Photonis France

Franck Robert

Damien Letexier

Carlo Kaiser

Image acquisition device comprising a photocathode, converting an incident flux of photons into a flux of electrons, a sensor, and a processor. The device according to the invention comprises a matrix of elementary filters, each associated with at least one pixel of the sensor, the matrix being disposed upstream of the photocathode. The matrix comprises primary color filters, and transparent filters, termed panchromatic filters. The processor is configured to: calculate a quantity, termed a useful quantity (), for determining whether at least one zone of the sensor is in conditions of weak or strong illumination, the useful quantity being representative of a mean surface flux of photons or of electrons which is detected on a set of panchromatic pixels of the sensor; forming, only if the zone is in conditions of strong illumination, an image of the zone on the basis of the primary color pixels of this zone.

Bimode image acquisition device with photocathode

The invention relates to an image acquisition device comprising a sensor composed of an array of photosensitive pixels, and an array of elementary filters covering the sensor. Pixels may be of three different types: panchromatic pixels, primary colour pixels and infrared pixels. Under low illumination conditions, the device displays a monochrome image using panchromatic pixels, and under high illumination conditions, a colour image with a high signal to noise ratio, by combining primary colour images and subtracting the infrared image.

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Brive, France

Franck Robert