Patents Examined by Luong T. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 11947252
    Abstract: An optical member driving mechanism is provided. The optical member driving mechanism includes a first portion and a matrix structure. The first portion is connected to a first optical member and corresponds to a first light. The matrix structure is disposed on the first portion and corresponds to a second light, wherein the first light is different from the second light. The matrix structure includes a regularly-arranged structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: TDK TAIWAN CORP.
    Inventors: Chih-Wei Weng, Juei-Hung Tsai, Shu-Shan Chen, Mao-Kuo Hsu, Sin-Jhong Song
  • Patent number: 11943544
    Abstract: An image capturing apparatus includes a determination unit configured to determine a first shutter speed based on a reciprocal of a light amount change frequency of detected flicker and a selection unit configured to select a second shutter speed as a candidate in capturing an image of the object with reduced effect of the flicker. If a third shutter speed is set in advance, the determination unit determines a closer one of shutter speeds to the third shutter speed than the others as the first shutter speed, wherein the shutter speeds being integer multiples of a shutter speed that is the reciprocal of the light amount change frequency of the flicker detected. The selection unit selects one of settable shutter speeds of the image capturing apparatus as the second shutter speed, wherein the one has a smaller difference from the first shutter speed than the others.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takuya Shintani, Takashi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 11924558
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus, a control method thereof, and a storage medium, the image pickup apparatus being capable of shooting a plurality of still images under an appropriate exposure condition when the image pickup apparatus including a camera system performs alignment composition of the still images shot in a time continuous manner. An exposure time for each of the still images and a total number of the still images are set based on the focal length information, the optical image blur correction angle information, and the response characteristic information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Junichi Saito
  • Patent number: 11917300
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus capable of performing an appropriate correction processing that suppresses an influence of high luminance light is provided. The image pickup apparatus comprising at least one processor and/or circuit configured to function as inferring a luminance of a high luminance subject having a pixel signal saturation level or higher based on image signals generated from a plurality of pixels, and determining an area for obtaining a correction value used when correcting the image signals based on the inferred luminance of the high luminance subject.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hideki Ikedo
  • Patent number: 11910113
    Abstract: An image sensor includes: a first photoelectric conversion unit that photoelectrically converts light to generate an electric charge; a first output unit that outputs a first signal based on the electric charge generated by the first photoelectric conversion unit; a plurality of second photoelectric conversion units that photoelectrically convert light to generate electric charges; a plurality of second output units that output second signals based on the electric charges generated by the second photoelectric conversion units; an output line to which the first output unit and the plurality of second output units are connected, and from which at least one of the first signal and the second signals is output; a first control line for controlling the output of the first signal from the first output unit; and second control lines for controlling the outputs of the second signals from the plurality of second output units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: NIKON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryoji Ando, Toru Takagi, Shutaro Kato, Yoshiyuki Watanabe, Takashi Seo
  • Patent number: 11910102
    Abstract: An optical image system may include a monocentric lens optically coupled to a fiber bundle and an image sensor. The fiber bundle may provide a curved face towards the monocentric lens and a flat face towards an image sensor. The fiber bundle may transfer light passing through the monocentric lens to the image sensor. The optical image system may include an optical correction structure having a diffractive optical element (DOE), which may be located between the monocentric lens and the fiber bundle. The optical correction structure may increase light in-coupling between the monocentric lens and fiber bundle by reducing or eliminating light reflection at the curved face of the fiber bundle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Milan Maksimovic, Miodrag Scepanovic
  • Patent number: 11902673
