Patents Examined by Roberto Velez
  • Patent number: 9784950
    Abstract: A zoom lens system includes a positive first lens group, a negative second lens group, a positive third lens group, and a positive fourth lens group. The second and third lens groups are moved during zooming. The first lens group includes a positive first sub-lens group which does not move during a focusing operation, and a positive second sub-lens group which moves during the focusing operation. The first sub-lens group includes at least one negative lens element, the second sub-lens group is a positive single lens element, and the following conditions (1) and (2) are satisfied: 60<?d1b<75 ??(1), and ?d1a<24??(2), wherein ?d1b and ?d1a_designates Abbe numbers at the d-line of the positive single lens element of the second sub-lens group and at the d-line of the negative lens element within the first sub-lens group, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Masakazu Saori, Yoshimitsu Ohara
  • Patent number: 9787884
    Abstract: An audio capture system for a sports camera includes at least one “enhanced” microphone and at least one “reference” microphone. The enhanced microphone includes a drainage enhancement feature to enable water to drain from the microphone more quickly than the reference microphone. A microphone selection controller selects between the microphones based on a microphone selection algorithm to enable high quality in conditions where the sports camera transitions in and out of water during activities such as surfing, water skiing, swimming, or other wet environments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
    Inventors: Erich Tisch, Joyce Rosenbaum, Magnus Hansson, Evan L. Coons, Alexander Wroblewski
  • Patent number: 9787889
    Abstract: An image sensor may include an image pixel array with both image pixels to gather image data and phase detection pixels to gather phase information. The image sensor may dynamically group the phase detection pixels into focus zones. Based on the characteristics of the scene being imaged and the use settings of the image sensor, the image sensor may determine the size, shape, and number of focus zones to be grouped. One or more focus zones may then be used to gather phase information data. The focus zones may vary in size and shape across the pixel array. A scene with low illumination level may result in larger focus zones with more phase detection pixels to ensure reliable phase information data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Richard Scott Johnson
  • Patent number: 9781325
    Abstract: An array imaging module includes a molded photosensitive assembly which includes a supporting member, at least a circuit board, at least two photosensitive units, at least two lead wires, and a mold sealer. The photosensitive units are coupled at the chip coupling area of the circuit board. The lead wires are electrically connected the photosensitive units at the chip coupling area of the circuit board. The mold sealer includes a main mold body and has two optical windows. When the main mold body is formed, the lead wires, the circuit board and the photosensitive units are sealed and molded by the main mold body of the mold sealer, such that after the main mold body is formed, the main mold body and at least a portion of the circuit board are integrally formed together at a position that the photosensitive units are aligned with the optical windows respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Ningbo Sunny Opotech Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Mingzhu Wang, Bojie Zhao, Takehiko Tanaka, Nan Guo, Zhenyu Chen, Heng Jiang, Zhongyu Luan, Fengsheng Xi, Feifan Chen, Liang Ding
  • Patent number: 9781319
    Abstract: A mobile device case for coupling around a miniature camera-enabled mobile device a case shutter button mechanism for actuating the miniature camera module of the mobile camera system. A half-press or single tap triggers a precapture settings menu and a full-press or double tap triggers capture of an image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Moment Inc
    Inventors: Marc Barros, Russell Hudyma, Michael Thomas, Eric Davis, Arash Ghorbani, Erik Hedberg, Josh Baxley, Amanda Kirk, Bradley G Castaneda, Zachary Reed, Steve McCallion, Wesley Glen Wirth, R J Lincoln
  • Patent number: 9774781
    Abstract: A local tone mapping circuit may include: a noise extractor configured to divide an image signal into a first noise signal and a noise-free signal; an intermediate tone mapping signal generator configured to calculate a tone mapping gain corresponding to the noise-free signal, and configured to generate an intermediate tone mapping signal by multiplying the noise-free signal by the tone mapping gain; and/or an adder configured to generate a final tone mapping signal by adding a second noise signal related with the first noise signal to the intermediate tone mapping signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Won Ho Cho
  • Patent number: 9774809
    Abstract: An image sensing device includes: a clock signal control block suitable for generating first and second clock control signals to have variable logic combinations for each unit row time; a frequency division block suitable for generating first and second clock signals having different phases based on a reference clock signal and controlling a first delay time reflected in the first clock signal and a second delay time reflected in the second clock signal for each unit row time based on the first and a second clock control signals; and a pixel signal processing block suitable for converting a pixel signal inputted for each unit row time into a digital signal based on the first and second clock signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: SK Hynix Inc.
