SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONTROLLING ALIASING IN IMAGES CAPTURED BY AN ARRAY CAMERA FOR USE IN SUPER RESOLUTION PROCESSING USING PIXEL APERTURES

摘要

Imager arrays, array camera modules, and array cameras in accordance with embodiments of the invention utilize pixel apertures to control the amount of aliasing present in captured images of a scene. One embodiment includes a plurality of focal planes, control circuitry configured to control the capture of image information by the pixels within the focal planes, and sampling circuitry configured to convert pixel outputs into digital pixel data. In addition, the pixels in the plurality of focal planes include a pixel stack including a microlens and an active area, where light incident on the surface of the microlens is focused onto the active area by the microlens and the active area samples the incident light to capture image information, and the pixel stack defines a pixel area and includes a pixel aperture, where the size of the pixel apertures is smaller than the pixel area.

主权项

1. An imager array, comprising:
a plurality of focal planes, where each focal plane comprises a two dimensional arrangement of pixels having at least two pixels in each dimension and each focal plane is contained within a region of the imager array that does not contain pixels from another focal plane; control circuitry configured to control the capture of image information by the pixels within the focal planes; and sampling circuitry configured to convert pixel outputs into digital pixel data; wherein each of the pixels in the plurality of focal planes comprises a pixel stack including a microlens and an active area, where light incident on the surface of the microlens is focused onto the active area by the microlens and the active area samples the incident light to capture image information; wherein the pixel stack of each pixel defines a pixel area and includes a pixel aperture, wherein the light incident on the pixel stack passes through the pixel aperture and is incident on the pixel area, where the size of the pixel aperture is smaller than the pixel area; wherein the aliasing present in the images captured by each focal plane is different so that high frequencies folded back into the lower frequencies of the captured images can be recovered using super resolution processing, wherein the super resolution processing processes the images captured by each focal plane to obtain a synthesized high resolution (HR) image with an increased overall resolution.