Patent ID: 8218027

Claim:
An imaging terminal comprising: a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array having a first subset of pixels and a second subset of pixels, the first subset of pixels being a monochrome subset of pixels devoid of color filter elements and a second subset of pixels being a color sensitive subset of pixels including color filter elements; a lens assembly for use in focusing an image of a target scene onto the hybrid monochrome and color image sensor array; and a hand held housing, wherein the hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array is disposed in the hand held housing; wherein the imaging terminal is operative, in response to an operator initiated command, to capture a raw frame of image data, the raw frame of image data having a first subset of pixel values and a second subset of pixel values, the first subset of pixel values being monochrome pixel values representing light incident at the first subset of pixels, the second subset of pixel values being color pixel values representing light incident at the second subset of pixels; wherein the imaging terminal is further operative to process the raw frame of image data for providing a demosaicized frame of image data; wherein the imaging terminal includes a color correction processing module that utilizes pixel values of the first subset of pixel values, the color correction processing module being operative for color correction of the demosaicized frame of image data; wherein the color correction processing module is characterized by one or more of (a), (b), and (c) as follows: (a) the color correction processing module is operative to utilize pixel values of the first subset of pixel values by examination of the vector quantities M/R, M/G, M/B, where M is the average monochrome pixel value for a brightest predetermined percentage of pixel positions of the raw frame and R, G, B, are respective average red, green, and blue pixel values for the brightest predetermined percentage of pixel positions of the raw frame; (b) the color correction processing module is operative to avoid application of a white balancing algorithm to the demosaicized frame if examination of one of the vector quantities M/R, M/G or M/B indicates that a frame currently being subject to processing represents a color imbalanced scene; and (c) the color correction module is operative to determine a brightest predetermined percentage of pixel positions of the raw frame and wherein the color correction processing module is further operative to calculate an average M value for the brightest predetermined percentage of pixel positions.