Patents Examined by Yih-Sien Kao
  • Patent number: 9077884
    Abstract: Electronic devices with motion response and related methods are provided. In this regard, a representative electronic device includes: an image capturing device operative to acquire image data; an accelerometer operative to sense an acceleration of the electronic device; and a motion response system operative to receive acceleration information corresponding to a sensed acceleration and to alter a mode of operation of the image capturing device based, at least in part, on the acceleration information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: HTC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher David House, Rodney Owen Williams
  • Patent number: 9063345
    Abstract: Light field imaging systems, and in particular light field lenses that can be mated with a variety of conventional cameras (e.g., digital or photographic/film, image and video/movie cameras) to create light field imaging systems. Light field data collected by these light field imaging systems can then be used to produce 2D images, right eye/left eye 3D images, to refocus foreground images and/or background images together or separately (depth of field adjustments), and to move the camera angle, as well as to render and manipulate images using a computer graphics rendering engine and compositing tools. A doublet lenslet array element for use in light field imaging systems includes a first lenslet array element having a first plurality of lenslet array elements, and a second lenslet array element having a first plurality of lenslet array elements, wherein the first lenslet array element is coupled in close proximity to the second lenslet array element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: PIXAR
    Inventors: David DiFrancesco, Thomas Douglas Selkirk Duff, Mark Vande Wettering, Tolis Deslis
  • Patent number: 9063323
    Abstract: Light field imaging systems, and in particular light field lenses that can be mated with a variety of conventional cameras (e.g., digital or photographic/film, image and video/movie cameras) to create light field imaging systems. Light field data collected by these light field imaging systems can then be used to produce 2D images, right eye/left eye 3D images, to refocus foreground images and/or background images together or separately (depth of field adjustments), and to move the camera angle, as well as to render and manipulate images using a computer graphics rendering engine and compositing tools.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: PIXAR
    Inventors: David DiFrancesco, Thomas Douglas Selkirk Duff, Mark Vande Wettering
  • Patent number: 9046738
    Abstract: An approach is provided to adjust a camera shutter lag. In the approach, data is collected that corresponds to an ambient light found in a physical environment with the ambient light being controlled using a pulse-width modulation (PWM). The pulse-width modulation corresponds to a PWM timing model. When an exposure request is received, the camera shutter lag is calculated using the PWM timing model. The calculated shutter lag is based on a future point in time at which the ambient light of the physical environment is predicted to be at a selected light output level, such as a power level selected by the user of a camera. When the calculated camera shutter lag has expired, a shutter of the camera is opened causing a camera lens to be exposed that results in a captured exposure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Anthony Cappa Spielberg
  • Patent number: 9046739
    Abstract: An approach is provided to adjust a camera shutter lag. In the approach, data is collected that corresponds to an ambient light found in a physical environment with the ambient light being controlled using a pulse-width modulation (PWM). The pulse-width modulation corresponds to a PWM timing model. When an exposure request is received, the camera shutter lag is calculated using the PWM timing model. The calculated shutter lag is based on a future point in time at which the ambient light of the physical environment is predicted to be at a selected light output level, such as a power level selected by the user of a camera. When the calculated camera shutter lag has expired, a shutter of the camera is opened causing a camera lens to be exposed that results in a captured exposure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Anthony C. Spielberg
  • Patent number: 9036031
    Abstract: A Digital Image Stabilization method including selecting a Principal transform representing a stationary/background object in the scene of a video frame, based on scoring each of a plurality of transforms of tile motion vector (Tile MV) groups and of feature point motion vector (FP MV) groups, and excluding large moving objects based on the history of the stationary (background) group and the history of each of the plurality motion vector groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Erwin Sai Ki Liu
  • Patent number: 9036055
