Abstract: Transmission power from a home entertainment system server to a client entertainment device in a powerline network is established such that SNR or other reception metric at the receiver is maintained between upper and lower thresholds.

Abstract: A camera server includes a video transmitting part for transmitting a video signal of a video camera to each of a plurality of camera clients in response to their request to acquire the control right of the video camera and their requests to transmit video information of the video cameras, a permission command issuring part for issuing a command to permit control of the video camera in response to the request to acquire the control right of the video camera, and an automatic control part for executing automatic control of the video camera if the command to permit control of the video camera is not issued.

Abstract: An apparatus for determining a type of an illuminant including a spectrum diffraction unit and a sensor coupled to the spectrum diffraction unit. An illuminant discrimination unit is coupled to the sensor and configured to receive a set of signals representative of a set of spectral components in the illuminant and to determine the type.

Abstract: The video camera apparatus obtains a still image sensing signal with high image quality in a progressive scan mode and is capable of recording onto a recording medium by a recording means which performs recording operation corresponding to an interlace scan mode. An image sensing signal read from a CCD image sensor 23 in the interlace scan mode is recorded directly onto a recording medium by a recording/reproducing section 5 through a camera signal processing circuit 24, while an image sensing signal read from the CCD image sensor 23 in the progressive scan mode is converted into an interlace scan signal and is then recorded onto a recording medium by the recording/reproducing section 5.

Abstract: A programmable image transform system has a programmable addressing and arithmetic blocks. In the programmable addressing block, an input address generator has an input addressing microsequencer and an input addressing memory that stores an input addressing procedure. The microsequencer executes the input addressing procedure to generate addresses from which to request image data. In the programmable arithmetic block, an arithmetic block memory stores an image processing procedure and a microsequencer executes the image processing procedure using the image data to generate transformed image data.

Abstract: A camera is detachably attached to the central portion of the rear end of an apparatus main body of a personal computer and positioned between a pair of hinge portions. A lens is provided at the camera main body of the camera and this camera main body is rotatably arranged about the axis of the camera main body substantially coaxial with the rotation axis of a display unit. When the camera main body is detached from the apparatus main body, the camera is connected to the apparatus main body through an extension adapter and put at a remote position from the personal computer. A shutter button is provided at each of the camera main body and the apparatus main body.

Abstract: A color image capturing device provided with groups of two rows of photoelectric conversion elements for each color of R, G and B is mounted on a carriage and planar color images are read by moving the carriage in a sub scanning direction. As each first row of photoelectric conversion elements and each second row of photoelectric conversion elements are offset from each other by an amount equivalent to a half of the width of an individual element in a main scanning direction, and resolution in the main scanning direction is enhanced. As each row of photoelectric conversion elements is arranged at pitch equivalent to the height of four rows, all the rows of photoelectric conversion elements can read the same line, even if the carriage is moved at speed twice or four times as fast as that in reading at 600 dpi to read at the resolution of 300 dpi or 150 dpi in the sub scanning direction at high speed in case the reading resolution of each row of photoelectric conversion elements is 600 dpi.

Abstract: In a signal processing apparatus which can output a chroma signal of m bits into a chroma signal of n bits via an output apparatus, the chroma signal of m bits is gamma converted into a chroma signal of k bits, the gamma converted chroma signal of k bits is converted into a signal of k bits showing a brightness and a color tone, and the signal converted into the signal of k bits showing the brightness and color tone is converted into a signal of n bits showing a brightness and a color tone. Thus, a signal processing apparatus is provided in which color crush in a high luminance area of an image can be remarkably reduced, and white skip of the image and discoloration are remarkably improved.

Abstract: Conventionally, in image processing using a smoothing filter, the large amount of calculation for 25× the number of pixels takes much processing time. A computer 21 as the nucleus of image processing determines whether or not a pixel of interest is a color blur pixel, based on the intensity of a low-density element color, at steps S130 and S140. If the pixel is a color blur pixel, the computer 21 determines whether or not the color blur pixel is an edge pixel at step S150. If the pixel is not an edge pixel, the computer 21 uses a smoothing filter at step S152, while if the pixel is an edge pixel, the computer 21 uses a median filter at step S154, in image processing to reduce the color blur. This reduces the amount of calculation and realizes high-speed image processing.

Abstract: An apparatus for panning and scaling a window in CMOS image sensor is described. The apparatus comprises a pixel array having a plurality of unit pixels, a row driving part, an analog-digital converting part, an address generating part for generating a row address and a column address for the panning and scaling, and a line buffering part for receiving the digital pixel data outputted from the analog-digital converting part and outputting a pixel data according to the column address. According to the apparatus, CMOS image sensor can directly extract a pixel data of a desired resolution and scale offset.