    Inventor: Jung-Eun Song
  • Patent number: 9767583
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for packing a plurality of images. A number of cells of a canvas on which the plurality of images having different aspect ratios are to be packed is determined. The cells on the canvas are merged such that a number of the plurality of images is equal to the number of the cells. Each of the plurality of images are placed in a corresponding one of the plurality of cells of the canvas, according to respective aspect ratios of the plurality of images, when the number of the plurality of images is equal to the number of the cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Pavan Sudheendra, Rajagopalan Venkata Raghavan, Yogesh Manav, Rajaram Hanumantacharya Naganur
  • Patent number: 9766431
    Abstract: An imaging lens includes: a movable lens group configured to travel to allow the imaging lens to come into focus; and a rearmost lens group arranged at a most-image-sided fixed position, and having negative refractive power. Following conditional expression is satisfied, ?2<ft/fr<?0.45??(1) where ft is a total focal length of the imaging lens in a condition that the imaging lens is in focus on an object at infinite, and fr is a focal length of the rearmost lens group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Fumikazu Kanetaka, Hisashi Uno
  • Patent number: 9760250
    Abstract: An electronic device that is capable of efficiently providing or acquiring information on content data, and a method for controlling the same are provided. When information of content data files are provided to an external device in response to a request from the external device, if a number is specified in the request, a specified number of information are transmitted to the external device in an order from a newest content data file from among the content data files.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Koshi Tokunaga
  • Patent number: 9759893
    Abstract: An optical device and mobile device including a plurality of optical devices having different fields of view to increase an aberration improvement effect and to realize a higher degree of resolution are disclosed. The optical device includes first to sixth lenses disposed sequentially from an object, and an image sensor configured to convert an image of a subject incident through the first to sixth lenses into an electrical signal, wherein 0.7<TTL/f<1.0. The mobile device includes a plurality of optical systems having different fields of view, wherein a difference between fields of the two optical devices of the plurality of optical devices is 20 degrees or more, and one optical device of the plurality of optical devices comprise, whereby a wide angle function and a telephoto function may be realized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yong Joo Jo
  • Patent number: 9762816
    Abstract: A video processing apparatus analyzes an input video input from a video input unit, detects a plurality of moving bodies included in the input video, determines a main moving body and a sub moving body, and determines a sub picture position for superimposing and displaying a sub video in a main video in a picture-in-picture form. This video processing apparatus performs cut-out processing on the main video and the sub video from the input video, and synthesizes the cut-out main video and sub video to generate a picture-in-picture synthesized video in which the sub video is superimposed at the sub picture position of the main video in the picture-in-picture form. The picture-in-picture synthesized video is output in one stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2017
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Ryoji Ogino
  • Patent number: 9756307
    Abstract: The image processing apparatus includes a determining part configured to determine, from a difference between information on color of a first pixel in a first image and information on color of a second pixel corresponding to the first pixel in a second image, whether or not the first image includes color blur due to defocus, the first and second images being generated by an image-pickup system and whose focus states are mutually different. The apparatus further includes a correcting part configured to perform on the first image a correction process that corrects the color blur determined by the determining part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Chiaki Inoue
  • Patent number: 9756239
    Abstract: An image processing device includes a shooting scene determining section that determines a shooting scene, a correlation evaluation value calculating section that calculates correlation evaluation values between a target pixel and surrounding pixels, a weight setting section that sets, when the shooting scene is a low correlation scene, heavy weights to the correlation evaluation value calculated from the surrounding pixels having high correlativities, an isolated-point degree calculating section that subjects the correlation evaluation values to weight addition to calculate an isolated-point degree, and an FPN correcting section that corrects a pixel value of the target pixel according to a magnitude of the isolated-point degree correction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Atsuro Okazawa, Toshimasa Miura, Ryusuke Tsuchida
