US 12,075,175 B1
Programmable smart sensor with adaptive readout
Andrew Samuel Berkovich, Bellevue, WA (US); and Shlomo Alkalay, Redmond, WA (US)
Assigned to Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC, Menlo Park, CA (US)
Filed by Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC, Menlo Park, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 8, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/469,258.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/084,955, filed on Sep. 29, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/075,636, filed on Sep. 8, 2020.
Int. Cl. H04N 25/75 (2023.01)
CPC H04N 25/75 (2023.01) 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sensor apparatus comprising:
an array of pixel cells configured to generate an array of voltages, each pixel cell of the array of pixel cells including one or more photodiodes configured to generate a charge in response to light and a charge storage device to convert the charge to a voltage;
one or more analog-to-digital converters (ADC) configured the convert the array of voltages to first digital pixel data comprising one or more pixel values; and
a processor configured to:
receive the first digital pixel data from the ADC;
receive activation map data, the activation map data comprising (i) one or more feature descriptors associated with one or more corresponding pixel cells or (ii) one or more subsampling factors associated with one or more corresponding regions of interest;
determine, based on the one or more pixel values and the activation map data, one or more first pixel values and one or more second pixel values;
generate second digital pixel data, the second digital pixel data comprising the one or more first pixel values and not the one or more second pixel values; and
send, from the sensor apparatus to a separate receiving apparatus, the second digital pixel data.