Patent ID: 8227734

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: a plurality of aperture pixels for capturing an image; a plurality of first light-shielded pixels shielded from light for detection of a first dark current, the first light-shielded pixels having a first dark current generating rate at a given temperature that is larger than a dark current generating rate at the given temperature for the aperture pixels; and a plurality of second light-shielded pixels shielded from light for detection of a second dark current, the second light-shielded pixels having a second dark current generating rate at the given temperature that is smaller than a dark current generating rate at the given temperature for the aperture pixels, the second light-shielded pixels having a different physical structure from the plurality of first light-shielded pixels, wherein pixel values of the plurality of aperture pixels, the plurality of first light-shielded pixels, and the plurality of second light-shielded pixels are read out independently of each other, and a dark current for the aperture pixels is determined based on the first and second dark currents.