Patent ID: 8462236

Claim:
An image sensor comprising: an image scaler; a defect corrector configured to perform a defect correction algorithm; a shared memory at least partly shared between said image scaler and said defect corrector and comprising a plurality of line memories; said defect corrector being configured to perform the defect correction algorithm by at least switching the image sensor between an image scaling mode wherein said image scaler is enabled and said defect corrector is disabled, the shared memory being switched for operation with the image scaler, and an image capture mode wherein said image scaler is disabled and said defect corrector is enabled, the shared memory being switched for operation with the defect corrector, the switching between the image scaling mode and the image capture mode being based upon an image capture operation being initialized; and a logic controller configured to send a control signal to enable or disable said defect corrector and said image scaler, and to allocate at least one line memory from said plurality thereof for use by said image scaler during the image scaling mode and for use by said defect corrector during the image capture mode.