sensor region, until all 2n pixel lines have been exposed, and
- wherein the first number of pixel lines, x, is at least 2, but is less than n.
A method, comprising:
- receiving an input to initiate an image capture operation in a digital image capture system comprising a plurality of lenses configured to collect light from a field of view over at least one image sensor comprising a plurality of image sensor regions, wherein each image sensor region comprises a plurality of pixel lines and receives light from a different one of the plurality of lenses;
- and
- initiating, in response to the input, an image capture operation to capture an image representative of the field of view by at least exposing, in accordance with a exposure sequence, each of the pixel lines for the image sensor regions within a time period,
- wherein the exposure sequence is adapted to:
- expose a first number of pixel lines, x, in a first image sensor region of the plurality of image sensor regions, the first image sensor region comprising pixel lines 1 to n;
- followed by exposing the corresponding first number of pixel lines in a second image sensor region of the plurality of image sensor regions, the second image sensor region comprising pixel lines n+1 to 2n;
- followed by exposing alternating sequences of x pixel lines from the first sensor region followed by the corresponding x pixel lines from the second sensor region, until all 2n pixel lines have been exposed, and
- wherein the first number of pixel lines, x, is at least 2, but is less than n.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.