In the last decade, multimedia devices (camcorders,
PDAs
, mobile phones) have been dramatically diffused. Moreover, the increasing of their computational performances combined with a higher storage capability permits them to elaborate large amount of data. In order to reduce their cost and complexity, manufacturers place a color filter array (
CFA
) on top of a single image sensor, which is basically a monochromatic device, to capture color information of the true visual scene. Cameras make use of an electronic sensor to acquire the spatial variations in light intensity and then use image processing algorithms to reconstruct a color picture from the data provided by the sensor (i.e., shape, weight, style, etc.). The chapter analyses the various aspects of the imaging pipeline from the
CFA
data to final true‐color image/video just before encoding. A typical imaging pipeline is composed of two functional modules (preacquisition and postacquisition), where the data coming from the sensor in the
CFA
format are properly processed. The term
preacquisition
is referred to the stage in which the current input data coming from the sensor are analyzed just to collect statistics useful to set parameters (e.g., white balancing, exposure) for correct acquisition. Typical imaging pipelines implemented in single‐sensor cameras are usually designed to find a trade‐off between suboptimal solutions (devoted to solve imaging acquisition issues) and technological problems (e.g., color balancing and thermal noise) in a context of limited hardware resources. State‐of‐the‐art techniques to process multichannel pictures, obtained through nonlinear color interpolation from
CFA
data, are very advanced.
A rough understanding of the overall ingredients of a typical imaging pipeline is also important to consider the performance of any imaging devices, from low to high level, as the result of several components that run together to compose a complex system. The final image/video quality is the result of a certain number of design choices that involve, in almost all cases, all aspects of the hardware and software technology.