Patent ID: 8902321

Claim:
A camera array, comprising: a plurality of cameras forming an array comprising a plurality of rows of cameras and a plurality of columns of cameras, where each camera includes separate optics, and a plurality of sensor elements, and each camera is configured to independently capture an image of a scene; wherein the optics of each camera are configured so that each camera has a field of view of the same scene that is shifted with respect to the field-of-views of the other cameras so that each shift includes a sub-pixel shifted view of the same scene; wherein the camera array is a monolithic integrated module comprising: a single semiconductor substrate on which all of the sensor elements and control circuitry are formed, where the control circuitry is configured to enable each camera to operate independently; and optics including a plurality of lens elements, where each lens element forms part of the separate optics for one of the cameras; and wherein the plurality of cameras comprises a plurality of different types of camera, where cameras of a given type share the same imaging characteristics and different types of cameras have different imaging characteristics including using different types of filters; and wherein one of the plurality of cameras includes a central camera and the plurality of cameras forms: at least one row of cameras above the central camera; at least one row of cameras below the central camera; at least one column of cameras to the left of the central camera; and at least one column of cameras to the right of the central camera; wherein cameras having the same imaging characteristics and filter are located in locations selected from the group consisting of: locations including at least one row in the camera array above the central camera and at least one row in the camera array below the central camera; and locations including at least one column in the camera array to the left of the central camera and at least one column in the camera array to the right of the central camera.