Patent ID: 7595826

Claim:
A method of improving color image data, comprising the steps of: a) placing over a unit area a predetermined spatial pattern of color-component specific photo elements in a sensor, each of the color-component specific photo elements filtering a single predetermined color-component over one of sub-unit areas in the unit area, each of the color-component specific photo elements corresponding to a single pixel; b) sampling color image data at the sensor; c) generating chroma values for each of the color-component specific elements from the color image data; d) simultaneously adjusting the chroma values with said step (c according to the specific spatial pattern of the color-component specific elements based upon coefficients that spatially correspond to a specific set of the color-component specific photo elements; and e) estimating an intensity value for each of the pixels based upon the chroma values adjusted in said step d) and the color image data from said step b).