"Rail travel at high speeds is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia."
Dionysius Lardner, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at University College, London ; 1830
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7623779 | Distance-measuring apparatus, distance-measuring method, and recording medium A phase difference sensor is arranged toward a target object such that the sensor can rotate at least 180° on its sensor optical axis. As the phase difference sensor rotates, the angle of a sensor viewing field is changed, and the distance to the target object is c... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7230410 | Accurate high-speed current sources Current source embodiments are provided which generate an output current pulse whose initial and terminal slew rates are enhanced with initial and terminal generators that respectively provide an initial current pulse at initiation of the command signal and a termin... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7170649 | Scanning module having an adjustable height A scanning module having an adjustable height includes a CIS module having two ends along a longitudinal direction each provided with a distance adjusting member. Thus, when the CIS module is scanning the reflective document and the transparency, the distance adjust... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7046295 | System and method for rotatably positioning a camera or similar article about two orthogonal axes A positioning device is provided for rotatably positioning a camera or other article about orthogonal rotational axes. The positioning device includes a carriage supported for rotation about a horizontal axis by a yoke. The yoke is in turn rotatably coupled to a bas... | 05/16/2006 |
| 6970646 | Focus control apparatus, image sensor, program and storage medium A digital camera has distance measurement zone setting means (12) for dividing distance to a subject into a plurality of distance measurement zones; distance measurement zone selection means (13) for selecting a distance measurement zone to be scanned;... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6937321 | Distance measuring method and image input device with distance measuring function A distance measuring technology capable of stably and accurately performing distance measurement of an object without any highly accurate focus control mechanism is provided. A distance measuring apparatus has a mask for restricting light so as to pass through two o... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6606458 | Automatic framing camera This invention provides an automatic framing camera that identifies a still subject, frames it, and photographs it. The ranging direction of a ranging unit (light emitting element and light receiving element) that can range in one direction is changed by a pan... | 08/12/2003 |
| 6396873 | Optical device Stereoscopic device including a lenticular lens layer and light sensor array, the lenticular lens layer includes a plurality of lenticular elements, the sight sensor array includes a plurality of light sensors, wherein selected ones of the light sensors d... | 05/28/2002 |
| 5650840 | Focus detecting method and apparatus A method of detecting a focus position of a projection optical system at a high throughput and with high accuracy. A sensor pattern (SP) which is provided on a wafer stage (WS) as a light-receiving part of a photoelectric sensor (PES) is moved in the dire... | 07/22/1997 |
| 5532783 | Apparatus and method for adjusting the focus of a camera during scanning drive and non-scanning drive of a photographic lens A camera which selects a specific image sensor when the photographic lens is scanning, to reduce the focus detection time during scanning. The camera includes first and second image sensors and a photographic lens. Each image sensor receives light passing... | 07/02/1996 |
| 5321248 | Focus detection apparatus having multiple detecting zones A focus detecting apparatus, characterized in that it comprises, multiple detecting zones situated in a focal plane, an orientation changing mechanism which changes the orientations of images formed in these zones, an image separating device which separat... | 06/14/1994 |
| 5311004 | Focus detecting apparatus with gaze detection and focus area changing A focus detecting apparatus capable of changing a focus detecting region in a photographing image field by the use of a set of focus detecting optical systems and a pair of sensor light receiving portions is provided with a focus detecting optical system ... | 05/10/1994 |
| 5249013 | Distance measuring device of camera In a distance measuring device of a camera, a distance measuring optical system unit has light-emitting and light-receiving elements for distance measurement. The distance measuring optical system unit is rotated from one end of a photographing screen to ... | 09/28/1993 |
| 4963912 | Camera apparatus having means for setting the position of an optical grating at a desired location in the viewfinder A camera apparatus having means for setting an optical grating at a desired location in the viewfinder includes a viewfinder for observing a prospective image plane of an objective lens, a light dividing mirror for reflecting the light toward the viewfind... | 10/16/1990 |
| 4816664 | Focusing detector having a scanning grating used both as a beam splitter and spatial and frequency filter A scanning grating for a focusing detector and a focusing detector are described. The scanning grating serves as an image scanner and spatial frequency filter and includes at least two surface elements splitting up an incident luminous flux into two spati... | 03/28/1989 |
| 4782356 | Automatic focusing apparatus An automatic focusing apparatus configured such that a projected light from a light emitting element is reflected on an object and the reflection light is passed through a flat plate so as to be received by a light receiving element. The position where th... | 11/01/1988 |
| 4717959 | Automatic focusing device for video camera or the like An automatic focusing device for use with a solid-state self-scanned image sensor having a rectangular light detecting area for scanning an object image and converting the same to a video signal, including a focus detecting means, a driver means and a con... | 01/05/1988 |
| 4689480 | Arrangement for improved scanned 3-D measurement An arrangement for 3-D optical measurement systems employing scanned light beams or planes. A lens used to image projected light that is reflected from a measured surface, is moved onto a light-sensitive detector. The lens movement is coordinated with the... | 08/25/1987 |
| 4635124 | Auxiliary focusing circuit for automatic focusing camera An auxiliary focusing circuit for an automatic focusing solid state array camera includes a control circuit and a drive circuit. The camera includes a switch which is actuated when the lens travels a selected distance without being focused. The control ci... | 01/06/1987 |
