Scene-based noise reduction on a smart camera

Raw output data from CMOS image sensors tends to exhibit significant noise called Fixed-Pattern Noise (FPN) due to on-die variations between pixel photodetectors. FPN is often corrected by subtracting its value, estimated through calibration, from the sensor's raw signal. This paper introduces an on-line scene-based technique for an improved FPN compensation which does not rely on calibration, and hence is more robust to the dynamic changes in the FPN which may occur slowly over time. Development has been done with a special emphasis on real-time hardware implementation on a FPGA-based smart camera. Experimental results on different scenes are depicted showing that the proposed correction chain induces little additional resource use while guarantying high quality images.