Patents Represented by Attorney Cowan Liebowitz & Latman, P.C.
  • Patent number: 8279489
    Abstract: A technique for performing high-quality cluster type FM halftone image output without “anisotropy” or “sweep out texture” phenomenon is provided. An error diffused to a current pixel position and a random number RND are added by an adder to multi-level pixel data as a subject of binarization, and supplied as pixel data Pxy to a selector. The selector compares the pixel data Pxy with thresholds, and supplies the pixel data Pxy to one of a highlight portion processor, a dark portion processor and an intermediate portion processor. The highlight and dark portion processors refer to already-binarized results within a range determined in accordance with the value of the input pixel data Pxy, and determine a binarization result Qxy. The intermediate portion processor compares a threshold, which monotonously increases in accordance with the value of the pixel data Pxy, with the pixel data Pxy, thereby determines the binarization result Qxy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Naoto Kawamura
  • Patent number: 8279318
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus of the present invention comprises an image obtaining part configured to photoelectrically convert a first object image and a second object image formed by light fluxes divided by a pupil divider among light fluxes from an image pickup optical system to generate a first image and a second image, a displaying part configured to display images, and a processing part configured to cause the displaying part to display a superimposed image formed by superimposing the first and second images on each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Jun Suzuki, Yoshinobu Sato, Takeshi Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8278851
    Abstract: A drive apparatus includes a magnet rotor having a plurality of magnetic poles that are magnetized, a stator having a magnetic pole portion that opposes each pole of the magnet rotor, a coil configured to excite the magnetic pole portion, a position detector configured to detect a position of the magnet rotor, a first driver configured to switch an electrification state of the coil in accordance with a preset time interval, a second driver configured to switch an electrification state of the coil in accordance with an output of the position detector, and a controller configured to select the first driver when the output of the position detector is less than a first threshold, and to select the second driver when the output of the position detector is equal to or larger than the first threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kousuke Kiyamura, Hiromu Yasuda, Chikara Aoshima
  • Patent number: 8280240
    Abstract: An electronic flash device that is capable of preventing an electric leak from a secondary electrode section or a circuit board pattern that is electrically connected with the secondary electrode section to conductive materials such as a surrounding metal exterior and a metallic frame in a downsized electronic flash device. An electronic component has a high voltage section for emitting an emission section. A circuit board contains the electronic component. An insulating member covers the high voltage section of the electronic component. The insulating member is extended to a side of the circuit board that is opposite to the side on which the electronic component is contained at an outer edge section of the circuit board close to the high voltage section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shigeaki Sotsu
  • Patent number: 8280173
    Abstract: A method for determining feature point locations in an image performs a first search in a predetermined first search area to search for locations of plural feature points in the image, corrects the locations of the plural feature points based on a geometric layout relationship among the plural feature points searched for, sets a second search area based on the corrected location of each of the feature points, and performs a second search in the second search area to search for the location of each of the feature points. Then, the method determines reliability of the location of each feature point searched for by the second search and selects one of the corrected location and the location searched for by the second search, as a location of the feature point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masami Kato, Takashi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 8279293
    Abstract: The image stabilizing apparatus includes a base member, a first member shiftable with respect to the base member in a direction orthogonal to an optical axis direction, a first actuator shifting the first member with respect to the base member, an image-pickup element constituted by a photoelectrical conversion element, a second member holding the image-pickup element. The second member is shiftable together with the first member in the direction orthogonal to the optical axis direction and rotatable with respect to the first member in a plane orthogonal to the optical axis direction. The apparatus further includes a second actuator rotating the second member with respect to the first member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Goro Noto
  • Patent number: 8281257
    Abstract: A data display apparatus comprising, a display unit operable to hierarchically display a plurality of folders, a management unit operable to manage information associated with each of the plurality of folders, a determination unit operable to, when the display unit displays each of the plurality of folders, determine based on the information associated with the folder and acquired from the management unit whether to integrally display the folder and a plurality of lower folders included under the folder as an integrated folder, and a control unit operable to control to cause the display unit to perform integral display using the integrated folder when the determination unit has determined to perform the integral display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hidenori Ishiwata
  • Patent number: 8279330
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus able to reliably detect a power supply abnormality even in an arrangement in which power supplies are managed by using a communication unit of single system. The image pickup apparatus includes a recording unit for writing image data onto a recording medium, and a power supply control unit for selecting and executing either a monitoring operation to monitor a state of a power supply for a camera main unit or a communication operation to communicate with a power supply for an accessory unit. The power supply control unit selects and executes the monitoring operation while the recording unit is performing an image data writing operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yasuhito Takaki
  • Patent number: 8274582
    Abstract: An image capturing apparatus includes an image sensor which photo-electrically converts an object image, a memory which stores foreign substance area information associated with a foreign substance adhering to an optical member disposed in front of the image sensor, a positional shift detection unit which detects the mutual positional shifts between a plurality of images generated by sensing almost the same object by the image sensor, an image composition unit which positions and composites the plurality of images on the basis of the detection result obtained by the positional shift detection unit, and an image correction unit which corrects at least parts of the plurality of images on the basis of the detection result obtained by the positional shift detection unit and the foreign substance area information stored in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masafumi Kimura
  • Patent number: 8274679
    Abstract: This invention deters information leakage by a flexible monitoring method according to the characteristic of an image or document. A job analysis section analyzes a print job and separates image data and attribute information. An image generator generates print image data from the image data by referring to the attribute information. A digital watermark generator and synthesis section embed at least part of the attribute information in the print image data. An image transmitter transmits, to a monitoring server, the print image data with at least part of the attribute information added. A monitoring method selector selectively operates the image transmitter or the digital watermark generator and synthesis section based on the attribute information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Naoki Tsuchitoi
