Image sensor for compression and enhancement

In this paper, we propose a novel image sensor on which video signal can be compressed. By making use of very fast analog processing on the imager plane, the compression sensor can significantly reduce the amount of pixel data output from the sensor. A prototype sensor with 32×32 pixels has been fabricated using standard 2 μm CMOS technology. Some results of examinations are shown in this paper. We also describe a motion adaptive enhancement sensor which controls storage time independently pixel by pixel. The proposed sensor is intended to have high temporal resolution in the moving area and high SNR in the static area. According to preliminary experiments, the value of SNR increases about 5 dB compared to video compression sensor.