Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
348350000 | With auxiliary sensor or separate area on imager | 34 |
20100188560 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit operable to capture a subject to generate an image, a subject detector operable to detect the subject from the generated image, a display unit operable to display the generated image and a mark indicating the subject detected by the subject detector, an operation unit operable to receive an operation for setting an operating mode to a subject selecting mode in which any position on a screen of the display unit can be selected, and a controller operable to control the display unit to cause the mark to disappear, when the operation unit receives the operation for changing the operating mode into the subject selecting mode in a state that the mark is displayed on the display unit. | 07-29-2010 |
20110037890 | DIGITAL CAMERA HAVING TRIMMING AND FOCUSING ABILITY - A camera for recording an image captured using image-capturing element in a recording medium is provided with a focal point detection device for detecting a focal point adjustment state of a photographic lens in each focal point detection region of a plurality of focal point detection regions set inside an photographic field. When electronic zoom shooting is carried out, part of an imaged picture is trimmed and an image for recording in the recording medium is created. For a plurality of focal point detection regions the focal point detection regions are changed according to the trimming range of the imaged picture. Focal point adjustment of the photographic lens is carried out based on focal point detection results for focal point detection regions that have been changed. | 02-17-2011 |
20110058097 | EXTERNAL RANGING IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND RANGING METHOD - The image pickup apparatus includes a first detection unit detecting information corresponding to an object distance in each of plural areas, without through an image taking optical system, a second detection unit detecting a size and a position of a specific object area in object image data, and a controller performing focus control of the image taking optical system on the basis of the information corresponding to the object distance. The controller acquires specific object distance information on a distance to a specific object, on the basis of the size of the specific object area and information on a focal length of the image taking optical system, and selects, from the plural areas, an area where the information corresponding to the object distance to be used in focus control is detected, on the basis of the specific object distance information and the position of the specific object area. | 03-10-2011 |
20120019711 | IMAGING ARRANGEMENTS AND METHODS THEREFOR - Image data is processed to facilitate focusing and/or optical correction. According to an example embodiment of the present invention, an imaging arrangement collects light data corresponding to light passing through a particular focal plane. The light data is collected using an approach that facilitates the determination of the direction from which various portions of the light incident upon a portion of the focal plane emanate from. Using this directional information in connection with value of the light as detected by photosensors, an image represented by the light is selectively focused and/or corrected. | 01-26-2012 |
20120019712 | IMAGING ARRANGEMENTS AND METHODS THEREFOR - Image data is processed to facilitate focusing and/or optical correction. According to an example embodiment of the present invention, an imaging arrangement collects light data corresponding to light passing through a particular focal plane. The light data is collected using an approach that facilitates the determination of the direction from which various portions of the light incident upon a portion of the focal plane emanate from. Using this directional information in connection with value of the light as detected by photosensors, an image represented by the light is selectively focused and/or corrected. | 01-26-2012 |
20120162499 | FOCUS DETECTION DEVICE AND IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS PROVIDED WITH THE SAME - The focus detection accuracy of a focus detection device that employs an external AF sensor unit having a pair of line sensors that are each comprised of multiple unit line sensors is improved. The individual line sensors are arranged so that the center of the field of view of an imaging optical system at a predetermined subject distance, at which field-of-view adjustment for causing the field of view of the imaging optical system and the field of view of a focus-detection optical system to match has been carried out, corresponds to the center of one of the multiple unit line sensors included in the individual line sensors. | 06-28-2012 |
20130162890 | FOCUS ADJUSTMENT APPARATUS - In a focus detection apparatus, a sensor includes a first mode for outputting via the signal line when respective stored charges corresponding to the first and the second AF areas have reached the predetermined charge amount, and a second mode for outputting via the signal line when respective stored charges corresponding to the first or the second AF areas have reached the predetermined charge amount. | 06-27-2013 |
