US 12,267,606 B2
Systems and methods for dark current compensation in single photon avalanche diode imagery
Raymond Kirk Price, Carnation, WA (US); Michael Bleyer, Seattle, WA (US); and Christopher Douglas Edmonds, Carnation, WA (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on Mar. 5, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/596,359.
Application 18/596,359 is a continuation of application No. 18/318,533, filed on May 16, 2023, granted, now 11,962,922.
Application 18/318,533 is a continuation of application No. 17/334,618, filed on May 28, 2021, granted, now 11,696,049, issued on Jul. 4, 2023.
Prior Publication US 2024/0251182 A1, Jul. 25, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04N 5/335 (2011.01); G06T 3/40 (2006.01); H04N 25/46 (2023.01); H04N 25/63 (2023.01)
CPC H04N 25/63 (2023.01) [G06T 3/40 (2013.01); H04N 25/46 (2023.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for compensating for dark current, the system comprising:
an image sensor array comprising a plurality of image sensor pixels;
one or more processors; and
one or more hardware storage devices storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to configure the system to:
capture an image frame with the image sensor array;
generate a temporally filtered image by performing a temporal filtering operation based on the image frame and at least one preceding image frame, the at least one preceding image frame having been captured by the image sensor array at a timepoint that temporally precedes a timepoint associated with the image frame;
obtain a dark current factor indicating an amount of dark current associated with the image frame;
select a dark current image frame, the dark current image frame comprising data indicating one or more image sensor pixels of the plurality of image sensor pixels that detect an avalanche event without detecting a corresponding photon, wherein the dark current image frame is one of a plurality of dark current image frames captured while the image sensor array is covered to prevent photons from reaching the image sensor array, wherein the dark current image frame is selected from the plurality of dark current image frames based on the dark current factor; and
generate a dark current compensated image by performing a subtraction operation on the temporally filtered image based on the dark current image frame.