Patent ID: 7362355

Claim:
A system-on-chip imaging system, comprising: an image sensor comprising a two-dimensional array of pixel elements, said image sensor providing pixel data representing an image of a scene; a data memory, in communication with said image sensor, for storing pixel codewords, some of said pixel codewords being indicative of said pixel data and some of said pixel codewords having assigned values representing one or more image processing functions; a programmable lookup table, in communication with said data memory, for providing LUT codewords as output data, said programmable lookup table including a plurality of entries, each entry storing a LUT codeword and each entry being indexed by a respective pixel codeword to provide said stored LUT codeword as said output data; and a processing unit, in communication with said data memory and said lookup table, for receiving LUT codewords from said lookup table and generating output image data and for updating said entries of said programmable lookup table to program one or more image processing functions in said programmable lookup table, wherein a first pixel codeword stored in said data memory is used to index said lookup table for causing said lookup table to provide a respective LUT codeword to said processing unit said LUT codeword being indicative of pixel intensity value represented by said first pixel codeword or as an instruction to invoke one or more image processing functions, and said processing unit operates to perform one or more image processing functions in response to said LUT codeword.