Patent ID: 11962922
Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 19:
20. A method for compensating for dark current in single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) imagery, the method comprising:
capturing an image frame with a SPAD array comprising a plurality of SPAD pixels;
generating a temporally filtered image by performing a temporal filtering operation based on the image frame and at least one preceding image frame, the at least one preceding image frame having been captured by the SPAD array at a timepoint that temporally precedes a timepoint associated with the image frame;
obtaining a dark current factor indicating an amount of dark current associated with the image frame;
selecting a dark current image frame, the dark current image frame comprising data indicating one or more SPAD pixels of the plurality of SPAD pixels that detect an avalanche event without detecting a corresponding photon, wherein the dark current image frame is one of a plurality of dark current image frames captured while the SPAD array is covered to prevent photons from reaching the SPAD array, wherein the dark current image frame is selected from the plurality of dark current image frames based on the dark current factor; and
generating a dark current compensated image by performing a subtraction operation on the temporally filtered image based on the dark current image frame.