    Abstract: Disclosed is an electronic device which includes a dynamic vision sensor that includes a first pixel sensing a change in light intensity and generates an event signal based on the sensed change in light intensity, an illuminance estimator that estimates illuminance of a light, and a time delay compensator that calculates a time delay between a first time at which the change in light intensity occurs and a second time at which the first pixel senses the change in light intensity, based on the illuminance of the light, and to compensate for the time delay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Minwon Seo, Jeongseok Kim, Hyunsurk Ryu, Yunjae Suh, Chang-Woo Shin, Woonhee Lee
  • Patent number: 11902669
    Abstract: Adaptive acquisition control includes obtaining a processed image by an image capture apparatus, which includes, a target exposure component that obtains a target exposure value in accordance with target exposure input data, an aggregate gain component that obtains a target aggregate gain value and a remaining gain value in accordance with aggregate gain input data, an auto-exposure compensation component that obtains an auto-exposure compensation tone curve in accordance with auto-exposure compensation input data, a contrast control component that obtains a contrast control tone curve and a contrast control black point value, and a tone control driver that obtains a tone control tone curve and a tone control black point value, and an image signal processor that processes the current input image in accordance with the tone control tone curve and the tone control black point value to produce the processed image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
    Inventors: Violaine Marie Mong-Ian Sudret, Marc Lebrun, Sandra Fadel, Sandra Vitorino, Téo Eddie Marcin
  • Patent number: 11895408
    Abstract: This image pickup system includes an image pickup unit that captures a subject to obtain a pixel signal, and a processing circuit that generates a first video signal having a first dynamic range from the pixel signal generated by the image pickup unit, and generates a second video signal having a second dynamic range correlated with the first dynamic range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATION
    Inventor: Koji Kamiya
  • Patent number: 11889220
    Abstract: A coding method for space information in continuous dynamic images is provided, which includes the following steps: parsing and extracting space information data, constructing a space information data packet, and coding the space information data packet. According to the coding method in the present invention, the physical parameters, such as lens, position and orientation of a camera as well as space depth information in a plurality of continuous dynamic images can be recorded and stored in real time, and therefore, the coded and stored parameters of the camera and the space depth information are applied to virtual simulation and graphic vision enhancement scenarios, such that in many application scenarios, such as photographing movie and television, producing advertising, and personal video vlogs, abundant and integrated graphic text enhancement effects can be implanted, in real time, a plurality of thereby improving the final image display effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: IDEAPOOL TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Xingbo Tang, Yu He
  • Patent number: 11874522
    Abstract: An optical mechanism is provided. The optical mechanism includes an immovable part, a movable part, and a drive assembly. The movable part is connected to an optical element. The movable part is movable relative to the immovable part. The drive assembly drives the movable part to move relative to the immovable part. The immovable part includes a frame. The frame includes a receiving space receiving the movable part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: TDK TAIWAN CORP.
    Inventors: Chen-Hsin Huang, Yi-Ho Chen, Shou-Jen Liu, Chen-Yu Yu
  • Patent number: 11871116
    Abstract: An image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing unit configured to set an exposure condition for each of areas on an image capturing plane, a setting unit configured to set a privacy area in an image captured by the image capturing unit, a decision unit configured to decide an exposure condition of the privacy area set by the setting unit as an exposure condition that enables privacy of an object in the privacy area to be protected, and a control unit configured to execute control for causing the image capturing unit to capture an image of the object based on the exposure condition decided by the decision unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kentaro Fukunaga, Kanta Sunami, Toshiyuki Fukui
  • Patent number: 11871128
    Abstract: Disclosed is an image sensing device including a current supply circuit coupled between a supply terminal of a first voltage and a pair of output terminals, an input circuit coupled between the pair of output terminals and a common node, and suitable for receiving a pixel signal and a ramp signal, and a mirroring circuit coupled between the common node and a supply terminal of a second voltage, and suitable for compensating for an operating current, which flows between the common node and the supply terminal of the second voltage, based on a reference current when generating the operating current by mirroring the reference current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: SK hynix Inc.
