• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.641-650
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• 2010

Color image sensors (CIS) output color images through image sensors and image signal processing. Image sensors that convert light to electrical signal are divided into CMOS image sensor and CCD image sensor according to transferring method of signal charge. In general, a CIS has RGB output signals from tri-stimulus XYZ of the scene through image signal processing. This paper presents an adaptive colorimetric analysis method to obtain chromaticity and luminance using CIS under various environments. An image sensor for the use of colorimeter is characterized based on the CIE standard colorimetric observer. We use the method of least squares to derive a colorimetric characterization matrix between camera RGB output signals and CIE XYZ tristimulus values. We first survey the camera characterization in the standard environment then derive a SGL(shutter-gain-level) function which is relationship between luminance and auto exposure (AE) characteristic of CIS, and read the status of an AWB(auto white balance) function. Then we can apply CIS to measure luminance and chromaticity from camera outputs and AE resister values without any preprocessing. Camera RGB outputs, register values, and camera photoelectric characteristic are used to analyze the colorimetric results for real scenes such as chromaticity and luminance. Experimental results show that the proposed method is valid in the measuring performance. The proposed method can apply to various fields like surveillant systems of the display or security systems.