Patent ID: 7061529
Filing Date: 2006-06-13
Classification: H01L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A solid-state image sensing apparatus having a solid-state image sensing device that outputs an electrical signal proportional to an intensity of incident light, the solid-state image sensing device configured for outputting a first signal converted linearly to the intensity of the incident light and a second signal converted natural-logarithmically to the intensity of the incident light, comprising: a plurality of color filters provided in the solid-state image sensing device, wherein the first signal and the second signal output from the solid-state image sensing apparatus comprise a plurality of color signals; a first signal processing circuit supplied with the first signal from the solid-state image sensing device and performing white balance adjustment of the first signal to produce a linear signal; a second signal processing circuit supplied with the second signal from the solid-state image sensing device and performing white balance adjustment of the second signal, wherein a dynamic range of the second signal is adjusted at the second signal processing circuit thereby a contrast of the second signal is improved, the adjustment of the dynamic range increasing a compressed range of a luminance distribution of the imaged subject by natural-logarithmically conversion; a logarithmic/linear conversion circuit converting a signal output from the second signal processing circuit to a signal linearly proportional to the intensity of the incident light; and a third signal processing circuit supplied with a signal from the first signal processing circuit and a signal converted linearly from the logarithmic/linear conversion circuit, the third signal processing circuit performing at least one of matrix conversion, edge enhancement color adjustment and inverse matrix conversion to produce the linear signal.