IMAGE SENSOR DATA COMPRESSION AND DSP DECOMPRESSION

摘要

An image sensor compresses image data prior to transmitting the image data to a DSP. The image sensor captures light representing an image, for instance via a camera's aperture. A focal plane array converts the captured light into pixel data. The pixel data is sorted into categories, and is compressed in parallel by a compression engine. The compressed pixel data is then sent to a DSP, which may be located off-chip. The DSP then decompresses the compressed pixel data, performs image signal processing operations on the compressed pixel data, and then compresses the processed pixel data into a digital image format. The image sensor may buffer the pixel data for one or more images to accommodate for slowdown by the compression engine. The pixel data may be sorted by row and column of a pixel array. Alternatively, the pixel data may be sorted by color from a Bayer color filter.

主权项

1. A method for capturing image data by a digital camera, the method comprising:
capturing, by an image sensor chip, image data representative of light incident upon the image sensor chip over a capture interval; categorizing, by the image sensor chip, the captured image data into a plurality of categories; compressing, by the image sensor chip, each category of image data to produce compressed image data; and transmitting, by an output of the digital camera, the compressed image data to an external device communicatively coupled to the digital camera, the external device configured to:
decompress the compressed image data to produce categories of decompressed image data;combine the categories of decompressed image data to produce combined pixel data;compress the combined pixel data to produce a digital image; anddisplay the digital image.