Color image sensing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9739914-B2
Application number	US-201013809667-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2010
Priority date	Jul 13, 2010
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

An apparatus including a plurality of sensor elements, configured in an arrangement having a repeating pattern of sensor elements, the plurality of sensor elements including first monochromatic sensor elements configured to sense visible light of a first color; second monochromatic sensor elements configured to sense visible light of a second color; and panchromatic sensor elements configured to sense visible light of at least the first color and the second color, wherein the majority of the plurality of sensor elements are panchromatic sensor elements.

First claim

We claim:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of sensor elements, configured in an arrangement having a repeating pattern of sensor elements, the plurality of sensor elements comprising:
first monochromatic sensor elements configured to sense visible light of a first color;
second monochromatic sensor elements configured to sense visible light of a second color; and
panchromatic sensor elements configured to sense visible light of at least the first color and the second color,
wherein the majority of the plurality of sensor elements are panchromatic sensor elements and wherein each panchromatic sensor element has a corresponding picture element,
wherein the plurality of sensor elements are arranged in columns and rows,
wherein the repeating pattern is configured such that a first one of the said second monochromatic sensor elements is separated from a nearest neighboring one of the said second monochromatic sensor elements in the same column or row by two panchromatic sensor elements and a first one of the said first monochromatic sensor elements;
the apparatus further comprising a processor configured to determine a chrominance for each of the corresponding picture elements corresponding to the panchromatic sensor elements by at least one of: linear interpolating between luminance values for nearest bridging monochromatic sensor elements of a same color; and using a difference between outputs from nearest neighboring sensor elements of the plurality of sensor elements.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the repeating pattern of sensor elements within the arrangement comprises a first repeating pattern within the arrangement and a second repeating pattern within the arrangement, wherein the first monochromatic sensor elements are evenly distributed in the first repeating pattern within the arrangement and the second monochromatic sensor elements are evenly distributed in the second repeating pattern within the arrangement.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the first repeating pattern within the arrangement and the second repeating pattern within the arrangement comprise the same repeating pattern within the arrangement having a common fixed period in both a first direction and a second, orthogonal direction and wherein the first repeating pattern within the arrangement and the second repeating pattern within the arrangement are respectively offset by one half the common period.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further comprising third monochromatic sensor elements configured to sense visible light of a third color wherein the third monochromatic sensor elements are configured in a third repeating pattern within the arrangement.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the first color is red, the second color is blue and the third color is green.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the arrangement comprises a common base unit repeated in a mosaic to form the plurality of sensor elements, wherein the common base unit comprises sensor elements of which a majority are the panchromatic sensor elements, and wherein the common base unit comprises one of the first monochromatic sensor elements, one of the second monochromatic sensor elements, two of the third monochromatic sensor elements and twelve of the panchromatic sensor elements.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the number of sensor elements per unit area for the third monochromatic sensor elements, for every area comprising at least four monochromatic sensor elements, is twice the number of sensor elements per unit area for the first monochromatic sensor elements.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the arrangement comprises a common base unit repeated in a mosaic to form the plurality of sensor elements, wherein the common base unit comprises sensor elements of which a majority are the panchromatic sensor elements, and wherein the common base unit comprises two of the first monochromatic sensor elements two of the second monochromatic sensor elements, and twelve panchromatic sensor elements, wherein the first color is red and the second color is blue.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the arrangement comprises a common base unit repeated in a mosaic to form the plurality of sensor elements, wherein the common base unit comprises sensor elements of which a majority are the panchromatic sensor elements, and
wherein the common base unit comprises a four by four array of sensor elements and wherein the common base units are tessellated to form the arrangement.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the arrangement comprises a common base unit repeated in a mosaic to form the plurality of sensor elements, wherein the common base unit comprises sensor elements of which a majority are the panchromatic sensor elements, and wherein the common base unit is formed from a plurality of sub units, wherein each sub unit comprises a majority of the panchromatic sensor elements and a single one of the first or second monochromatic sensor elements.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the single one of the first or second monochromatic sensor elements of a sub unit has a common fixed position within the sub unit for each of the plurality of sub units in the common base unit.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the plurality of sub units are arranged in rows and column within the common base unit, and wherein sub units that share the same column but are in adjacent rows comprise different one of the first or second monochromatic sensor elements and wherein sub units that share the same row but are in adjacent columns comprise different one of the first or second monochromatic sensor elements and wherein the common base unit comprises a two by two array of tessellated sub units.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:
circuitry configured to determine a luminance for a picture element corresponding to each one of the first or second monochromatic sensor elements by determining a weighted average luminance for a local group of sensor elements including the respective first or second monochromatic sensor element and multiple adjacent panchromatic sensor elements.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13 , wherein a weighting applied to each luminance depends upon a position of the respective sensor element and the color of the respective first or second monochromatic sensor element and wherein a common weighting applied in respect of edge sensor elements of the local group is greater than a common weighting applied in respect of corner sensor elements.

15. A method comprising:
providing for the filtering of light incident on optical sensors using a filter arrangement having a repeating pattern of sensor filters comprising:
first monochromatic sensor filters configured to transmit visible light of a first color significantly more than a second color;
second monochromatic sensor filters configured to transmit visible light of a second color significantly more than the first color; and
panchromatic sensor filters configured to transmit visible light of at least the first color and the second color,
wherein the majority of the sensor filters are panchromatic sensor filters and wherein each panchromatic sensor filter has a corresponding picture element;
wherein the sensor filters are arranged in columns and rows; and
wherein the repeating pattern is configured such that a first one of the said second monochromatic sensor filters is separated from a nearest neighboring second monochromatic sensor filters in the same column or row by two pa

Assignees

• Tuulos Eero
• Koskinen Samu
• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Tuulos Eero
• Koskinen Samu

Classifications

• H01L27/14685

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G02B5/20 Primary

  Filters (polarising elements G02B5/30) · CPC title

• H01L27/14621

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10F39/8053 Primary

  Colour filters · CPC title

• H10F39/024

  of coatings or optical elements · CPC title