A perceptually based design methodology for color filter arrays [image reconstruction]

We consider the problem of selection of samples during image acquisition in a color digital camera. Due to the high cost of imaging sensors, digital cameras do not ordinarily employ separate sensors for each color channel. Instead, a single sensor overlaid with a mosaic of color filters is used such that a single color channel is sampled at each photosite. The full-color image must be reconstructed before the image may be displayed. In this paper, we propose a perceptually based sample selection scheme for color filter arrays. Regularization techniques are used to formulate an error criterion that reflects the error between the original image and the reconstructed image when viewed through the human visual system. A sequential selection algorithm is used to select sample locations that minimize the error criterion. The resulting array is found to compare favorably with existing array patterns in terms of the error criterion.