Abstract: The present invention is directed to a charge transfer device formed on a semiconductor substrate which comprises a channel region formed on the semiconductor substrate, at least a set of transfer gate electrodes formed adjacent to each other and insulated from each other, the set of transfer gate electrode formed over the channel region through an insulating film, clock means for providing the transfer gate electrode with multiple clock pulses, and a plurality of resistors provided between each of the transfer gate electrodes and the clock means, the resistors having respective values corresponding to capacitances of the transfer gate electrodes. Therefore, a transfer efficiency of signal charges can be improved without reducing a maximum amount of signal charges handled by a vertical register.

Abstract: The analysis of an image of the field of observation from a heat camera by bands of n lines prompts the appearance of streaks or "striping" in certain zones of the image, all these zones constituting a "striping space". The device for the implementation of the method includes means to determine a base of orthonormal functions H and V, generating a vector space of functions for which the values taken, at each point of the image, represent the luminance values of all the types of striping, means to modelize the striping exhibited by the image in determining the coefficients of distribution of this striping on the basic functions, means to synthesize the striping, in determining the luminance values of the striping from the coefficients of correlation and from the values of he basic functions, and, finally, means to substract the luminance values of the synthesized striping from the luminance values of the initial image.

Abstract: A video camera capable of switching an aspect ratio and an electronic view finder for use in the same. In response to a switching control signal from an aspect ratio switching circuit, a video signal having a different degree of horizontal compression and an aspect switching control signal are fed to the view finder, a magnetic recording/reproducing circuit and an external device. The magnetic recording/reproducing circuit simultaneously records the video signal and the switching control signal. In reproduction, the magnetic recording/reproducing circuit reproduces and outputs the recorded switching control signal. In response to the switching control signal, the external device changes the deflection angle of a built-in display circuit and switches the aspect ratio to display the video signal.

Abstract: According to the process, each returning bottle is examined for the presence of a predetermined level of fatigue damage. If this level has been reached, the bottle concerned is marked with a mark enabling further trips of the bottle to be counted. When the count has reached a predetermined value, that is when the bottle has undergone the predetermined number of fillings, the bottle is removed upon its next return. It has been found that the life of the bottle can be anticipated with high accuracy in this way, thus enabling bottles to be withdrawn from circulation before failure occurs.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for signal, image, or video compression that achieves high compression efficiency in a computationally efficient manner and corresponding decoder apparatus and methods are disclosed. This technique uses zerotree coding of wavelet coefficients in a much more efficient manner than previous techniques. The key is the dynamic generation of the list of coefficient indices to be scanned, whereby the dynamically generated list only contains coefficient indices for which a symbol must be encoded. This is a dramatic improvement over the prior art in which a static list of coefficient indices is used and each coefficient must be individually checked to see whether a) a symbol must be encoded, or b) it is completely predictable. Additionally, using dynamic list generation, the greater the compression of the signal, the less time it takes to perform the compression.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a solid state image sensor in which one horizontal line from an image sensor section is selected as a line in which a signal is read out from a pixel, a signal is read out to a vertical signal line by a vertical scanning in which selected horizontal lines are sequentially switched, and pixel the signal of the horizontal line, processed in a correlation double sampling fashion, is read out to a horizontal signal line in a constant order. This solid state image sensor has an electronic shutter function includes an electronic shutter scanning means for resetting a horizontal line spaced apart from a horizontal line currently read out by a shutter time in the vertical scanning direction.

Abstract: A photoelectric converting device is provided with a control electrode area consisting of a semiconductor of a first conductive type, first and second main electrode areas consisting of a semiconductor of a second conductive type different from the first conductive type, and a drive line capacitively coupled to the control electrode area for controlling the potential thereof, and adapted to read a signal from the first main electrode area, by the potential control of the control electrode area, based on a charge generated by an incident light energy and accumulated in the control electrode area. The potentials of the first main electrode areas and of the drive line are elevated during the light signal accumulating operation to elevate the potential of the control electrode area, thereby rendering the potential difference between the control electrode area and the second main electrode area smaller than at the end of charge resetting of the control electrode area.

Abstract: A video camera having a plurality of solid-state image sensors in an imaging part uses two kinds of vertical drive signals different in the number of vertical transfer operations, to produce a time lag equal to one horizontal period between the output signals of the solid-state image sensors without changing the optical positional relation between the solid-state image sensors, thereby delaying the red and blue signals with respect to the green signal by one horizontal period based on the application of the two kinds of vertical drive signals.

Abstract: A film instability compensating system compensates for the effects of film instability in a film gate. The film instability compensation system includes a positional transducer for measuring the position of the film edge relative to a sprocket hole which is maintained in contact with a sprocket tooth by a pressure roller. The positional transducer measures the distance between the film edge and a sprocket hole and then measures deviations from the distance for subsequent sprocket holes to determine a compensation signal. The output of the positional transducer is coupled to a delay unit which delays the signal corresponding to the error at a particular sprocket hole until that sprocket hole reaches the film gate. Signals representative of the cyclic errors caused by the relative lateral displacement of the sprocket holes, are stored in a memory and are applied to a subtractor circuit.

Abstract: An automatic focusing device including a focus detection circuit for detecting a focus state, and a motor for driving a focusing lens in accordance with an output from the focus detection circuit. The device controls the driving state of the motor in accordance with a result of comparing the amplitude of hunting of the focusing lens with a predetermined value when the direction of the drive of the focusing lens is reversed.

