Abstract: In the automatic focusing device having an object image variation detecting circuit for quantitatively detecting a variation of an object image on the image pickup plane of an image pickup element so that the focusing operation is controlled in accordance with the amount of variation of the object image detected by the object image variation detecting circuit, there are provided a stop control circuit for controlling the period for stopping the focusing operation when panning depending on whether the amount of variation of the object image is large or small, a characteristic varying circuit for varying the frequency band of the picked-up image signal to be used in the focus detection depending on whether the amount of variation of the object image at the time of the focusing operation is large or small, and a pass characteristic varying circuit for varying the focus detection area on the image pickup plane depending on whether the amount of variation of the object image is large or small.

Abstract: A solid-state imaging apparatus capable of changing a vertical resolution (MTF) without damaging the dynamic resolution. A CCD drive circuit 6 for driving a CCD image sensor 2 of an imaging section 3 is controlled by a control section 7 to independently vary effective charge storage periods of respective photoelectric conversion of the CCD image sensor 2 with respect to photoelectric conversion of odd columns and photoelectric conversion elements of even columns and to add and mix, every field, image pick-up charges obtained by respective adjacent photoelectric conversion elements of odd and even columns to read them out. A CCD drive circuit 6 for driving a CCD image sensor 2 of an imaging section 3 may also be controlled by a control section 7 to carry out control of the electronic shutter function of the CCD image sensor 2, and to control the effective charge storage periods of respective photoelectric conversion elements in a manner caused to interlock with the electronic shutter function.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatically focusing cameras. An auto focus circuit detects highly bright objects contained within an image frame of a scene. If highly bright objects are not detected, an auto focus processor adjusts the focus of the camera to maximize high spatial frequency components of the image frame. The auto focus processor focuses on the highly bright objects by minimizing a count function that indicates the number of pixels having greater magnitude than a threshold reference.

Abstract: A CCD image sensor includes a plurality of uniformly spaced photodiodes arranged in series in vertical and horizontal directions, a horizontal signal transferring region formed integrally in a zigzag from between adjacent sets of said plurality of horizontally arranged photodiodes, a signal flowing direction changing region formed under the last set of the plurality of horizontally arranged photodiodes and at output of the horizontal signal transferring region, a signal processing region for storing temporarily signal charges from the horizontal signal transferring region or the signal charges from the signal flowing direction changing region and then resetting the signal charges, and a sensing amplifier for sensing states of the signal charges being temporarily stored in the signal processing region and amplifying the sensed states of the signal charges by a predetermined amplification degree, whereby the CCD image sensor is capable of being driven by a small number of clock signals so that it can be applied

Abstract: A white shading correction system capable of automatic determination of the amount of white shading correction to be applied to specific video image pixels as well as the application of that correction to a digitized video signal is disclosed. This system includes an inspecting portion for identifying the required correction within a video frame, a calculating portion for computing the amount of correction to be applied to the video signal, and a correction portion for correcting the video signal based upon the correction computed by the calculating portion.