High dynamic range imaging of environment with a high intensity reflecting/transmitting source

Abstract

Active-gated imaging system and method for imaging environment with at least one high-intensity source. A light source emits light pulses toward the environment, and an image sensor with a pixelated sensor array receives reflected pulses from a selected depth of field and generates a main image. The image sensor exposure mechanism includes a pixelated transfer gate synchronized with the emitted pulses. An image processor identifies oversaturated image portions of the main image resulting from a respective high-intensity source, and interprets the oversaturated image portions using supplementary image information acquired by image sensor. The supplementary information may be obtained from: a low-illumination secondary image having substantially fewer gating cycles than the main image; by accumulating reflected pulses from the high-intensity source after the reflected pulses undergo internal reflections between optical elements of the camera; or a low-illumination secondary image acquired by residual photon accumulation during a non-exposure state of image sensor.