US 12,320,981 B2
Systems and methods for power efficient image acquisition using single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs)
Raymond Kirk Price, Carnation, 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 Apr. 19, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/640,218.
Application 18/640,218 is a continuation of application No. 17/334,603, filed on May 28, 2021, granted, now 11,988,835.
Prior Publication US 2024/0345400 A1, Oct. 17, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
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)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for power efficient image acquisition, the method comprising:
capturing, using an image sensor comprising a plurality of image sensing pixels, 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;
generating 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
generating a composite image frame by compositing each of the aligned partial image frames with one another.