Patent ID: 6980243

Claim:
An area sensor comprising: a plurality of photoelectric conversion picture elements adapted to receive an optical image, each picture element providing a photoelectrically converted output signal, wherein said plurality of photoelectric conversion picture elements are divided into a plurality of groups of adjacent picture elements, and wherein said plurality of groups are arranged two-dimensionally in horizontal and vertical directions; a peak detection unit adapted to detect in parallel peak signals of the respective groups arranged in the horizontal direction, and to detect sequentially the peak signals of the respective groups arranged in the vertical direction, wherein said peak detection unit includes a plurality of peak detection portions, and wherein the peak signals of the respective groups arranged in the horizontal direction are detected by different peak detection portions and the peak signals of the respective groups arranged in the vertical direction are detected by a single peak detection portion; and an outputting unit coupled to said peak detection unit to output the peak signals of each of said plurality of groups arranged in the two-dimensional form.