SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT IMPROVEMENT OF IMAGE QUALITY IN CAMERAS

摘要

A system and method is provided for efficiently correcting and/or normalizing individual pixel outputs in a sensor array, or another set of image data exhibiting fixed pattern noise, by classing various correction factors into a fixed set of classes and identifying each of the pixels in the array based upon its class. Most classes are used to de­fine specific correction conditions (typically discrete gain/offset values), while some classes are set aside for certain bad pixel conditions. Pixels falling within a certain set of predefined gain/offset ranges that are largely similar, but possibly discrete for each other within an acceptable value range, are assigned to a given class during manufacture and this information is stored within a table in the camera's processor. When data is output from the pixels during runtime, the outputting pixel's given class is identified and the appropriate class-based gain/offset is applied to the output to normalize it as it is transmitted downstream to an image acquisition system (PC memory and/or view screen). When a given class indicates a bad pixel of a certain type (e.g. single bad pixel, bad pixel with right-side adjacent bad pixel, bad pixel with adjacent left-side bad pixel, etc.), the appropriate replacement procedure, using, for example an interpolation based upon neighboring pixels, is applied to generate an acceptable output for the bad pixel.