...During the Civil War, the Confederacy established its own Patent Office which issued 266 patents, a third of which concerned implements of war.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7791670 | Method of operation for a vision-based occupant sensing system Image processing parameters of an imaging chip in a vision-based occupant sensing system are adjusted for each frame based on ambient illumination responsive information obtained in the idle period preceding that frame. The same sensing data is also used to determin... | 09/07/2010 |
| 7656458 | Color photographing device A color photographing device is equipped with a light-receiving section having a red pixel selectively receiving red light and outputting a red pixel signal and a green pixel selectively receiving green light and outputting a green pixel signal. The color photograph... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7548270 | Method of exposure control for an imaging system A method of exposure control for an imaging system. A predetermined number of images are captured by one or more imagers, wherein the images are defined by an image resolution matrix. The images are masked to establish a region of interest within the image resolutio... | 06/16/2009 |
| 7443443 | Method and apparatus for enhancing flash and ambient images A method and system generate an enhanced output image. A first image is acquired of a scene illuminated by a first illumination condition. A second image is acquired of the scene illuminated by a second illumination condition. First and second gradient images are de... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7414648 | Camera and camera system capable of changing gain value and exposure time An image-pickup apparatus which improves the S/N ratio of an image-pickup system, prevents image blur and saturation of signals from an image-pickup device, and enables taking an excellent image, is disclosed. The camera of the invention which takes images through a... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7403231 | Camera with exposure correction dependent upon brightness detected in a frame with the lowest brightness compared to average brightness Backlight correction by the following steps. The location of a dark distribution is determined, and a dark distribution histogram ratio is calculated. Next, the location of a bright distribution is determined, and a high-brightness slice set value is set. A determin... | 07/22/2008 |
| 7400354 | Camera device and shooting method Backlight correction by the following steps. The location of a dark distribution is determined, and a dark distribution histogram ratio is calculated. Next, the location of a bright distribution is determined, and a high-brightness slice set value is set. A determin... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7365778 | Electronic camera and white balance correction circuit The invention relates to an electronic camera and a white balance correction circuit both capable of setting white balance correction values properly at stroboscope imaging by relatively simple processing. The electronic camera has a stroboscope unit or a connection... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7359376 | Serial compressed bus interface having a reduced pin count There is provided a serial compressed bus interface having a reduced pin count. The interface includes a serial-to-parallel converter having a single serial data input line adapted to receive time-division multiplexed serial data from a plurality of data sources. En... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7358999 | Focus sensing apparatus, focus sensing method using phase-differential detection and computer-readable storage medium therefor An apparatus comprising: an image sensing device having a plurality of pixels for receiving light from an object upon separating the light into respective ones of different color components; an optical guidance device for accepting light rays in different directions... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7315324 | Motion clutter suppression for image-subtracting cameras Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for minimizing motion clutter in image-generation devices. Temporally-interleaved image-subtraction reduces the magnitude of motion clutter and has no adverse effect on the desired ambient-light canc... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7304683 | Method of automatically adjusting exposure in a shutterless digital camera In accordance with the present invention a shutterless single lens digital still camera includes an internal processor and auto exposure algorithm that automatically adjusts the exposure of the camera in high and low ambient lighting conditions. The auto exposure al... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7262798 | System and method for simulating fill flash in photography A digital camera simulates the use of fill flash. The camera takes a series of photographs of a scene at various focus distances. The photographs are stored, along with their corresponding focus distances. The photographs are analyzed to determine the distance to ob... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7212243 | Image pickup device with automatic and manual exposure control modes for image signal and image display to display an image based on an image signal obtained in automatic or manual exposure control An image pickup device designed to always ensure improved facility with which an object is recognized even in a manual exposure control mode. The image pickup device includes an exposure control device capable of being selectively set in one of an automatic mode and... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7180543 | Imaging apparatus, imaging method and recording medium for minimizing a release time lag An imaging apparatus including a device for discharging charge or F/E-IC for discharging charge accumulated in an imaging device or CCD and for canceling exposure in a discharging term of the charge. The apparatus also includes a light shielding device or mechanical... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7158174 | Method for automatic white balance of digital images A method of adjusting the color characteristics of a digital image includes receiving a digital image including a plurality of pixels, receiving non-pixel data relating to camera capture parameters including an aperture value, an exposure time value, and a speed val... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7142218 | Image display device and electronic apparatus using same, and image display method of same An image display device of the present invention is provided with a liquid crystal display panel for displaying an image in accordance with an input of a chrominance signal, a sensor for sensing light characteristics of external light, and a chrominance signal conve... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7071984 | Imaging device for digital camera having photodiodes disposed over light shielding membrane for sensing brightness An imaging device includes photoelectric converting portions for converting light from a subject into signal charge pixel by pixel and transfer portions for transferring the signal charge generated by photometric conversion. Photometric photodiodes are disposed over... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7009642 | Method and apparatus for detecting the presence of artificial illumination in a scene A method and apparatus for detecting the presence of artificial illumination in a scene powered by alternating current by sampling the light in a scene at a periodic rate. ... | 03/07/2006 |
