Patents by Inventor Masahide Hirasawa

Masahide Hirasawa has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7719605
    Abstract: A video camera includes a gate circuit for extracting a sharpness signal relative to an area which is set in a portion of a picture, a focus adjusting device for performing focus adjustment on the basis of the sharpness signal relative to the area, and an area selecting circuit for controlling the gate circuit to vary the area in size and determining a size of the area during a driving of a variator lens in accordance with a size of the area and a focal length used before the driving of the variator lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahide Hirasawa, Tatsuya Yamazaki, Hiroto Ohkawara
  • Publication number: 20090066832
    Abstract: A video camera includes a gate circuit for extracting a sharpness signal relative to an area which is set in a portion of a picture, a focus adjusting device for performing focus adjustment on the basis of the sharpness signal relative to the area, and an area selecting circuit for controlling the gate circuit to vary the area in size and determining a size of the area during a driving of a variator lens in accordance with a size of the area and a focal length used before the driving of the variator lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2008
    Publication date: March 12, 2009
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masahide Hirasawa, Tatsuya Yamazaki, Hiroto Ohkawara
  • Patent number: 7456898
    Abstract: A video camera includes a gate circuit for extracting a sharpness signal relative to an area which is set in a portion of a picture, a focus adjusting device for performing focus adjustment on the basis of the sharpness signal relative to the area, and an area selecting circuit for controlling the gate circuit to vary the area in size and determining a size of the area during a driving of a variator lens in accordance with a size of the area and a focal length used before the driving of the variator lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2008
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahide Hirasawa, Tatsuya Yamazaki, Hiroto Ohkawara
  • Patent number: 7349011
    Abstract: In an image pickup control apparatus capable of remotely and reliably controlling an image pickup apparatus from another apparatus, control data for controlling the image pickup apparatus is stored in advance and is transmitted to the image pickup apparatus when the image pickup apparatus is connected via data communications interface units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2008
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Patent number: 7336300
    Abstract: In an image pickup control apparatus capable of remotely and reliably controlling an image pickup apparatus from another apparatus, control data for controlling the image pickup apparatus is stored in advance and is transmitted to the image pickup apparatus when the image pickup apparatus is connected via data communications interface units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2008
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Patent number: 6980233
    Abstract: In an image pickup control apparatus capable of remotely and reliably controlling an image pickup apparatus from another apparatus, control data for controlling the image pickup apparatus is stored in advance and is transmitted to the image pickup apparatus when the image pickup apparatus is connected via data communications interface units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2005
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Publication number: 20050270378
    Abstract: In an image pickup control apparatus capable of remotely and reliably controlling an image pickup apparatus from another apparatus, control data for controlling the image pickup apparatus is stored in advance and is transmitted to the image pickup apparatus when the image pickup apparatus is connected via data communications interface units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 9, 2005
    Publication date: December 8, 2005
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Publication number: 20050185056
    Abstract: In an image pickup control apparatus capable of remotely and reliably controlling an image pickup apparatus from another apparatus, control data for controlling the image pickup apparatus is stored in advance and is transmitted to the image pickup apparatus when the image pickup apparatus is connected via data communications interface units.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2005
    Publication date: August 25, 2005
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Publication number: 20050083430
    Abstract: A video camera includes a gate circuit for extracting a sharpness signal relative to an area which is set in a portion of a picture, a focus adjusting device for performing focus adjustment on the basis of the sharpness signal relative to the area, and an area selecting circuit for controlling the gate circuit to vary the area in size and determining a size of the area during a driving of a variator lens in accordance with a size of the area and a focal length used before the driving of the variator lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2004
    Publication date: April 21, 2005
    Inventors: Masahide Hirasawa, Tatsuya Yamazaki, Hiroto Ohkawara
  • Patent number: 6850280
    Abstract: An automatic focus adjusting device in which a distance measuring area is set from a plurality of distance measuring areas including a first distance measuring area and a second distance measuring area which differs in size from the first distance measuring area. A state of focus is discriminated in a distance measuring area before a focus adjusting operation is started by driving an optical element for focus adjustment when the optical element is in an in-focus state, and on the basis of the discrimination, a distance measuring area to be used after the focus adjusting operation is started is selected from the first distance area and the second distance area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2005
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahide Hirasawa, Tatsuya Yamazaki, Hiroto Ohkawara
  • Patent number: 6580453
