Patents Examined by Selam Gebriel
  • Patent number: 10187563
    Abstract: At least one image of a moving object is acquired using an image acquisition device equipped with an automatic focussing system. A distance between the object and the device when the effective acquisition of the image occurs is estimated based on the estimated speed and on the period of time separating a time of actuation triggering the process for acquiring the at least one image from the time of acquisition of the said effective acquisition, and the taking into account of the said distance by the automatic focussing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS (GRENOBLE 2) SAS
    Inventor: Arnaud Deleule
  • Patent number: 10165165
    Abstract: An electronic device is provided which includes a housing, a first camera module disposed on a first portion of the housing to face in a first direction, and having a first lens cover protruding in a convex shape from an outer surface of the housing, and a second camera module disposed on a second portion of the housing, which is positioned to be opposite to the first portion of the housing, to face in a second direction that is opposite to the first direction, and having a second lens cover protruding in a convex shape from an outer surface of the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Jae-Il Seo, Kijae Kim, Ji-Hoon Kim
  • Patent number: 10132913
    Abstract: A photographing apparatus includes a position estimation unit and a photographing control unit. The position estimation unit is configured to use a long-term template of a target to be tracked and a short-term template of the target to be tracked, which are created from a past taken image, to estimate a position of the target to be tracked in a current taken image. The long-term template is a template updated at a longer interval, and the short-term template is a template updated at a shorter interval. The photographing control unit is configured to control photographing on the basis of the position estimated by the position estimation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Sho Ogura, Takehiro Hamada
  • Patent number: 10129509
    Abstract: An imaging apparatus and method for multi-spectral imaging is described. The imaging apparatus includes an imaging element that takes an image of a subject, a multi-spectral filter that has a plurality of spectral filters dispersing incident light on the imaging element by predetermined wavelength regions, and a drive unit that drives the multi-spectral filter without stopping the individual spectral filters and continuously switches the spectral filters to cover an opening in the imaging element. The imaging apparatus detects whether a boundary between adjacent ones of the plurality of spectral filters included in the multi-spectral filter is in a position to block the opening in the imaging element, and performs signal processing for invalidating an image output from the imaging element in a period in which it is detected that the boundary between the spectral filters is in the position to block the opening in the imaging element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Yoichi Toriumi
  • Patent number: 10128866
    Abstract: A current mode sigma-delta modulator comprises an input node; a comparator that compares a voltage of the input node to a reference voltage and outputs a comparison result; an integrating capacitor connected to an input of the comparator; and a switched capacitor circuit connected at a first end to the input node, the input of the comparator, and the integrating capacitor, and connected at a second end to an output of the comparator. The current mode sigma-delta modulator is a component of an analog-to-digital converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
    Inventor: Vadim Tkachev
  • Patent number: 10116851
    Abstract: The description relates in particular to a method for temporal denoising of image sequences with the aid of at least two sensors of different types. The description also relates to an optronics device, a computer program and a storage medium for the implementation of such a method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Assignee: SAGEM DEFENSE SECURITE
    Inventors: Grégoire Bezot, Joël Budin
  • Patent number: 10104295
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus is capable of displaying a crop area and assist lines in a finder. The assist lines are displayed by one or more segments. A processor performs control to illuminate and to stop illuminating the segments, to display the assist lines only within the crop area while displaying the crop area, when displaying both of the crop area and the assist lines. Further, the processor performs control to illuminate and to stop illuminating the segments, not to display a line in proximity to the crop area among the assist lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Yuki Fukushima
  • Patent number: 10104294
    Abstract: A photometric apparatus includes a photometry unit (AE sensor) configured to measure object light, and a first display unit (intra-viewfinder liquid crystal display unit) arranged on an optical path of the object light to the photometry unit and configured to display a plurality of display items. The first display unit is configured to display a first display item (automatic white balance) among the plurality of display items in a position farther from a center of a photometry range by the photometry unit than a position of a second display item (incandescent lamp display) having a display area smaller than a display area of the first display item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yuki Fukushima
  • Patent number: 10097762
    Abstract: There is provided an imaging unit, including: a body; a display section provided on the body and pivotable on an axis on the body between a first state in which a display surface is oriented backward of the body and a second state in which the display surface is oriented forward of the body; and a display control section configured, when the display section is in the second state, to cause the display section to display a levelness indicator that indicates an inclination of the body, and to cause the display section to display predetermined shooting information inversely in top-bottom and left-right directions with respect to display directions of the predetermined shooting information on the display section in the first state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mayuko Sato, Fumikazu Hatanaka, Toshiyuki Kaimi
  • Patent number: 10078198
    Abstract: An imaging apparatus is provided, which includes an image sensor which includes a plurality of image pixels and a plurality of sensing pixels, and is configured to capture images through collection of light that is incident through a lens and the plurality of phase sensing pixels; and a processor configured to divide a region of interest of the image sensor into a plurality of sub-regions of interest, calculate disparity information of objects that correspond to the plurality of sub-regions of interest using at least one of the plurality of phase sensing pixels included in the plurality of sub-regions of interest, and determine a focal region in the region of interest on the basis of the disparity information. Accordingly, user convenience is increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jeong-won Lee, Kwon-jeong Kang, Byung-ho Kim, Woo-seok Choi, Il-do Kim
  • Patent number: 10068158
    Abstract: First image data captured by a first image pickup apparatus and second image data captured by a second image pickup apparatus are stored in storing means. Thus, it is possible to correlate images with each other by using identification information of a user or the image pickup apparatus and identification information of an image capturing time, an image capturing position, or an image pickup target (event). Further, the correlated image data is edited on the basis of editing structure data, thereby generating album image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Kotaro Kashiwa, Kazuyuki Marukawa, Yukihiro Ohzeki
  • Patent number: 10066933
    Abstract: The various embodiments described herein include methods and/or systems for depth mapping. In one aspect, a method of depth mapping is performed at an apparatus including a projector, a camera, one or more processors, and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors. The method includes identifying one or more areas of interest in a scene in accordance with variation of depth in the scene as detected at a first resolution. The method also includes, for each area of interest: (1) applying, via the projector, a respective structured-light pattern to the area of interest; (2) capturing, via the camera, an image of the area of interest with the respective structured-light pattern applied to it; and (3) creating a respective depth map of the area of interest using the captured image, the respective depth map having a higher resolution than the first resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: FACEBOOK, INC.
