Systems and methods for measuring depth using images captured by monolithic camera arrays including at least one bayer camera

摘要

A camera array, an imaging device and/or a method for capturing image that employ a plurality of imagers fabricated on a substrate is provided. Each imager includes a plurality of pixels. The plurality of imagers include a first imager having a first imaging characteristics and a second imager having a second imaging characteristics. The images generated by the plurality of imagers are processed to obtain an enhanced image compared to images captured by the imagers. Each imager may be associated with an optical element fabricated using a wafer level optics (WLO) technology.

主权项

1. A camera array, comprising:
a monolithic integrated module forming a plurality of cameras, where each camera comprises:
a lens element array forming the optics of each of the plurality of cameras, where the optics of each camera comprises at least one lens element and at least one aperture; anda single semiconductor substrate on which all of the pixels and control circuitry for each camera are formed; andat least one spectral filter located within each camera, where each spectral filter is configured to pass a specific spectral band of light; a controller configured to control operation parameters of the camera array; and an image processing pipeline module comprising a parallax confirmation and measurement module; wherein the plurality of cameras forms at least a 2×2 array of cameras that includes multiple redundant pairs of cameras; wherein at least one camera includes a Bayer filter; wherein images captured by the plurality of cameras include different occlusions sets, where the occlusion set of a first camera is the portion of a scene visible to a second camera in the plurality of cameras that is occluded from the view of the first camera; wherein the image processing pipeline module comprises a parallax confirmation and measurement module configured to measure parallax using images captured by the plurality of cameras by:
detecting parallax-induced changes that are consistent across the plurality of cameras taking into account the position of the cameras within the at least 2×2 array of cameras; andignoring pixels in the images captured by the plurality of cameras that are in an exposed occlusion set; and wherein the parallax confirmation and measurement module is further configured to estimate distance to an object in images captured by the plurality of cameras using measured parallax.