Patent ID: 8610789

Claim:
A system for obtaining a relatively high dynamic range image of a scene using a relatively low dynamic range image sensor adapted to be exposed to incident light from the scene for capturing an image thereof comprising: an image sensor having a multiplicity of light-sensing elements in an array, each light-sensing element having a particular one of a plurality of sensitivity levels to incident light in accordance with a predetermined sensitivity pattern for the array of light-sensing elements and a respective response function, the predetermined sensitivity pattern of the array of light-sensing elements having at least two different predetermined sensitivity levels and corresponding to a repetitive pattern of groups of pixel positions, each one of the pixel positions in each group corresponding to a different one of the at least two predetermined sensitivity levels in a common predetermined positional order, each light-sensing element being responsive to incident light from the scene for producing a captured image brightness value at a corresponding one of a multiplicity of pixel positions of a pixel position array, whereby each one of the multiplicity of pixel positions corresponds to a particular one of the plurality of sensitivity levels of the light-sensing elements; a captured image memory for storing the captured image brightness values produced by the light-sensing elements at corresponding ones of the multiplicity of pixel positions of the pixel position array; an off-grid estimator for deriving from the captured image brightness values in the captured image memory respective estimated off-grid brightness values at a multiplicity of off-grid positions located at respective interstices of the pixel position array so as to form a regular off-grid position array; and an output image generator for deriving pixel brightness values of an output image from the estimated off-grid brightness values, comprising: an off-grid brightness value memory for storing the estimated off-grid brightness values derived by the off-grid estimator; an on-grid resampler for deriving from the estimated off-grid brightness values in the off-grid brightness value memory respective resampled on-grid brightness values at the pixel positions of the pixel position array; and an output image memory for storing the respective resampled on-grid brightness values derived by the on-grid resampler as the pixel brightness values of the output image.