Conformal rolling buffer apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 8,543,788 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2007
• Issued: 09/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation (ON Semiconductor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation (ON Semiconductor Corporation)
• Inventors: Silverstein, Amnon
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai, Sheng-Jen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mercado, Ramon A
• Application Number:
  US11/758,801
• Publication Number:
  US 20080307186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,302 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems may operate to more efficiently utilize data stored in an array of storage blocks organized as rows and columns of contiguous blocks, where non-linearity is present in the data. Activities may include organizing data to discard useless elements from storage blocks when transferring the data to a memory buffer, and perhaps compressing the data for increased memory density utilization. Additional activities may include reconstructing data stored in the memory buffer and using an image distortion formula to display a linear representation of the non-linear data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an allocation request at a storage device configurable as an array of storage blocks having rows and columns, wherein the array comprises used storage blocks storing non-rectangular data and wherein the array further comprises unused storage blocks;

receiving a start index associated with the beginning of the array;

calculating a memory index for at least one storage block within the array using an integral function based upon a shape of a boundary between the used and unused storage blocks; and

transferring the non-rectangular data from the storage device to a memory device according to the memory index.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an allocation request is associated with reading the non-rectangular data from the storage device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the integral function for each storage block in the array is unique.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a start index occurs once for each of the rows having the non-rectangular data stored therein.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transferring comprises:

copying the non-rectangular data stored in at least two of the rows to a temporary memory cell included in a plurality of memory cells included in the memory device;

compressing the non-rectangular data in the temporary memory cell to provide compressed data; and

storing the compressed data in at least one compression memory cell included in the plurality of memory cells.

6. A method comprising:

receiving an allocation request from a processor configured to manage data communicated between a memory device comprising a plurality of memory cells and a storage device configurable as an array of storage blocks having rows and columns, wherein the array comprises used storage blocks storing the data and wherein the array further comprises unused storage blocks;

identifying at least one of the rows and the columns having a portion of the data stored therein;

searching for a start index associated with the at least one of the rows and the columns;

calculating a memory index using an integral function based upon a shape of a boundary between the used storage blocks and the unused storage blocks; and

transferring the data according to the memory index from the storage blocks to the plurality of memory cells.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving an allocation request is associated with reading data from the memory device.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the start index is included only once for each row of data to be transferred.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the transferring comprises:

copying the data contained in the at least one memory cell to a temporary memory block;

decompressing the data contained in the temporary memory block; and

storing the decompressed data in two or more rows of the storage device.

10. A method comprising:

searching for a start index associated with a selected row of pixels forming a portion of a pixel array having rows and columns after a beginning of an integration time associated with acquiring an image, wherein the pixel array comprises a first set of pixels storing useful data and a second set of pixels storing non-useful data;

transferring the useful data from at least the selected row of pixels to a temporary block included in a plurality of memory cells;

calculating a memory index based on a shape of a boundary between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels;

compressing the useful data stored within the temporary block to provide compressed data; and

writing the compressed data according to the memory index to a compression buffer included in the plurality of memory cells.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the shape of the boundary is at least partially represented by a polynomial function.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein writing the compressed data occurs after an end of the integration time.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a sensor module configurable as a plurality of storage blocks having rows and columns, wherein the plurality of storage blocks comprises used storage blocks storing data and wherein the plurality of storage blocks further comprises unused storage blocks; and

a memory device to couple to the sensor module, the memory device including a memory block comprising a plurality of memory cells to store data received from the plurality of storage blocks, wherein the plurality of storage blocks are associated with the plurality of memory cells using a memory index calculated based upon a shape of a boundary between the used storage blocks and the unused storage blocks.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the plurality of memory cells are configurable as a temporary memory block that stores the data from at least two storage blocks of the sensor module and a compression memory block that stores compressed data, wherein the data stored within at least two of the memory cells of the temporary memory block are to be compressed and stored within at least one of the memory cells of the compression memory block according to the memory index.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the sensor module comprises:

an array of pixels.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the array of pixels comprises at least one row of pixels, wherein the at least one row of pixels has an associated start of row index, and wherein the start of row index indicates a first used storage block in a given row of the storage blocks.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, comprising:

a calculator module coupled to the array of pixels and the temporary memory block, the calculator module configurable as an index calculator to calculate the memory index.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, comprising:

a processor coupled to the sensor module to manage transferring the data between the sensor module and the memory device within an integration time associated with the sensor module.

19. A system comprising:

a lens;

a sensor module to store data associated with an image captured by the lens, the sensor module including a controller and comprising an array of storage blocks organized as rows and columns, wherein the array comprises used storage blocks storing the data and wherein the array further comprises unused storage blocks and wherein at least one storage block in each of the rows and the columns includes a start index to identify a location of at least one of the used storage blocks; and

a memory device to couple to the sensor module, the memory device including a plurality of memory cells configurable to store the data, wherein the plurality of memory cells comprises a first set of memory cells and a second set of memory cells, wherein the second set of memory cells forms a compression buffer, wherein the data stored in the first set of memory cells is to be compressed and stored in the compression buffer according to a memory index, and wherein the memory index is calculated based upon a shape of a boundary between the used storage blocks and the unused storage blocks.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the sensor module comprises:

an imaging device to store the data in the storage blocks, the data comprising a representation of the image as distorted by the lens.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the memory index is determined in part by a shape of the lens.

22. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a cellular telephone transceiver to transmit a portion of the data.

23. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a media player and a keypad control module to couple to the controller.

24. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a display device to couple to the controller and to display a portion of the data.

25. The system of claim 19 comprising:

a flash memory device to couple to the controller and to store a portion of the data.

26. A method of operating a memory system comprising:

acquiring a portion of an image from a lens as image portion data using an imaging device during an integration time associated with the imaging device, wherein the imaging device comprises a first set of pixels storing the image portion data and a second set of pixels storing non-useful data;

calculating a memory index based upon a shape of a boundary between the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels;

transferring the image portion data according to the memory index from the first set of pixels in the imaging device to a plurality of memory cells in response to receiving an allocation request from a controller;

reconstructing the image portion data from the plurality of memory cells to provide a reconstructed image portion in response to receiving an allocation request from the controller, wherein reconstructing the image portion data comprises retrieving the image portion data from the plurality of memory cells using the memory index and correcting non-linearity in the image portion data using a lens distortion formula; and

storing the reconstructed image portion within a flash memory device.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the plurality of memory cells includes a first set of memory cells that form a temporary buffer and a second set of memory cells that form a compression buffer and wherein transferring the image portion data comprises:

copying the image portion data from the first set of pixels in the imaging device to the temporary buffer;

compressing the image portion data within the temporary buffer to provide compressed data; and

transferring the compressed data to the compression buffer.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

displaying the reconstructed image portion on a display device.