Event-Based Vision Sensor Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2023 at eight records then eased off, with no filings yet logged for the most recent year — a pattern consistent with publication lag rather than a stalled field.
- Every record touches H04N pictorial-communication claims while G01J, G06F, G06T and H01L each appear in under a third of the set, showing claim activity concentrated around readout architecture rather than downstream processing.
- The United States dominates as receiving office with 18 filings against five at the EPO, two PCT filings and a single Chinese filing — a geographic skew worth checking against your own filing strategy.
What this landscape covers
Event-based vision sensors, also called dynamic vision sensors or event cameras, report per-pixel brightness changes asynchronously instead of capturing full frames on a fixed clock. The claims in this dataset cluster around event-driven pixel circuits, asynchronous readout and the semiconductor structures that make a photodiode behave as an independent change detector. This is a narrow, technically dense corner of image-sensor patenting: 26 published families across an eleven-year window.
Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the apparent drop-off in the most recent years understates real filing activity rather than reflecting an actual slowdown in interest.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 26-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
A peak in 2023, then a lull
Filings ran at four in 2017, dropped to zero at the 2022 midpoint, then rose to a peak of eight in 2023 before falling away again toward the 2026 cut-off. That mid-series dip and late spike suggests the field moves in bursts tied to specific product cycles rather than steady incremental filing.
Readout architecture dominates the IPC mix
H04N appears in all 26 records, confirming that pictorial-communication claims are the backbone of this search. G01J (radiation and light measurement), G06F (digital data processing) and G06T (image data processing) each sit at eight records, with H01L (semiconductor devices) trailing at five — meaning that structural, device-level claims are comparatively rarer than circuit- and processing-level ones.
Shares are the percentage of the 26 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Event-Based Vision Sensor Image Sensor with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about event-based vision sensor image sensor and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records and a representative claim
US12081889B2 — Image sensor including CMOS image sensor pixel and dynamic vision sensor pixel
An image sensor includes a CIS (CMOS image sensor) pixel, a DVS (dynamic vision sensor) pixel, and an image signal processor. The CIS pixel includes a photoelectric conversion device generating charges corresponding to an incident light and a readout circuit generating an output voltage corresponding to the generated charges. The DVS pixel detects a change in an intensity of the incident light based on the generated charges to output an event signal and does not include a separate photoelectric conversion device. The image signal processor allows the photoelectric conversion device to be connected to the readout circuit or the DVS pixel.Filed by Samsung Electronics; granted 2024-09-03.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20180191972A1 | Dynamic vision sensor architecture | 105 |
| 2 | US10567679B2 | Dynamic vision sensor architecture | 21 |
| 3 | US20200312899A1 | Dynamic vision sensors configured to calibrate event signals using optical black region and methods of operat… | 11 |
| 4 | US20200154064A1 | Dynamic vision sensor architecture | 10 |
| 5 | CN118695113A | 一种像元独立复位的动态视觉传感器像素电路 | 4 |
| 6 | WO2024125463A1 | 图像处理方法、混合式图像传感器、电子设备及存储介质 | 3 |
| 7 | US20230328406A1 | Dynamic vision sensor architecture | 3 |
| 8 | US20210337151A1 | Dynamic Vision Sensor Architecture | 3 |
| 9 | EP3563564B1 | Dynamic vision sensor architecture | 3 |
| 10 | US20230164461A1 | Image sensor including CMOS image sensor pixel and dynamic vision sensor pixel | 2 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; a low count on a recent record does not mean it is unimportant.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the trend, geography and citation data that matter more than the raw counts on their own.
Bursty, not steady, activity
The zero at the 2022 midpoint followed by a peak of eight in 2023 points to filing driven by specific product launches rather than continuous incremental disclosure. A new commercial event-camera module tends to trigger a cluster of related filings in a short window.
US-centric filing behaviour
Eighteen of the tracked filings went through the United States receiving office against five at the EPO and a single Chinese filing. Anyone building a freedom-to-operate position outside the US should treat the European and Chinese pictures as thinner and less tested.
