Patent ID: 7460160

Claim:
A digital camera having an image sensor, said image sensor comprising: an 2-D array of photosites forming columns and rows of photosites; a separate filter disposed over each photosite which exhibits a light transmission function with regard to wavelength that passes only a prescribed range of wavelengths, wherein for any square block of photosites in the array containing four photosites, one comprises a filter passing light only in a red light spectrum, one comprises a filter passing light only in a green light spectrum, one comprises a filter passing light only in a blue light spectrum, and one comprises a filter passing light only in a non-visible light spectrum; and a processor comprising a demosaicing module for computing a separated red, green, blue and non-visible light intensity value for each photosite based on an intensity reading captured at the photosite and intensities captured at neighboring photosites by establishing the intensity value captured at a photosite under consideration linearly as the intensity value for the wavelengths of light passed by its associated filter, and computing an intensity value for each of the remaining wavelength ranges passed by the image sensor filters as the average of the intensity values captured for that wavelength range in photosites immediately adjacent the photosite under consideration in the array.