Abstract: An autofocus adapter for detachably mounting between an imaging lens and a camera body and for detecting the focus state of the imaging lens is disclosed. The autofocus adapter includes two focus state detecting elements with light receiving surfaces slightly displaced in front and in back of a desired position of focus of the imaging lens. A beamsplitter directs some light to the two focus state detecting elements and some light through the autofocus adapter for forming an image in a camera. The autofocus adapter includes a relay lens system and electronics for detecting the focus state and controlling the focus of the imaging lens to an in-focus state based on the images detected at the two focus state detecting elements. The beamsplitter may deflect equal amounts of light to the two light receiving surfaces, and the autofocus adapter may include an iris.

Abstract: A camera comprising the following components is disclosed:

Abstract: An image pickup apparatus includes a filter for extracting, from a video signal, a high-frequency component which varies with a state of focusing, and a control part arranged to control a cutoff frequency of the filter according to a luminance level in the video signal.

Abstract: A focus detecting device for determining the focus state of an imaging optical system, of a type for time-sequentially entering light beams, transmitted by different areas of an imaging optical system, into a sensor and detecting the phase difference between the image signal obtained from the sensor means corresponding to such time-sequentially entered light beams. The device determines the positional difference in the vertical direction of the light beams (images) time-sequentially entering the sensor, and determines the storage positions of the outputs (image signals) from the sensor corresponding to the light beams (images) of the respective areas, thereby enabling exact focus detection even in case the images are received in vertically different positions on the sensor.

Abstract: An image pickup apparatus with operation modes including a normal-resolution mode and a high-resolution mode has the capability of automatically adjusting the focus by driving a part of an imaging optical system wherein the minimum amount of movement in driving the part of the imaging optical system is set to a value which differs between the normal-resolution mode and the high-resolution mode.

Abstract: This digital camera comprises a lens system (5) for focusing the image of a subject (10) on a sensitive plate (7), a control system formed, inter alia, by a motor (8) that act on the lens system to ensure a sharp image of the subject on the sensitive plate.

Abstract: An automatic focusing device includes an extracting circuit which extracts a focus signal corresponding to a degree of focus from a picked-up image signal, a focusing lens and a direction deciding circuit which decides the direction of driving the focusing lens on the basis of the output of the extraction circuit when the state of focus deviates from an in-focus state. The extracting circuit is arranged to simultaneously extract a plurality of focus signals having different frequency components from each other. The direction deciding circuit is arranged to perform computing operations on the focus signals separately from each other with respect to the focusing lens driving direction and to decide the focusing lens driving direction when the results of the computing operations come to coincide with each other.

Abstract: An adaptive peak value detector, wherein the peak value for a peak hold section is detected, the peak hold section being selected by a peak hold control circuit. A solid-state imaging sensor generates pixel signals representative of an image and the peak value of portions of the pixel signals is detected. The exposure time of the sensor is adjusted as a function of the detected peak value and auto-focusing of the image for the camera is carried out on the basis of the image received during the adjusted exposure time.

Abstract: A camera of the type having a lens drive motor for moving a focus lens, an image pick-up device for converting an optical image passed through the optical system including the focus lens into an image signal, a sampling circuit for sampling the high frequency component value of the image signal, and a control circuit for controlling the lens drive motor so as to maximize the high frequency component value. The camera has a high frequency component value memory for storing a history of the high frequency component value sampled by the sampling circuit. The control circuit controls the lens drive motor so as to maximize the high frequency component value after the focus adjustment, in accordance with the stored history of the high frequency component value.

Abstract: An automatic focusing device for automatically controlling the focused state of an optical system on the basis of a video signal obtained within a focus detecting area which is set on an image sensing plane comprises: a tracing area setting circuit arranged to movably set, within said image sensing plane, an inner tracing area and an outer tracing area which surrounds the inner tracing area; a computing circuit arranged to compute information on a difference in a given frequency component of the video signal obtained from the inner and outer tracing areas in each of their different positions to which they are moved within the image sensing plane; determining means for determining the position or size of an object's image formed within the image sensing plane from the difference information computed by the computing circuit; and a circuit which is arranged to shift the focus detecting area to the position of the object's image determined by the determining circuit and to change the size of the focus detecting

Abstract: There is provided an image pickup apparatus capable of operating only at the time of occurrence of moire and reducing the moire without the need to use an optical low-pass filter and without degrading image quality. The image pickup apparatus is provided with a circuit for detecting, from an output signal of an image sensor, the amount of aliasing distortion (moire) which occurs when sampling is performed at the pitch of pixels of the image sensor, and determining whether moire has occurred. On the basis of the detected amount of moire, the distance between a photographic lens and the image sensor is made to vary or electrical processing is applied to the output signal from the image sensor, thereby reducing the moire.