Influence sits with early architecture claims
The most-cited record, on dynamic vision sensor architecture, carries citation counts far above the rest of the set. That gap reflects age and corpus visibility as much as current relevance — newer calibration and pixel-circuit filings have not had time to accumulate citations yet.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to event-based vision sensor image sensor, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum sits
The assignee set is small and none of the tracked entities show filings in the latest tracked year — consistent with publication lag rather than an exit from the space.
No assignee shows fresh-year filings yet
Every assignee in the momentum table, including Samsung, Sony and Huawei, shows zero filings in the most recent tracked year. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this is expected rather than a signal that any of these players have stepped back.
Filing is mostly solo, not joint
The dataset shows only one meaningful co-assignee pairing, between Sony Group and Sony Semiconductor Solutions — an intra-group link rather than a cross-company collaboration. There is no evidence here of joint filing between unrelated organisations.
A small, specialist field
With 26 total families across more than a decade, this is a narrow technical niche compared to broader image-sensor categories. A handful of additional filings from any one assignee would materially shift the ranking.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Sony Advanced Visual Sensing AG | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Insightness AG | 0 | — |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sony Group Corporation | 0 | — |
| Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation | 0 | — |
| Huazhong University of Science and Technology | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether you are clearing a product, tracking a competitor, or scoping new claims.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on pixel-circuit claims
With H01L structural claims comparatively thin against H04N and G01J activity, a targeted FTO search on the semiconductor-device side of event-pixel design is likely to surface less-crowded claim territory than the readout side.
Explore claims in EurekaTrack the next filing cluster
Given the bursty 2022-to-2023 pattern, set an alert on new publications from the tracked assignees rather than relying on an annual review — the next cluster may already be in the 18-month publication pipeline.
Set up monitoring in EurekaDraft around the hybrid CIS/DVS switching claim
US12081889B2's switching logic between a shared photoelectric conversion device and either a CIS readout path or a DVS pixel is a specific mechanism, not a broad concept claim — there is room to design alternative switching architectures around it.
Analyse this patent in EurekaCommon questions on event-based vision sensor patents
An event-based vision sensor, also called a dynamic vision sensor or event camera, reports brightness changes at each pixel asynchronously rather than reading out a full frame on a fixed clock cycle. A standard CMOS image sensor captures every pixel's value on every frame regardless of whether the scene changed. This dataset's patents concentrate on the pixel circuits and readout architecture that make the asynchronous, change-only behaviour possible, which is why H04N pictorial-communication claims dominate the IPC composition.
The tracked assignee set includes Samsung Electronics, Sony Group and its Sony Semiconductor Solutions affiliate, Huawei, and smaller specialist filers. None of these assignees show filings in the most recent tracked year, which is consistent with the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a sign that any of them have exited the space. The corpus is small at 26 total families, so a single new filer could shift the ranking meaningfully.
The evidence shows a rise to eight filings in 2023 after a flat midpoint in 2022, which points to filing activity clustering around specific product or research milestones rather than accumulating steadily year over year. This bursty pattern is common in narrow sensor niches where a single commercial module launch triggers a wave of related pixel-circuit and readout filings from the same assignee. It does not necessarily indicate the technology has matured or peaked in interest.
The IPC composition shows H01L semiconductor-device claims present in only five of 26 records, versus all 26 touching H04N, which suggests the structural and stacking side of event-pixel design is less densely claimed than the circuit and readout side. Specific sub-areas worth checking include independent per-pixel reset circuits, optical-black calibration methods for event signals, and hybrid CIS/DVS pixel switching logic. Confirm current filing activity in these areas before relying on this as a green light to file.
US12081889B2, assigned to Samsung Electronics and granted in September 2024, covers an image sensor combining a CMOS image sensor pixel and a dynamic vision sensor pixel that share a single photoelectric conversion device, switched by an image signal processor between a standard readout circuit and an event-signal path. This is relevant to anyone designing a hybrid frame-and-event sensor rather than a pure event camera. The claim is specific to the shared-photodiode switching mechanism, which leaves room for alternative hybrid architectures that avoid that particular switching structure.
Research Event-Based Vision Sensor Image Sensor in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole event-based vision sensor image sensor corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.