Capturing an image of a scene using a sequence of portions of the scene captured by a sensor
An imaging device for capturing an image of a scene, comprising: an image sensor; an optical arrangement operable to focus light from a portion of the scene onto the image sensor while preventing light from other portions of the scene from being focused onto the sensor; a controller configured to cause the optical arrangement to focus light from a sequence of portions of the scene onto the sensor so that the sensor captures the said sequence of portions of the scene; and a processor configured to use the captured portions of the scene to construct an image of the scene.
1. An imaging device for capturing an image of a scene, comprising:
an image sensor comprising a plurality of pixels;
an optical arrangement operable to focus light from a portion of the scene onto the image sensor whilst preventing light from other portions of the scene from being focused onto the sensor;
a controller configured to cause the optical arrangement to focus light from a sequence of portions of the scene onto the sensor so that the sensor captures the said sequence of portions of the scene; and
a processor configured to use the captured portions of the scene to construct an image of the scene so that the constructed image contains pixel data for a number of pixels greater than the number of pixels in the image sensor.
2. An imaging device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the optical arrangement comprises a mask unit and one or more optical elements.
3. An imaging device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the mask unit is operable to pass light from a portion of the scene whilst blocking light from other portions of the scene, and the one or more optical elements are configured to focus light passing through the mask unit on to the image sensor.
4. An imaging device as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to cause the mask unit to pass light from a sequence of portions of the scene so that the sensor captures the said sequence of portions of the scene.
5. An imaging device as claimed in claim 2 , claim wherein the one or more optical elements are disposed between the mask unit and the image sensor.
6. An imaging device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the mask unit is integral with the one or more optical elements.
7. An imaging device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the mask unit is a liquid-crystal array providing a plurality of windows each operable to pass light from a portion of the scene whilst blocking light from other portions of the scene.
8. An imaging device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the controller is configured to cause the array to pass light through a sequence of windows whilst at each stage preventing light from passing through remaining windows of the array.
9. An imaging device as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the image sensor comprises a plurality of pixels and the one or more optical elements are configured to focus light passing through each window of the liquid-crystal array on to the pixels of the image sensor.
10. An imaging device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the windows of the liquid-crystal array are arranged in a series of rows, and the one or more optical elements are configured to focus light passing through the window of each row on to the pixels of the image sensor.
11. An imaging device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the windows of the liquid-crystal array are arranged in a series of columns, and the one or more optical elements are configured to focus light passing through the window of each column on to the pixels of the image sensor.
12. An imaging device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the liquid-crystal array is an LCD device.
13. An imaging device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the liquid-crystal array is an LCoS device.
14. An imaging device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to stitch the captured portions of the scene together to construct the image of the scene.
15. An imaging device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the one or more optical elements are a single lens.
16. An imaging device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the optical arrangement comprises a plurality of optical elements each corresponding to one or more windows of the liquid-crystal array, each optical element being configured to focus light passing through its corresponding one or more windows on to the sensor.
17. An imaging device as claimed in claim 16 , wherein each of the optical elements is a prism or each of the optical elements is a lens.
18. A method of capturing an image of a scene with an imaging device having an image sensor comprising a plurality of pixels and an optical arrangement operable to focus light from a portion of the scene onto the image sensor whilst preventing light from other portions of the scene from being focused onto the sensor, the method comprising:
electronically controlling the optical arrangement to focus light from a sequence of portions of the scene onto the sensor so the sensor captures the said sequence of portions of the scene; and
using the captured portions of the scene to construct an image of the scene that contains pixel data for a number of pixels greater than the number of pixels in the image sensor.
19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed at an imaging device having an image sensor comprising a plurality of pixels and an optical arrangement operable to focus light from a portion of a scene onto the image sensor whilst preventing light from other portions of the scene from being focused onto the sensor, causes the imaging device to perform a method of capturing an image of the scene comprising:
electronically controlling the optical arrangement to focus light from a sequence of portions of the scene onto the sensor so the sensor captures the said sequence of portions of the scene; and
using the captured portions of the scene to construct an image of the scene that contains pixel data for a number of pixels greater than the number of pixels in the image sensor.