Digital cameras with direct luminance and chrominance detection
Digital camera systems and methods are described that provide a color digital camera with direct luminance detection. The luminance signals are obtained directly from a broadband image sensor channel without interpolation of RGB data. The chrominance signals are obtained from one or more additional image sensor channels comprising red and/or blue color band detection capability. The red and blue signals are directly combined with the luminance image sensor channel signals. The digital camera generates and outputs an image in YCrCb color space by directly combining outputs of the broadband, red and blue sensors.
1. A multi-lens camera arrangement comprising:
a first channel including a first optics component and a first image sensor, wherein the first optics component generates visual spectrum data;
a second channel including a second optics component and a second image sensor, wherein the second optics component generates infrared spectrum data; and
a processing component coupled to the first optics component and the second optics component to combine outputs from the first channel and the second channel to generate a combined image.
2. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the visual spectrum data includes RGB data.
3. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the infrared spectrum data includes near infrared data.
4. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the first image sensor includes a plurality of pixels.
5. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 4 , wherein each of the plurality of pixels includes two or more photodiodes.
6. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 5 , wherein a first photodiode detects a first band of colors and a second photodiode detects a second band of colors.
7. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the second image sensor detects low light signals.
8. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the first optics component has a first field of view, and wherein the second optics component has a second field of view that is different than the first field of view.
9. The multi-lens camera arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the processing component simultaneously processes the visual spectrum data and the infrared spectrum data.
10. A camera system comprising:
a visual spectrum camera having a visual spectrum sensor, wherein the visual spectrum camera is configured to output visual spectrum data;
an infrared spectrum camera having an infrared spectrum sensor, wherein the infrared spectrum camera is configured to output infrared spectrum data;
a processor coupled to the visual spectrum camera and the infrared spectrum camera that combines the visual spectrum data and the infrared spectrum data.
11. The camera system of claim 10 , wherein the visual spectrum camera provides multiple images comprising a video output.
12. The camera system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to determine a first integration time for the visual spectrum sensor and a second integration time for the infrared spectrum sensor for a frame.
13. The camera system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to simultaneously control data acquisition by the visual spectrum sensor and the infrared spectrum sensor.
14. The camera system of claim 10 , wherein the processor combines the visual spectrum data and the infrared spectrum data without interpolation in a red-green-blue (RGB) color space.
15. A tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:
instructions to generate visible spectrum data with a first channel of a digital camera, wherein the first channel includes a first optics component and a first image sensor;
instructions to generate infrared spectrum data with a second channel of the digital camera, wherein the second channel includes a second optics component and a second image sensor; and
instructions to generate an image by combining outputs of the first channel and the second channel.
16. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the first image sensor includes a plurality of pixels.
17. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the visual spectrum data and the infrared spectrum data are processed simultaneously.
18. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions to simultaneously control data acquisition by the first image sensor and the second image sensor.
19. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the visible spectrum data includes RGB data.
20. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the infrared spectrum data includes near infrared data.