    Abstract: In a data processing apparatus having a plurality of card slots in which memory cards are removably inserted, it is determined, with regard to each of the plurality of card slots, whether a memory card that has been inserted into the slot is a wireless card having a wireless communication function. In a case where it is determined that a memory card that has been inserted into a first card slot among the plurality of card slots is the wireless card, the wireless communication function of the wireless card is enabled. In a case where it is determined that a memory card that has been inserted into a card slot other than the first card slot is the wireless card, the wireless communication function of the wireless card is disabled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hideaki Tsujii
  • Patent number: 9036048
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a light sensor includes four cell arrays, one for each color of the Bayer pattern, and four lenses each focusing the light coming from the scene to be captured on a respective cell array. The lenses are oriented such that at least a second green image, commonly provided by the fourth cell array, is both horizontally and vertically shifted (spaced) apart by half a pixel pitch from a first (reference) green image. In a second embodiment, the four lenses are oriented such that the red and blue images are respectively shifted (spaced) apart by half a pixel pitch from the first or reference green image, one horizontally and the other vertically, and the second green image is shifted (spaced) apart by half a pixel pitch from the reference green image both horizontally and vertically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
    Inventors: Marco Farina, Mirko Ignazio Guarnera, Massimo Mancuso, Giuseppe Messina, Alessandro Capra
  • Patent number: 8988554
    Abstract: A video recording apparatus is provided that can provide the user with information as to whether or not scheduled image captures will fit into a recording medium or information as to how many retakes are possible. The apparatus obtains, for each scene to be captured, the duration of a cut to be captured from scenario information in which the duration of each of the cuts constituting the scene is specified. The recordable duration is calculated from the remaining capacity of the recording medium in which video data is to be recorded and a recording bit rate of the video data, and the number of image captures that can be taken for the cut to be captured is calculated from the calculated recordable duration and the obtained duration. The calculated recordable duration and the calculated number of image captures that can be taken are displayed on a display unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shinji Ohnishi
  • Patent number: 8970736
    Abstract: A digital camera, which photographs a subject, generates image data, and records the image data on a recording medium, includes: an image processing device that performs a plurality of image processing to the recorded image data, in response to a user's operation; a history creating device that creates, for each image data, history information that indicates a history of image processing performed by the image processing device; and a display unit that displays the history information thus created.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Nikon Corporation
    Inventor: Morihiro Takagi
  • Patent number: 8970717
    Abstract: A photographing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an imaging section converting an object image into image data; a photographing section obtaining the image data from the imaging section in response to release operation and also obtaining the image data of continuous shooting from the imaging section before or after the release operation; a trimming section generating trimming images sequentially for frames in different areas, respectively, using the image data of the continuous shooting; and a control section recording the trimming image generated in the trimming section and the image data obtained in the release operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Imaging Corp.
    Inventors: Yuiko Uemura, Masashi Takahashi, Satoshi Hara, Akira Tani
  • Patent number: 8947559
    Abstract: A player according to the present disclosure includes: an interface that retrieves an audio file from a storage medium on which the audio file and a still picture file are stored; and a controller that retrieves a still picture file, which is selected by the file name of the audio file, from the storage medium and that reads audio and a still picture from the audio file and the still picture file, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenji Kakiuchi, Fumio Takano, Takahide Akamatsu
  • Patent number: 8941755
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide sophisticated AWB technologies. According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a technology for adjusting a white balance of a frame of image data including a plurality of color elements. This technology is characterized by comprising: dividing the frame into a plurality of blocks including a plurality of pixel data; judging, for each of all of or a part of the blocks, whether the block is likely to be grey or not, and; deciding gains for adjusting a white balance using the blocks judged as being likely to be grey.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2015
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Jarno Nikkanen
  • Patent number: 8934031
