Patent ID: 7936394

Claim:
A mobile device, comprising: a battery charger; a signal processor; a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor having an array of pixels organized into columns and rows, the CMOS image sensor configured to capture images and provide current to the battery charger; a plurality of column readout circuits electrically coupled to the array of pixels, each column readout circuit corresponding to a respective column of the array of pixels; a timing/control circuit within the image sensor and operably coupled to the array of pixels; and a switch external to the image sensor, wherein the image sensor is configured to switch from an image capture mode to a battery charging mode or from the battery charging mode to the image capture mode by a user actuating the switch external to the image sensor, wherein in the image capture mode the timing/control circuit is configured to direct said array of pixels to be read out in a sequence to provide image data to the signal processor, while in the battery charging mode the timing/control circuit is configured to directs multiple pixels in each individual column to simultaneously and continuously transmit signals to corresponding column readout circuits to provide current to the battery charger to charge a battery.