Abstract: A method of producing a video picture of an image comprises the steps of lighting the image at a light level equal to about a predetermined small fraction of the light level necessary to produce picture-element signals of an amplitude sufficient to process. The thus lighted image is then scanned and electrooptically reduced to a succession of sets of analog picture-element signals a predetermined number N of times, the number N being equal to the inverse of the predetermined small fraction. Thus for each portion of the image there is a respective picture-element signal in each succession. The signals of each image portion are then projected onto the same portion of a light-sensitive medium to form a picture of the image thereon. This medium is capable of adding each of the signals of each set to the signals of the other sets corresponding to the same image portion.

Abstract: An electronic image scanner is disclosed in various embodiments. Scanning of an image is divided into a first reproduction phase and a second reproduction phase. In the first reproduction phase, a first half-frame of a video signal is developed. In the second reproduction phase, a second half-frame of the video signal is developed. By utilizing the invention herein, a flicker-free video signal can be developed from a motion picture film while maintaining resolution of the resultant video signal at the conventional television resolution standard of 625 lines per film frame.

Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for electronically scanning photographic positives or negatives and reproducing them as video images. These images are displayed on a video monitor and may, if desired, be copied onto photosensitive paper.

Abstract: A galvanometric tilting-mirror scanning system shifts an image of an original projected onto a photodiode row in a direction transverse to such row. The tilting-mirror mechanism is provided with an oil-filled damping chamber, heated and maintained at stabilized temperature. The control voltage driving the tilting-mirror system includes a sawtooth component whose lower-slope flanks determine the mirror's scanning sweep; a negative pulse which effects mirror tiltback or flyback; a positive pulse which brakes the tiltback and accelerates the mirror back up to its forwards-direction scanning-sweep speed; and finally a corrective component. The corrective component has the form of a pulse which increases the slope of the sawtooth component's lower-slope flanks during a time interval extending beyond the system's vertical blanking allotment, to compensate the non-linearity in the motion of the mirror which would exist during its forwards-direction scanning-sweep interval in the absence of the corrective component.

Abstract: Apparatus for supplying signals to a vidicon which furnishes a color image of a selected portion of the human body, especially of the mamma, has an optical scanning system which transmits a thermal image of the selected portion of the body to a pyroelectric infrared detector without touching the selected portion. The detector transmits signals denoting the temperature of different spots of the selected portion of the body to a storage whose output transmits signals to the vidicon, always via one of a series of threshold circuits which are calibrated to transmit signals to associated color matrices only when the intensity of such signals is within a range denoting the particular color. The matrices transmit signals to the vidicon so that the latter furnishes a color image of the selected portion of the body.

Abstract: Apparatus for stepwise transport of exposed and developed photographic films through a copying machine so as to place selected film frames, namely those film frames which are to be imaged onto photographic paper and are designated by holes or other types of indices, into register with the copying station has two photoelectronic detectors the first of which transmits signals to the forward input and the second of which transmits signals to the reverse input of a forward and reverse counter in a circuit which regulates the speed of the film transporting motor. The second detector is located downstream of the first detector and both detectors transmit signals on detection of indices denoting the film frames to be copied.

Abstract: A photographic still provided with a magnetizable coating is inserted into a recording/playback device provided with a movably mounted head unit having a set of heads. A rotary motor drives an endless belt in a single direction, the upper and lower runs of the belt always travelling in opposite directions. The head unit is alternately coupled to the upper and to the lower run of the belt, for travel in one and then the opposite direction. Upon each reversal of the travel direction of the head unit, a successive one of the magnetic heads is activated, so as to track a meandering track on the magnetic coating.

Abstract: A distance measuring system generates an in-range signal when an object is located within a range of focus or a zone of protection, as the case may be. The system utilizes a single infrared transmitter and two receivers in order to determine the position of the object by triangulation.

Abstract: A photographic still or motion-picture camera has a viewfinder and a manually moved focus adjuster, such as a focussing ring. When the user peers into the viewfinder, there is a visible indication of the direction in which the focus adjuster should be manually moved to reduce the state-of-focus error, for example two curved illuminated errors, one pointing clockwise and the other counterclockwise, only one of which lights up to indicate the direction in which the focussing ring should be manually turned. When the state-of-focus error has been reduced to zero or a minimum, this is likewise indicated, for example because neither curved arrow is illuminated. To control the activation of the indicating elements, use can be made of components of a conventional completely automatic focussing system, but minus the adjusting motor of such system and minus superfluous motor-energization control circuitry.

Abstract: A test pattern in form of a raster or the like is imaged in a camera onto a margin of a film frame. When the film frame is subsequently converted into a negative which is thereafter printed as a positive, the test pattern is printed in the margin of the photographic image on the positive. Should the image be blurred, it is possible to determine whether the cause of blurring occurred in the camera or during printing, by examining the test pattern which, if blurring occurred in the camera, will be sharp but will itself be blurred if the blurring of the image occurred during printing. The pattern can also be applied to the film frame by the film manufacturer or else in a pre-splicer prior to developing of the exposed film. A method, an apparatus and a pattern carrier are disclosed.

Abstract: A novel film cartridge, camera for use with such cartridge and method of making such cartridge are disclosed. The cartridge is in form of a pocket of a material which is impermeable to light and which accommodates a multi-exposure film strip having a length at least equal to the length of the pocket.

