Image sensor
An image sensor is a device that converts visual image to an electric signal. It is used chiefly in digital cameras and other imaging devices. It is usually an array of charge-coupled devices (CCD) or CMOS sensors such as active pixel sensors.
There are several main types of color image sensors, differing by the means of the color separation mechanism:
- Bayer sensor, low-cost and most common, using a Bayer filter that passes red, green, or blue light to selected pixels, forming interlaced grids sensitive to red, green, and blue. The image is then interpolated using a demosaicing algorithm.
- Foveon X3 sensor, using an array of layered sensors where every pixel contains three stacked sensors sensitive to the individual colors.
- 3CCD, using three discrete image sensors, with the color separation done by a dichroic prism. Considered the best quality, and generally more expensive than single-CCD sensors.
Specialty sensors
Special sensors are used for various applications. The most important are the sensors for thermal imaging, creation of multi-spectral images, gamma cameras, sensor arrays for x-rays, and highly sensitive arrays for astronomy.
See also
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