    Abstract: A light intensity control device includes a fixed opening 261, an aperture stop part 26 for controlling a light flux of incident light, a light intensity aperture part 24 for changing the size of an opening by moving a plurality of aperture blades to limit a light intensity of transmitted light and a ND filter 25 having a transparent area 253 and a light blocking area 254, which is arranged to be movable between a first light blocking state where the transparent area 253 faces the fixed opening 261 of the aperture stop part 26 and a second light blocking state where the light blocking area 254 faces the fixed opening. The moving of the ND filter 25 is carried out when the opening area of the light intensity aperture part 24 is a maximum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: JVC Kenwood Corporation
    Inventors: Fumio Nidaira, Yasufumi Nakaaki
  • Patent number: 8896716
    Abstract: Upon detecting the start of a panning operation, an adder-subtracter applies an offset from an offset change circuit to the output of an HPF (High-Pass Filter) representing the shake amount of an image capturing apparatus to decrease the shake amount. The offset value is set to be larger as the value of shake correction data output from a focal length calculation circuit is closer to the correction limit of a blur correction circuit. Upon detecting the end of the panning operation, the offset value is returned to zero. This invention provides a blur correction apparatus capable of suppressing degradation of a blur correction effect even when in a panning state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenichi Miyasako
  • Patent number: 8890990
    Abstract: A solid-state image pickup device and a camera system in which: (1) counters are organized into a counter group and a memory group on a column-by-column basis; (2) in each column, the individual counters are cascade-connected between individual bits; (3) switches are provided at bit output portions of the individual counters; (4) connecting sides of the individual switches are commonly connected to a column-signal transfer line, and output sides of the switches are shared with the other individual bits; (5) inputs of memories (latch circuits), which store digital data for horizontal transfer, share the column-signal transfer line; and (6) outputs of the memories corresponding to the individual bits are connected via switches to data transfer signal lines wired so as to be orthogonal to the column-signal transfer line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Yasuaki Hisamatsu
  • Patent number: 8890994
    Abstract: An image capturing apparatus comprising an image sensor including image forming pixels each of which generates a signal for image generation, and focus detection pixels each of which generates a signal for phase difference detection, readout means for reading out the signal of each pixel of the image sensor, focus detection means for detecting a focus by a phase-difference detection method using the signals for phase difference detection from the focus detection pixels, and switching means for switching a combination of the focus detection pixels to be used for focus detection by the focus detection means between a case in which the readout means reads out the signals of the pixels of the image sensor after thinning-out and a case in which the readout means reads out the signals of the pixels of the image sensor without thinning-out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenichiro Amano
  • Patent number: 8866922
    Abstract: After a plurality of differently exposed images are obtained, and tone levels of the plurality of images are adjusted, image elements corresponding to changes of objects are detected based on pixel value differences between the plurality of images. Then, the numbers of blown-out highlight and shadow-detail loss image elements in the image elements corresponding to the changes of the objects are counted for the plurality of images. Then, an image in which the total of the numbers of image elements is smallest is selected. Furthermore, image elements corresponding to the changes of the objects in the selected image are used as those corresponding to image elements corresponding to the changes of the objects in an HDR image to be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hidetoshi Tsubaki
  • Patent number: 8848073
    Abstract: A solid-state imaging device includes: an R pixel provided with an R filter for transmitting red-color light; a B pixel provided with a B filter for transmitting blue-color light; an S1 pixel which is provided with an S1 filter with a visible light transmittance independent of wavelengths in a visible light region and has a sensitivity higher than that of the R pixel; and an S2 pixel which is provided with an S2 filter with a visible light transmittance independent of wavelengths in the visible light region and lower than the visible light transmittance of the S1 filter and has a sensitivity lower than the sensitivity of the S1 pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Taichi Natori
  • Patent number: 8836808
    Abstract: Image capture using an image capture apparatus that includes an imaging assembly. Geographic location of the image capture apparatus is received from a location sensor that obtains geographic location of the image capture apparatus. A capture mask is constructed by calculations which use the geographic location. The constructed capture mask is applied to the imaging assembly, the imaging assembly having a tunable spectral response and being tunable in accordance with the capture mask.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Francisco Imai