20130169858 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS, IMAGE SENSING SYSTEM AND FOCUS DETECTION METHOD - An image sensing apparatus including: an image sensor including a plurality of focus detection pixel pairs that perform photoelectric conversion on each pair of light beams that have passed through different regions of a photographing lens and output an image signal pair; a flash memory that stores shift information on relative shift between an optical axis of the photographing lens and a central axis of the focus detection pixel pairs; a correction unit that corrects a signal level of the image signal pair based on the shift information and exit pupil information of the photographing lens so as to compensate for an unbalanced amount of light that enters each of the focus detection pixel pairs; and a focus detection unit that detects a focus of the photographing lens using the image signal pair corrected by the correction unit. | 07-04-2013 |
20130271646 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR - An image capture apparatus comprises an image sensor including at least three focus detecting pixels, an optical axis displacement unit which displaces an optical axis of an imaging optical system by driving at least part of the imaging optical system, and a focus adjustment unit which performs focus adjustment by a phase-difference detection method using a pair of images detected in the at least three focus detecting pixels, wherein if the optical axis displacement unit moves the at least part of the imaging optical system, the focus adjustment unit performs focus adjustment using detection results of a pair of focus detecting pixels, among the at least three focus detecting pixels, other than a focus detecting pixel in which a common part of an exit pupil area and the light-receiving area of the focus detecting pixel is smallest. | 10-17-2013 |
20130321694 | IMAGE SYSTEMS AND SENSORS HAVING FOCUS DETECTION PIXELS THEREIN - Image sensors include an array of image sensor pixels therein. This array of image sensor pixels includes a first focus detection pixel and at least a first color pixel. A switching network is provided, which is electrically coupled to the array. This switching network may be configured to generate a first mixed image signal by electronically mixing a focus detection signal generated by the first focus detection pixel with at least one color pixel signal generated by the at least a first color pixel. The first focus detection pixel can be a color-blind pixel, which may include a light-blocking shield mask therein. | 12-05-2013 |
20140009664 | PHOTOELECTRIC CONVERSION APPARATUS - A photoelectric conversion apparatus includes a sensor cell unit including: a photoelectric conversion unit and a sensor cell unit writing switch connected to the photoelectric conversion unit; a memory cell unit including a memory capacitance and a memory cell unit writing switch connected to the memory capacitance; and a common signal line connected to the sensor cell unit and the memory cell unit, and the memory cell unit holds a signal including voltage fluctuation of the photoelectric conversion unit due to an OFF operation of the sensor cell unit writing switch, a fixed pattern noise of the sensor cell unit, and a fixed pattern noise of the memory cell unit to the memory capacitance before holding a signal of the photoelectric conversion unit to the memory capacitance. | 01-09-2014 |
20140009665 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR FOCUSING A FILM CAMERA - A method for focusing a film camera, in which at least one auxiliary camera is provided for producing an auxiliary representation of an object to be recorded, from which the desired focus setting is determined and a focusing signal is delivered to the film camera. | 01-09-2014 |
20140028896 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND AUTOFOCUS CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - In an imaging apparatus having a solid-state imaging device in which a focus detection pixel (phase difference detection pixel) is mounted on a light receiving surface, when dust is attached on the light receiving surface, a phase difference amount in a dust presence region is calculated from a detection signal of a phase difference detection signal and reliability of the phase difference amount is determined and when the reliability is high, phase difference AF control is performed with the phase difference amount calculated in the dust presence region. | 01-30-2014 |
20140098285 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR POSITIONING A COIL MOTOR - Methods and apparatus for providing a position sensor to sense the position of a ferromagnetic target and generate a target position signal, a scaling block to receive the target position signal, and a digital RC filter to generate an output using bit shifting for dividing by some factor of two, wherein all division for computations in the RC filter are performed by bit shifts. | 04-10-2014 |
20140104484 | FOCUS DETECTING APPARATUS, LENS APPARATUS INCLUDING THE SAME, IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, AND METHOD OF DETECTING DEFOCUS AMOUNT - A focus detector, which detects a defocus amount from a displacement amount between images formed by a pair of light beams split from an image pickup system so as to pass through a pair of pupil regions, includes a pair of lenses and phase difference sensors, a memory unit for storing an image displacement amount between the image signals on the phase difference sensors in an in-focus state, a waveform read out controller for setting pixels to be calculated for the phase difference sensors, respectively, based on the image displacement amount, a correlation calculator for calculating a correlation amount between the image signals from the pixels to be calculated, a waveform degree-of-conformity calculator for calculating a waveform degree-of-conformity based on the image signals obtained from the pixels to be calculated, and a defocus calculator for calculating the defocus amount based on the correlation amount and the waveform degree-of-conformity. | 04-17-2014 |
