Patent ID: 8717466

Claim:
A system for operating on light, the system comprising: a plurality of mirrors configured to receive corresponding portions of the light, wherein each of the mirrors is configured to controllably switch between two orientation states, wherein each of the mirrors is configured to (a) reflect the corresponding portion of the light onto a sensing path when the mirror is in a first of the two orientation states and (b) reflect the corresponding portion of the light onto an alternative path when the mirror is in a second of the two orientation states; a control unit configured to drive the orientation states of the mirrors through a series of patterns, wherein each of the patterns of the series specifies an orientation state for each of the mirrors; a first light sensing device configured to receive first light portions reflected onto the sensing path by mirrors in the first orientation state and to generate a first sequence of samples representing a cumulative intensity of the first light portions as a function of time; a second light sensing device configured to receive second light portions reflected onto the alternative path by mirrors in the second orientation state and to generate a second sequence of samples representing a cumulative intensity of the second light portions as a function of time; a processing unit configured to combine the first sequence and the second sequence of samples to obtain a third sequence of samples that represents variation in background light level, wherein the samples of the third sequence are used to compensate the samples of the first sequence for the variation in background light level, wherein the compensated samples are usable to construct an image or a video sequence.