  • Patent number: 8274646
    Abstract: This invention is directed to extract the scattering characteristic of a measurement target together when measuring the surface shape in a measurement system, which measures the surface shape of a measurement target, by the pattern projection method. To accomplish this, the measurement system includes an illumination unit which irradiates a measurement target with dot pattern light, a reflected light measurement unit which receives the reflected light at a reflection angle almost equal to a incident angle, and a reflected light extraction unit which extracts the inclination of the surface of the measurement target, based on the shift amount between the light receiving position of the received reflected light and a predetermined reference position, and extracts the luminance value of the reflected light and the dot diameter of the dot pattern light as information about the scattering characteristic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuyuki Ota, Masakazu Matsugu, Kenji Saitoh
  • Patent number: 8269865
    Abstract: A signal processing apparatus performs predetermined signal processing on an image signal output from an image sensor having a pixel array in which a plurality of pixels are arrayed in a direction along a row and a direction along a column. The signal processing apparatus comprises: a storage unit that stores characteristic information indicating characteristics of signal component mix in each pixel from adjacent pixels according to the pixel position in the pixel array of the image sensor; and a correction unit that calculates a correction coefficient according to the position of a pixel for correction in the pixel array from the characteristic information, and corrects an output image signal of the pixel for correction based on an output image signal of adjacent pixels of the pixel for correction and the calculated correction coefficient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Makiko Yamauchi
  • Patent number: 8270020
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system that registers, in a second information processing apparatus, device information unique to a peripheral device capable of connecting to a first information processing apparatus, wherein the first information processing apparatus includes an addition unit configured to add, to the device information, information indicating whether the device information was manually inputted to the first information processing apparatus in response to operations of a user or was automatically inputted to the first information processing apparatus by the peripheral device, and the second information processing apparatus includes a registration unit configured to register, in the database, device information to which has been added the information indicating the device information was automatically inputted, and device information to which the information indicating the device information was manually inputted has been added and that has been determined to not yet be registered in the data
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Koichi Abe
  • Patent number: 8264592
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup device that includes a plurality of focus detection pixels, a phase difference detection type of a first focus detector, a contrast detection type of a second focus detector, and a controller. The controller is configured to allow the second focus detector to continue the focus detection when the shift amount detected by the first focus detector is larger than a threshold even when the second focus detector detects the lens position corresponding to the peak of the contrast value, and to move the image pickup lens to a lens position that provides a peak of a contrast value detected by the second focus detector when the shift amount is the threshold or smaller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Koji Inoue
  • Patent number: 8262078
    Abstract: In a case that it is determined that a first feeding unit is not ready to feed upon designation of a first print job that requires air feeding, start of the first print job is waited until the first feeding unit is ready to feed. In a case that a second print job that requires roll feeding is accepted during waiting for the first print job, the second print job is executed, and the first print job that requires air feeding is executed after completion of the second print job.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yuichiro Shibuya
  • Patent number: 8265463
    Abstract: Video data and audio data corresponding to a predetermined attribute is retrieved from the video data and the audio data, each of which is stored in association with an attribute, and the retrieved items of the video data and the audio data are listed in a form showing a correlation between the video data and the audio data. In a case that items of the video data and audio data are selected, wherein said items of the video data and audio data are displayed and correlated with each other, the selected video data and audio data can be synchronized with each other and played-back.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akihiro Kohno
  • Patent number: 8264550
    Abstract: There is provided a shake correction apparatus having an image pickup optical system that includes a correction lens capable of moving in a direction orthogonal to an optical axis. The shake correction apparatus comprises: a detection unit that detects shake applied to the shake correction apparatus; a determination unit that determines a reference position of the correction lens; and a drive unit that drives the correction lens with the reference position serving as a center position, so as to correct the shake detected by the detection unit. The determination unit determines the reference position, in a range where a condition that a Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of the image pickup optical system when the correction lens is positioned at the determined reference position is equal to or larger than a threshold is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiro Shibata, Kenichi Miyasako
  • Patent number: 8264327
    Abstract: The authentication apparatus calculates authenticities based upon similarity between detected face image data and a plurality of items of registered face image data prepared beforehand. In accordance with the calculated authenticities, the apparatus causes a display unit to display, as the result of authentication, either a registered name indicating registered face image data calculated to have a maximum authenticity from among the plurality of items of registered face image data, or any group name to which the registered face image data calculated to have the maximum authenticity and other registered face image data belong.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Atsushi Fujita
  • Patent number: 8264597
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus that enables shooting with a light emission device. An image pickup unit accumulates electric charge corresponding to an incident light. A mechanical shutter runs from an impervious position that blocks the incident light to the image pickup unit to a pervious position. An accumulation control unit controls a start timing of the accumulation of electric charge by the image pickup unit. A determination unit determines whether a communication with the light emission device is possible. A control unit controls the mechanical shutter to start running from the impervious position to the pervious position before the determination unit determines that the communication with the light emission device is possible, and controls the accumulation control unit to start accumulation of electric charge after the determination unit determines that the communication with the light emission device is possible, when shooting with the light emission device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kei Tohyama
  • Patent number: 8264561
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus detachably connecting to a light emitting device. Still image shooting is performed during moving image recording being paused according to a still image shooting instruction received during the moving image recording being performed and the moving image recording is resumed after performing the still image shooting. Information about charge control of the connected light emitting device is acquired. Light emitting of the connected light emitting device involved with the still image shooting is prohibited based on the acquired information about the charge control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kan Takaiwa