Patent ID: 7880773

Claim:
An imaging device comprising: an image sensor; a color filter that is located on said image sensor and has at least four color elements, wherein: two color elements of the at least four color elements respectively correspond to the colors Red and Blue, two color elements of the at least four color elements each correspond to the color Green, each of said at least four color elements respectively have different spectral transmission properties, and a series of color signals correspond to the at least four color elements are read from said image sensor; a matrix-selection processor that detects the spectral distribution properties of an object included in the series of color signals based on a maximum of two color signals, namely Red and Blue color signals, and that selects one color matrix corresponding to the detected spectral-distribution properties from a plurality of color matrices, the plurality of color matrices corresponding to objects that respectively have different spectral distribution properties; and a color conversion processor that generates R, G, and B primary color signals from the series of color signals by a color-conversion process using the selected color matrix, and that carries out a matrix computation on the entire series of color signals based on the selected color matrix.