US 11,988,835 B2
Systems and methods for power efficient image acquisition using single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs)
Raymond Kirk Price, Redmond, WA (US); Michael Bleyer, Seattle, WA (US); Christopher Douglas Edmonds, Carnation, WA (US); and William Chao-Hui Hwang, Bellevue, WA (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on May 28, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/334,603.
Prior Publication US 2022/0382056 A1, Dec. 1, 2022
Int. Cl. G02B 27/01 (2006.01); H04N 23/65 (2023.01); H04N 25/441 (2023.01); H04N 25/445 (2023.01)
CPC G02B 27/0172 (2013.01) [H04N 23/651 (2023.01); H04N 25/441 (2023.01); H04N 25/445 (2023.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for power efficient image acquisition, the system comprising:
an image sensor comprising a plurality of image sensing 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, using the image sensor, a plurality of partial image frames including at least a first partial image frame and a second partial image frame, the first partial image frame being captured at a first timepoint using a first subset of image sensing pixels of the plurality of image sensing pixels of the image sensor, the second partial image frame being captured at a second timepoint using a second subset of image sensing pixels of the plurality of image sensing pixels of the image sensor, the second subset of image sensing pixels comprising different image sensing pixels than the first subset of image sensing pixels, the second timepoint being temporally subsequent to the first timepoint;
generate aligned partial image frames by using motion data associated with the image sensor to spatially align the first partial image frame captured using the first subset of image sensing pixels with the second partial image frame captured using the second subset of image sensing pixels; and
generate a composite image frame by compositing each of the aligned partial image frames with one another.
 
13. A system for power efficient image acquisition, the system comprising:
an image sensor comprising a plurality of image sensing pixels arranged in a pixel array;
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:
obtain a runtime conditions measurement; and
in response to the runtime conditions measurement, selectively activate a pixel subset image acquisition mode for image acquisition, wherein the pixel subset image acquisition mode configures the system to utilize a subset of image sensing pixels of the pixel array of the image sensor to capture image frames, the subset of image sensing pixels of the pixel array comprising fewer than all image sensing pixels of the pixel array of the image sensor.
 
19. A system for power efficient image acquisition, the system comprising:
an image sensor comprising a plurality of image sensing 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, using the image sensor, an image frame using a subset of image sensing pixels of the plurality of image sensing pixels of the image sensor while refraining from utilizing remaining image sensing pixels of the plurality of image sensing pixels to capture the image frame; and
generate an output image frame by performing super-resolution processing on the image frame, wherein the output image frame comprises a higher image resolution than the image frame, wherein the super-resolution processing refrains from utilizing (i) image data captured by the remaining image sensing pixels of the plurality of image sensing pixels and (ii) image data captured by a second image sensor.