    Inventors: Shizhe Shen, Francislav P. Penov, Aidymar Bigio
  • Patent number: 10063768
    Abstract: An imaging device comprises an image data acquisition circuit that determines a plurality of focus positions by repeatedly shifting focus position by a given amount, forms subject images at respective focus positions, and acquires, from the subject images that have been formed, a plurality of image data of a first resolution, or a plurality of image data of a second resolution that is different to the first resolution, and an image combination circuit that generates first image data by combining the plurality of image data of the first resolution, or generates second image data by combining the plurality of image data of the second resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsuya Toyoda
  • Patent number: 10051223
    Abstract: A photoelectric conversion apparatus having a first substrate and a second substrate overlaid on each other and including electrically conductive portions is provided. The first substrate includes a photoelectric conversion element, a first portion configured to form part of a first surface, a second portion which is included in an electrically conductive pattern closest to the first portion, and a third portion which is included in an electrically conductive pattern second closest to the first portion. The second substrate includes a fourth portion configured to form part of a second surface, and a circuit. In a planar view with respect to the first surface, an area of the first portion is smaller than an area of the second portion and larger than an area of a portion of the third portion overlaying the second portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takanori Yamashita, Kazuhiro Saito, Tatsuya Ryoki, Yoshikazu Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 10015430
    Abstract: A solid state image device includes a pixel unit including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix; an analog-to-digital conversion unit that converts a signal from the pixel unit into a digital signal; a digital circuit unit that processes the digital signal from the analog-to-digital conversion unit; and a wiring that supplies a predetermined voltage to the pixel unit. The wiring includes a first wiring section facing the pixel unit, a second wiring section facing at least one of the analog-to-digital conversion unit and the digital circuit unit, and a third wiring section connected to an electrode pad and connected to an electrode pad and between the second wiring section and the electrode pad, and the width of the second wiring section is smaller than respective widths of the first wiring section and the third wiring section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hideo Kobayashi, Kei Ochiai, Masaki Sato
  • Patent number: 10009533
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus for simultaneously realizing a phase difference AF and a contrast AF decides a shift amount of an image signal corresponding to a focus evaluation position every exit pupil area, generates an image corresponding to an image plane position by executing an arithmetic operation processing based on the decided shift amount to the image signal, calculates an evaluation value of a contrast of the generated image, and calculates an evaluation value of a correlation between the images corresponding to the different exit pupil areas in the generated image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masafumi Kimura, Koichi Fukuda
  • Patent number: 10009547
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus which is capable of properly detecting and compensating for flash bands to generate a corrected image with no different levels of luminance. Based on an image signal output from an image pickup device which sequentially starts exposure and reads out signals for each row of pixels, a flash band appearing in a plurality of frames consecutive in terms of time due to an external flash is detected. Gains are changed with rows of the frames. At least one of the frames in which the flash band was detected is corrected to a full-screen flash image. When flash bands caused by a plurality of external flashes fired in one frame is detected, a gain is calculated based on a light quantity ratio between the external flashes, and a region where the flash bands overlay each other is multiplied by the gain to generate the full-screen flash image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kouji Kubota
  • Patent number: 9998640
    Abstract: Provided is a camera module capable of securing air permeability in an imaging portion of the camera module and reducing failure (speck failure) of an image sensor, which is caused by adhesion of a foreign matter. In a camera module in which an internal space is formed by a wiring substrate, a cover body (36), and a transparent plate (38), a ventilation groove (45) which extends from the internal space to an outside of the internal space and a recess part (46) which is formed so as to branch off from the ventilation groove (45) are formed on a surface of the cover body (36), which adheres to the transparent plate (38).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Ohara
  • Patent number: 9998674
    Abstract: An imaging apparatus including an incline detection device configured to detect an incline of the imaging apparatus, an image display device configured to display an image based on the image information, an incline computation device configured to compute an incline information that corresponds to a magnitude of the incline, an information storage device configured to store the incline information that is computed by the incline computation device, and a display processing device configured to display the image and an incline guide display corresponding to the incline information upon a screen of the image display device. The display processing device is configured to change a display format of the incline guide display in accordance with the magnitude of the incline.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Takuroh Yasuda, Yohsuke Suzuki, Atsushi Matsutani, Takashi Maki
  • Patent number: 9996907
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus includes: an IS unit that corrects blurring during exposure by driving a lens or an image pickup device based on a blur amount detected by a blur detecting unit; an alignment processing section that calculates a correlation value for arbitrary two images among image data of a plural images obtained by consecutive photographing; a combination processing section that aligns and combines image data of the two images based on the correlation value; and a microcomputer that is capable of setting a consecutive photographing combination mode. In a case where the consecutive photographing combination mode is set, the IS unit restricts an image stabilization range during live view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Tatsuya Kino