Patent ID: 7889253

Claim:
A wide dynamic range image sensor, comprising: an image array sensor; means for obtaining a long time accumulation signal from the image array sensor; means for obtaining short time accumulation signals of a plurality of types from the image array sensor; means for allocating a zone number for a sequential increase from a signal of a long accumulation time toward a signal of a short accumulation time in order to express the type of accumulation time; an image memory for storing any one of the long time accumulation signal and the short time accumulation signals of the plurality of types together with the zone number; first writing control means for writing the zone number as is and writing the long time accumulation signal to the image memory when the long time accumulation signal read from the image array sensor is not saturated, and for writing the zone number as one large value when the long time accumulation signal is saturated; and second writing control means which compares the zone number of the short time accumulation signal to be written next with the zone number already stored in the image memory, and which writes the short time accumulation signal that is to be written next to the image memory as a new image signal when it is judged that the already stored image signal is saturated, and which does not update the image signal and zone number when it is judged that the already stored image signal is not saturated.