Patent ID: 6552746
Filing Date: 2003-04-22
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An apparatus producing image signals adaptive to a predefined application, said apparatus comprising:an image sensor configurable to produce said image signals having a spatial resolution and an N-bit resolution in accordance with said predefined application, said image sensor having a sensor spatial resolution, said spatial resolution being upper limited by said sensor spatial resolution and N being equal to or greater than 1, wherein said image sensor includes a plurality of sensor circuits configured in a two-dimensional array, each of said sensor circuits including: a sensor pixel producing one of said sensor signals when being exposed to said incident light; and a first circuit causing said one of said sensor signals adjusted in accordance with one or more of parameters arranged in a two-dimensional array, wherein the size of said two-dimensional array for said parameters is substantially smaller than the size of said image sensor and each of said parameters is selectively configurable to be different from each other in accordance with said predefined application; an optical system, in front of said image sensor, collecting and focusing incident light reflected from an object onto said image sensor; and an output circuit, coupled to said image sensor, receiving said image signals and outputting said image signals thereof after said image signals are processed therein with respect to said predefined application.