Patent ID: 9739914
Date: 2017-08-22
CPC Classifications: G02B,H01L

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.