Bizarre Patents
Pet Toilet-Like Water Disk and Food Storage
One pet-friendly inventor patented "a device for watering pets, e.g., a dog or cat." The device, he helpfully noted, "has the general shape of a toilet."
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8189089 | Methods and apparatus for reducing plenoptic camera artifacts Methods and apparatus for reducing plenoptic camera artifacts. A first method is based on careful design of the optical system of the focused plenoptic camera to reduce artifacts that result in differences in depth in the microimages. A second method is computationa... | 05/29/2012 |
| 7965333 | Method for noise correction for a flat-panel detector For noise correction in connection with a flat-panel x-ray detector (2), noise signals of a dark area (6) are checked for deviations exceeding a specified threshold (g) which, if any are present, will be taken into consideration separately for calculat... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7428381 | Electronic motion picture camera The invention relates to an electronic motion picture camera having an optical receiving system and a beam splitter which splits the receiving beam path into a taking beam path leading to an optoelectronic taking sensor and a viewfinder beam path leading to an optic... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7400827 | Camera provided with optical finder According to the present invention, light from a taking lens is reflected by a quick return mirror in a lateral direction of a body unit. Then, after passing through a screen, the light is reflected toward an upper side of the body unit by a second mirror except par... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7280042 | Standoff security and real-time vendor verification system and apparatus A stand-off security checkpoint system and apparatus that enables security officers entrusted with protecting our nations' critical infrastructure or other high risk locations, a means of verifying in real-time, the identity of entrants to a facility. Via a communic... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7072081 | Compact portable 2D/ 3D image capture system The present invention provides a compact, portable system for capturing two dimensional images from printed and related media, as well as three dimensional scenic images, such as photographs, combining the optical features of scanning and photography. A compact, por... | 07/04/2006 |
| 6993255 | Method and apparatus for providing adaptive illumination An illumination system (20, 72, 110, 142) for illuminating a scene comprising: an illuminator (24, 74, 116) having a plurality of substantially contiguous independently controllable light (26, 76) providing regions each of which provides light t... | 01/31/2006 |
| 6962448 | Optical interlink between an optical transducer and optical data port An optical interlink made from an optical transducer capable of optically exchanging information. Information to and from the optical transducer passes through a light pipe transducer end and an optical data port end. The optical light pipe consists of separate tran... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6927476 | Bipolar device having shallow junction raised extrinsic base and method for making the same A raised extrinsic base, silicon germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), and a method of making the same is disclosed herein. The heterojunction bipolar transistor includes a substrate, a silicon germanium layer formed on the substrate, a collector... | 08/09/2005 |
| 6914634 | Digital camera A digital camera having a taking lens, a finder for viewing light transmitted through the taking lens, an image sensing element for optoelectrically converting light which passes through the taking lens, a light splitter capable of changing transmittance and dividin... | 07/05/2005 |
| 6795109 | Stereo panoramic camera arrangements for recording panoramic images useful in a stereo panoramic image pair Various camera arrangements are disclosed comprising a camera and an optical element. The camera is configured to record an image defined by light rays directed thereto. The optical element is configured to deflect rays from a scene to the camera for recording there... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6677999 | Non-polarizing LCD shutter An electronic shutter apparatus and light shuttering method for a still image capturing device are provided according to the invention. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a beam splitter positioned in an incoming light beam path and splitting the i... | 01/13/2004 |
| 6301027 | Holographic desktop monitor A projection monitor and a method of displaying an output image on a viewing screen of the monitor utilize a number of reconfigurable holographic optical elements (HOEs), allowing the components of the monitor to be physically arranged in a compact config... | 10/09/2001 |
| 6163022 | Imaging apparatus, distance measurement apparatus and method for measuring distance The imaging apparatus of this invention includes: a lens, a half mirror, and a first CCD arranged along a same optical axis; and a second CCD arranged on an axis of light reflected from the half mirror, wherein one of the first and second CCDs outputs a n... | 12/19/2000 |
| 6040928 | Holographic desktop monitor A projection monitor and a method of displaying an output image on a viewing screen of the monitor utilize a number of reconfigurable holographic optical elements (HOEs), allowing the components of the monitor to be physically arranged in a compact config... | 03/21/2000 |
| 5570220 | Apparatus for transmitting lightwave Apparatus for achieving contact-less linking between a transmitting unit and a receiving unit when transmitting video signal, audio signal, control signal, or digital data therebetween. The apparatus includes a switch circuit which switches the output sig... | 10/29/1996 |
| 5359364 | Electronic still camera having an optical system for TTL dimming An electronic still camera having an optical system suitable for TTL direct dimming and capable of disposing a dimming sensor at a suitable position in a main body of the camera. A part of a light reflected by a subject and passing through a taking lens d... | 10/25/1994 |
| 5189485 | Wavelength meter having single mode fiber optics multiplexed inputs A wavelength meter having a single mode fiber optics input is disclosed. The single mode fiber enables a plurality of laser beams to be multiplexed to form a multiplexed input to the wavelength meter. The wavelength meter can provide a determination of th... | 02/23/1993 |
| 5172235 | Imaging system for simultaneous viewing of two images For simultaneous viewing, for example, of a stretch of roadway in front of a vehicle, with telephoto and wide-angle images, an electronic receiver receives telephoto and wide-angle image information from an input optical system. In one example, a telephot... | 12/15/1992 |
