A passive imaging sensor includes a plurality of optical elements in which at least one includes one or more Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) Micro-Mirror Arrays (MMAs) having a plurality of independently and continuously controllable mirrors that at least tip and tilt in 2 DOF and may tip, tilt and piston in 3 DOF. In an operational mode, the mirrors are tipped and tilted, and possibly pistoned, such that the optical radiation is focused at the pixelated detector to read out an image of the scene. NUC coefficients such as offset and/or gain are applied to either the output signals of the detector or to the image to form the NUC'd images. In a calibration mode, the mirrors are tipped and tilted and/or pistoned to spatially or temporally blur the image or to re-direct the FOV to one or more on-board calibration sources to generate a uniform image from which to calculate and update the NUC coefficients.

Systems, methods, and devices for thermal detection. A thermal detection device includes a visual camera, a thermal detector, a controller, a user interface, a display, and a removable and rechargeable battery pack. The thermal detection device also includes a plurality of additional software and hardware modules configured to perform or execute various functions and operations of the thermal detection device. An output from the visual camera and an output from the thermal detector are combined by the controller or the plurality of additional modules to generate a combined image for display on the display.

A computational sensing array includes an array of sensing elements. In each sensing element, a first signal is generated from a transducer. A second signal is produced by a collection unit in response to receiving the first signal. The second signal may be modified, in a conditioning unit. A sensing element preprocessing unit generates a word representing the value of the modified second signal, and may produce an indication of change of the first signal. A current value of the word may be stored in a state holding element local to the sensing element, and a previous value of the word may be retained in a further state holding element local to the sensing element.

An infrared detector system is described which includes a detector diode array 3 and a non volatile memory 1. The non volatile memory 1 can use CMOS Silicon Fuse technology which can be polysilicon devices that are programmed using voltage-current-time profiles suitable for the silicon process technology, such that when applied will cause the polysilicon element to heat up rapidly and melt. This results in the fuse element going open circuit, just like blowing a known fuse. The fuse can act as a logic element that has a one time, user programmable and permanent logic state. An array of such memory cells is can be mapped to a sub pixel diode detector array.

The present technology relates to a signal processing apparatus, a control method, an image pickup element, and an electronic device which make it possible to suppress RTS noise. The signal processing apparatus of the present technology may include an amplifying transistor and a short-circuit unit. The amplifying transistor amplifies a signal input to a gate, and the short-circuit unit is capable of short-circuiting the gate of the amplifying transistor to a potential which reduces a gate-to-source voltage of the amplifying transistor. For example, it is determined whether the amplifying transistor is in a period of a non-operating state, and when the amplifying transistor is determined to be in the period of a non-operating state, the gate of the amplifying transistor may be short-circuited. The present technology can be applied, for example, to an image pickup element and an electronic device.

Various techniques are provided for systems and methods to process images to reduce consumption of an available output dynamic range by the sky in images. For example, according to one or more embodiments of the disclosure, a region or area in images that may correspond to the sky may be identified based on the location of the horizon in the images. A distribution of irradiance levels in the identified sky region may be analyzed to determine a dynamic range attributable to the sky region. A transfer function that compresses the dynamic range attributable to the sky region may be generated and applied so that the sky in the images may be suppressed, thereby advantageously preserving more dynamic range for terrestrial objects and other objects of interest in the images.

A system and method for image stream synchronization for an FIR camera. The method includes applying an initial correction to a received image stream; splitting the corrected image stream into a first image stream and at least a second image stream; enhancing the first image stream by at least one image enhancing process; buffering the second image stream until a synchronization signal is received; and synchronizing the first image stream and second image stream, such that the output of the enhanced first image stream and the buffered second image stream match.

.[.The present invention relates to an.]. .Iadd.An .Iaddend.image processing apparatus which can restore, from a color and sensitivity mosaic image acquired using a CCD image sensor of the single plate type or the like, a color image signal of a wide dynamic range wherein the sensitivity characteristics of pixels are uniformized and each of the pixels has all of a plurality of color components .Iadd.is provided.Iaddend.. A sensitivity uniformization section uniformizes the sensitivities of pixels of a color and sensitivity mosaic image to produce a color mosaic image, and a color interpolation section interpolates color components of the pixels of the color mosaic image M to produce output images R, G and B. The .[.present invention.]. .Iadd.image processing apparatus .Iaddend.can be applied to a digital camera which converts a picked up optical image into a color image signal of a wide dynamic range.

An imaging apparatus includes a pixel that generates charge; an integral amplifier that integrates charge transferred from the pixel; a low pass filter to which output of the integral amplifier is supplied and whose time constant is variable; first and second sample-and-hold circuits that sample and hold output of the low pass filter before and after the charge is transferred from the pixel to the integral amplifier, respectively; a differential circuit that outputs a difference between signals held by the first and second sample-and-hold circuits; and a control circuit that changes the time constant. The control circuit decreases the time constant after the sampling by the first sample-and-hold circuit ends, and increases the time constant in the middle of the sampling by the second sample-and-hold circuit.

It makes it easier to reduce the line capacitance of vertical signal lines in a solid-state image sensor in which signals are output via the vertical signal lines.

The solid-state image sensor is provided with a logic circuit, a pixel circuit, and a negative capacitance circuit. In the solid-state image sensor, the logic circuit processes an analog signal. Also, in the solid-state image sensor, the pixel circuit generates an analog signal by photoelectric conversion, and outputs the analog signal to the logic circuit via a predetermined signal line. In the solid-state image sensor, the negative capacitance circuit is connected to the predetermined signal line.