Patent ID: 7483058

Claim:
A video imaging system, comprising: a digital image sensor for performing image capture operations, comprising: a sensor array comprising a two-dimensional array of digital pixels, each digital pixel outputting digital signals as pixel data representing an image of a scene; an image buffer, in communication with said sensor array, for storing said pixel data; a first processor, in communication with said image buffer and said sensor array, for controlling image capture and pixel data processing operations; and a first interface circuit, in communication with said image buffer, for transferring said pixel data onto a pixel bus; and a digital image processor for performing image processing operations, comprising: a second interface circuit coupled to receive said pixel data from said pixel bus; a frame buffer, in communication with said second interface circuit, coupled to store said pixel data; an image processing pipeline for processing said pixel data stored in said frame buffer into video data corresponding to a video format selected from a group of video formats; and a second processor, in communication with said frame buffer and said image processing pipeline, for directing said image processing pipeline to process said pixel data stored in said frame buffer; wherein said digital image sensor and said digital image processor transfer control information over a control interface bus coupled between said first interface circuit and said second interface circuit and separate from said pixel bus and said digital image sensor performs said image capture operations independent of said image processing operations performed by said digital image processor.