Himax Imaging, Inc.

National Taiwan University

Himax Technologies, Inc.

Lextar Electronics Corporation

Po-Chang Chen

Yuan-Chih Peng

Po-Fang Chen

Wei-Chieh Yang

Dong-Long Lin

Chih-Hao Lin

Homer H Chen

Yi-Nung Liu

Kun-Hua Wu

Yu-Yu Sung

Po-Hsun Su

Yen-Te Shih

Chih-Ping Lo

Jing-Chu Chan

Wei-Chun Mai

Yi-I Lu

Pei-Ching Chen

Guan-Chung Ting

Kuan-Hua Chen

Cheng-Wei Hung

Chao-Hsien Wang

A binning system includes a red-green-blue-infrared (RGB-IR) image sensor including at least one pixel group composed of 2×2 sub-groups, each having 2×2 pixels including two green pixels, one infrared pixels and one red or blue pixel, the 2×2 sub-groups being arranged such that the pixel group is half green, one quarter infrared, one eighth red and one eighth blue; and a digital binning device that performs pixel binning on at least one addend pixel to result in a binned pixel. The binned pixel and the at least one addend pixel are located in a same pixel group.

Binning system

This disclosure relates to an active inerter damper configured to be disposed on or in a building structure. The active inerter damper includes a base, a lead screw, a rotational mass block, a driving device and a controller. The lead screw is movably disposed above the base along an axial direction. The rotational mass block is engaged with the lead screw so as to be rotatable with respect to the base. The driving device is connected to the lead screw. The controller is electrically connected to the driving device, and the controller is configured to activate the driving device to move the lead screw along the axial direction so as to rotate the rotational mass block via the lead screw.

Active inerter damper

A system of estimating ambient light includes an image sensor that captures an image; a region of interest (ROI) selector that determines at least one ROI on the image; an occupancy detector that determines existence status of an object disposed on the at least one ROI; and an ambient light estimator that estimates illumination of ambient light of the at least one ROI according to luminance of the at least one ROI on the image.

System and method of estimating ambient light

A method of controlling a lighting fixture based on motion detection includes: receiving a plurality of captured image frames; obtaining a plurality of resampled image frames by resampling the captured image frames according to regional characteristics of the resampled image frames; dynamically adjusting a sensitivity for motion detection according to the regional characteristics of the resampled image frames; performing motion detection on the resampled image frames according to the sensitivity; and controlling the lighting fixture according to a result of the motion detection.

Method and apparatus for controlling a lighting fixture based on motion detection and related lighting fixture

A presence detection system includes a camera that captures an image; an appearance-based detector that detects appearance of an object according to the image, thereby outputting an appearance-detection signal that is asserted when the appearance is detected; a proximity detector that detects motion of the object on a predetermined detection window on the image, thereby outputting a proximity-detection signal that is asserted when the motion is detected; and a fusion unit that receives the appearance-detection signal and the proximity-detection signal, thereby outputting an object-presence signal that is asserted when the appearance-detection signal or the proximity-detection signal is asserted.

Presence detection system

A method for controlling an image capturing device that is operated according to a startup signal includes: configuring an image sensor array of the image capturing device by a first context to output a high-resolution image with a relatively long exposure time to a post-device; switching the first context to a second context based on the high-resolution image and a wide convergence zone; configuring the image sensor array by the second context to output one or more low-resolution images with relatively short exposure times in order to update an exposure value based on the low-resolution images; and updating the exposure value based on a narrow convergence zone to configure the image sensor array.

Method and apparatus of performing automatic exposure control for image sensor with context switching

A motion detection system with flicker compensation includes an image sensor that captures a first image for motion detection and a second image for flicker detection, the second image having a resolution lower than the first image; a controller that controls the image sensor to output either the first image or the second image; a motion detection device that receives first images and performs motion detection on the first images; and a flicker detection device that receives second images and performs flicker detection on the second images to generate a time offset, which is fed to the controller to update a wakeup cycle for coordinating the image sensor.

