DIGITAL IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE HAVING AN IMAGE SENSOR MECHANISM TO COMPENSATE FOR OCCURRENCES OF EXPOSURE BLOWOUTS

摘要

An image sensor mechanism for use in a digital image capture device. The mechanism generally includes a photo sensor array, a liquid crystal light valve array, and a control module. The liquid crystal light valve array is operatively disposed in front of the photo sensor array and includes a plurality of light valves, each of which is independently controllable and corresponds to at least one pixel sensor of the photo sensor array so as to selectively prevent light from reaching the photo sensor array. The control module is electrically coupled to the liquid crystal light valve array and the photo sensor array for applying a variable electric field across each of the light valves and for selectively adjusting the light valves with different transmittances based on a preliminary image previously captured by the photo sensor array in order to transform the preliminary image into a resultant image to be re-captured by the photo sensor array.

主权项

1. An image sensor mechanism, comprising:
a photo sensor array; a liquid crystal light valve array attached on the photo sensor array and including a plurality of light valves, each of which independently controllable and corresponding to at least one pixel sensor of the photo sensor array so as to selectively prevent light from reaching the photo sensor array; and a control module electrically coupled to the liquid crystal light valve array and the photo sensor array for applying a variable electric field across each of the light valves and for selectively adjusting the light valves with different transmittances based on a preliminary image previously captured by the photo sensor array in order to transform the preliminary image into a resultant image to be re-captured by the photo sensor array.