Abstract: Super-8 motion-picture film is transported non-intermittently at constant speed, and its image is projected into an image plane in which is located a single row of photodiodes which extends transverse to the film transport direction. The photodiodes of the single photodiode-row are successively responsive to red, blue and green wavelengths. A bucket-brigade circuit or CCD including the photodiode-row furthermore includes a shift register which receives the photodiode signals in parallel, is then read out serially, with its output signal then time-division demultiplexed to obtain separate red, blue and green signals; or else three shift registers are used, each receiving signals only from those photodiodes responsive to a respective one of the three component colors. Whereas the photodiode-row is responsible for horizontal scanning, vertical scanning is achieved in part due to film transport per se and in part due to a tilting-mirror deflector which deflects the image projected onto the photodiode-row.

Abstract: Radially successive annular electrodes disposed in a general plane define between themselves intermediate annular zones in which is confined electrooptic material. Selected annular zones are rendered transparent by applying to pairs of selected annular electrodes potential differences which extend through the electrooptic material in the direction in which the general plane extends, not perpendicular to the general plane. The annular zones are rendered transparent in cumulative succession proceeding radially outwards, and have surface areas such that, as each next annular zone becomes transparent too, the transparent area of the arrangement doubles each time. A control circuit includes a counter whose outputs are connected to the inputs of a gating network, the latter having outputs connected to various ones of the annular electrodes, establishing the rate at which the cumulatively successive changes of state of radially outwardly successive annular zones proceeds.

Abstract: A still-camera film transport system includes a perforation feeler and cooperating perforation-detecting switch generating a perforation signal. A motor speed sensor generates a signal indicative of whether the motor speed is above or below a certain level. A shutter-state switch generates a signal indicating whether the shutter is in set or unset state. A motor-control switch is controlled from the output of a logic-circuit stage which receives the above three signals. During normal operation before the film end is reached, the perforation signal is used to generate a deenergize-motor signal, but in dependence upon the shutter-state signal. When the film end is reached no further perforations follow, but the transport motor comes to a halt because it cannot pull the film further. The motor-speed signal indicates this and, when applied to the logic-circuit stage, causes the motor to be deenergized if the shutter is in set state.

Abstract: A combined exposing and developing apparatus for film units wherein a negative sheet overlaps and extends beyond a positive sheet has an exposing unit in which the uppermost film unit of a stack of such units in a cassette is exposed to light. The developing unit has a casing which is adjacent to a compartment for cassettes and has two advancing rolls which pinch the leader of the negative sheet of a freshly exposed film unit in response to manual pivoting of a carriage for the advancing rolls by way of a rotary knob. The leader of the negative sheet is automatically separated from the positive sheet by a separating device in response to rotation of the knob before the two sheets advance through separate channels which are filled with a developing liquid. The sheets are thereupon reunited and moved into the nip of two squeezing rolls which are driven by the knob and wipe off the surplus of developing liquid before the reassembled film unit enters a diffusion chamber below the compartment for cassettes.

Abstract: A projection and scanning system for synchronization of photographic film projection with vertical sync pulses is taught. In this system, developed photographic film is advanced into a projection gate which is larger than the vertical height of an individual photographic frame. As a given film frame passes through the projection gate, it is repeatedly scanned by a mirror and the projected image reflected onto a charge-coupled image sensor which can be used to provide information for a video signal. Perforations on the film enable pulses to be developed at a photocell which are a function of film speed. By processing these pulses, along with vertical sync pulses and appropriate control waveforms, accurate scanning of the film can be achieved, enabling video signals resulting in flickerless television transmissions to be generated.

Abstract: A mechanical film drive utilizes a rotatable drive shaft which abuts a flat surface of motion picture film to be driven. The film is pinched between the drive shaft and a rubber idler roller, and the drive shaft can be coupled to and uncoupled from a speed-regulated drive motor by means of an electrically-operable clutch. A flywheel is driven by the motor. Since the inertia of the flywheel is much greater than the inertia of the drive shaft, clutch operation has only a negligible effect on drive speed, enabling film movement to be accomplished with a high degree of accuracy.

Abstract: An apparatus for exposing and developing film units which have pairs of overlapping positive and negative sheets and must be subjected to a diffusion treatment subsequent to treatment with a liquid developing agent has an exposing unit above a light duct which is disposed above a compartment for cassettes containing stacks of superimposed film units. The compartment is located above a diffusion chamber and is adjacent to a relatively small casing for a developing unit containing a liquid developing agent and provided with pairs of advancing rolls for the transport of freshly exposed film units from the cassette in the compartment, through the casing and the developing agent therein, and thereupon into the diffusion chamber. The developing unit has a device which temporarily separates the sheets of a film unit during transport through the developing agent.

Abstract: Light is directed from a source through a developed and travelling motion-picture film, to pass through a reproduction lens. This light is intercepted by a tilting mirror which reflects it back through the lens where it is intercepted by a stationary mirror and reflected onto an opto-electronic receiver for conversion into signals which permit showing of the film images on a television screen.

Abstract: Recording medium for photographic prints comprising a magnetizable layer on the rear side of a photographic material which is preferrably paper based, the magnetizable areas having different surface roughnesses. This medium allows recording of sound information or codes on the prints and reproduction in recorders or by monitoring.