Patent ID: 9609190
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: G03B,H01L,H04N

Claim:
1. An imaging system, comprising: a first image sensor array; a first optical system configured to project a first image on the first image sensor array, the first optical system having a first zoom level covering a first field-of-view; a second image sensor array; a second optical system configured to project a second image on the second image sensor array, the second optical system having a second zoom level covering a second field-of-view, the imaging system to combine information from the first field-of-view and the second field-of-view to produce a digital image that substantially spans the first field-of-view and the second field-of-view, the digital image having information content covering a third field-of-view; and first pixel circuitry for reading image data from the first image sensor array and second pixel circuitry for reading image data from the second image sensor array and an electronic global shutter configured to stop charge integration between the first image sensor array and the first pixel circuitry and between the second image sensor array and the second pixel circuitry at substantially the same time; wherein the second image sensor array and the second optical system are pointed generally in the same direction as the first image sensor array and the first optical system; wherein the second zoom level is greater than the first zoom level such that the second image projected onto the second image sensor array is a zoomed in portion of the first image projected on the first image sensor array; wherein the first image sensor array includes at least four megapixels; and wherein the second image sensor array includes one-half or less than the number of pixels in the first image sensor array; and wherein the imaging system is configured to be selectable to operate in one of at least three modes: in a first mode, the first image is utilized and is the sole source of image data for presentation to the user; in a second mode, the second image is utilized and is the sole source of image data for presentation to the user; and in a third mode, both the first image and the second image are to be conveyed to a graphical processing unit, the graphical processing unit to use the first image and the second image to generate a third image that combines information containing the first image and the second image, the third image having a higher-resolution region near a center.