Rambus Inc.
IMAGING SYSTEMS AND METHODS WITH PERIODIC GRATINGS WITH HOMOLOGOUS PIXELS

Abstract:

An imaging device has an optical grating with a repealing pattern of similar subgratings, each of which produces a similar interference pattern responsive to an image scene. An underlying pixel array samples the similar images to obtain a collection of similar, low-resolution patterns. A processor sums these patterns, on a per-pixel basis, to produce a low-noise, low-resolution digest of the imaged scene. The digest simplifies some aspects of image processing and has application where active illumination power is a chief concern, either for power constraints or when excessive illumination would be undesirable or unsafe.