Each solid image pick-up element of G, R and B channels has a light-receiving portion composed of light-receiving pixels arranged two-dimensionally, that is, in the horizontal and the vertical scanning directions. The light-receiving pixels of the second and the third solid image pick-up elements are shifted to a horizontal direction by a half of a horizontal interval between the adjacent pixels with respect to the light-receiving pixels of the first solid image pick-up element in the horizontal scanning direction. The output of the first solid image pick-up element is sampled at every predetermined period so that the video signal of the G channel is obtained. The output of the second and the third solid image pick-up elements are sampled at every predetermined period to obtain the video signals of the R and the B channels so that the video signals are out of phase by 180 degrees with respect to the video signal of the G channel. The matrix operation is executed for the read video signals of the G, R and B channels to produce a first luminance signal. The video signals of the G and R channels are alternately switched with a period of half of that of the sampling frequency in a switching section. The output of the switching section is added to the first luminance signal to produce a second luminance signal. The resulting signal is output as the luminance signal of the TV camera.

An electronic imaging device employs black pattern correction for dark current in a charge transfer image sensor. The sensor is composed of image pixels having a characteristic black pattern of dark current in which the amplitude of the dark current for each pixel is dependent upon exposure time. A reference dark frame exposure is captured from the image sensor in the absence of light and dark frame pixel values are obtained. An exposure section regulates the exposure time of image light upon the image sensor and provides a corresponding plurality of image frame exposures; the image sensor thus generates a corresponding plurality of image frames each comprised of image frame pixel values. A processor then generates a correction factor from the dark frame pixel values and applies the correction factor to the image frame pixel values for the plurality of image frames to obtain corrected image frame pixel values that are modified for the black pattern. As a result, performance efficiency is increased by using a single reference dark frame exposure in the correction of many image frame exposures.

A luminance signal generating device having two CCDs on which complementary color filters are provided. Each color filter includes a matrix arrangement in which color filter elements for passing magenta, green, yellow and cyan light are arranged in a regular manner. If a first field is read from the CCDs, magenta (Mg) and Green (G) pixel signals of odd-numbered rows are read from the first CCD, and yellow (Ye) and cyan (Cy) pixel signals of even-numbered rows are read from the second CCD. If a second field is read from the CCDs, yellow (Ye) and cyan (Cy) pixel signals of even-numbered rows are read from the first CCD, and magenta (Mg) and green (G) pixel signals of odd-numbered rows are read from the second CCD. Four pixel signals (Mg, G, Ye, Cy) from optically adjacent pixels are added to each other to obtain a luminance signal.

A high-resolution image is derived from multiple low resolution images each having an array of low-resolution pixels. Motion vectors are derived at each of the unknown high-resolution grid points for each of the multiple low-resolution images. One motion vector is generated at each one of the high-resolution grid locations for each one of the multiple images. The motion vectors at the high-resolution grid points associate high-resolution grid points, whose values are unknown, with inter-pixel positions on the associated low-resolution images. Low-resolution pixels are identified that have the closest distance to each inter-pixel position. One or several of the identified low-resolution pixels having the shortest distance are used to determine the pixel value at each one of the high-resolution grid points. Pixel intensity values are then mapped into the high-resolution grid points according to the selected low-resolution pixels.

A method of field sequential color image capture includes optically capturing a scene; filtering the scene through an active color filter to product first color components, thereby modifying the spectral transmission of the scene as a function of time; detecting the scene with a single, monochrome sensor and dividing the scene into multiple second color components, whereby each first color component of the scene is detected at a different point in time; aligning the second color components in time for each frame interval; storing each color component in a memory unit; combining the stored second color components into a frame image; and processing the frame image for color reproduction and format. A system for capturing a field sequential color image, includes an optical capture mechanism for capturing a scene frame-by-frame in frame intervals; an active color filter for producing multiple first color components; a single monochrome area sensor; an array field selector for dividing the scene into multiple second color components; multiple memory locations for storing each color component; a field-to-frame combiner for combining the stored second color components into a frame image; and a color reproduction processor for processing the frame image for color reproduction and format.