1.-13. (canceled)
14. A method comprising:
illuminating a light receiving surface of substrate comprising a three dimensional array of light receptors, where light receptors disposed in an x-y plane that is closer to the light receiving surface are responsive to light having shorter wavelengths than light receptors disposed in an x-y plane that is further from the light receiving surface, and where each light receptor is configured to output a binary value and to change state between an off-state and an on-state by the absorption of at least one photon; and
at the end of an exposure period, reading out binary values from light receptors disposed in at least two different x-y planes of the three dimensional array.
15. The method of claim 14, where illuminating includes a preliminary step of resetting the light receptors to the off-state.
16. The method as in claim 14, further comprising grouping together the binary outputs of some number of adjacent light receptors.
17. The method as in claim 16, where grouping together groups together the binary outputs of some number of light receptors that are adjacent in the same x-y plane of the three dimensional array, or that groups together the binary outputs of some number of light receptors that are adjacent along a z-axis of the three dimensional array, or that groups together the binary outputs of some number of light receptors that are adjacent in the same x-y plane and along the z-axis of the three dimensional array.
18. The method as in claim 16, further comprising changing the grouping of light receptors from one exposure to the next.
19. The method as in claim 1, further comprising compressing the binary values that are read out from the sensor array.
20. The method as in claim 14, executed during operation of an image sensor within a wireless communication device.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. An apparatus for scarifying an interior surface of a pipe or other similar elongated passageway, comprising:
(a) a vehicle having a height and width sufficiently small to enable said vehicle to move along an interior of said passageway, supported from a bottom half of said passageway, substantially parallel to a longitudinally extending axis of said passageway; and
(b) a scarifying assembly secured to said vehicle and having a fluid nozzle assembly, said fluid nozzle assembly having an exchanger coupled to an external source of fluid, a plurality of branches coupled to and radially spaced around said exchanger, and fluid nozzles coupled to distal ends of respective branches, said fluid nozzle assembly being operative to rotate, or oscillate, and to emit a jet of fluid from each of said fluid nozzles against the interior surface of said passageway and to scarify the interior surface of said passageway as said vehicle moves along the interior of said pipe, whereby the interior surface of said passageway is scarified to remove a layer of corroded material, contaminates and a portion of an interior surface of said passageway along either a selected region or an entire region of the interior surface of said pipe.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of said branches is axially extendible to position respective fluid nozzles proximate the interior surface of said passageway.
3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said branches are telescopically extendible.
4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said branches are each axially extendible by replacement with a branch of a different length.
5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle moves continuously as said scarifying assembly operates.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle moves so as to index or advance in steps as said scarifying assembly operates.
7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said scarifying assembly scarifies a swath parallel to a direction of travel of said vehicle of a width determined by the rotation or oscillation of said fluid nozzle assembly.
8. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said scarifying assembly scarifies a circumferential swath of the interior surface of said passageway.
9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said exchanger is mounted to a front of said vehicle and said branches extend radially outwardly in a plane transverse to a direction of travel of said vehicle.
10. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said scarifying assembly is readily detachable from said vehicle and a width of said vehicle may be narrowed to allow said vehicle to pass through access openings to said sewer pipe.
11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle is supported and propelled by a pair of spaced apart tracks.
12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said tracks are laterally adjustable.
13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said elongated passageway is a sewer pipe and including a telescopically extendible guide bar extending out from each side of said vehicle and having a wall engaging attachment at a distal end thereof, each of said guide bars operative to move along an interior surface of pipe and maintain orientation of said vehicle along a longitudinal axis of said passageway.
14. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said external source of fluid is a pressurized fluid source remote from said passageway.
15. The apparatus according to claim 1, including a power source located remote from said passageway and coupled to said vehicle.