Patent ID: 8358360
Filing Date: 2013-01-22
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image capturing apparatus comprising: a pixel array unit including a plurality of pixels arranged in the form of an array; column signal lines adapted to transmit pixel signals output from pixels in respective columns; a noise adding unit adapted to add temporally constant and two-dimensional spatially random noise to the pixel signals transmitted via the column signal lines; an analog-to-digital converter adapted to convert a signal level and a reference level of each pixel signal including the noise added thereto by the noise adding unit; and an image signal processing unit adapted to generate an image signal in accordance with the result of the analog-to-digital conversion of the reference level and the result of the analog-to-digital conversion of the signal level, acquired by the analog-to-digital converter, and further wherein signal difference extraction is performed to achieve an output image signal thereby canceling the added random noise and the output image signal includes randomly distributed quantization errors.