| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 348344000 | Optical path switching | 15 |
| 20080225157 | Digital camera and interchangeable lens - A digital camera includes: a mirror box that defines a space in which a light flux from a photographic lens is guided to an imaging unit; a mirror unit that is arranged inside the mirror box and is configured to rotate between a viewing position in which the mirror unit is inserted in a photographic light path from the photographic lens to the imaging unit to reflect the light flux and a photographing position in which the mirror unit is retracted from the photographic light path; and an opening section that discharges from the mirror box air that is moved when the mirror unit is rotated. | 09-18-2008 |
| 20080266443 | Camera Module - Disclosed is a camera module. Embodiments of the camera module include a first lens part, a second lens part, a reflective part, and a light receiving element. The reflective part can be rotated to selectively allow either light transmitted through the first lens part or light transmitted through the second lens part to be incident the light receiving element. The first lens part and the second lens part can be provided having different focal lengths. By using the reflective part to select which lens part's transmitted light is incident the light receiving element, a zoom function can be realized. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20090051804 | IMAGING DEVICE - An imaging device includes a housing including a first photographing aperture and a second photographing aperture which are open toward opposite directions; at least one image pickup device and an image processing circuit for processing signals output from the image pickup device, the image pickup device and the image processing circuit being positioned within the housing and lie in a plane including the first photographing aperture; a first optical system having a bent optical path for forming an image of light incident from the first photographing aperture on an imaging surface of the image pickup device, the bent optical path being defined by a plurality of reflecting surfaces of the first optical system; and a second optical system having a linear optical path for forming an image of light incident from the second photographing aperture on the imaging surface of the image pickup device. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20100165173 | Switching mechanism for optical component, lens barrel, and imaging device - A switching mechanism for optical component includes: an optical component; a holder member holding the optical component; a drive mechanism having a drive motor that drives the optical component held by the holder member to rotate on a plane orthogonal to an optical axis from an optical axis position at which the optical component is on the optical axis to an evacuation position at which the optical component is off the optical axis; and a restriction member restricting a rotation of the holder member, by which at least a rotation of the optical component held by the holder member is restricted at the optical axis position. The drive mechanism includes the drive motor, a worm attached to a rotation shaft of the drive motor, and a worm wheel meshed with the worm and provided to the holder member. | 07-01-2010 |
| 20110141339 | COMPACT LENS OPTICAL SYSTEM AND DIGITAL CAMERA MODULE INCLUDING THE SAME - A lens optical system includes a first optical system and a second optical system. The lens optical system includes at least one reflection member to selectively redirect optical paths of light representing objects from first and second directions toward a photographing device. The first optical system includes, in order from an object to the photographing device along the optical axis, a first lens group including a first reflection member, a second lens group having a negative refractive power, a third lens group having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens group having a positive refractive power. The second optical system shares at least one optical element with the first optical system. | 06-16-2011 |
| 20120086849 | CAMERA DEVICE - A camera device includes: an image pickup element; a birefringent plate fixed to a front surface of the image pickup element; and an optical glass member arranged on an optical path of the image pickup element on a front side of the birefringent plate. The optical glass member has a plurality of optical characteristic areas with different optical characteristics from each other. The optical characteristic areas are switched such that one of the plurality of optical characteristic areas is arranged on the optical path by moving the optical glass member in a direction intersecting with the optical path. The plurality of optical characteristic areas include an infrared cut filter area and a blank glass area. The infrared cut filter area is formed by depositing an infrared cut material with infrared cut characteristics on a surface of the optical glass member. | 04-12-2012 |
| 20120099015 | Mobile Terminal Device Having Camera System - The present invention is a camera system which is usable with a mobile terminal. The camera system includes a lens module and at least one mechanism for changing optical properties by interacting with the lens module. The camera system may be built into the mobile terminal or attached thereto as an external module | 04-26-2012 |
