Patent ID: 7782370

Claim:
An imaging unit, comprising: an imaging device that has pixels, said pixels being arranged in a first direction, said pixels being alternately and repeatedly covered with N 1 kinds of different color filters along said first direction, N 1 being an integer greater than or equal to two, and said pixels generating pixel signals according to the amount of light passing through said color filters; an imaging device driver that drives said imaging device, with N 1 *N 2 pixels successively arranged in said first direction being defined as a pixel block, N 2 being a positive integer, and said imaging device driver ordering N 1 pixels covered with said different color filters in said pixel block to output said pixel signals when a first output method with thinning out is carried out, said pixel signals being output with thinning out in said first direction according to said first output method with thinning out; and a signal-processing block that averages said pixel signal output from a plurality of said pixel blocks for every color of said color filter, wherein said pixels are arranged in a second direction, said second direction being perpendicular to said first direction, said pixels being alternately and repeatedly covered with N 4 kinds of different color filters along said second direction, N 4 being an integer greater than two, and said imaging device driver orders said N 1 pixels covered with said different color filters in said pixel block to output said pixel signals in said first direction and orders said pixels to output said pixel signals from every (N 4 *N 5 +1) pixels in said second direction when a second output method with thinning out is carried out, N 5 being a positive integer, said pixel signals being output with thinning out in said first and second directions according to said second output method with thinning out.