Abstract: An electronic imaging apparatus includes an optical system and a digital filter for providing focus values for focusing the optical system upon a color image sensor. The color image sensor, which operates at a pixel clock frequency to provide image data, has a repeatable color pattern including a luminance color which recurs at a predetermined repetition rate that is a submultiple of the pixel clock frequency. The digital filter includes a plurality of filter coefficients that are applied to the image data in groups of coefficients to implement a digital bandpass filter function. In particular, an arrangement of processing elements performs a sequence of multiplications upon the input data, each multiplication generating an output value dependent upon the value of a coefficient applied to a corresponding processing element. An arrangement of multiplexers sequentially apply the groups of coefficients to the arrangement of processing elements in synchronism with a submultiple of the pixel clock frequency, e.g.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for generating a categorical depth map of a scene using passive defocus sensing. In a preferred embodiment three synchronized CCD cameras focused at different distances detect three images of the same scene. An image processor partitions the images into an array of regions and calculates a sharpness value for each region. The sharpness value for a region is calculated by summing over all pixels (x,y) in the region the absolute difference in the intensity value of a pixel (x,y)( with pixel (x-k,y-l), where k and l are constants. The image processor then constructs a depth map of the scene by determining for each region the image with the greatest sharpness in that region. An application of the invention to a mobile robot control system is described in detail. Among other applications, the method may be used for collision avoidance, object detection, and speed measurement.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an automatic focusing device including a plurality of extraction means for extracting different frequency components from among image pickup signals outputted by image pickup means, driving direction decision means for deciding the driving direction of a focusing lens based on the signal extracted by the extraction means, detection means for detecting a focusing signal in correspondence with the degree of focusing by dividing a signal at the same point which is extracted by the extraction means, driving speed decision means for deciding the driving speed of the focusing lens based on the detection means, and driving means for driving the focusing lens of optical system to the focusing point based on the driving direction decision means and the driving speed decision means.

Abstract: In a focal controller of a camera, two brightness components in different frequency bands are obtained by two band pass filters from a video signal obtained by image pickup. Integral values a and b of the respective brightness components are detected by integrating circuits. When both a ratio a/b and a value a calculated by an arithmetic circuit are increased, a CPU judges this increase as an unfocusing position of a focusing lens. In contrast to this, when an increasing degree of the ratio a/b is decreased or tends to be decreased, the CPU judges this decrease as a position near a focusing position of the focusing lens. Thus, the driving speed of a focusing motor is set to a high speed in the unfocusing position and is set to a low speed in the position near the focusing position. For example, a microcomputer obtains a focal evaluation value at an interval of three fields (k+2 after k-1) in the vicinity of a focusing position and compares this focal evaluation value with reference data.

Abstract: An automatic focusing circuit comprises: a lens section including a focusing lens; photoelectric converting means for photoelectrically converting an amount of light which passed through the lens section; a first filter having first frequency characteristics to extract a first high frequency component from a luminance signal; a second filter which is used to extract a second high frequency component from said luminance signal and which has frequency characteristics steeper than those of the first filter; optical black level detecting means for detecting an optical black level of an image pickup signal; and a control section to control the focusing lens on the basis of the optical black level and the first and second high frequency components.

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: An apparatus and a method for automatically focusing an object in a video cameras comprises a solid state image sensor for converting a light beam transmitted through a lens and an iris into an electrical signal, an amplifier for amplifying a video signal from the solid state image sensor, a video signal processor for processing the video signal amplified by the amplifier, high pass filters for high pass filtering the video signal amplified by the amplifier, a video divider for dividing the video signals filtered by the high pass filters in the unit of field, a low pass filter for low pass filtering the video signals divided by the video divider, an A/D converter for converting the video signals filtered by the low pass filter into digital signals, an integrator for integrating the digital signals from the A/D converter to output video detect data, and a microprocessor for checking a level of the video detect data from the integrator and outputting a control signal to a lens motor driver in accordance with th

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a self-calibrating visual time-to-contact (TTC) sensor for a mobile manned or autonomous unmanned vehicle which operates in a high speed manner and which permits the continuous, adaptive motion of the vehicle through the vehicle's environment. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for novel use of active sensor control for aligning a camera, mounted on the vehicle, to track the direction of motion of the vehicle in order to successfully navigate in complex environments and to simplify difficult processing steps previously attempted through algorithmic means. Rather than attempting to explicitly find a focus of expansion (FOE) from image data, the invention continuously calibrates the sensor to point in the direction of the FOE, using weighted global average of the horizontal and vertical component of the optical flow.

