Term of the Moment
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Definition: Bayer pattern
A widely used filter pattern in a digital camera that uses only a single CCD or CMOS chip, which is the sensor technology in most cameras. Invented by Bryce Bayer at Kodak, the Bayer pattern dedicates more pixels to green than to red and blue because the human eye is more sensitive to green. The additional green pixels produce a better color image.
No Bayer Pattern in Three-Chip Cameras
In contrast, a three-chip digital camera uses three sensors. A beam-splitting prism separates the red, green and blue coming from the lens and directs each color to its own sensor chip.
Bayer Interpolation
When the camera converts its Bayer sensor data into a color image format such as JPEG, the uneven distribution of sensor colors has to be converted into an even number of red, green and blue subpixels. Also known as "de-Bayering," this interpolation can cause artifacts especially at the edges of objects in the scene. See purple fringing, CCD sensor, CMOS sensor, RAW image format, digital camera and X3.
Bayer Filter Pattern
No Bayer Pattern in Three-Chip Cameras
In contrast, a three-chip digital camera uses three sensors. A beam-splitting prism separates the red, green and blue coming from the lens and directs each color to its own sensor chip.
Bayer Interpolation
When the camera converts its Bayer sensor data into a color image format such as JPEG, the uneven distribution of sensor colors has to be converted into an even number of red, green and blue subpixels. Also known as "de-Bayering," this interpolation can cause artifacts especially at the edges of objects in the scene. See purple fringing, CCD sensor, CMOS sensor, RAW image format, digital camera and X3.
Although there are other photosensor patterns in use, the Bayer pattern is the most common. However, all filter patterns capture more green than red and blue.