| 20130208174 | IMAGING LENS AND IMAGING DEVICE - The present invention ensures excellent optical characteristics corresponding with a high pixel imaging element while an imaging lens is miniaturized and has a larger aperture. | 08-15-2013 |
| 20130208175 | IMAGING DEVICE - An imaging device for an imaging apparatus adapted to image an object through an image formation lens includes: a light receiving section having a plurality of light receiving elements; a microlens section having a plurality of microlenses respectively provided corresponding to a plurality of the light receiving elements to make the corresponding light receiving elements receive an object light beam that passed through the image formation lens; a control section adapted to control shapes of the plurality of the microlenses so as to control pupil regions in an exit pupil of the image formation lens that pass a light beam that should be received by each of the plurality of the light receiving elements; and an image signal generation section adapted to generate an image signal of an image of the object based on imaging signals of the plurality of the light receiving elements. | 08-15-2013 |
| 20130300913 | OPTICAL SYSTEM, AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS HAVING THE SAME - An optical system includes an aperture diaphragm having such a curved surface shape that an aperture part moves in an optical axis direction as an aperture diameter changes. The aperture diaphragm has a convex shape on an object side when an optical system on the object side of the aperture diaphragm has a negative refractive power, and the aperture diaphragm has a convex shape on an image side when the optical system on the object side of the aperture diaphragm has a positive refractive power. | 11-14-2013 |
| 20130329117 | IMAGE CAPTURE APPARATUS - An image capture apparatus comprises an imaging optical system, an image sensor, a pupil division unit which limits a light beam entering each pixel on the image sensor to a specific pupil area of the imaging optical system, an incident angle determination unit which determines an incident angle to each pixel on the image sensor, an image shift unit which shifts an electric signal obtained from the image sensor, based on the incident angle determined by the incident angle determination unit and a position of a plane on which image generation is performed, and an image generation unit which synthesizes electric signals obtained from the image shift unit. | 12-12-2013 |
| 20140071329 | RECONFIGURABLE OPTICAL DEVICE USING A TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION (TIR) OPTICAL SWITCH - An optical device having a total internal reflection (TIR) switch is able to switch to form two different optical imaging paths. Each optical imaging path has different optical characteristics that causes a detector to capture different imagery depending upon which optical imaging path is used. The TIR switch is switchable between a TIR state and a transmission state to control which optical imaging path is used by the device for imaging. | 03-13-2014 |
| 20150109512 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND FOCUSING METHOD THEREOF - In the image capturing apparatus, the optical path difference producing member is disposed on the second optical path. Thereby, it is possible to suppress the amount of light when an optical image which is focused at the front of an optical image made incident into the first imaging device (front focus) and an optical image which is focused at the rear thereof (rear focus) are respectively imaged at the second imaging device and also to secure the amount of light on image pickup by the first imaging device. Further, in the image capturing apparatus, a position of the first imaging region and a position of the second imaging region on the imaging area are reversed with respect to the axis P in association with reversal of a scanning direction of the sample. Therefore, despite the scanning direction of the sample, it is possible to obtain a deviation direction of the focus position under the same conditions. | 04-23-2015 |
| 20160139375 | CAMERA METHODS AND APPARATUS USING OPTICAL CHAIN MODULES WHICH ALTER THE DIRECTION OF RECEIVED LIGHT - Methods and apparatus for capturing or generating images using multiple optical chains operating in parallel are described. Pixel values captured by individual optical chains corresponding to the same scene area are combined to provide an image with at least some of the benefits which would have been provided by capturing an image of the scene using a larger lens than that of the individual lenses of the optical chain modules. By using multiple optical chains in parallel at least some benefits normally obtained from using a large lens can be obtained without the need for a large lens. Furthermore in at least some embodiments, a wide dynamic range can be supported through the use of multiple sensors with the overall supported dynamic range being potentially larger than that of the individual sensors. Some lens and/or optical chain configurations are designed for use in small handheld devices, e.g., cell phones. | 05-19-2016 |
| 20180024330 | CAMERA METHODS AND APPARATUS USING OPTICAL CHAIN MODULES WHICH ALTER THE DIRECTION OF RECEIVED LIGHT | 01-25-2018 |