Abstract: In a method of driving a solid-state image sensor having an effective pixel area formed of a plurality of pixels in an array having M pixels in the vertical direction and N pixels in the horizontal direction, a scanning pixel area formed of m pixels in the vertical direction and n pixels in the horizontal direction (where M>m, N.gtoreq.n) is established within the effective pixel area, and charges stored in the pixels in the scanning pixel area are transferred by vertical CCDs driven by a first scanning pulse to a horizontal CCD and the charges transferred to the horizontal CCD are transferred by the horizontal CCD driven by a second scanning pulse to an output portion of the horizontal CCD.

Abstract: A video camera includes a flangeback adjusting mechanism including a front panel having a threaded opening through which an optical lens is mounted from an outer side of the camera. An adjusting ring is engaged at the inner side of the threaded opening and is movable in an axial direction according to rotation thereof. On either side of the adjusting ring, guide rods project from an inner face of the front panel, mounting thereon a holder which supports an image pickup device. Nuts are affixed to the ends of the guide rods and coil springs are fitted around the guide rods between the nuts and a rear face of the holder so as to bias the holder in the forward direction.

Abstract: A video camera unit is separated into a holder for receiving lenses and a base on which a solid-state image pickup chip is mounted. The holder and the base are assembled together with the distance between them made variable so that it is possible to adjust the back focus of the lens. Further, a video camera unit has a holder which is separated into a first holder for receiving lenses and a second holder for receiving a solid-state image pickup device so that both holders can be assembled together with the distance between them made variable. Therefore, it is also possible to adjust the back focus of the lens.

Abstract: The system of the present invention increases the resolution of an image that may be formed from an image sensor without increasing the resolution of the sensor. An image beam is directed along a path through a color filter wheel and a single non-rotating transparent plate and impinges on a CCD (Charge Coupled Device). The transparent plate is positioned in a frame by flexures. A lever, controlled by a cam, exert a force on the transparent plate causing the transparent plate to tilt about the optical axis. The cam surface directs the lever to tilt the transparent plate in a plurality of discrete sampling positions. At each sampling position, the tilted transparent plate displaces the image beam in a different direction which allows each pixel of the CCD to sample a plurality of areas of the image. The color wheel is rotated to sequentially place each filter into the path of the image beam.

Abstract: A noise suppression, signal recovery circuit for use with an array of charge coupled device having a plurality of phase readouts. The video information present in the multiple phases are combined into a single video output signal by using a minimal number of parts while providing for noise suppression designed to suppress typical noise present in charge coupled device arrays.

Abstract: A focusing position detecting device of this invention comprises a CCD image sensor including a light receiving section in which an image of a subject which is formed by an image forming optical system and is an object of focusing position detection is projected on a plurality of picture elements, a shift register for transferring charges read out from the picture elements in synchronism with a charge transfer clock, and an output section for sequentially storing charges transferred by the shift register, a picture element readout circuit for supplying a picture element readout signal to the CCD image sensor and reading out charges stored in the picture elements to the shift register, a sampling circuit for sampling the charges stored in the output section to derive a luminance signal for each of the picture elements, a focusing position deriving circuit for deriving the focusing position of the image forming optical system from the luminance signal sampled by the sampling circuit, and a reset circuit for res

Abstract: A video camera having a zoom function and a camera system are provided, wherein a ratio of view fields of the video camera and a photographic camera is calculated based on information about zooming powers of imaging lenses, and an image frame of the photographic cameras is displayed in a variable size at an electronic viewfinder in accordance with the ratio of the view fields and based on a picked-up image of fixed size, or a picked-up image is displayed in a variable size on the basis of the image frame of the photographic camera. View angles of the video camera and the photographic camera are obtained from the information about the zooming powers of the imaging lenses, and zoom adjustment is carried out with the view angles coinciding with each other, or the zooming power of one of the video camera and the photographic camera is adjusted such that the view angles become equal to each other.

Abstract: A camera system including an objective lens system and a camera body comprises: a movable lens unit included in the objective lens system to act as a variator for varying a focal length of whole of the objective lens system; a CCD for receiving light passed through the objective lens system to pick up an image formed by the objective lens system; a motor for shifting the CCD along the optical axis of the objective lens system; a first detector for detecting a position of an image formed by the objective lens system to produce a defocus signal representing the position of the image; a second detector for detecting a position of the movable lens unit along the optical axis to produce a lens position signal representing the detected position of the movable lens unit; and a controller for controlling the motor in accordance with both of the defocus signal and the lens position signal to bring the light receiver to the position of the image formed by the objective lens system.

Abstract: A video signal processing apparatus for correcting vibration effects in a video camera that has a CCD image pickup device having a number of lines greater than the number of lines of the standard NTSC television system. The lines used to generate the image are shifted during the vertical blanking interval to correct for vibrations of the video camera, and the overflow charges which are caused by transferring the CCD image pickup device at a high speed during the blanking period are absorbed into a semiconductor drain element arranged in parallel with the horizontal transfer register of the CCD image pickup device. Defective pixels in the image pickup device are compensated by storing the addresses of defective pixels and interpolating at those positions, during vibration correction the addresses of the defective pixels are shifted to correspond to the amount of vibration correction.

Abstract: In a solid state imaging device having a group of pixels arrayed in the form of a matrix, after a vertical scanning circuit delivers a drive signal for one first switching element, a horizontal scanning circuit is driven to sequentially read out pixel signals from the respective pixels on one predetermined row line to a signal output line, and one second switching element connected to another row line, from which pixel signals have been read out one horizontal scanning period before the readout for the predetermined row line, is driven to reset the respective pixels connected to another said row line upon the driving of the horizontal scanning circuit. Both the readout and reset operations for the respective pixels are point-sequentially performed so that periods of time integrating the pixels at all the positions on the imaging device can be made equal to each other.