Spatial non-uniformity correction of a color sensor

Claim 2

A color imaging system comprising: a color image sensor having a matrix of photosites and a color filter array masking said matrix of photosites such that each photosite captures one color of first, second, and third colors, said color filter array constituting a repetitive pattern of said first, second, and third colors; said sensor producing a color image signal including a matrix of monocolor pixels corresponding to said color filter array patter; a memory associated with said sensor for storing spatial non-uniformity correction coefficients for each of said first, second, and third colors; a field programmable gate array which is programmed as a spatial non-uniformity color corrector for correcting said monocolor pixels of said color image signal, said gate array being programmed according to the following pseudo-code: where quad ( x , y ) = the value of the function evaluated at the current pixel location ( x , y ) quad (0, y ) = the value of the function evaluated at the beginning of the current line (0, y ) quad Δ x ( x +1, y ) = the value of the first partial with respect to x taken at ( x +1, y ) quad Δ y (0, y +1) = the value of the first partial with respect to y taken at (0, y +1) to produce corrected monocolor pixels; a timing generator for supplying timing signals to said gate array; and a computer processing unit for providing said correction coefficients from memory to said gate array.