Patent ID: 6438276
Filing Date: 2002-08-20
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A system comprising:an image sensor having a plurality of sets of pixels, each pixel having a photodetector coupled to a reset gate, the reset gate being coupled to receive a reset signal, the sensor further including a plurality of reference pixels each being associated with a respective one of said plurality of sets of pixels, each reference pixel being coupled to receive the reset signal; a set of correlated double sampling units coupled to said plurality of sets of pixels and said plurality of reference pixels; an analog to digital converter unit coupled to said set of correlated double sampling units; a reset noise elimination unit coupled to said analog to digital converter unit, to adjust a set of pixel values derived from one of the plurality of sets of pixels with an adjustment value derived from an associated one of the plurality of reference pixels; an optical system having a lens and an aperture to channel incident light reflected from a scene towards the image sensor; signal and image processing circuitry to generate digital images having a predefined resolution in response to digitized signals from the reset noise elimination unit; and a controller coupled to the image sensor, the signal and image processing circuitry, and the optical system, to manage operation of the system in response to user input.