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"What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense."
Napoleon Bonaparte ; When told of the Robert Fulton steamboat
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8175450 | Focal point detection device and camera system A focal point detection device includes: a rate conversion section which converts a transmission rate of an image signal, which is associated with a subject image imaged via an imaging lens on a part of a receiving surface of an imaging device, such that the image s... | 05/08/2012 |
| 7769285 | Imaging device A focus area contains one or more areas, into which an image signal captured by an image sensor (14) is segmented by an image segmentation section (15). The focus area follows movement of an object in accordance with feature point positional informatio... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7693410 | Optical apparatus and focus adjustment method An optical apparatus is disclosed which can perform accurate focus control even when an image of an object at low contrast is picked up in high resolution. The optical apparatus includes a plurality of band-pass filters for different frequency bands and extracts a f... | 04/06/2010 |
| 7596308 | Lens position adjusting apparatus, lens position adjusting method and computer-readable medium A CPU 11 in a digital camera 1 determines that the photography environment is dark and includes a spot light source, in the case where the number of pixels that have a higher luminosity than a first threshold to the total number of pixels in the focus ... | 09/29/2009 |
| 7248795 | Image projection apparatus, projection image pattern, laser drive apparatus, camera apparatus Image projection apparatus wherein, a focusing lens is controlled when a shutter is operated so that a contrast signal, obtained when a luminance signal from a camera signal processing circuit is supplied to an auto focusing detection circuit, may become maximum. A ... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7228069 | Focusing method for digital camera using plural spatial frequencies An automatic focusing method includes the following steps: providing a digital camera module, which includes a lens member, an image sensor member, a distance-measuring member, a signal-processing member, a drive control member, and a drive member; measuring an obje... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7228070 | Image projection apparatus, projection image pattern, laser drive apparatus, camera apparatus Image projection apparatus wherein, a focusing lens is controlled when a shutter is operated so that a contrast signal, obtained when a luminance signal from a camera signal processing circuit is supplied to an auto focusing detection circuit, any become maximum. A ... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7209175 | Autofocus apparatus An autofocus apparatus with a photographic optical system having a movably disposed focus adjusting lens, an optical element to split light beams received from an object, a plurality of image forming lenses to form images from portions of the split light beams, a pl... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7181082 | Blur detection system A system of estimating and reducing image blur in digital images stored in a digital file as a sequence of DCT coefficients arranged in a plurality of blocks. The disclosed system may preferably calculate one or more blur indicators from selected ones of the sequenc... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7154547 | Solid-state image sensor having control cells for developing signals for image-shooting control under poor illumination A solid-state image sensor and a digital cameral capable of executing accurate image-shooting adjustment even in a low illumination environment. A charge coupled device type of image sensor includes red, green and blue pixel cells provided with color filter segments... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7151570 | Imaging apparatus with interchangeable lens apparatus, the lens apparatus having a memory for storing optical performance data of the lens apparatus An optical apparatus including an imaging apparatus and a lens apparatus each having a communicating portion performing communications is disclosed. The optical apparatus is provided with: an imaging optical unit; a memory in which information of an optical performa... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7106359 | Subsurface video observation system A video observation system, useful for location of fish and other plant and animal life underwater, comprises a solid state imager having substantial sensitivity to infrared radiation; video signal generating means for generating a video signal corresponding to the ... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7085489 | Mobile device and mobile telephone device having imaging function Mobile equipment includes LEDs supplied with a current to emit red light, green light and blue light, FETs and a booster circuit for controlling the current supplied. The current supplied is controlled to supply all of the LED with a current of a low level to illumi... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7039250 | Electronic camera and image processing program The invention provides a technique for compression processing according to JPEG 2000 or the like in an electronic camera that evaluates the quality of each of image data groups taken sequentially by an imaging section and records high-rank image data selectively, an... | 05/02/2006 |
| 6967686 | Image sensing method, image sensing apparatus, lens control method therefor, and storage medium It is an object of this invention to provide an image sensing method which allows object focus tracking during zooming regardless of the shutter speed. In order to achieve this object, a zoom motor for driving a zoom lens is controlled by a lens control microcompute... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6943839 | Photographic method at time of self-photography, and image sensing apparatus thereof An image sensing apparatus provides optimum video not only during ordinary shooting but also when the photographer faces the camera to shoot video of him/herself. When the photographer performs such self-photography, the subject (i.e., the photographer) is situated ... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6937285 | Image pickup apparatus and power supply control method therefor In order to be able to reduce power consumption while making possible manual operation in any scene when the photographic situation demands its use, an image pickup apparatus has a ring member arranged concentrically with the optical axis of lenses, a detecting devi... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6933978 | Focus detecting device with photoelectric conversion portion having microlens and with light blocking portion having first and second openings A focus detecting device comprises a first photoelectric conversion section for performing photoelectric conversion of a light beam emitted from a first pupil area of a image pickup optical unit, a second photoelectric conversion section for performing photoelectric... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6907390 | Miniaturized opto-electronic magnifying system An opto-electronic image magnifying system. The magnifiying system includes: a light source (38, 39) which illuminates an object to be viewed; a miniaturized opto-electronic magnifier module (MOM), made of a lens (31) and a photodetector array (32 | 06/14/2005 |
