Foveal Sensor architecture with charge normalization

The invention describes a CMOS foveal image sensor integrated circuit and the process of making the same. Also included is a novel photo charge normalization technique that enables use of the same charge amplifier with different size pixels, while s imultaneously providing a wide dynamic response to the incoming light.

In contrast to the uniform acuity of conventional imaging systems, all advanced biological systems sample visual scenes in a space variant fashion. This technique is called fo veal vision. The region of the retina with the highest acuity is called the fovea and this part is a small percentage (about 5%) of the overall FOV (field of view). Hence, retinal acuity varies by several orders of magnitude within the FOV. The ad vantage of this configuration (low peripheral acuity and high foveal acuity) is the requirement for a much smaller data set to support the entire FOV.

A first plurality of CMOS active pixels of a first size are arranged in a central fovea region on a substrate of the circuit. A second plurality of CMOS active pixels of another size are arranged in a first peripheral ring about the central fovea region. A normalization circuit is operatively arranged to normalize a photo charge applied to each of the different size pixels such that when different sized pixels are subjected to the same illumination, the output signals of each one of the same is the same.

The significant advantages in developing sensors that replicate the natural way of sensing visual images lie in their faithfulness to reality, greater accuracy, lower data storage requirements, less processing and computation time, smaller size, lower costs, etc.

Categories: Optics Patents Issues: 6,455,831

Patents:
US 6,455,831

Type of Offer: Licensing



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