Patent ID: 7800661

Claim:
A method to detect a defective photosensor pixel in an image capturing device, comprising: obtaining a first pixel value of a first photosensor pixel; identifying a first plurality of photosensor pixels comprising a set of photosensor pixels having a predetermined order related to a corresponding spatial relationship of each of the first plurality of photosensor pixels with respect to the first photosensor pixel and obtaining a corresponding pixel value associated with each of the first plurality of photosensor pixels; subtracting the first pixel value from each of the corresponding pixel value of the first plurality of photosensor pixels to obtain a first set of pixel value differences; generating a first string pattern associated with the first set of pixel value differences by: assigning a corresponding classification to each pixel value difference of the first set of pixel value differences, wherein each classification is assigned based at least in part on a magnitude of the corresponding pixel value difference and at least in part on a sign of the corresponding pixel value difference; and forming an ordered set of elements ordered according to the predetermined order, wherein each element includes an assigned classification associated with a corresponding one of the first set of pixel value differences; comparing the first string pattern to each string pattern in a group of predefined string patterns, the group of predefined string patterns including at least three distinct predefined string patterns, wherein a match between the first string pattern and any of the predefined string patterns in the group of predefined string patterns indicates that the first photosensor pixel is defective.