Patent Document ID: 8711452
Application ID: 13618593
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for forming a digital color image comprising: capturing an image using a solid state image sensor having a pixel array that includes both panchromatic pixels and color pixels, wherein the color pixels correspond to at least two color photoresponses and wherein the pixel array is made up of a plurality of tiled minimal repeating units, each minimal repeating unit including a plurality of cells, each cell including at least two panchromatic pixels and at least two pixels having the same color photoresponse, wherein the minimal repeating unit is P P P P B B A A P P P P C C B B wherein P represents panchromatic pixels, A represents color pixels having a first photoresponse, B represents color pixels having a second photoresponse, and C represents color pixels having a third photoresponse; grouping signals from all of the color pixels in each cell into one or more group signals to increase color photosensitivity, wherein all pixels whose signals are grouped into a group signal have the same color photoresponse; combining the group signals to form a low-resolution digital color image having a first resolution based on the resolution of the cells; using second signals from the individual panchromatic pixels to provide a high-resolution digital panchromatic image having a second resolution based on the resolution of the pixels in the image sensor; and combining the high-resolution digital panchromatic image and the low-resolution digital color image to provide a high-resolution digital color image.