Patent ID: 7433547

Claim:
An image signal processing apparatus comprising: an image sensor which has an image sensing area divided into a left side area and a right side area each of which has a plurality of pixels; a first A/D converter which converts signals of pixels included in the left side area to digital signals; a second A/D converter which converts signals of pixels included in the right side area to digital signals; a balance correction device which compares digital signals of the pixels included in the left side area output from said first A/D converter and digital signals of the pixels included in the right side area output from said second A/D converter, and corrects a level difference between the two digital image signals of the left side area and the right side area; a synthesis device which synthesizes the digital image signals of the left side area and the right side area, whose level difference has been corrected, to form one image data; and a defect correction device which detects a pixel whose signal difference from an adjacent pixel is not less than a threshold value as a defective pixel and corrects the defective pixel in the image data synthesized by said synthesis device, wherein the signals of the pixels included in the left side area output from said balance correction device are input to said synthesis device from a left side pixel towards a right side pixel and the signals of the pixels included in the right side area output from said balance correction device are input to said synthesis device from a right side pixel towards a left side pixel, the input operation of the signals of the pixels of the right and left side areas being performed in parallel, and wherein said synthesis device outputs the signals of the pixels included in the left side area from the left side pixel towards the right side pixel and thereafter said synthesis device outputs the signals of the pixels included in the right side area from the left side pixel towards the right side pixel with respect to each line of said image sensor.