    Abstract: The case of an image sensing apparatus such as a video camera is simplified by reducing the number of parts provided on the surface of the apparatus without eliminating a remote-control function. The video camera is formed to have an opening for introducing sensed light from a subject and first remote-control signal light which remotely controls the video camera into the interior of the camera case, and for projecting second remote-control signal light, by which the video camera remotely controls an external apparatus, to the exterior of the camera. After the first remote-control signal light is introduced into the interior of the camera case via the opening, the light is received by a remote-control light-receiving element and the second remote-control signal light is projected to the exterior of the camera case via the opening.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Patent number: 6525771
    Abstract: A lens control device is arranged such that, in deciding a direction in which a focus lens is to be driven on the basis of the amount of change caused to take place in the level of a video signal by causing the focus lens to vibrate at a predetermined amplitude, the amplitude of the vibration of the focus lens is controlled according to the state of an AGC circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 1997
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Patent number: 6473797
    Abstract: An information communicating apparatus and method are featured in retrieving one or more device constituting a network which satisfies predetermined conditions (e.g., connector type and data transfer speed) and has a communication port not connected to another unit of device. The retrieved device is then graphically displayed on a display screen. Users can be informed of the device having a vacant port in a manner easy to understand, and add-on of new device to the network can be realized readily and efficiently.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Patent number: 6473120
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus is provided with a pixel shifting device for shifting the incident light entering the image pickup device thereby substantially improving the resolution, and an image memory, and adapted to prevent deterioration of the resolution in case of reading a partial image from the image memory, by increasing the resolution using the pixel shifting device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahide Hirasawa, Koji Takahashi
  • Patent number: 6456319
    Abstract: There is disclosed a video camera which has a normal moving image sensing mode, and a still image sensing mode for sensing an image on a negative film set in a film adapter attached as a still image. An optical image of a subject is photoelectrically converted into an image signal, and whether or not the subject is a negative film is detected on the basis of a predetermined signal component in the image signal. If it is detected that the subject is the negative film, the still image sensing mode starts while setting signal processing in a negative/positive conversion mode and setting the focal length of the lens system at the wide-angle position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahide Hirasawa, Masakazu Kurobe, Satoshi Nakayama
  • Patent number: 6424376
    Abstract: A selection apparatus including a display unit for indicating a plurality of displays on the same screen, a line-of-sight position detecting unit for detecting a line-of-sight position of an operator on the screen, and an input unit through which the operator inputs an instruction, the input unit operating without using a line of sight. The selection apparatus also includes a control unit. When the display unit displays all of the displays on the same screen in response to an instruction input through the input unit, and the line-of-sight position detecting unit detects the line-of-sight position on any of the displays, the control unit selects the display on which the line-of-sight position has been detected. The control unit differentiates a status of display of the selected display from those of the non-selected displays. The control unit then executes the contents of the selected display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahide Hirasawa
  • Publication number: 20020089531
    Abstract: An information communicating apparatus and method are featured in retrieving one or more device constituting a network which satisfies predetermined conditions (e.g., connector type and data transfer speed) and has communication port not connected to another unit of device. The retrieved device is then graphically displayed on display screen. Users can be informed of the device having a vacant port in a manner easy to understand, and add-on of new device to the network can be realized readily and efficiently.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 1998
    Publication date: July 11, 2002
    Inventor: MASAHIDE HIRASAWA
  • Publication number: 20020085099
    Abstract: There is disclosed a video camera which has a normal moving image sensing mode, and a still image sensing mode for sensing an image on a negative film set in a film adapter attached as a still image. An optical image of a subject is photoelectrically converted into an image signal, and whether or not the subject is a negative film is detected on the basis of a predetermined signal component in the image signal. If it is detected that the subject is the negative film, the still image sensing mode starts while setting signal processing in a negative/positive conversion mode and setting the focal length of the lens system at the wide-angle position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 1997
    Publication date: July 4, 2002
    Inventors: MASAHIDE HIRASAWA, MASAKAZU KUROBE, SATOSHI NAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20020057346
    Abstract: There is disclosed an image pickup apparatus provided with a pixel shifting device for shifting the incident light entering the image pickup device thereby substantially improving the resolution, and an image memory, and adapted to prevent deterioration of the resolution in case of reading a partial image from the image memory, by increasing the resolution by the pixel shifting device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 12, 1997
    Publication date: May 16, 2002
    Inventors: MASAHIDE HIRASAWA, KOJI TAKAHASHI
  • Patent number: 6384928
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus and system, which can effectively use the functions of an interface and which can fully use an image forming apparatus, is connected to a plurality of image forming apparatuses via an interface. The image processing apparatus includes an image output circuit for transmitting the image to be formed via the interface, an input circuit for inputting the image forming conditions, and a mode designation circuit for designating the image communication mode of the interface in accordance with the image forming conditions input by the input circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kenichi Nagasawa, Masahide Hirasawa