Image sensor and electronic still camera with an addressable image pickup section and an analog product sum calculation section

• US 5,414,464 A
• Filed: 04/05/1994
• Issued: 05/09/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sasaki, Tadao
• Primary Examiner(s): Groody, James J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HSIA, SHERRIE Y
• Application Number:
  US08/223,235
• Time in Patent Office: 399 Days
• Field of Search: 348/222, 348/231, 358/909.1, 358/906, 358/209
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/40056 Circuits for driving or energising particular reading heads or original illumination means H04N1/401, H04N1/407 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/00 Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof

Abstract

An electronic still camera wherein an image compression circuit can be simplified includes a lens system, a shutter, an image sensor and a processing circuit. A video signal for one frame outputted from the processing circuit in response to a shutter operation is written into a memory. A video signal read out from the memory is compressed in accordance with the JPEG system by an image compression circuit and then written into a memory card. The image sensor is constituted from an image pickup section and a product sum calculation section. A CMD image sensor capable of non-destructively reading out a picture signal is used as the image pickup section. The product sum calculation section performs DCT processing required for compression processing of the JPEG system. Since a detected image signal processed by DCT processing is obtained from the image sensor, DCT processing of the image compression circuit is unnecessary.

Claims

1. An image sensor, comprising:

a control circuit for controlling an operation of said image sensor;

an image pickup section for detecting an image and non-destructively reading out picture element signals representing the image according to address signals supplied by said control circuit; and

a product sum calculation section for receiving said picture element signals selectively and successively read out from said image pickup section according to said address signals supplied by said control circuit, for multiplying the picture element signals by predetermined coefficients and for adding signals obtained by the multiplication to obtain an output picture element signal.

2. An image sensor according to claim 1, wherein said product sum calculation section includes means for performing a discrete cosine transformation.

3. An image sensor according to claim 1, wherein said image pickup section is a charge modulation device image sensor.

4. An image sensor according to claim 1, wherein said product sum calculation section includes means for performing spatial filter processing.

5. An image sensor according to claim 1, wherein said image pickup section includes a plurality of addressable picture elements and said product sum calculation section receives picture element signals successively read out from selected ones of said plurality of picture elements in said image pickup section according to respective address signals supplied by said control circuit, multiplies the picture element signals by the respective predetermined coefficients and adds the signals obtained by the multiplication.

10. An electronic still camera according to claim 1, wherein said image pickup section includes a plurality of addressable picture elements and said product sum calculation section receives picture element signals successively read out from selected ones of said plurality of picture elements in said image pickup section according to respective address signals supplied by said control circuit, multiplies the picture element signals by the respective predetermined coefficients and adds the signals obtained by the multiplication.

6. An electronic still camera, comprising:

a control circuit for controlling an operation of said electronic still camera;

an image pickup section for detecting an image and non-destructively reading out picture element signals representing the image according to address signals supplied by said control circuit;

a product sum calculation section for receiving said picture element signals selectively and successively read out from said image pickup section according to said address signals supplied by said control circuit, for multiplying the picture element signals by predetermined coefficients and for adding signals obtained by the multiplication to obtain an output picture element signal;

compression means for compressing the output picture signal; and

means for recording the compressed signal onto a recording medium.

7. An electronic still camera according to claim 6, wherein said product sum calculation section includes means for performing a discrete cosine transformation.

8. An electronic still camera according to claim 6, wherein said image pickup section is a charge modulation device image sensor.

9. An electronic still camera according to claim 6, wherein said product sum calculation section includes means for performing spatial filter processing.