| 4621191 | Self-scanning type photoelectric conversion element drive device responsive to different detected light intensities for focus detection A self-scanning type photoelectric conversion element drive device, particularly, such a drive device applied to a focus detecting device of a camera, in which the effective dynamic range of the device is made very broad without a complex circuit arrangem... | 11/04/1986 |
| 4600832 | Method and apparatus for automatic optical focusing on an optically discernible feature on an object A method for the automatic fine focusing of an image scanning densitometer, micrometer, or television camera or the like, after an initial manual focus has been made on the edge of a discernible feature on the surface of an object of interest. A plurality... | 07/15/1986 |
| 4586090 | Document scanners A device as described for indicating the state of focus of an image of a document which is converted into a video signal by sequentially inspecting the incident light level at points within the image and generating an electrical signal having a parameter ... | 04/29/1986 |
| 4584704 | Spatial imaging system A spatial imaging system includes a variable focus lens for scanning a visual field. The depth of field of the lens system is narrow relative to the range of the field to be scanned so that visual in-focus image planes of the entire field can be obtained ... | 04/22/1986 |
| 4543476 | Focus detector A focus detector has a photoelectric position sensor which is disposed in a proper focal plane of light beams passing through a pupil splitter having two light transmitting sections which are controllable to be made transparent alternately in an image for... | 09/24/1985 |
| 4523101 | Image scanning system with signal integration time control Disclosed is an image scanning system including signal integration type image sensor, measuring device for measuring a light substantially equivalent to a light incident on the sensor, and a controller for controlling the signal integration time of the se... | 06/11/1985 |
| 4510384 | Automatic focusing device with frequency weighted amplification An optical system is automatically focussed by deriving an electrical signal which has a frequency distribution corresponding to the spatial frequency distribution of an image received from a focussing lens; applying to the electrical signal an amplificat... | 04/09/1985 |
| 4497560 | Control circuit for active type range finder An active type range finder has a light-emitting element which is pulsatively driven to project light pulses on an object to be photographed. A photodetector element receives the light reflected from the object and produces a photoelectric output signal p... | 02/05/1985 |
| 4487495 | Automatic focusing camera In an automatic focusing camera comprising optical object distance detecting means having a light emitting element for measuring an object distance and a light receiving element for receiving the reflected light from an object, provision being made of rot... | 12/11/1984 |
| 4467187 | Automatic focusing device which inhibits focusing when a low contrast scene is sensed In an automatic continuous focusing device, two detected images of an object formed by a distance detection optical system with a relative distance therebetween associated with the object distance are scanned, the obtained scanning signals are quantized t... | 08/21/1984 |
| 4422741 | Distance detecting device and a focus control system utilizing the same A distance detecting device in which, with respect to an object whose distance is to be detected, the images of a first and a second field following different lines of sight and containing the object and different in range are scanned while, at the same t... | 12/27/1983 |
| 4422097 | Automatic focus controlling method In a hill-climbing method for detecting a peak of a contrast signal to detect the position to bring a taking lens to for automatic focus control, the taking lens is moved further from a first detected peak position by a predetermined distance for searchin... | 12/20/1983 |
| 4417795 | Automatic focus detection device In the disclosed automatic focus detection device, two image forming lenses have optical axes fixedly spaced a predetermined distance. Distance measuring elements are arranged near the focal points behind each image forming lens. A holding member holding ... | 11/29/1983 |
| 4414470 | Pupil divisional focusing position detection apparatus using lenticula lens In a focusing position detection apparatus for detecting a focusing position by causing rays of light coming from a peripheral portion of an exit pupil of a photographing lens to enter a pair of self-scanning type photoelectric element arrays through a le... | 11/08/1983 |
| 4410258 | Automatic focus detecting device for camera An automatic focus detecting device for a camera comprises a lens system having an image plane for focusing light transmitted along a light path, at least one self-scanning type photoelectric converting device including a plurality of charged storage type... | 10/18/1983 |
| 4408288 | Distance measuring arrangement A distance measuring arrangement for use, for example, in a camera and the like equipped with an automatic focus control system which includes an illuminance intensity detecting portion for detecting the illuminance intensity of a target object and a dist... | 10/04/1983 |
| 4400071 | Auto-focus camera In a mark finder for an auto-focus camera provided with a photographic field mark indicating a picture frame within the field of view of the finder, and a distance measuring area mark indicating the light metering field of a photo-electric in-focus detect... | 08/23/1983 |
| 4370038 | Automatic focussing system In a system for driving automatically an objective lens into a desired focal position so as to form a focussed image on a film plane, in order to derive a driving signal for a driving motor moving the objective lens along its optical axis, an auxiliary le... | 01/25/1983 |
| 4368978 | Image scanning system This specification discloses an image scanning system in which an object image formed by an optical system is electrically scanned by utilization of a photosensor array device and the image scanning output then obtained is quantized to thereby provide qua... | 01/18/1983 |
| 4358675 | Low contrast default for auto focus system Apparatus for use with range finding equipment in which the radiation from a remote object may be too small to provide for proper operation. A signal which is a function of the logarithm of the ratio of the output of a first and second detector and a sign... | 11/09/1982 |
| 4341447 | Infrared camera ranging system A passive infra-red ranging system for a photographic camera or the like includes two infra-red responsive sensors spaced apart a predetermined distance from one another on the camera body. Each sensor includes a plurality of vertically aligned segments w... | 07/27/1982 |