Patent ID: 7405763

Claim:
A mobile device, comprising: a battery; a battery charger electrically coupled to the battery; a signal processor; and a single-chip color complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor electrically coupled by a switch to the signal processor in an image capture mode and to the battery charger in a battery charging mode, the CMOS image sensor having an array of pixels organized into columns and rows with each column having a separate column readout circuit and individual pixels associated with an individual column being electrically coupled to a respective column readout circuit; and a timing/control circuit in the image capture mode directing pixels to be read out sequentially on a row-by-row basis to the signal processor with each row having only one pixel per column that is read out at a single time while in the battery charging mode the timing/control circuit directs multiple pixels in each individual column to simultaneously and continuously provide continuous current to the battery charger; the switch being coupled to an actuatable switch that a user actuates to capture an image, the mobile device operating in the image capture mode whenever the user actuates the actuatable switch and with the mobile device switching to the battery charging mode when images are not being captured to support continuous charging of the battery whenever an image is not being captured.