US Patent 8446484 Image processing architecture with pre-scaler

Disclosed is an image signal processing chain or functionality having an image data scaler. A method includes receiving a stream of image data having a first resolution; scaling the received stream of image data using a substantially freely configurable downscaling ratio to generate scaled image data having a second resolution that is less than the first resolution; outputting the scaled image data to at least one of a viewfinder image signal processing functionality or a video image signal processing functionality to create image data for at least one of display to a user or provide to a video encoder; and during at least one of receiving, scaling or outputting, simultaneously storing the stream or a subset of the stream of image data having the first resolution into a memory as a set of frames of image data for being processed as needed.