The sensor modification requires exchanging the monochrome sensor array (or scanning sequence) into one which has different color-sensing elements; for best quality, they should be arranged in a proprietary geometrical pattern, but Chromaplex is also compatible with other commercial patterns. In any case, the total number of sensor elements remains the same as in the original monochrome sensor. The values produced by the modified array or sequence are later decoded by Chromaplex into three complete planes of primary colors, after the single plane has been further compressed, stored and/or transmitted, and decompressed, just like a monochrome image. Thus, any specific capturing device with circuitry and memory designed to handle a monochrome plane can deliver full-color images of similar spatial resolution.

The pictures above show the single array of captured values which can be treated as a monochrome image for simpler processing, and the full color picture that can be obtained from that array with Chromaplex.