20140118611 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR - An image pickup apparatus that is capable of detecting focusing state with high accuracy even when a subject moves or a defocus condition varies. Focus detection zones are arranged like a lattice in first and second directions with respect to an image pickup device. A contrast focus evaluation value that evaluates image signals of pixels of the image pickup device corresponding to each focus detection zone in the second direction is generated. Focus of an image pickup optical system is adjusted based on the contrast focus evaluation value based on an image signal of a reliable focus detection zone. The focus detection zones are arranged so that one boundary of a first focus detection zone in the second direction is included within an area of a second focus detection zone in the second direction. The first and second focus detection zones are arranged and deviated in the first direction. | 05-01-2014 |
20140168503 | EXTERNAL APPARATUS AND IMAGING APPARATUS - A focus correction setting application is connected to an imaging apparatus such that the focus correction setting application can communicate with the imaging apparatus. The focus correction setting application holds, in a focus position correction amount table with respect to various light sources, focus position correction amounts for correcting a shift in a focus position caused by inserting or removing an optical filter into or from an optical path of a lens group of the imaging apparatus, selects a light source in a window, acquires a focus position correction amount corresponding to the selected light source among the held focus position correction amounts, and controls the imaging apparatus to correct the focus position by the acquired focus position correction amount when inserting or removing the optical filter. | 06-19-2014 |
20140176785 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - The image pickup apparatus includes: a first imaging sensor in which pixels including photoelectric conversion units are arranged two-dimensionally; a second imaging sensor in which pixels including photoelectric conversion units are arranged two-dimensionally, each pixel including one micro lens, and a first and a second photoelectric conversion units; a light beam splitting unit for splitting a flux of light entering an optical system into fluxes of light entering the first and the second imaging sensors separately; a first image processing unit for processing signals from the first imaging sensor, the first image processing unit generating a still image based on signals from the first imaging sensor; and a second image processing unit for processing signals from the second imaging sensor, the second image processing unit generating signals usable for focal point detection of a phase difference method and generating a moving image based on signals from the second imaging sensor. | 06-26-2014 |
20140285706 | Image Sensor with Focus-Detection Pixels, and Method for Reading Focus-Information - An image sensor ( | 09-25-2014 |
20140293118 | IMAGING DEVICE - An imaging device includes a solid-state imaging device including focus detecting pixels which are arranged together in a region in which imaging pixels are arranged in a form of a two-dimensional (2D) matrix, a separating unit configured to separate imaging signals and focus detection signals from pixel signals output from the solid-state imaging device, to output horizontal direction focus detection signals output from a horizontal direction focus detecting pixel set including two focus detecting signals in a row direction and vertical direction focus detection signals output from a vertical direction focus detecting pixel set including two focus detecting signals in a column direction, a horizontal direction focus detection processing unit configured to convert a format in which the horizontal direction focus detection signals are output to a predetermined format. | 10-02-2014 |
20140293119 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image capturing apparatus comprises an image pickup device, a focus detection sensor including a first pixel group in which pixels configured to receive light beams passing through a partial area of a pupil of an imaging optical system are arranged and a second pixel group in which pixels configured to receive light beams passing through another partial area are arranged, and a correlation calculation unit configured to perform correlation calculation by using signals from pixels of the first pixel group and signals from pixels of the second pixel group, wherein the correlation calculation unit samples pixels, of the first pixel group, which have a positional shift amount of an integer multiple of a value obtained by dividing the predetermined interval, and performs correlation calculation by using signals from the sampled pixels of the second pixel group. | 10-02-2014 |
20140307151 | SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSOR AND CAMERA - The solid-state image sensor includes image sensing pixels, first and second focus detection pixels configured to respectively detect lights passing through different regions of a pupil of an image sensing lens. The sensor includes a semiconductor substrate including photoelectric converters of the image sensing pixels, a photoelectric converter and a first well contact region of the first focus detection pixel, and a photoelectric converter and a second well contact region of the second focus detection pixel, a first contact plug electrically connected to the first well contact region, and a second contact plug electrically connected to the second well contact region. The relative position of the first well contact region in the first focus detection pixel differs from a relative position of the second well contact region in the second focus detection pixel. | 10-16-2014 |
