Patent ID: 6684402
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A hub for controlling acquisition of images from a plural of sensors, the hub comprising:a plurality of device interfaces, each of which exchanges information with an associated one of the plural sensors, each of the plural sensors being responsive to an applied shutter signal to acquire a frame of image data and being responsive to an applied readout signal to initiate output of that frame of image data, wherein the sensor does not acquire a new frame of image data prior to output of a previously acquired frame of image data, a host interface that exchanges information with a host over an isochronous communications medium, image acquisition logic, coupled to the device interfaces and to the host interface, the image acquisition logic (i) selectively applying shutter signals to the device interfaces to cause the associated sensors to acquire image data, (ii) selectively applying readout signals the device interfaces to cause the associated sensors to output image data acquired by them, (iii) transferring image data received at the device interface to the host interface for output to the host over the communications medium, the image acquisition logic applying (i) shutter signals to the device interfaces so as to cause the associated sensors to acquire image data substantially simultaneously with respect to one another, (ii) readout signals to the device interfaces so as to cause the associated sensors to output the acquired image data in a sequence with respect to one another, wherein the image acquisition logic transfers substantially immediately to the host interface image data at a said device interface, and wherein the image acquisition logic buffers substantially no more image data than required to construct data packets from data received at a said device interface prior to output to the host interface.