    Inventor: Hyeon June Kim
  • Patent number: 11863877
    Abstract: Provided is a method for removing flicker in a video by an electronic device, the method including obtaining a plurality of red-green-blue (RGB) video frames of a scene in a field of preview of a camera included in the electronic device, obtaining a position of at least one light source in the plurality of video frames, obtaining a brightness of the at least one light source based on the position of the light source, obtaining a de-flickering factor for each pixel in the plurality of video frames based on the position of the at least one light source and the brightness of the at least one light source, and applying the de-flickering factor to each of the plurality of video frames to remove the flicker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Vidushi Chaudhary, Rishi Kaushik, Fateh Singh
  • Patent number: 11852845
    Abstract: A dual-aperture zoom camera comprising a Wide camera with a respective Wide lens and a Tele camera with a respective Tele lens, the Wide and Tele cameras mounted directly on a single printed circuit board, wherein the Wide and Tele lenses have respective effective focal lengths EFLW and EFLT and respective total track lengths TTLW and TTLT and wherein TTLW/EFLW>1.1 and TTLT/EFLT<1.0. Optionally, the dual-aperture zoom camera may further comprise an optical OIS controller configured to provide a compensation lens movement according to a user-defined zoom factor (ZF) and a camera tilt (CT) through LMV=CT*EFLZF, where EFLZF is a zoom-factor dependent effective focal length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Corephotonics Ltd.
    Inventors: Gal Shabtay, Ephraim Goldenberg
  • Patent number: 11847808
    Abstract: Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for region-of-interest automatic gain or exposure control are presented. One example method includes receiving an image from an image sensor, the image comprising a plurality of pixels, determining a region of interest (“ROI”) in the image, the ROI comprising a subset of the plurality of pixels in the image, determining a ROI weight for pixels in the subset of the plurality of pixels, determining statistics for the image based on the plurality of pixels in the image and the ROI weight, and adjusting a gain or exposure setting for the image sensor based on the statistics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Edwin Chongwoo Park, Soman Ganesh Nikhara, Bapineedu Chowdary Gummadi, Pradeep Veeramalla, Ravi Shankar Kadambala
  • Patent number: 11841548
    Abstract: Disclosed is a variable-zoom imaging apparatus that includes: i) imaging optics configured to form an image in an imaging area of an object positioned in an object area; ii) an adjustable aperture stop to adjustably set a numerical aperture NA for the image formed by the imaging optics; iii) an electronic detector comprising an array of detector elements positioned in the imaging area to detect the image; and iv) image processing circuitry coupled to the electronic detector to produce a digital representation of the image based on signals from at least some of the detector elements. The image processing circuitry produces the digital representation with a different magnification of the object m for each of a plurality of different numerical apertures for the image set by the adjustable aperture stop.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: Zygo Corporation
    Inventor: Bruce E. Truax
  • Patent number: 11836581
    Abstract: A learning model generation apparatus includes: a processor configured to obtain captured image data and plural setting values which are set for each imaging condition in a case where the image data is captured and have dependency relationships with one another; calculate an evaluation value for classifying image information which is information obtained from the image data by using the plural setting values; classify the image information based on the evaluation value; and generate a learning model for each classification by using the image information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventor: Noriko Sakai
  • Patent number: 11838647
    Abstract: An image capture apparatus includes an image sensor that captures a subject image formed via a lens and outputs an image; and at least one processor or circuit configured to function as: a detection unit configured to detect flicker from the image output from the image sensor; and a control unit configured, in a case where, in an image capture time period in which images of a subject are being captured for flicker detection by the image sensor, the lens is driven in accordance with a drive operation that causes a change in an amount of light received by the image sensor, to adjust drive of the lens in the image capture time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Atsushi Sugawara
  • Patent number: 11838650
    Abstract: In a night shot mode, a photo is captured and processed based on a plurality of frames. The plurality of frames is obtained based on a plurality of parameters including an exposure duration, a light sensitivity, and a number of frames. These parameters are determined based on factors, such as whether the electronic device is in a handheld state or not, and whether the current photographing scene is a dark scene or a light source scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tao Sun, Congchao Zhu