Abstract: An iris authentication apparatus includes a camera for obtaining the image of an eye; a display panel arranged on the same plane as where the lens of the camera is arranged; and guide character generation means, wherein a guide character is displayed on a display panel, and the eye of a person to be authenticated who watches the guide character is guided. As a result, a satisfactory iris image can be obtained by the iris authentication apparatus of one camera type that does not have a zooming function, so that the iris authentication apparatus that can be mounted to a small body, such as a portable telephone, can be provided.

Abstract: Herein disclosed is a surveillance camera apparatus which comprises a camera unit, a camera retaining assembly for retaining the camera unit, a camera checking unit for checking whether or not the camera unit is normally operated, a camera driving unit for driving the camera unit to be moved in a surveillance area where the camera unit performs a surveillance operation, and a non-surveillance area where the camera unit performs no surveillance operation, and where the camera unit is capable of being checked, a light emitting unit designed to assume two different states consisting of a first state under which the light emitting unit emits the light, and a second state under which the light emitting unit stops emitting the light, a state setting unit for setting the light emitting unit to selectively assume the first and second states, and a drive control unit for controlling the camera driving unit, the drive control unit being operative to assume a first operation state under which the camera unit is driven t

Abstract: The present invention aims to expand a range through which a guiding visible light for guiding a position of an eye appears in shooting an image of the eye and to put easily the position of the eye onto an optical axis of an imaging optical system in shooting. In the present invention, an eye image pick-up system (10) includes a lens (13), a lens-barrel (12) for supporting the lens (13), a mirror (14) as a guiding mirror for turning an optical path of an imaging optical system at an almost right angle and guiding a guiding visible light, an imaging device (16) for picking up an image of an eye (11), and an LED (15) provide at the back of the mirror (14) on a prolonged line of an optical axis (17) extending from the lens (13) to the mirror (14) to emit the guiding visible light. The mirror (14) has a reflecting film (18) formed by depositing reflecting material onto a transparent substrate, and a circular-ring light guiding portion (19) made of transparent material.

Abstract: An iris camera module includes an image pickup optical system and a target optical system and the optical path is divided by a half mirror. An image of an iris is picked up by an image pickup element of an image pickup section. The iris image thus picked up is compared with a reference iris image stored in a storage in advance and the comparison result is output. The iris camera module has a configuration fit for a compact design. The reference iris image as a reference for comparison is stored in the storage of the comparison chip. It is thus difficult to falsify the reference iris image thereby providing a high security.

Abstract: A surveillance camera device is provided which has an impact absorbing structure. The camera device includes a rotary base supporting a camera unit, a rotary bracket supporting the rotary base, and coil springs. The coil springs work to elastically urge the rotary base away from the rotary bracket to as to permit the rotary base to move straight against the mechanical pressure of the springs when subjected to a damaging impact on the device, thereby absorbing the impact to avoid damage to the camera unit.

Abstract: A storage means (47) formed of a rewritable non-volatile memory for recording the operation history of the surveillance camera is provided within the surveillance camera apparatus. An auto panning operation time, a power supply turn-on time, a temperature within the surveillance camera apparatus, the number of preset operations, the number of changing operations of the filter of the camera or the number of a coordinate system resetting operations is recorded, whereby important information at the time of repairing can be provided.

Abstract: An iris authentication apparatus includes a camera for obtaining the image of an eye; a display panel arranged on the same plane as where the lens of the camera is arranged; and guide character generation means, wherein a guide character is displayed on a display panel, and the eye of a person to be authenticated who watches the guide character is guided. As a result, a satisfactory iris image can be obtained by the iris authentication apparatus of one camera type that does not have a zooming function, so that the iris authentication apparatus that can be mounted to a small body, such as a portable telephone, can be provided.

Abstract: A pivoting unit pivots a video camera at a pivoting speed. The video camera includes a zoom mechanism and a zoom amount signal generation circuit for generating a zoom amount signal. A pivoting speed command signal generating circuit responsive to an operation generates a pivoting speed command signal and a speed controlling circuit controls the pivoting speed in accordance with the zoom amount signal and the pivoting speed command signal. Controlling is made such that the pivoting speed is relatively decreased from the pivoting speed command signal when the zoom amount signal indicates a telephoto side and is relatively increased from the pivoting speed command signal when the zoom signal indicates a wide-angle. A joystick generating the pivoting speed command signal includes two coil springs for generating a reaction force which is made stronger when the operation angle of thereof exceeds a reference. The pivoting speed is also accelerated when the operation angle exceeds the reference.

Abstract: In a monitor camera system includes a monitor camera capable of rotation 360 degrees in pan directions and 180 degrees in tilt directions and a control unit for controlling the monitor camera remotely, the control unit sends control data indicative of a photographing position or photographing direction of the monitor camera to said monitor camera, while the monitor camera receives the control data to calculate, on the basis of the control data, a pan rotation quantity and a tilt rotation quantity by which the monitor camera is to be rotated from the present camera position, thus accomplishing its pan rotation or tilt rotation according to the calculated rotation quantity. Accordingly, with this configuration, an operator can align the monitor camera in a target direction by merely manipulating a joystick in the target direction, that is, can face the monitor camera to a target position through a simple manipulation.

Abstract: The present invention aims to expand a range through which a guiding visible light for guiding a position of an eye appears in shooting an image of the eye and to put easily the position of the eye onto an optical axis of an imaging optical system in shooting. In the present invention, an eye image pick-up system (10) includes a lens (13), a lens-barrel (12) for supporting the lens (13), a mirror (14) as a guiding mirror for turning an optical path of an imaging optical system at an almost right angle and guiding a guiding visible light, an imaging device (16) for picking up an image of an eye (11), and an LED (15) provide at the back of the mirror (14) on a prolonged line of an optical axis (17) extending from the lens (13) to the mirror (14) to emit the guiding visible light. The mirror (14) has a reflecting film (18) formed by depositing reflecting material onto a transparent substrate, and a circular-ring light guiding portion (19) made of transparent material.

