Patent ID: 7019775
Filing Date: 2006-03-28
Classification: G03B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image sensing apparatus capable of operating in at least a single-shot mode and a sequential mode, comprising: an image sensing device which senses an optical image of an object and outputs charge signals, wherein an image sensing area thereof is divided into a plurality of areas and the charge signals are read out from the respective divided areas; a plurality of image processing units adapted to respectively process the charge signals read out from the plurality of divided areas of said image sensing device and output a plurality of image signals; a light source adapted to illuminate the plurality of divided areas of said image sensing device; a correction data acquisition unit adapted to acquire correction data for correcting a difference, resulted from variation in characteristics of said plurality of image processing units, between a plurality of image signals on the basis of a plurality of image signals obtained by reading charge signals from the plurality of divided areas of said image sensing device with shielding external light toward said image sensing device and illuminating said image sensing device with said light source, and processing the read charge signals by said plurality of image processing units; a correction unit adapted to correct the plurality of image signals using the correction data; a combining unit adapted to combine the plurality of image signals corrected by said correction unit to generate a combined image signal of a single image; and a controller adapted to control to obtain correction data by said correction data acquisition unit for each image sensing processing in the single-shot mode, and to stop an operation of said correction data acquisition unit while consecutively performing image sensing processing in the sequential mode.