Multi-Channel Imager

• US 20110285866A1
• Filed: 05/17/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation (ON Semiconductor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation (ON Semiconductor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kershaw, Simon, Bhrugumalla, Satish Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/218.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/815 for controlling the resolution by using a single image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/951 by using two or more images to influence resolution, frame rate or aspect ratio

Abstract

An imaging system may include a multi-channel image sensor. In a multi-channel image sensor, multiple image streams from a common pixel array may be provided to a common interface transport for output on multiple logic channels. Image streams may include high-definition (HD) video and snapshot image data. Video image data may be resized using resize circuitry on the image sensors. Snapshot image data may be processed by the image sensor. Full-resolution portions of snapshot images may be output concurrently with resized HD video image data on multiple logic channels to an image signal processor. In an alternative embodiment, stack memory on the image sensor may be used to store full-resolution snapshot image data. Full-resolution snapshot image data may then be output concurrently with resized HD video image data at a slower data rate than the video image data.

Claims

1. A multi-channel image sensor coupled to an image signal processor, the multi-channel image sensor comprising:

an array of image pixels for capturing an image of a scene; and

a serial interface circuit configured to concurrently transmit a plurality of processed images from the multi-channel image sensor to the image signal processor through a plurality of virtual channels.

2. The multi-channel image sensor defined in claim 1 wherein the serial interface circuit is configured such that each of the plurality of virtual channels is used to transmit a respective one of the plurality of processed images.

3. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 2, further comprising processing circuitry configured to receive the image of the scene from the image pixel array and generate at least some of the plurality of processed images based on the image.

4. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 3 wherein the processing circuitry comprises:

resize circuitry, configured to receive the image of the scene from the image pixel array, wherein the resize circuitry is configured to output at least one reduced-resolution image of the scene, wherein the at least one reduced-resolution image of the scene has a resolution lower than a resolution of the image of the scene captured by the array of image pixels, and wherein the processed images comprise the at least one reduced-resolution image of the scene.

5. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 4 wherein the processing circuitry further comprises:

crop and resize circuitry configured to receive the image of the scene from the image pixel array and output a plurality of cropped images, wherein the processed images further comprise the cropped images, and wherein the cropped images each have a resolution that is substantially the same as the resolution of the image of the scene captured by the array of image pixels.

6. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 5 wherein the image pixel array and the processing circuitry are formed as part of a common image sensor integrated circuit die.

7. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 6 wherein the multi-channel image sensor and the image signal processor are formed as part of a common image sensor integrated circuit die.

8. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 7 wherein the processing circuitry further comprises artificial-intelligence/user-select circuitry coupled to the crop and resize circuitry, wherein the artificial-intelligence/user-select circuitry is configured to receive the image of the scene from the image pixel array and select at least one portion of the scene containing an object, and wherein the plurality of images of portions of the scene comprises an image of the at least one portion of the scene containing the object.

9. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 8, further comprising post-processing circuitry configured to receive the cropped images from the crop and resize circuitry and to output a plurality of further processed cropped images.

10. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 9, further comprising virtual channel assign circuitry configured to assign a logic channel to each of the plurality of processed images.

11. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 10 wherein the image captured by the array of image pixels comprises one of a plurality of continuously captured video image frames, wherein the resize circuitry is configured to continuously generate reduced-resolution video image frames from the continuously captured video image frames, and wherein the plurality of processed images include the continuously generated reduced-resolution video image frames.

12. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 3 further comprising:

at least one additional array of image pixels for capturing an additional image of a scene; and

combiner circuitry, wherein the combiner circuitry is configured to combine the additional image of the scene with the image of the scene to form a combined image; and

resize circuitry, configured to receive the combined image from the combiner circuitry, wherein the resize circuitry is configured to output at least one reduced-resolution image of the scene, wherein the at least one additional reduced-resolution image of the scene has a resolution lower than a resolution of the combined image of the scene, and wherein the processed images comprise the at least one reduced-resolution image of the scene.

13. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 4 further comprising:

at least one additional array of image pixels for capturing an additional image of a scene, wherein the resize circuitry is configured to receive the additional image of the scene from the at least one image pixel array, wherein the resize circuitry is configured to output at least one additional reduced-resolution image of the scene, wherein the at least one additional reduced-resolution image of the scene has a resolution lower than a resolution of the additional image of the scene captured by the at least one additional array of image pixels, and wherein the processed images comprise the at least one additional reduced-resolution image of the scene.

14. A multi-channel image sensor coupled to an image signal processor, the multi-channel image sensor comprising:

an array of image pixels for capturing images of a scene;

memory for storing at least one of the images of the scene; and

resize circuitry, configured to receive the images of the scene from the array of image pixels and generate reduced-resolution images of the scene, wherein the reduced-resolution images of the scene have a resolution lower than a resolution of the images captured by the array of image pixels.

15. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 14 further comprising compression circuitry configured to receive the images of the scene and output compressed images of the scene, wherein the memory for storing the at least one of the images of the scene comprises stack memory.

16. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 15, further comprising:

a serial interface circuit configured to concurrently transmit the reduced-resolution images of the scene generated by the resize circuitry and the at least one of the images of the scene stored on the memory from the multi-channel image sensor to the image signal processor.

17. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 16, wherein the serial interface circuit comprises a multi-lane serial transport and wherein the multi-lane serial transport is configured to transmit the at least one of the images of the scene at a first data rate, wherein the multi-lane serial transport is configured to transmit the reduced-resolution images of the scene at a second data rate, and wherein the first data rate is slower than the second data rate.

18. The multi-channel image sensor of claim 17 wherein the reduced-resolution images of the scene frames comprise 1080p high-definition images of the scene.

19. An electronic device comprising a camera module and an input-output device, the camera module comprising:

a multi-channel image sensor having an array of image pixels for capturing image data;

at least one lens configured to focus light on the array of image pixels;

an image signal processor; and

a serial interface configured to transmit a plurality of streams of data along a plurality of virtual channels from the multi-channel image sensor to the image signal processor.

20. The electronic device defined in claim 19 wherein the multi-channel image sensor further comprises:

processing circuitry configured to receive the image data from the array of image pixels and generate at least some of the plurality of streams of data to be transmitted along the plurality of virtual channels from the multi-channel image sensor to the image signal processor.

21. The electronic device defined in claim 20 wherein the multi-channel image sensor further comprises virtual channel assign circuitry for assigning a virtual channel to each of the plurality of streams of data, wherein the at least some of the plurality of streams of data generated by the processing circuitry comprises a stream of reduced-resolution 1080p video image data, a stream of reduced-resolution preview video image data and a stream of snapshot image data, wherein the reduced-resolution preview video image data has a resolution lower than the reduced-resolution 1080p video image data, and wherein the snapshot image data has a resolution that is substantially the same as the image data captured by the array of image pixels.

22. The electronic device defined in claim 21 wherein the image signal processor comprises:

memory for storing the snapshot image data;

a video processor for processing the 1080p video image data; and

a preview processor for processing the reduced-resolution preview video image data.

23. The electronic device defined in claim 22 wherein the processing circuitry comprises:

artificial-intelligence/user-select circuitry configured to receive the image data from the array of image pixels and identify at least a portion of the image data containing an object; and

crop and resize circuitry configured to receive the image data from the array of image pixels and output the portion of the image data containing the object, wherein the snapshot image data includes the portion of the image data containing the object.

24. The electronic device defined in claim 23, further comprising:

host subsystems configured to further process the snapshot image data and to provide the reduced-resolution preview video image data processed by the preview processor to a display.