| 5119201 | Line camera for imaging object strips on photosensitive detector lines The invention relates to a line camera for imaging object strips on photosensitive detector lines, having an objective producing a line image of an object strip, having a ray deflecting system situated at the site of the line image by which the line image... | 06/02/1992 |
| 5023944 | Optical resonator structures At least one optical resonator having a selected optical processing property is formed upon a substrate. Various property resonators may be stacked upon one another so as to share a common optical axis. A resonator typically has a pair of multilayer diele... | 06/11/1991 |
| 4853787 | Still video camera having a viewfinder with superimposed images A still video camera in which the image-forming beam from an objective lens is split by a beamsplitter and the same image is centered on two solid state image sensors. The images on the sensors are visible and are combined by the beamsplitter and viewed t... | 08/01/1989 |
| 4847693 | Composite process video and motion picture photography system and method The present invention comprises a novel composite process photography system and method. A negative lens or a curved mirror is used to produce a miniature virtual image of a scene a short distance from a camera. The camera focusses on the virtual images. ... | 07/11/1989 |
| 4821307 | Image splitter for two-way imaging apparatus A pair of devices is provided of similar construction. Each device includes a beam-splitter, a CRT for providing an image from the remote device and a TV camera to send an image to the remote device. The image from the CRT is viewable by a person using th... | 04/11/1989 |
| 4742369 | Electronic still camera In an electronic still camera, a solid-state imaging element and a photosensitive film which receive an object image and arranged on the optical path of an optical lens system. The object image is simultaneously formed on the solid-state imaging element a... | 05/03/1988 |
| 4672439 | FLIR imager with hybrid optical/electronic processor A FLIR imager is modified to include a hybrid optical/electronic processor for automatic local area dynamic range normalization. FLIR imagers have an objective lens for focusing IR energy emanating from a scene on a detector array. The detector array gene... | 06/09/1987 |
| 4652909 | Television camera and recording system for high definition television having imagers of different frame rate An apparatus and method for generating video signals using an improved camera system is disclosed. Video recording techniques which save bandwidth, and a temporal filter which is tailored to the eye's temporal response are also disclosed. In the camera ap... | 03/24/1987 |
| 4626925 | Photoelectric reader/printer with variable reading area Photoelectric reader includes a reader part for moving on an original to read image data in the original and transforming the image data into electric signals and a printer part for visualizing and fixing the electric data. The reader part is provided wit... | 12/02/1986 |
| 4626905 | Panoramic view apparatus A panoramic view apparatus comprising a tube, a lookout mirror supported in the tube and movable in elevation and azimuth, and a closure window that is at least bispectrally transparent. In the tube, at least three known types of different optical measuri... | 12/02/1986 |
| 4601537 | Apparatus and methods for forming images and for optical demultiplexing An apparatus for illuminating and forming an image of a specimen has a transparent specimen-supporting surface and a fiber-optic bundle divided into illumination fibers which illuminate the surface and emission fibers which are held in the same relative s... | 07/22/1986 |
| 4591918 | Image sensor system The image sensor system includes an image sensing means for producing an image signal by sensing a field of view. This image signal is sent to a means which reproduces an image of the field. An optical projection means forms an optical image of this image... | 05/27/1986 |
| 4571630 | Electronic camera having information write function An electronic camera has a solid-state image pick-up device for picking up an image incident thereon through an imaging lens. The camera has a half mirror interposed between the lens and the image pick-up device, and, at its lower portion, a screen and a ... | 02/18/1986 |
| 4491868 | Video image compensator for inspection apparatus A video image compensator for inspection apparatus is presented for utilization in a system of the type in which an image of a workpiece is digitized and compared against stored data representing a workpiece of known acceptable quality. The invention comp... | 01/01/1985 |
| 4484219 | Electronically generated holography Holographic data in the form of electronic signals is generated through the utilization of two planar transparent supports between which is positioned an electro-optical dipolar medium which is normally opaque but light transmissive in the presence of an ... | 11/20/1984 |
| 4330797 | View-finder for television camera A view-finder is used for a television camera which has an image pick-up device for picking up an image of an object responsive to incident light from the object. The television camera comprises an optical system for diverging a part of a light advancing ... | 05/18/1982 |
| 4288819 | Multi-field imaging device A multi-field imaging device is described for directing light from a first optical field and a separated second optical field into a video camera used for security surveillance thereby reproducing a split-screen image with the video camera. The multi-fiel... | 09/08/1981 |
| 4237492 | Image observation apparatus An apparatus which permits direct observation of an image produced by one image generator, simultaneously permits remote observation of an image produced by a second image generator, and switchably permits the simultaneous observation of both images direc... | 12/02/1980 |
| 4222662 | Access control system A photo I.D. card having the photograph, and/or signature, and/or coded indicia of an authorized holder which is visible under ordinary room illumination also carries a second photograph of the user. The second photograph is in the form of a transparency ... | 09/16/1980 |
| 4178074 | Head-up displays A head-up display optical projector using a Petzval type collimating optical system wherein a secondary image is injected through an optically flat peripheral surface of a lens included in the Petzval lens group closer to the main image display surface of... | 12/11/1979 |
| 4167756 | Split image camera system A camera system for providing a split image field of view. The split image camera system utilizes two planar mirrors which are arranged along mutually intersecting planes so as to transmit images from different locations to the camera. The two mirrors are... | 09/11/1979 |