Motion detection system with flicker compensation

A high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging system includes a pixel array providing a high-sensitivity signal and a low-sensitivity signal; and an HDR encoder generating an encoded signal according to the high-sensitivity signal and the low-sensitivity signal. A flag bit is asserted when the high-sensitivity signal is not greater than a predetermined threshold, otherwise the flag bit is de-asserted.

High-dynamic-range imaging system and method

An auto exposure control system includes a mean statistics unit that generates a weighted mean brightness value for an image array; a target control unit that determines a target brightness value according to an ambient status that is determined in accordance with an ambient light value, wherein, in one embodiment, the weighted mean brightness value is used as the ambient light value; a stabilization unit that generates stabilization control signals for the target control unit according to the ambient light value and ambient status information provided by the target control unit; and an exposure value control unit that computes a desired exposure value by comparing the target brightness value with the weighted mean brightness value and determines an exposure command according to the desired exposure value.

Auto exposure control system and method

An automatic focus searching method for an image capture device is provided. The image capture device has a lens and an image sensor. The method includes: setting an exposure time of the image sensor; computing a focal sweep trajectory of the lens based on at least the exposure time; during the exposure time, moving the lens along the focal sweep trajectory while exposing the image sensor; reading out pixel data of the image sensor that is generated during the exposure time; and applying a filtering operation upon the pixel data to generate an output image.

Automatic focus searching using focal sweep technique

An image sensor includes a two dimensional array of pixel elements, a color filter array, and a digital circuit. The color filter array is superimposed on and in registration with the two dimensional array of pixel elements. The color filter array includes a first group of selectively transmissive filters and a second group of selectively transmissive filters. The first group of selectively transmissive filters is arranged to selectively transmit spectral energy in M colors of the visible spectrum, wherein M is larger than two. The second group of selectively transmissive filters is arranged to selectively transmit spectral energy in N colors of the visible spectrum, wherein any selectively transmissive filter of the first and the second groups of selectively transmissive filters is arranged to transmit spectral energy in one specific color of the visible spectrum, and N is larger than M. An associated illuminant estimation method is also provided.

Image sensor equipped with additional group of selectively transmissive filters for illuminant estimation, and associated illuminant estimation method

A dual-exposure control circuit of an imaging system includes an RGB pixel array and a white pixel array. The dual-exposure control circuit is arranged to determine EGPs for the RGB pixel array and the white pixel array, and compensate RGB data sensed by the RGB pixel array based on the determined EGP.

Dual exposure control circuit and associated method

A method for controlling a frame exposure level, comprising: (a) determining a second integration time for the pixel array via a desired exposure level, and determining a second analog gain and a second digital gain via a desired total gain; (b) respectively applying the second analog gain and the second digital gain to amplify at least one second light sensing signal and at least one digital light sensing signal generated from the second light sensing signal; (c) computing a desired total gain for the third frame, and determining a third analog gain and a third digital gain via the desired total gain; and (d) respectively applying the third analog gain and the third digital gain to amplify at least one third light sensing signal and at least one digital light sensing signal generated from the third light sensing signal, and applying the second integration time to the pixel array.

Method for controlling exposure level of frame in image sensor, computer readable recording media for performing the method, and image processing system

A compensation method of spectral mismatch for a color filter array (CFA) comprising of white, red, green, and blue (WRGB) color filters includes introducing an offset representing spectral mismatch to modify a linear model that relates a W component of a pixel to R, G, and B components of the pixel. In one embodiment, an estimated offset is generated according to readout component images, and a compensated component image is generated according to the estimated offset and a corresponding readout component image.

Compensation method of spectral mismatch

An image processing system adaptable to a dual-mode image device includes an adaptive color correction system coupled to receive an image, and configured to adaptively correct for color distortion according to a chief ray angle (CRA) of a pixel of the image and an IR signal from the dual-mode image device associated with a light source.

Growing community of inventors

Tainan, Taiwan

Po-Chang Chen