Systems and methods are provided to implement a state map to control operations of a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor. The state map can be a table comprising one or more locations. Each of the locations can comprise a destination state to define the operations of the sensor and an exit criterion to advance to a next location in the state map. For example, an operation sequence can be implemented using the state map to instruct the CMOS sensor to perform a specific set of operations. Further, a data value to represent the destination state and/or a variable input can be stored in a writable address of a register. Thus, a simplified architecture can be provided to implement CMOS sensor operation states, for instance, to improve interactions between real time and non-real time signals and to increase functionality of the CMOS sensor.