20140320735 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - An image capturing apparatus comprising an image sensor including a plurality of pixels each including a plurality of photoelectric conversion units, and a first holding unit and a second holding unit configured to store signals output from the plurality of pixels and a driving unit configured to perform first write processing for writing first signals supplied from a first number of photoelectric conversion elements of each pixel in the first holding unit and second write processing for writing second signals supplied from a second number of photoelectric conversion units of each pixel. | 10-30-2014 |
20150042869 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR - An image capturing apparatus includes an image sensor | 02-12-2015 |
20160037054 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE WITH AUTOFOCUS AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS - There is provided a solid-state imaging device which includes a focus detection pixel that has a light shielding film, which is formed on a light receiving surface of a photoelectric conversion portion and shields light in a part of the light receiving surface, performs pupil division and photoelectric conversion of a received light flux and acquires a phase difference detection signal, where the light shielding film is formed avoiding a gate electrode of a reading gate portion to read a signal charge from the photoelectric conversion portion. | 02-04-2016 |
20160142617 | IMAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE AND IMAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE FOCUSING METHOD - In an image acquisition device, an optical path length difference in a second light figure can be formed by arrangement of an optical path difference generating member, without need for splitting light in a second optical path for focus control. Therefore, it reduces the quantity of light into the second optical path necessary for acquisition of information of focal position while ensuring the quantity of light enough for execution of imaging by a first imaging device. Furthermore, in this image acquisition device, a light reduction portion is provided between a first face and a second face of the optical path difference generating member. This light reduction portion can narrow a light superimposed region on the imaging surface of the second imaging device, which allows control of the focal position to a sample to be accurately carried out. | 05-19-2016 |
20160150150 | FOCUS DETECTION APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD FOR THE SAME - A focus detection unit detects a defocus value, and a correction value for shifting an in-focus position based on the defocus value is obtained by a first method or by a second method. The correction value obtained by the second method is converted to a correction value of the first method by changing units, and the correction value obtained by the first method or the converted correction value is stored in a storage unit. A control unit controls driving of a focus lens to a lens position based on a value obtained by correcting the defocus value by the stored correction value. In the second method, a user selects one of a plurality of images obtained by driving the focus lens, and the correction value is calculated based on the defocus value of the selected image. | 05-26-2016 |
20160165161 | IMAGE SENSING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME - In a first operation mode, signals are read from pixels including ranging pixels in a pixel array and ranging and image generation are performed based on the read signals. In a second operation mode, signals are read from the pixels excluding the ranging pixels and exposure is controlled based on the read signals. | 06-09-2016 |
20160173795 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND ITS CONTROL METHOD | 06-16-2016 |
20160182811 | PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD FOR PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS | 06-23-2016 |
20160198107 | FOCAL POINT DETECTION DEVICE AND FOCAL POINT DETECTION METHOD | 07-07-2016 |
20160205314 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, LENS UNIT, AND METHODS OF CONTROLLING IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND LENS UNIT | 07-14-2016 |
20160381280 | IMAGING APPARATUS AND IMAGING METHOD - An imaging apparatus, comprising a focus detection section that detects an out of focus amount and an out of focus direction by carrying out a focus detection operation using phase difference detection based on a pixel signal of focus detection pixels that has been thinned and read out, a swirl error determination section that determines swirl error arising in accordance with inclination of an optical image with respect to a direction that is orthogonal to a phase difference detection direction, based on the pixel signal of the focus detection pixels that has been thinned and read out, and an AF control section that determines whether or not to carry out AF operation adopting output of the focus detection section, based on output of the swirl error determination section. | 12-29-2016 |
20190149721 | THIN MULTI-APERTURE IMAGING SYSTEM WITH AUTO-FOCUS AND METHODS FOR USING SAME | 05-16-2019 |