Patent ID: 11925328
Assignee: CILAG GMBH INTERNATIONAL
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC A  G  H | IPC A  G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
actuating an emitter to emit a plurality of pulses of electromagnetic radiation according to a pulse cycle, wherein the emitter comprises a plurality of sources of electromagnetic radiation that are each independently actuated according to the pulse cycle, and wherein the plurality of sources comprises:
a visible source that pulses electromagnetic radiation within a visible waveband of the electromagnetic spectrum;
a first spectral source that pulses electromagnetic radiation only within a first narrow waveband that is 30 nm wide or less and within the visible waveband of the electromagnetic spectrum; and
a second spectral source that pulses electromagnetic radiation only within a second narrow waveband that is 100 nm wide or less and within a near infrared waveband of the electromagnetic spectrum;

instructing an image sensor comprising a pixel array to output data for a plurality of exposure frames according to a sensor cycle, wherein the sensor cycle comprises:
a plurality of visible blanking periods wherein the pixel array accumulates electromagnetic radiation resulting from the emitter actuating only the visible source;
a plurality of visible readout periods wherein the image sensor reads out a visible exposure frame, wherein each of the plurality of visible readout periods occurs immediately subsequent to one of the plurality of visible blanking periods;
a plurality of spectral blanking periods wherein the pixel array accumulates a spectral response emission resulting from the emitter actuating only one or more of the first spectral source or the second spectral source; and
a plurality of spectral readout periods wherein the image sensor reads out a spectral exposure frame, wherein each of the plurality of spectral readout periods occurs immediately subsequent to one of the plurality of spectral blanking periods; and

applying edge enhancement to edges within the spectral exposure frame to separate true edges of the spectral response emission from random noise, wherein applying the edge enhancement comprises:
extracting luminance data from the spectral exposure frame;
detecting the edges of the spectral exposure frame based on the luminance data; and
applying a gain factor to the detected edges, wherein a magnitude of the gain factor is modified on one or more of a per-frame basis or a per-pixel basis.