IBC2024 Tech Papers: Novel Image Sensor with Area-Based Optimisation of Shooting Conditions for Immersive Content Productions

The global demand for highly immersive video content, such as 360-degree videos and dome screen videos, is escalating. Accompanying this demand is an increasing need for cameras capable of capturing wide viewing angles effectively (e.g. panoramic cameras and omnidirectional multi-cameras). Wide-angle videos typically feature subjects exhibiting diverse textures, movements, and brightness on a single screen, requiring image sensors to meet rigorous performance quality, including not only resolution and frame rates exceeding ultra-high definition television levels but also excelling in dynamic range for incident light.

However, developing an image sensor that fulfils all these requirements simultaneously is challenging. Traditional image sensors, such as Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors operating under constant shooting conditions across the entire pixel array, are limited by a trade-off between resolution, frame rate, and the noise performance related to dynamic range (El Desouki et al and Kawahito). Moreover, higher pixel readout rates lead to increased data transfer streams and higher power consumption in image sensors.

In this paper, we present...