Patents by Inventor Minoru Kakinuma

Minoru Kakinuma has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6744471
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an electronic camera for generating an image having a wide dynamic range by synthesizing two image pickup signals of different exposure amount generated by using an electronic shutter function and means for shutting off light, shading of image pickup signals resulting from difference in charge accumulating time among the pixels of image pickup device due to operation from opened state to closed state of the means for shutting off light being corrected by a shading correction means to form a synthesized image without an occurrence of false color due to shading.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2004
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., LTD
    Inventors: Minoru Kakinuma, Hidetoshi Fukuda, Hiroaki Koseki, Osamu Inagaki, Kuniaki Saito
  • Patent number: 6278490
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus including a solid-state image pickup device for photoelectrically converting incident light from an object into an electrical signal and outputting the electrical signal, an electronic flash tube for irradiating light onto the object, and a system controller for controlling the light emission timing of the electronic flash tube. The electronic flash tube is caused to emit light in the vertical blanking period of the solid-state image pickup device. The invention is to also provide an image pickup apparatus having a solid-state image pickup device capable of performing photoelectric conversion and reading out the charges accumulated for an arbitrary time, a field memory for storing image data obtained by performing predetermined processing for the readout signal, an image synthesizing unit for synthesizing an immediately preceding field image and a new image from the image pickup device, and an electronic flash unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2001
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hidetoshi Fukuda, Minoru Kakinuma, Osamu Inagaki, Gakuji Kamishima
  • Publication number: 20010001245
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus according to the present invention structured to synthesize a plurality of images having different quantities of exposure to enlarge the image pickup dynamic range is intended to prevent rise of the noise level of the connection point of the images. A maximum value detection circuit controls the quantity of exposure of an image pickup device to be a first quantity of exposure and a second quantity of exposure smaller than the first quantity of exposure and optimizes the second quantity of exposure in accordance with the second quantity of exposure. A first image signal corresponding to the first quantity of exposure and a second image signal corresponding to the thus-optimized second quantity of exposure are synthesized by a synthesizing circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2001
    Publication date: May 17, 2001
    Applicant: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
    Inventors: Gakuji Kamishima, Osamu Inagaki, Minoru Kakinuma, Hidetoshi Fukuda
  • Patent number: 6219097
    Abstract: In an image pickup apparatus, a level of an output signal from an image pickup device is detected. A first quantity of exposure of the image pickup device is determined such that a maximum value of the output signal from the image pickup device does not exceed a saturation level. And a first image signal picked up by the image pickup device with the first quantity of exposure is synthesized with at least one second image signal picked up with a second quantity of exposure which is larger than the first quantity of exposure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2001
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Gakuji Kamishima, Osamu Inagaki, Minoru Kakinuma, Hidetoshi Fukuda