Abstract: A method for processing images acquired by a multi-spectral RGB-NIR (red/green/blue/near infra-red) sensor includes receiving a RGB-NIR digital image from a multi-spectral RGB-NIR sensor, interpolating an NIR contribution to each R, G and B pixel value, wherein an NIR image is obtained, subtracting the NIR contribution from each R, G and B pixel value in the RGB-NIR digital image wherein a decontaminated RGB-NIR image is obtained, constructing a red, green and blue (RGB) Bayer image from the decontaminated RGB-NIR image, and processing the Bayer image wherein a full color image is obtained. The RGB-NIR digital image includes red (R) pixels, green (G) pixels, blue (B) pixels, and NIR pixels, and every other row in the RGB-NIR digital image includes NIR pixels that alternate with green pixels, and every other row in the RGB-NIR digital image includes green pixels that alternate with red and blue pixels.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes compression of high dynamic range (HDR) images into low dynamic range (LDR) images while saving useful data in the HDR image. HDR images can be formed by merging images with different exposure times into a single image with high bit-depth to capture low light and bright data. LDR images can be generated using a joint auto-exposure and tone mapping system to capture useful details of the HDR input in and LDR output. Therefore, embodiments of the present disclosure create high quality LDR images from HDR images using data from the auto-exposure system of a sensor.