Patent ID: 8792032

Claim:
A method of increasing the dynamic range of at least one pixel in a pixel array, the method comprising: a) determining an electrical pixel output value (V c1 ) for each pixel after a predetermined integration time (T 1 ); b) comparing the determined pixel output electrical value (V c1 ) for each pixel with a set of reference values (V t (i)) to determine an optimum integration time for each pixel in the pixel array, wherein the process of comparing the determined pixel output electrical value comprises determining the set of reference values (V t (i)) from one of: a pixel saturation electrical value (V sat ) and a pixel output electrical swing value (V swing ) for each pixel in the pixel array; c) estimating an offset for each pixel when the electrical value of each pixel causes the integration time thereof to be increased; and d) lowering the integration time of each pixel in accordance with the estimated offset.