The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 06, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 10, 1996
Applicant:
Inventor:
Richard Billings Merrill, Daly City, CA (US);
Assignee:
Foveonics, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
348302 ; 348304 ;
Abstract
The dynamic range of an imaging system that utilizes an array of active pixel sensor cells is substantially increased by reading each cell in the array multiple times during each integration period. Each time a cell is read, the number of photons collected by the cell is saved and the cell is reset if the cell would normally saturate by the end of the integration period. At the end of the integration period, the number of photons collected by each cell is defined by the sum of the values collected during the integration period.