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 decompressing image data, the method comprising:
receiving, from an image sensor chip, compressed pixel data, the compressed pixel data comprising pixel data organized into a plurality categories and compressed by the image sensor chip at a magnitude of compression selected based on an amount of battery power available to the image sensor chip, wherein each pixel of the compressed pixel data is organized into a first category comprising one of odd column pixel data and even column pixel data and a second category comprising one of odd row pixel data and even row pixel data; decompressing, by a digital signal processor (DSP), the compressed pixel data to produce decompressed pixel data organized into the plurality of categories; combining the categories of decompressed pixel data to produce combined pixel data; compressing the combined pixel data to produce a digital image comprising a digital image format; and outputting the digital image.