Color camera modules include imaging optics with an optical axis, an image sensor with a Color Filter Array (CFA), and an output interface with analog and/or digital outputs for transmitting still or live video signals for display purposes. Various formats of CFAs are now available including the original Bayer format, the more recent RGBE format, and the like. Bayer CFAs filter incoming visual light into three overlapping spectral bands R 550-700 nm, G 475-600 nm, and B 400-550 nm for matching human color perception (see FIG. 1). RGBE CFAs filter incoming visual light into four overlapping spectral bands for better matching human color perception than Bayer CFAs (see FIG. 2). CFAs are available in different tessellations based on different regular polygons such as squares, hexagons, and the like. Analog outputs include inter alia video composite, RGB, and the like. Digital outputs include inter alia USB2, FireWire, CameraLink, Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS), and the like. An exemplary analog color camera module is Model No. CV-M8 CL Color Camera available from JAI Pulnix, Inc. USA. An exemplary digital color camera module is OV7620 Single Chip CMOS VGA Color Digital Camera available from OmniVision Technologies, Inc., 930 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94085 USA (www.ovt.com).
3D imaging requires a pair of images of the same object along two non co-directional lines of sight. GB 670,615 entitled Improvements in or relating to Apparatus for Taking Stereoscopic Pictures without Abnormal Stereoscopic Effects, U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,242 to Lo et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,662 to Zanen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,603,876 to Matsuo et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,500 to Perisic et al., employ mirror based optical configurations for achieving same. U.S. Pat. No. 6,704,043 to Goldstein et al. employs a lenticular lens array similar to an insect eye in which each lens lies over a single pixel for achieving same.
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USPTO Backgrounds