| 6999118 | Method for driving solid-state imaging pickup device at a variable frame rate and camera The present invention relates to a method for driving a solid-state image pickup device and a camera provided with the driving function. In the method for driving the solid-state image pickup device and the camera according to the present invention, the frame rate o... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6965401 | White balance correcting device A white balance correcting device for correcting white balance by using video signals is arranged to be capable of accurately obtaining white balance even in a case where a picture includes only a small white part therein. The white balance correcting device is arra... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6961089 | Digital camera that displays a previously captured image on an LCD when a half-mirror is in motion When an instruction to record an image is provided while a live view is being displayed, the image shot immediately before the provision of the instruction is displayed while a half mirror is moving to retract from the optical path, and the image to be recorded shot... | 11/01/2005 |
| 6958779 | Digital camera A digital camera has a half mirror that splits the optical path from a taking lens to the image-sensing device and an optical viewfinder that offers the light reflected from the half mirror as a visible image. Inside the optical viewfinder, a photometric device is d... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6927792 | Television camera and white balance correcting method The white balance of a television camera is not lost and kept properly even if the diaphragm is opened to the utmost limit at a dark place. A signal F representing the diaphragm value of the taking lens is inputted from an iris part 2 into a microcomputer ... | 08/09/2005 |
| 6829008 | Solid-state image sensing apparatus, control method therefor, image sensing apparatus, basic layout of photoelectric conversion cell, and storage medium An object of this invention is to provide a solid-state image sensing apparatus capable of performing high-precision AF and AE without adding any camera mechanism or increasing power consumption. To achieve this object, at least S1 and S2 among photoel... | 12/07/2004 |
| 6734913 | Method of automatically adjusting exposure in a shutterless digital camera In accordance with the present invention a shutterless single lens digital still camera includes an internal processor and auto exposure algorithm that automatically adjusts the exposure of the camera in high and low ambient lighting conditions. The auto exposure al... | 05/11/2004 |
| 6674474 | Method of controlling transmission light amount and television camera apparatus using the method In a television camera apparatus, while a high luminance level range is detected from a picture signal which is acquired by imaging a moving photographing object by using an image pick-up element or acquired by imaging a subject almost in a static state t... | 01/06/2004 |
| 6618080 | Auxiliary amplifier selection circuit for a CCD camera Object: To broaden the range of photographing of object, until illumination of 0.02 lux. Construction: In the case of sufficient bright object, photographing is performed by a conventional circuit at a high S/N ratio, at a high degree. In the case of an i... | 09/09/2003 |
| 6518999 | Electronic still camera having line thinning out during continuous shooting mode An electronic still camera comprises an image sensor which allows each of its horizontal lines to be individually specified so that a video signal contained in each specified horizontal line can be read, a storage circuit for storing the video signal read... | 02/11/2003 |
| 6262768 | Dual camera day/night monitoring apparatus A remote controlled television monitoring system for day and night monitoring includes a camera unit in the form of a housing having first and second cameras. The first camera principally monitors during daylight conditions; while the second camera monito... | 07/17/2001 |
| 6195016 | Fiber optic display system with enhanced light efficiency A fiber optic display sign has an optical system with enhanced light efficiency so that the display system is suitable for outdoor use. A number of fiber optics have light receiving ends arranged in a compact bundle for receiving an image from an image ge... | 02/27/2001 |
| 6101333 | Method and apparatus for acquiring electronic and/or photographic images A method and apparatus are disclosed whereby generally matched exposures for at least first and second photoresponsive materials generally concurrently can be obtained, wherein the first photoresponsive material is more photoresponsive than the second.... | 08/08/2000 |
| 6046766 | Camera and vehicle-surroundings visual-recognition apparatus using the same A camera provided with a housing having a plurality of entrance windows through each of which extraneous light rays are taken in, an image pickup device mounted in this housing, an optical element that is disposed in the housing and is operative to form i... | 04/04/2000 |
| 5978024 | Auto variable anti-blooming bias control circuit and method This invention relates to auto variable anti-blooming bias circuits which can automatically vary the anti-blooming bias of the CCD image sensors according to the intensity of light incident thereon. The circuits comprise a DC voltage generation part for r... | 11/02/1999 |
| 5966175 | Back light detecting method, back light detecting device and image pick-up camera A back light detecting method, a back light detecting device and an image pick-up camera for detecting a back light state in view of the pick-up state of a subject. Concerning a pixel other than the pixel within the brightness level between two slice leve... | 10/12/1999 |
| 5937221 | Electro-developing type camera An electro-developing recording medium has a plurality of recording areas for recording R, G and B color images. The exposure operation is performed so that the aperture value and the basic exposure time are determined. The R/G signal and the B/G signal o... | 08/10/1999 |
| 5742340 | Ambient light automatic gain control for electronic imaging cameras and the like Apparatus that performs automatic gain control (AGC) for an electronic imaging camera, especially in outdoor surveillance applications. A fiber optic link is used to collect ambient light and couple this light onto a small portion of a light sensing array... | 04/21/1998 |
| 5694168 | Auto focus control device and method including selecting a zone for detecting an evaluative value for focusing in accordance with photographing direction A zone for measuring distance is enlarged by adding an area where a contrast ratio is relatively high in the case of the photographing against the light. Thus, the sensitivity for judging a contrast ratio is increased and improper focusing is prevented. T... | 12/02/1997 |
| 5631705 | Video camera having circuit for setting exposure compensation value In a device for controlling an imaging device, a voltage $c;VSUB which is applied to a substrate of a CCD is changed in accordance with an exposure compensation value. Switches are turned ON or OFF in accordance with the exposure compensatio... | 05/20/1997 |
| 5617141 | Image pickup devices having an image quality control function and methods of controlling an image quality in image pickup devices An image pickup device including an image pickup unit for converting an optical image of a subject to an image signal, a signal processor for producing a video signal from the image signal, an ambience determining unit for determining image pickup ambienc... | 04/01/1997 |