| 6738197 | Autofocusing apparatus An autofocusing apparatus and method which prevents erroneously detecting a focus position due to a contrast pseudo peak. The system extracts an image component from an image signal and computes a contrast value. On the basis of the number of edges and the edge widt... | 05/18/2004 |
| 6701075 | Focus adjusting apparatus, image sensing apparatus, focusing method, program, and storage medium The present invention, employing a method of obtaining a final focus position by re-driving a lens before an actual image sensing operation in the vicinity of a focus position which has been obtained by the hill-climbing focusing method, has as its object... | 03/02/2004 |
| 6701074 | Distance measuring apparatus A correlation value calculation is performed by using AF data arranged at predetermined intervals in the AF data in a pair of window ranges, so that a frequency of calculation can be reduced. On the other hand, a correlation value calculation is performed... | 03/02/2004 |
| 5842059 | Automatic focus adjusting device An automatic focus adjusting device for automatically adjusting focus by using a predetermined signal component of a picked-up image signal outputted from an image sensor is arranged to find the state of an object from information on the distribution of f... | 11/24/1998 |
| 5740477 | Multi-point object distance measuring device A multi-point object distance measuring device which includes a plurality of object distance measuring areas, and a detecting device for detecting the amounts of defocus or distances of objects in the plurality of object distance measuring areas. The plur... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5737646 | Auto focus camera in which a lens position is changeable in accordance with a photographing mode In an auto focus camera in which a lens position is changeable in accordance with a photographing mode, based on measured object distance, it is judged whether or not measuring distance can be done, and it is presumed whether or not a person is photograph... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5715483 | Automatic focusing apparatus and method An automatic focusing apparatus moves a focusing lens once over a full movement range from the nearest point or from the infinite point so as to cause a photoelectric detector to output an electrical signal at predetermined stepwise lens positions. A lens... | 02/03/1998 |
| 5689740 | Focus detection device A focus detection device to improve the level of confidence of focus detection results of an object image by determining the defocus amount based on the filter processing data computed by a filter processing circuit for high frequencies of the subject ima... | 11/18/1997 |
| 5666562 | Automatic focusing system An automatic focusing system comprises a focus detecting circuit arranged to detect the state of focus on the basis of a signal component which is extracted from an image signal and varies with the state of focus, a speed control circuit arranged to colla... | 09/09/1997 |
| 5666569 | System and method for detecting and indicating proper focal distance in a fixed lens camera A fixed lens camera comprises a fixed focus lens, an infrared filter, and an optical low pass filter, all disposed in succession within a housing, coaxial with an optical axis. Light from a target passes through an aperture in the housing, and then throug... | 09/09/1997 |
| 5664238 | Focal controller of camera In a focal controller of a camera, two brightness components in different frequency bands are obtained by two band pass filters from a video signal obtained by image pickup. Integral values a and b of the respective brightness components are detected by i... | 09/02/1997 |
| 5606382 | Manual focusing circuit using a signal stabilizer A manual focusing circuit of a camera comprising a rotation ring having a plurality of projections, wherein the ring is manually rotated forward and rearward by a user. The manual focusing circuit further comprises a first sensing element, which is couple... | 02/25/1997 |
| 5404013 | Infrared imaging system having an automatic focusing control An infrared imaging system comprises an optical system for forming an image of a target on an infrared detection array and an automatic focusing mechanism, wherein an output image signal of the infrared detection array is processed in a filter to extract ... | 04/04/1995 |
| 5389995 | Focus condition detecting device The output signal trains generated through photoelectric conversion of an object image in the image sensor array are filtered to remove the DC component, generating the filtered signal trains. The difference between the value of the filtered signal trains... | 02/14/1995 |
| 5378973 | Automatic eye angle adjusting apparatus for an electronic view finder and method thereof An automatic eye angle adjusting apparatus in a camcorder for automatically moving an electronic view finder in accordance with camcorder set motion includes a set motion detector for output of a control signal in accordance with intentional movement of t... | 01/03/1995 |
| 5369435 | Contrast detecting apparatus for controlling an automatic focusing operation of an imaging apparatus A contrast detecting apparatus includes first extracting means for extracting a signal component of a first frequency band from a luminance signal obtained by imaging a subject, second extracting means for extracting a signal component of a second frequen... | 11/29/1994 |
| 5353089 | Focus detection apparatus capable of detecting an in-focus position in a wide field of view by utilizing an image contrast technique A focus detection apparatus of this invention can select one of a plurality of distance measurement areas in a photographing area, and obtains an in-focus point on the basis of contrast data of an object in the selected distance measurement area, thereby ... | 10/04/1994 |
| 5337084 | Automatic focusing device utilizing a trend of variation and degree of reliability of a focusing evaluation value signal to improve image focusing An automatic focusing device including a lens group by which movement of a focused field of an object changes, a drive motor for moving the lens group, a luminance processing circuit for image-sensing the object through the lens group to extract a luminan... | 08/09/1994 |
| 5264890 | Automatic focusing apparatus An image pickup element picks up an image formed by an optical system. A drive mechanism performs focus adjustment of the optical system on the basis of a signal output from the image pickup element. A storage unit stores MTF ratios corresponding to a plu... | 11/23/1993 |
| 5260736 | Auto focus control device A broad band pass filter and a narrow band pass filter are provided. The broad band pass filter detects a moving direction of the focus lens certainly and a peak of the evaluative value rapidly. And then, the band pass filter means is switched to the narr... | 11/09/1993 |
| 5235375 | Focusing position detecting and automatic focusing apparatus with optimal focusing position calculation method A driving section relatively drives an optical system and an object in a direction of an optical axis of the optical system. An information detecting section detects information of the object obtained by the optical system. A focusing position detecting s... | 08/10/1993 |
