Patent ID: 7129975

Claim:
A video imaging system comprising: a substrate of a semiconductor material; an imaging array formed in said substrate and having a plurality of picture elements (pixels) each pixel being adapted to receive light and convert the light to an electrical signal, said imaging array having an output port for providing the electrical signals from the pixels representing an active video image; a first circuit formed in said substrate and connected to receive the pixel signals and for analyzing the pixel signals to provide a defective pixel output signal indicating if any one pixel of the plurality of pixels in the imaging array is defective, as the pixel signal corresponding to the one pixel is processed by the first circuit, wherein said first circuit includes a filter that is responsive to a plurality of pixel values adjacent to the one pixel to provide an output signal, and circuitry including a comparator which compares the one pixel and to the output signal of the filter to determine if the one pixel is defective.