Rockwell International Corporation

Biomorphic Vlsi, Inc.

H Taichi Wang

Bimal P Mathur

Bimal Mathur

David Lawrence Standley

Richard S Haendel

Craig Charles Reinhart

Shih-Chii Liu

A system and method of processing data associated with an array of pixels arranged in two dimensions are disclosed. The data includes a value representative of an intensity of photoexposure in one of a plurality of distinct spectral regions for each pixel location in the array. For at least one pixel location being associated with a first one of the plurality of spectral regions, a direction for interpolation is selected based upon an intensity gradient at the pixel location and an intensity continuity bias representative of a trend in changes in intensity in a neighborhood in the array of pixels about the pixel location. An interpolation among values representative of an intensity of photoexposure at two or more neighboring pixel locations in at least one set of neighboring pixels aligned along the selected direction to provides a value associated with the at least one pixel location which is representative of an intensity in a second one of the plurality of spectral regions distinct from the first spectral region.

System and method of color interpolation

A semiconductor imaging sensor utilizes a color filter pattern. The imaging sensor includes light sensitive-elements, each of which is sensitive to photon energy in a spectral region or color band associated with the light-sensitive elements. Select light-sensitive elements in the array are sensitive to energy in a wide band spectral region or &ldquo;white&rdquo; color band. This permits the capture of color information which can be lost with the use of typical semiconductor imaging sensors in digital photography. This capture of the additional color information in digital photography allows for better quality of reproduction of an image on a selected medium such as color prints.

Color filter pattern

A system and method for reading out pixel signals from a multi-color imaging array. The imaging array includes light-sensitive elements which are arranged in rows and columns. Each of the light-sensitive elements is sensitive to photon energy in one of a plurality of spectral regions or color bands. Read-out circuits extract signals representative of an intensity of the photo exposure of the light-sensitive elements at extraction intervals one row at a time. At any particular extraction interval, all of the signals extracted by a particular read-out circuit originate at light-sensitive elements which are sensitive to photon energy in the same spectral region or color band.

Pixel read-out architecture

A vehicular traffic monitoring system incorporates an array of photosensors and a nonlinear resistive network for identifying, locating, and processing outliers in sensor images of a highway or intersection. The camera system can be mounted on a pole or overpass to provide an image of the roadway or intersection. Areas of the outlier network ('video loops') are designated to correspond to selected areas of the roadway. Images are received by the outlier detection network with all data path switches closed between sensor elements and their corresponding network nodes. The system detects the presence of objects in the image by comparing the brightness or intensity of each pixel with that of the background. If the intensity of a pixel is significantly different from the background level, the data path switch corresponding to that pixel is opened. A readout of the state of all the switches in the network yields a map of outlier points for each video frame. The outlier map is connected to a data processing system to identify and locate outlier points in the image. The detection of a threshold number of outliers in a video loop indicates the presence of a vehicle at the corresponding area of the roadway. The processor, having a greatly reduced computational load without extensive image processing, simply measures and transmits traffic data such as the number and speed of vehicles passing through the video loops.

Vehicular traffic monitoring system

A low cost, real time vehicle lane position detection system is provided for determining and maintaining the position of the vehicle on a highway. The system comprises an image sensor mounted on the front of an automotive vehicle and an integrated processor for performing real-time lane mark detection. The sensor/processor system identifies highway lane marks on the detector image plane by using a nonlinear resistive network for detecting outliers. A line detection algorithm, such as the Hough transform, is used to determine the lane marks from the outliers on the image plane. Because the expected lane position can be determined in advance, an added degree of signal-to-noise discrimination is achieved by providing feedback to the processor for outlier detection. The position of the vehicle in the lane is determined and tracked from the position of the detected lane marks on the image plane given the sensor position and optical geometry.

Vehicle lane position detection system

A system of active emitters and sensors is provided for measuring distance and communicating between vehicles on an automated highway. The preferred system utilizes a pair of spaced apart sensors at the front of each vehicle for stereo depth perception, two temporally modulated emitters on the rear of each vehicle for redundancy and inter-vehicle communication, and temporally modulated emitters positioned at intervals along the highway for communication from the highway to the vehicles. The emitters may transmit radiation at a wavelength, such as 1 .mu.m IR, for example, that can be detected by low cost detectors. The emitters are modulated temporally to transmit a binary code, resulting in signal-to-noise improvement and increased clutter rejection and operational range. Each sensor may include an array of IR detectors and associated readout circuitry, an imaging lens, a lens array for improving detector fill factor, a filter and polarizer to reject clutter and reduce noise, and a cylindrical lens to provide a good vertical field of view. Detector charge integration is controlled by the binary code of the emitters and depends on the code length and local background illumination. The sensors are connected to a computer processor for processing data received from the emitters and computing distance between vehicles.

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Thousand Oaks, CA, United States of America

H Taichi Wang