Patent ID: 7187405

Claim:
An imaging device comprising: an imaging array of sensors arranged in a two-dimensional region having a columnar dimension and a perpendicular second dimension, said sensors having sensor outputs that are responsive to light intensities; signal processing in communication with said array to receive said sensor outputs and to integrate said sensor outputs as image frames; and a flicker detector coupled to receive columnar information of said array and configured to detect any one of a plurality of specific repeating patterns of intensity variations within said columnar information, said columnar information being a subset of said sensor outputs and being associated with both a plurality of said sensor outputs in a sequence consistent with said columnar dimension and a plurality of said sensor outputs in said second dimension, each said specific repeating pattern being indicative of a selected periodic fluctuation in source lighting, said flicker detector further includes a frame-to-frame comparator configured to output a columnar difference signal that is a function of differences between said columnar information of a first image frame and said columnar information of a second image frame, said flicker detector having an analyzer configured to detect any one of said specific repeating patterns within said columnar difference signal.