Abstract: In a monitor camera system capable of understanding a direction, a monitor camera follows, through a picture taken by the monitor camera, the monitor camera makes 360-degree pan rotation and 180-degree tilt rotation, and generates image data in which a character representative of a photographing direction (for example, north) of the monitor camera is superimposed on a picture taken by the monitor camera. Accordingly, the monitor camera provides a picture in which the photographing direction indicating character appears. This enables an operator to easily understand the camera direction through the monitor picture, thus achieving efficient and accurate camera manipulation.

Abstract: In a monitor camera system comprising a monitor camera making 360-degree panning rotation and more-than 90-degree tilting rotation and a control unit for controlling the monitor camera, for masking a privacy zone in a picture taken by the monitor camera, the control unit sets mask data through the use of a contour parameter of a configuration of a mask zone for covering the privacy zone, while the monitor camera side holds the mask data to mask a portion of the picture with the mask zone defined on the basis of the mask data. According to this monitor camera system, since only a portion of the picture is masked with the mask zone, it is possible to protect the privacy from the picture taken by the monitor camera without impairing the monitoring function. In addition, since the monitor camera side holds the mask data, quick processing becomes feasible.

Abstract: Herein disclosed is a surveillance camera apparatus which comprises a camera unit, a camera retaining assembly for retaining the camera unit, a camera checking unit for checking whether or not the camera unit is normally operated, a camera driving unit for driving the camera unit to be moved in a surveillance area where the camera unit performs a surveillance operation, and a non-surveillance area where the camera unit performs no surveillance operation, and where the camera unit is capable of being checked, a light emitting unit designed to assume two different states consisting of a first state under which the light emitting unit emits the light, and a second state under which the light emitting unit stops emitting the light, a state setting unit for setting the light emitting unit to selectively assume the first and second states, and a drive control unit for controlling the camera driving unit, the drive control unit being operative to assume a first operation state under which the camera unit is driven t

Abstract: To provide a security camera system for displaying a picture so as to easily know a place where an abnormal situation occurs. The security camera system includes a security camera 61 having at least more than one rotation axis and a controller 70 for controlling the security camera 61. The controller 70 is provided with a moving picture detector 80 for detecting a motion from pictures taken by the security camera during an automatic monitoring operation. The controller switches an operation of the security camera from automatic monitoring to still monitoring in the case when the moving picture detector detects a motion from monitored pictures. Therefore, in the case when a suspicious person, fire smoke, or the like is detected in a subject building at night, for example, during an automatic monitoring operation for shooting target monitoring places sequentially, a shooting point of the security camera is fixed there so as to shoot and display an abnormal situation on a monitor screen.

Abstract: A mobile telephone having a first body and a second body which are foldably coupled via a hinge mechanism 2, a wide-angle lens for obtaining a wide-angle image, a telephoto lens for obtaining an enlarged image, and an image pickup element installed in an image focusing place. The mobile telephone includes a slide mechanism for not only causing the enlarged image to be input to the image pickup element provided in the second body through the telephoto lens provided in the first body with the mobile telephone folded but also sliding the image pickup element in the second body in response to the pivotal action of the hinge mechanism when the first body and the second body are unfolded so as to cause the wide-angle image to be input to the image pickup element through the wide-angle lens provided in the second body.

Abstract: A surveillance camera device is provided which has an impact absorbing structure. The camera device includes a rotary base supporting a camera unit, a rotary bracket supporting the rotary base, and coil springs. The coil springs work to elastically urge the rotary base away from the rotary bracket to as to permit the rotary base to move straight against the mechanical pressure of the springs when subjected to a damaging impact on the device, thereby absorbing the impact to avoid damage to the camera unit.

Abstract: 0 A vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus comprising: a camera (11) for picking up images of a peripheral area of a vehicle (2); an integration processing unit (21) for detecting the vehicle's own position as positional information via a vehicle sensor (12); a memory (15) for storing present picture data as to the peripheral area of the vehicle picked up by the camera (11), and also for storing positional information as to the picked up images of peripheral area of the vehicle; a picture composite unit (25) for reading past picture data corresponding to the positional information from the memory (15) by way of a memory control unit (24), and for combining own vehicle shape data “x” with this past picture data; and a display control unit (26) for displaying the picture data combined by this picture composite process unit (25) on a monitor display unit (16).

Abstract: The object of the invention is to provide iris image pickup apparatus capable of acquiring a high-accuracy iris image in a short time, the iris image pickup apparatus using a low-cost configuration comprising one wide angle camera and one telephotographic camera.

Abstract: The invention aims at providing low-cost iris image pickup apparatus for picking up iris images at a high accuracy.

Abstract: A mold for forming a resinous domed article which may be employed as a cover of a monitor camera is provided. The mold consists of a female block and a male block. The female block has formed therein a domed mold cavity which includes a hemispherical wall that is just half a sphere and an annular wall extending from an end of the hemispherical wall. The male block has a domed protrusion mating with the domed mold cavity of the female block. The domed protrusion consists of two parts: a hemispherical portion and a cylindrical portion. The hemispherical portion is mechanically joined to the cylindrical portion. This structure allows the surface of the domed protrusion of the male block to be formed smoothly without any irregularities on an interface between the hemispherical portion and the cylindrical portion.