  • Patent number: 9756253
    Abstract: An imaging device includes an imaging portion that images a subject; a positional information acquisition portion that acquires positional information of an imaging position; a control portion which acquires information on the subject based on the positional information, and displays image data of the subject and the information on the subject on a display portion; and a hold control portion that outputs a hold control signal, which holds the image data of the subject and the information on the subject, to the control portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: NIKON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hideya Inoue
  • Patent number: 9748305
    Abstract: An image sensor is provided including a photo sensor layer including a plurality of photo-sensing cells; a color separation layer disposed on the photo sensor layer and including color separation elements embedded in a transparent spacer layer; and a micro lens array arranged on the color separation layer, the micro lens array including a plurality of micro lenses. The color separation layer separates light by wavelength. The micro lens array concentrates incident light onto the plurality of color separation elements. The color separation elements include: a first main splitter which transmits light of a first primary color onto first photo-sensing cells which faces the first main splitter and diffracts and/or refracts light of colors other than the first primary color onto photo-sensing cells adjacent to the first photo-sensing cell; and a plurality of first auxiliary splitters which are arranged surrounding the first main splitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Changgyun Shin
  • Patent number: 9749559
    Abstract: Provided is a solid-state image sensor, including: a pixel unit including a valid pixel area and an optical-black pixel area; a plurality of reading units configured to read pixel values of a large number of pixels of the pixel unit line by line; a plurality of correction data generating units corresponding to the plurality of reading units, respectively, each of the plurality of correction data generating units being configured to generate correction data based on pixel values read from the optical-black pixel area out of the pixel values read from the pixel unit by the corresponding reading unit line by line; and a correcting unit configured to correct pixel values read from the valid pixel area out of the pixel values read from the pixel unit by the reading unit line by line based on the correction data generated by the corresponding correction data generating unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Hiromichi Tanaka
  • Patent number: 9742980
    Abstract: An acquisition unit is configured to acquire first defocus information based on a sensor output corresponding to a first region in an area of a captured image, and to acquire second defocus information based on a sensor output corresponding to a second region in the area. A control unit is configured to obtain defocus information corresponding to the area using the first defocus information and the second defocus information, and to perform focus control based on the obtained defocus information. The first region has a length longer in a phase-difference detection direction than the length of the second region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kazunori Ishii
  • Patent number: 9743057
    Abstract: Systems and methods for correcting intensity drop-offs due to geometric properties of lenses are provided. In one example, a method includes receiving an input pixel of the image data, the image data acquired using an image sensor. A color component of the input pixel is determined. A gain grid is determined by pointing to the gain grid in external memory. Each of the plurality of grid points is associated with a lens shading gain selected based upon the color of the input pixel. A nearest set of grid points that enclose the input pixel is identified. Further, a lens shading gain is determined by interpolating the lens shading gains associated with each of the set of grid points and is applied to the input pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Guy Cote, Joseph Anthony Petolino, Jr., Suk Hwan Lim, D. Amnon Silverstein
  • Patent number: 9736383
    Abstract: The technology disclosed here maximizes the size of the display area associated with the mobile device by various camera placement. In one embodiment, the camera is placed inside the mobile device, and can pop outside the mobile device when the camera is activated. When the camera is inactive the camera retracts inside the mobile device, and becomes unnoticeable to the user. In another embodiment, the camera is integrated into the mobile device display as a camera icon. The integrated camera serves two purposes: to record pictures, and to act as a camera icon, that when selected activates the camera. By removing the camera from the front side of the mobile device, or by integrating the camera into the display screen of the mobile device, the size of the mobile device display screen can be increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: ESSENTIAL PRODUCTS, INC.
    Inventors: David John Evans, V, Xinrui Jiang, Andrew E. Rubin, Matthew Hershenson, Xiaoyu Miao