COLOUR CAMERA WITH MONOCHROME AND COLOUR IMAGE SENSOR

摘要

A high sensitivity monochrome image sensor 15 optically coupled to receive a first sub-beam 13 having a first light intensity produces a plurality of monochrome image pixels representative of an imaged object. A color image sensor 16 optically coupled to receive a second sub-beam 14 having a second light intensity produces a plurality of color image pixels representative of the imaged object. The monochrome sensor has a higher sensitivity than the color sensor. The first light intensity exceeds the second light intensity i.e., the ratio of the first sub-beam's light intensity to that of the second sub-beam is between about 70:30 and 80:20. Separate control circuits 20, 19 are provided for each sensor, allowing each sensor to be operated selectably independently of the other.