A Bayer filter is a color filtering array for RGB colors, primarily used IN CCD colour image sensors in cameras.

Each sensor pixel is covered by red, green and blue coloured filters. There are two green sites for every red or blue site, as the cone cells in the human eye are more sensitive to green light than other colours.

An illustrated explanation of color image reconstruction

To reconstruct a color image from the data collected by the color filtering array, you need to fill up the blanks. The mathematics here is subject to individual implementation. In this example, we use Adobe Photoshop's bicubic interpolation to simulate the circutry of a Bayer filter device such as a digital camera. In a typical commercial implementation, low pass anti-alias filters will be added that make the artifacts shown here less pronounced, with a corresponding reduction of sharpness.

This is the original image, made with Adobe Illustrator. If a perfect digital camera with perfect optical lens that can measure every pixel's exact R/G/B values, the resulted image will probably look like this.

This is a simulated sampling taken by a Bayer filtered sensor array. Each pixel only has a value of either R or G or B.

A digital camera has certain circuits to reconstruct the whole image using above information. The resulting image could be something like this:

As you can see, the reconstructed image looks good in low contrast areas. However, the edges of letters look pretty bad.

See also

• Calculating RGB values

External links

• The Color Filter Array FAQ
• Understanding Digital Sensors