CMOS sensor camera with on-chip image compression

摘要

A digital camera ( 10 ) that has an array ( 11 ) of CMOS sensor elements ( 11 a). The array ( 11 ) is read in a manner that performs spatial-to-frequency transforms for image compression on the analog output signals of the sensor elements. More specifically, wordlines ( 12 ) and bitlines ( 13 ) are pulsewidth modulated so that the coincidence of their "on" times corresponds to a desired coefficient of the basis function of the transform (FIGS. 3 and 4 ). Additional comparator circuitry ( 15 ), quantizers ( 16 ), and encoding circuitry ( 19 ) can be part of the same integrated circuit as the array ( 11 ).