Eastman-kodak Company

Lee N Davy

Ronald R Firth

James E Harvey

Output signals from a solid state image sensor having defect locations causing corresponding defects in the output signals are processed by correcting the defective portions of the signals; and image enhancing only those portions of the signal not in the neighborhood of a corrected defect.

Method and apparatus for processing signals from a solid-state image

Column defect compensating apparatus for a charge coupled device (CCD) image sensor of the type having a two-dimensional array comprising rows and columns of charge transfer elements, and an output CCD shift register arranged across one end of the columns includes an auxiliary shift register clocked in synchronism with the output shift register, and containing information representing the location of defective columns in the two-dimensional array. A signal processing circuit responsive to the output of the auxiliary shift register processes the output of the array to compensate for the column defects. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the auxiliary shift register is a CCD shift register, and a plurality of programable input circuits are provided for inserting, in parallel, into the auxiliary CCD shift register, signals representing the condition of the columns of the array. The programable input circuits include input diodes disposed adjacent the cells of the auxiliary shift register for providing a source of signal charge, input gates disposed between the diodes and the respective cells of the auxiliary shift register for selectively isolating the diodes from the cells, and selectively destructible conductors for controlling the transfer of charge from the diodes past the input gates.

Column defect compensating apparatus for CCD image sensor

In an electronic copier of a type that includes a document scanner, a memory device and a printer, a complex servo system is generally used to provide phase synchronous operation between such copier components. In accordance with the present invention, methods and apparatus are provided wherein an electronic copier is operated in a 'free running' mode without such phase synchronization. Specifically, in accordance with a disclosed embodiment of the invention, a composite information signal corresponding to an original document is stored in the memory device in the form of document information sandwiched by leading and trailing pilot signals. Upon playback, certain copier functions are so coordinated with the termination of the leading pilot signal that problems which would be expected in the absence of a servo system, such as image registration errors, are avoided.

Non-synchronous operation of an electronic copier

Apparatus for use in an optical scanner for accurately controlling, from scan to scan, the position in which the horizontal scan line is formed. A closed electrooptical feedback loop is employed to sense, prior to the formation of each horizontal scan line, the vertical position of the scanning light beam in the plane of the recording element and, in the event its position is displaced from a nominal position, to produce an error signal to move the beam to the nominal position.

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Rochester, NY, United States of America

Lee N Davy