Abstract: An automatic focus circuit for use with a video camera comprises an analog to digital converter which converts an analog luminance signal provided from an image signal processing circuit into a digital luminance signal, a microcomputer for controlling the automatic focus unit using an integrated luminance value which is integrated in an integrating circuit, and an area dividing circuit for horizontally and vertically dividing a screen of a video camera monitor. The automatic focus operation is easily performed by using the integrated digital luminance value as stored in a memory circuit. Accordingly, the automatic focus circuit simplifies the constitution and accuracy of the automatic focus.

Abstract: In an in-focus sensing device for a camera, an optical system directs the luminous flux from the subject. An optoelectric transducer section converts the optical distribution of the luminous fluxes with different optical path lengths passing through the optical system, into an electrical distribution. A frequency extracting section extracts specific frequency components from each output of the optoelectric transducer section. A frequency component ratio sensing section obtains the ratio of two frequency components with different optical path lengths based on the output of the frequency extracting section. A defocus amount computing section obtains the defocus amount for the optical system based on the frequency component ratio. A driving section drives the optical system based on the defocus amount obtained.

Abstract: A control system computes a plurality of detection data and outputs a control amount for a control target. The control system includes a detecting circuit for detecting the plurality of detection data, a first computing circuit for quantitatively computing a degree at which the plurality of detection data output from said detecting circuit conform with a preset condition in accordance with a predetermined function and generating an output function for controlling the control target, a second computing circuit for computing a centroid of an external figure which is obtained by processing an external figure of the output function, output from the first computing circuit, in accordance with predetermined approximation, and a driving section for driving the control target based on an output from the second computing circuit.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an automatic focusing apparatus which permits an automatic focusing operation to occur with a high accuracy irrespective of the luminance of an object being sensed. The automatic focusing apparatus includes a focus lens, an image sensor, a focus motor for changing the position of the focus lens, a Y/C separating circuit for separating a luminance signal Y from the output of the image sensor, a non-linear circuit for subjecting the separated luminance signal Y to a non-linear processing, a high pass filter (HPE) extracting a high frequency component from the output of the non-linear circuit, an integrating circuit for integrating the extracted high frequency component and an in-focus detecting circuit for controlling the position of the focus lens based on the result of integration.

Abstract: An automatic focusing apparatus comprises an image pickup device for obtaining an image of a subject by way of an optical system and transmitting a video signal of the image, a device for specifying an in-focus position detection area within the field of the optical system and a CPU for storing in-focus signals transmitted from the in-focus device and detecting the in-focus position of the subject within the area predetermined by the in-focus device on the basis of the stored in-focus signals.

Abstract: An automatic focusing apparatus of a video camera automatically matches a focus in response to a video signal obtained from an image sensing circuit. The automatic focusing apparatus detects the level of a high frequency component of the video signal in order to supply a focus evaluating value which takes a maximum value in an in-focus position. A focusing motor controlling circuit performs an automatic focusing operation by a hill-climbing servo system based on the supplied focus evaluating value. A determination is made by employing a fuzzy inference with respect to the initialization of the direction of movement of a lens when the automatic focusing operation starts, the selection of a focusing area from a plurality of areas, and the reactivation of the automatic focusing operation due to a change of an object after once the automatic focusing operation is completed.

Abstract: A video camera includes a vibration generation section including a camera body having a lens system with an auto-focus mechanism, an image pickup element, arranged along an optical axis of the camera body, for picking up an optical image obtained through the lens system, and a piezoelectric actuator for linearly vibrating the image pickup element with a predetermined amplitude at a predetermined period along the direction of the optical axis, an image signal processing circuit for A/D-converting a plurality of images time-serially obtained at arbitrary positions within the amplitude of the image pickup element vibrating along the optical axis, and an image memory for storing the plurality of time-serial images, further including an image input processing section consisting of an in-focus decision/extraction circuit for selecting and extracting clear in-focus areas of a predetermined image area, and an image synthesizing circuit for selecting desired ones of the plurality of areas from the image memory and syn