Abstract: A method and a system for processing images using interpolating. A variation value for different sets of pixels is determined, and the set of pixels with the highest correlation (lowest numeric value) is selected. A missing color at a given pixel is expressed in terms of the information contained in the selected set of pixels. If the variation value is below a certain threshold, due to noise or other factors, an alternative set of pixels using a different variation method may be selected. The missing color is estimated as a weighted sum of, e.g., the green samples divided by the weighted sum of, e.g., the red samples multiplied by the sampled value from the pixel to be estimated.

Abstract: There is disclosed an electronic still camera that has a printer section in addition to a camera section. The printer section prints an image on a self-developing type instant photo film unit in accordance with digital image data picked up and memorized through the camera section. A film pack containing a stack of instant photo film units is loaded in a loading chamber of the electronic still camera, such that the instant photo film units of the film pack are successively exposed through the printer section. A connector device for connecting a battery pack to the electronic still camera is provided in the loading chamber, whereas a charging circuit for charging a main power source with the battery pack is provided in the electronic still camera.

Abstract: An image pickup apparatus has the capability of easily linking a stored image to another stored image. When an image is taken, link information indicating the linking relationship between the taken image and data to which the taken image is linked is generated. Also provided is a method of controlling such an image pickup apparatus and a storage medium storing a program according to which the image pickup apparatus is controlled.

Abstract: A solid-state image pickup apparatus includes a mode setting circuit for allowing the operator to select desired one of the modes matching with the display format of a display which displays a video signal fed thereto. A clock generating circuit generates clocks including a first clock and a second clock higher in frequency than the first clock. A frequency selector selects either one of the first and second clocks in accordance with a mode fed from the mode setting circuit. An image pickup section includes a plurality of photosensitive cells for transforming, by photoelectric transduction, light incident thereto from a scene to be picked up. The image pickup section picks up the scene and produces signal charges representative of the scene in accordance with the output of the frequency selector. A noise reducing circuit reduces noise components included in a signal output from the image pickup section.

Abstract: An electronic image pickup apparatus comprises a photographic optical system; solid state image pickup devices disposed on a plant where a subject image formed by subject beams which have passed through the photographic optical system is formed; a main mirror disposed between the photographic optical system and the solid state image pickup devices, wherein a part of the main mirror is formed of a half mirror to divide the subject beams which have passed through the photographic optical system into an observing beam and a focus detecting beam; a sub-mirror for reflecting the subject beam which has passed through the part of the main mirror; a focus detecting optical system for forming an image of the subject beam reflected by the sub-mirror on a partial area of the solid image pickup devices; and an electrical circuit for outputting focus detecting information based on image signals of the partial areas of the solid image pickup devices.

Abstract: A digital camera includes a CCD imager which outputs 640 pixels×480 lines of camera signal in a raster scan scheme. The camera signal outputted from the CCD imager is subjected to a predetermined signal processing whereby created are 640 pixels×480 lines of original image data and 80 pixels×60 lines of thumbnail image data. Both the created original image data and thumbnail image data are written to a SDRAM. The writing of the thumbnail image data is performed during a horizontal blanking period of the original image data. As a result, image data writing operation completes within a 1-frame period of time.

Abstract: A pixel of a digital image is processed by applying a tone mapping function to a first color channel of the pixel, whereby a value of the first color channel is changed by a scale factor; and applying the scale factor to all other color channels of the pixel. The first color channel most closely matches relative luminance response of the human visual system.

Abstract: A ranking-based automatic dark compensation circuit for efficiently estimating dark level in a CCD or CMOS image sensor. The ranking circuit comprises of k staggered comparators, each comparator having an associated temporary result register. Each comparator having two inputs, with the first input coupled to an output of the previous stage comparator and the second input coupled to its associated temporary result register. The temporary results are initialized to the largest possible dark value. At each stage, a comparison is made of a new input sample to a stored value of the temporary register. If the new sample is greater than the value of the associated temporary register, the value in temporary register is not changed and the new sample is passed to the next comparator. Conversely, if the new sample is smaller, then that new sample is stored into the temporary register, while the original temporary result is passed to the next comparator.

Abstract: In a method for determining the frame rate and exposure time for each frame of a video collection, an image capture system acquires at least two successive frames of a scene, separated in time. The two images are compared to determine if objects in the scene are in motion. If motion is detected, then the speed and displacement of the objects that are moving is determined. If the speed of the fastest moving object creates an unacceptable amount of image displacement, then the frame rate for the next frame is changed to one that produces an acceptable amount of image displacement. Also, if the speed of the fastest moving object creates an unacceptable amount of motion blur, then the exposure time for the next frame is changed to one that produces an acceptable amount of motion blur.

Abstract: A low-noise active pixel circuit is disclosed that efficiently suppresses reset (kTC) noise by using a compact preamplifier consisting of a photodetector and only three transistors of identical polarity, in conjunction with ancillary circuits located on an imager's periphery. The use of only three transistors with a tapered reset signal allows the optical area to be increased, while still providing a low-noise imager.