TERMINAL OUTPUTTING MONOCHROME IMAGE DATA AND COLOR IMAGE DATA
First Claim
1. A terminal comprising:
- an image sensing and processing circuit having a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array, the 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 monochrome pixels devoid of color filter elements and a second subset of pixels being a color sensitive subset of pixels including color filter elements, the first subset of pixels having monochrome pixel positions, the second subset of pixels having color pixel positions;
a lens assembly for use in focusing an image onto the image sensor pixel array; and
a hand held housing, wherein the terminal is configured so that the hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array is supported within the hand held housing;
a central processing unit (CPU);
an image frame memory addressable by the CPU;
wherein the image sensing and processing circuit is operative to output a CPU addressable frame of image data for storage into the CPU addressable image frame memory, the image sensing and processing circuit being operative to determine monochrome pixel values corresponding to a plurality of the color pixel positions of the image sensor pixel array so the CPU addressable frame of image data output by the image sensing and processing circuit for storage into the image frame memory includes a plurality of monochrome pixel values that correspond to color pixel positions of the image sensor pixel array.
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is provided an imaging terminal comprising an image sensing and processing circuit that includes a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array having a first subset of pixels provided by monochrome pixels without color filter elements and a second subset of pixels provided by color pixels having color filter elements. The terminal can be operative so that the image sensing and processing circuit can output a frame of image data for storing in a CPU addressable image frame memory. The image sensing and processing circuit can be operative so that a frame of image data output by the image sensing and processing circuit for storing in a CPU addressable image frame memory can include monochrome pixel values that correspond to color pixel positions of the image sensor pixel array.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A terminal comprising:
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an image sensing and processing circuit having a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array, the 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 monochrome pixels devoid of color filter elements and a second subset of pixels being a color sensitive subset of pixels including color filter elements, the first subset of pixels having monochrome pixel positions, the second subset of pixels having color pixel positions; a lens assembly for use in focusing an image onto the image sensor pixel array; and a hand held housing, wherein the terminal is configured so that the hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array is supported within the hand held housing; a central processing unit (CPU); an image frame memory addressable by the CPU; wherein the image sensing and processing circuit is operative to output a CPU addressable frame of image data for storage into the CPU addressable image frame memory, the image sensing and processing circuit being operative to determine monochrome pixel values corresponding to a plurality of the color pixel positions of the image sensor pixel array so the CPU addressable frame of image data output by the image sensing and processing circuit for storage into the image frame memory includes a plurality of monochrome pixel values that correspond to color pixel positions of the image sensor pixel array. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An apparatus comprising:
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an image sensing and processing circuit having a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array, the 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 monochrome pixels devoid of color filter elements and a second subset of pixels being a color sensitive subset of pixels including color filter elements, the first subset of pixels having monochrome pixel positions, the second subset of pixels having color pixel positions; the image sensing and processing circuit having an N row buffer for use in buffering image data corresponding to N rows of pixels of said image sensor pixel array; wherein the image sensing and processing circuit is operative to output a frame of image data having image data corresponding to K rows of pixels of said image sensor pixel array, wherein K>
N, and wherein the image sensing and processing circuit is operative to determine monochrome pixel values corresponding to a plurality of the color pixel positions of the image sensor pixel array utilizing the N row buffer so the frame of image data output by the image sensing and processing circuit includes a plurality of monochrome pixel values that correspond to color pixel positions of the image sensor pixel array. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method comprising:
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providing a hand held imaging terminal having an image sensor pixel array, a trigger, a microprocessor addressable image frame memory, and a microprocessor in communication with the microprocessor addressable image frame memory, the image sensor pixel array having a hybrid monochrome and color image sensor pixel array, the 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 monochrome pixels devoid of color filter elements and a second subset of pixels being a color sensitive subset of pixels including color filter elements, the first subset of pixels having monochrome pixel positions, the second subset of pixels having color pixel positions; actuating said trigger to initiate a trigger signal; responsively to the initiation of the trigger signal, reading out image signals from a contiguous grouping of pixels of said image sensor array, the image signals comprising an analog intensity value for each pixel of the grouping, the analog intensity value for each pixel indicating light incident on the pixel; digitizing analog intensity values read out into a pixel values to form a set of pixel values making up a frame of image data; prior to output of said frame of image data for storage of said frame of image data into said image frame memory, processing said frame of image data for determination of monochrome pixel values corresponding to pixels of the second subset of pixels; storing a processed frame image data into said image frame memory, the processed frame of image data having said determined monochrome pixel values corresponding to color pixel positions; and addressing pixel values of said processed frame of image data stored into said image frame memory. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification