Patents Examined by Stephen Coleman
  • Patent number: 9813603
    Abstract: There is provided a lens unit equipped with multiple focus lenses provided inside a lens barrel, multiple actuators corresponding to the respective multiple focus lenses and configured to move each of the multiple focus lenses inside the lens barrel, and a control circuit configured to control movement of the multiple focus lenses according to different rules between a case of a position of each of the multiple focus lenses being inside a designated range of satisfactory optical performance, and a case of being outside the range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoomi Ito, Rui Chen, Makoto Kanai, Fumikazu Kanetaka, Naoki Miyagawa
  • Patent number: 9813638
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for a light painting live view. A method includes, in a device comprising at least a processor, a memory, a display and a camera device having an on-screen viewfinder, accessing the camera, capturing individual frames of footage, each of the captured frames being displayed through the on-screen viewfinder in cumulative succession, rendering the captured frames on a graphical processing unit (GPU), sending the captured frames through a shader program, generating at least two images, a first image saved to the memory and a second image displayed on the display, and rendering the first image into the second image to generate a final image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: HI PABLO, INC.
    Inventors: Ryan Harrison Warnberg, Michelle Kirstin McSwain
  • Patent number: 9811717
    Abstract: Systems and methods for applying cosmetics are provided using an area light projector shining light on the face, capturing the reflected light using a camera and using a depth processor, and communicating with the camera(s) and the projector(s) to generate a depth image output. A control device communicates with the depth processor to receive the output, to receive the face profiles and generate motion trajectory commands, and a robot communicates with the control device to receive the commands to apply the cosmetics to the face in accordance with the face profiles. Methods for applying the cosmetics include receiving a face profile, receiving a depth processor input representing a face, extracting face features, receiving an initial robot position or extracting a robot position from input, matching the face profile to the face features, and generating and outputting robot trajectory to the robot to apply the cosmetics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Inventor: Qiang Li
  • Patent number: 9813647
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a first correction unit configured to perform correction processing of subtracting a first dark image obtained in a state without radiation irradiation from an object image, thereby removing a dark component of the object image; an evaluation value obtaining unit configured to obtain an evaluation value by a varying dark component included in a corrected image that has undergone the correction processing based on the first dark image and a second dark image obtained after the first dark image; and a second correction unit configured to perform correction processing of removing the varying dark component from the corrected image based on the evaluation value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tsuyoshi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 9813635
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for auto exposure value detection for High Dynamic Range (HDR) Imaging. An image can be captured as a captured image at a capture exposure. The exposure of a current iteration of the image can be changed by at least a fraction of an exposure value. A changed exposure image can be captured at the changed exposure value. A difference between an exposure data metric of the current iteration of the changed exposure image and an exposure data metric of a previous iteration of the image can be ascertained. The difference between the exposure data metric of the current iteration of the changed exposure image and the exposure data metric of the previous iteration of the image can be compared to a difference threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC
    Inventor: By-Her W Richards
  • Patent number: 9811934
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a mobile terminal capable of image capture and a control method thereof. A mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include a display unit, a camera arranged with a plurality of lenses along a plurality of lines, and a controller configured to capture images entered through the plurality of lenses, and display a first image on the display unit among a plurality of captured images, wherein the controller changes at least one region of the first image to at least part of an image different from the first image among the plurality of images based on the user's selection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Minchul Kim, Jeonghyun Lee, Kyungmin Cho, Jaemoo Lee, Jongkyeong Park
  • Patent number: 9807297
    Abstract: Provided is a depth detection apparatus having: a shift amount acquisition unit to acquire a provisional image shift amount; a filter processing unit to perform filter processing on one or both of the first and second signal; and a depth deriving unit to derive the depth information on an object, based on a positional shift amount between the filtered first signal and the filtered second signal. A phase term of the filter is a function generated by a second function by a coefficient, wherein the second function is generated based on a phase transfer function corresponding to the first or second pupil region and on the provisional image shift amount, and the coefficient is a real number greater than 0 and smaller than 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Kiyokatsu Ikemoto
  • Patent number: 9800840
    Abstract: The present invention makes it possible to let a user arbitrarily and easily see any other scene than himself or herself in his or her view (the scene seen from any other moving body than him or her). In a display device (an image pickup and display device 1 or a display device 40), specification information is generated to specify a specific image pickup device of outer image pickup devices (the image pickup and display device 1 or and image pickup device 30), and image data are received from the image pickup device specified by the specification information and are displayed. As an outer image pickup device, for example, and image pickup device wore by some other person, image pickup devices set at a car, an electric train, and the like, or further mage pickup devices set at an animal, a bird, and the like are supposed. Image data picked up by these image pickup devices are transmitted to the display side and the image display is carried out in the display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichiro Sako, Keiji Kimura, Masaaki Tsuruta, Masamichi Asukai, Taiji Ito, Kan Ebisawa, Nozomu Ozaki, Akinobu Sugino, Hidehiko Sekizawa, Yonetaro Totsuka
  • Patent number: 9800776
    Abstract: An imaging device includes an APD filter. In a case in which the APD filter is disposed on a light path of an incident ray, an imaging exposure is determined using a corrected diaphragm value (T number) obtained by correcting a diaphragm value on the basis of optical characteristics of the APD filter and an imaging diaphragm, which is determined during the determination of the imaging exposure, is set. After that, a search interval SD is determined using a diaphragm value (F number), which is not yet corrected, in a first range in which the diaphragm value is larger than a specific value EF, without using the corrected diaphragm value (T number), and the search interval SD is determined by using the specific value as the diaphragm value in a second range in which the diaphragm value is equal to or smaller than the specific value EF.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Akihiro Uchida
  • Patent number: 9798054
    Abstract: An illustrative example camera assembly includes a sensor. An infrared cut filter is situated to filter radiation as the radiation approaches the sensor. A plurality of lens elements is situated between the sensor and the infrared cut filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: DELPHI TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: Yew Kwang Low
  • Patent number: 9794488
    Abstract: In order to improve imaging performance, an imaging apparatus is provided to include an image capturing unit configured to detect incident light and generate a raw image data, a compression unit configured to compress the raw image data to generate a coded data having a data amount smaller than that of the raw image data, and an output unit configured to output the coded data to a processing unit for processing the coded data. Furthermore, the image capturing unit, the compression unit, and the output unit are configured to be within a same semiconductor package.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Nobuo Ueki, Masuyoshi Kurokawa, Yoichi Yagasaki, Makoto Aoki
  • Patent number: 9791764
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus that is capable of performing suitable automatic irradiation direction control in a case where the automatic irradiation direction control for a lighting device is operated by a plurality of operation members. The lighting device that changes an irradiation direction of a light emitting section is mounted or is attachable to the image pickup apparatus. A first operation member starts automatic irradiation direction control that drives the light emitting section to direct in a determined irradiation direction, and starts photographing preparation. A second operation member starts the automatic irradiation direction control. A control unit continuously performs the automatic irradiation direction control in operation without stopping when the second operation member is operated during the automatic irradiation direction control owing to the operation of the first operation member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yuji Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 9787908
    Abstract: Systems are provided to facilitate imaging of a person or other target in an environment by providing modulated illumination to the target and to other aspects of the environment. Modulated illumination is provided to the target such that the target receives more illumination when a camera is capturing images of the target than during other periods of time. Modulated illumination is provided to background objects or other portions of the environment of the target such that the background or other non-target elements of the environment receive less illumination when the camera is capturing images than during other periods of time. In this way, imaging of a target can be improved by increasing effective illumination of the target while decreasing glare and other effects of illumination of background objects. The illumination can be modulated at a sufficiently high frequency that the illumination appears, to the human eye, to be substantially constant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Arshan Poursohi, Daniel Aden, Matthew Amacker
  • Patent number: 9787887
    Abstract: A peripheral device (e.g., a small wearable device) may operate in conjunction with a camera to enable in-the-moment capture and control. The peripheral device may receive voice commands and uses voice recognition to generate a control signal to control the camera, thereby enabling users to freely participate in their activities while seamlessly controlling the camera in a hands-free manner. Additionally, the peripheral device may operate as a wireless microphone source to capture high quality audio for instead of or in addition to audio captured by the camera. This may provide improved audio quality in certain operating conditions such as during narrating and interviewing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
    Inventors: Lisa Boghosian, Jesse Baker
  • Patent number: 9787896
    Abstract: A system comprising a camera and a computing device. The camera may comprise (a) a plurality of capture devices configured to capture images of an environment surrounding the camera to provide a spherical field of view and (b) a first interface. The computing device may comprise (a) a processor and (b) a second interface. The camera may be configured to encode a plurality of video streams based on the captured images. The first interface may be configured to transfer the plurality of video streams to the second interface. The processor may perform a stitching operation on the plurality of video streams to generate a single video signal. The stitching operation may be performed on the plurality of video streams in real time as the plurality of video streams are transferred. The single video signal may be configured to represent an omnidirectional view based on the environment surrounding the camera.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: VIDEOSTITCH INC.
    Inventors: Alexander Fink, Nicolas Burtey, George Haber, Stephane Valente
  • Patent number: 9787900
    Abstract: A frame rate is synchronized to a detected cadence in order to generate an output image sequence that is substantially stabilized. In an in-camera process, a camera receives motion data of the camera while the camera captures the sequence of image frames. A dominant frequency of motion is determined and the capture frame rate is dynamically adjusted to match the frequency of detected motion so that each image frame is captured when the camera is at approximately the same position along the axis of motion. Alternatively, in a post-processing process, frames of a captured image sequence are selectively sampled at a sampling rate corresponding to the dominant frequency of motion so that each sampled frame corresponds to an image capture that occurred when the camera is at approximately the same position along the axis of motion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
    Inventors: Charles Weckel, Vishwanatha Bhat
  • Patent number: 9787906
    Abstract: An image pickup device includes a display unit that includes a plurality of display areas, a display control unit that controls the display unit so that an image displayed in one of the plurality of display areas is changed from a live view image to an image obtained by an image pickup unit in accordance with a shooting instruction when a first reception unit has received the shooting instruction and so that an image displayed in a display area specified by a display position changing instruction is changed to a live view image when a second reception unit has received the display position changing instruction, and an image process unit that synthesizes image data of a plurality of images being displayed in the plurality of display areas and generates image data of a combined image in which the plurality of images are laid out as displayed in the display unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shogo Shimamura, Kensei Ito, Maki Toida, Akira Tani, Manabu Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 9787888
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus according to the present invention includes image pickup means; holding means for holding a coordinate system used to represent an image capturing direction of the image pickup means or a region in an image capturing range of the image pickup means; reception means for receiving a first command for rotating a captured image obtained by the image pickup means or a captured image cut out from the region in the image capturing range by a certain angle, a second command for rotating the coordinate system held in the holding means about the origin by the certain angle, and specification information for specifying the image capturing direction in the coordinate system; and change control means for executing control to change the image capturing direction of the image pickup means to the image capturing direction specified by the specification information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takahiro Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 9780132
    Abstract: This technology provides an image sensor and an electronic device including the same. In an image sensor including a pixel array including a plurality of unit pixels, each of the plurality of unit pixels may include a photoelectric conversion element and a pixel lens over the photoelectric conversion element and comprising a plurality of light condensing layers in which a lower layer has a larger area than an upper layer, wherein the pixel lens has a shape changing based on a position of a corresponding unit pixel from a center of the pixel array to an edge of the pixel array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: SK Hynix Inc.
    Inventors: Won-Jun Lee, Kyoung-In Lee, Cha-Young Lee
  • Patent number: 9781370
    Abstract: The invention relates to a pixel of a CMOS imager, the pixel comprising: an infrared photodiode suitable for generating an electric current when it is exposed to an optical radiation having a wavelength greater than 950 nanometers, a conversion circuit able to receive electrons and deliver a voltage with a value varying as a function of the number of received electrons, a first switch connected between the infrared photodiode and the conversion circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignees: THALES, COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
    Inventors: Jean-Luc Raymond Reverchon, Eric Belhaire, Philippe Bois