51st week of 2009 patent applcation highlights part 22 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20090309919 | INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME - An inkjet recording apparatus includes an encoder, a storage section, a difference calculating section, a threshold value determining section, a correction amount calculating section, and a controlling section. The storage section stores a capping target position and threshold value. The difference calculating section calculates a difference between a stopping position where a carriage is stopped for capping the recording head and a carriage position after passage of a predetermined time from when the carriage is stopped at the stopping position. The stopping position and carriage position are detected by the encoder. The threshold value determining section compares the threshold value and difference with each other. When the difference is greater than the threshold value, the correction amount calculating section calculates a correction amount of the capping target position. The controlling section moves the carriage to the capping target position corrected on the basis of the correction amount. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309920 | LIQUID-SPRAY-FAILURE DETECTING DEVICE AND INK-JET RECORDING APPARATUS - A light-emitting element emits a light beam and a light-receiving element receives the light beam emitted from the light-emitting element. The light emitting element is installed in such a manner that the light beam collides with a sprayed liquid droplet so that a spray failure of the liquid droplet is detected based on an output change of the light-receiving element. A mist shielding plate includes an elongated hole through which liquid droplets sprayed from a plurality of nozzles pass and prevents a mist floating apart from the liquid droplets from passing through the elongated hole. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309921 | RECORDING APPARATUS - A recording apparatus includes a carriage on which a recording head is mounted, the recording head ejecting liquid onto a recording medium, and a guiding member that guides the movement of the carriage, a sliding member that moves together with the carriage and slides on the guide member, and a distance control member for controlling the distance between the recording head and the recording medium. The distance control member is nipped between the carriage and the sliding member in the direction substantially perpendicular to the recording surface of the recording medium. The carriage, the sliding member, and the distance control member can be put in a combined state where they are combined with each other. The recording apparatus further includes a preventing portion for preventing the carriage, the sliding member, and the distance control member in the combined state from moving in the direction substantially perpendicular to the recording surface. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309922 | RECORDING APPARATUS - A recording apparatus includes a carriage configured to carry a recording head and to move in a main scanning direction, and a guide plate rail configured to guide the carriage when it moves. The carriage is provided with a sliding member movable relative to the carriage in a height direction of the carriage. The carriage and the sliding member have a switch member provided therebetween. The switch member moves in the main scanning direction relative to the carriage and the sliding member to cause the carriage and the sliding member to be relatively displaced in the height direction of the carriage. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309923 | PRINTING HEAD - There is provided a printing head, enabling to suppress the occurrence of cracks in a printing element substrate, even if the printing head is erroneously fallen. The printing head comprises: a printing element substrate, an ink flow passage and a sheet-shaped portion comprising a rectangular major surface. A rear surface side of the major surface of the sheet-shaped portion is provided with a space formed separately from the ink flow passage. A surface adjacent to the major surface is provided with an opening of the space formed therein, and wherein the sheet-shaped portion is provided with a concave portion formed on the rear surface side of two regions between the printing element substrate and two corner portions arranged proximate to the opening in the major surface. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309924 | LIQUID DISCHARGING APPARATUS AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR - There is provided a production method for a liquid discharging apparatus including a liquid discharging head having a discharging port configured to discharge liquid, and a thermoplastic support portion having a liquid supply passage configured to supply the liquid to the liquid discharging head. The production method includes a preparation step of preparing the liquid discharging head and the support portion, a heating step of heating the liquid discharging head, an approach step of moving the liquid discharging head close to the support portion and melting the support portion by applying radiant heat from the liquid discharging head to the support portion, and a pressing step of pressing the liquid discharging head against the support portion so that the melted support portion forms a wall portion to contact an outer peripheral portion of the liquid discharging head. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309925 | LIQUID-DISCHARGING RECORDING HEAD - A liquid-discharging recording head includes first and second substrates each having an energy generating element and a supply port, and a support member on which the substrates are arranged. The first substrate is provided on one side in a longitudinal direction of the support member, and the second substrate is provided on an other side in the longitudinal direction of the support member. A driving circuit configured to drive the energy generating element is provided in a larger region between an end of a supply port in the first substrate on the other side in the longitudinal direction and an end of the first substrate on the other side and in a larger region between an end of a supply port in the second substrate on the one side in the longitudinal direction and an end of the second substrate on the one side. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309926 | PRINTING HEAD - There is provided a printing head in which a printing element substrate is hard to be deformed even if the printing head falls by mistake. The printing head comprises an element substrate in which an energy generating element for generating energy used for ejecting ink is provided, a first sheet-shaped portion to which the element substrate is provided, a second sheet-shaped portion provided away from the first sheet-shaped portion at an opposite side to a direction of ejecting the ink in relation to the first sheet-shaped portion, and a sheet-shaped wall member connecting the first sheet-shaped portion to the second sheet-shaped portion, wherein the wall member has a thickness of a portion connected to the second sheet-shaped portion, which is larger than a thickness of a portion connected to the first sheet-shaped portion. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309927 | INKJET PRINTING HEAD - The present invention provides an inkjet printing head which is not deteriorated in printing quality or broken in production processes. For this purpose, a rib capable of being displaced upon receiving an influence of stress resulting from a sealant is installed at a position opposing the long side face of a printing element substrate, and the sealant is used to seal between the ribs and the printing element substrate. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309928 | INK JET PRINT HEAD, AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING INK JET PRINT HEAD - An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet print head that prevents test terminals from coming into contact with ink or moisture and thus being corroded or damaging other circuits or wires. To accomplish the object, a nozzle forming member located in the vicinity of an area with the test terminals arranged therein is separated from a nozzle forming member located in the remaining area so as to have a reduced volume. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309929 | LIQUID EJECTION RECORDING HEAD - A liquid ejection recording head includes a recording element substrate including an ejection energy generation element and a plurality of electrode pads, the ejection energy generation element being configured to generate ejection energy by which to eject a liquid, the liquid ejection recording head also includes an electric wiring substrate including a plurality of lead electrodes connected to corresponding electrode pads to apply an electric signal to the ejection energy generation element, wherein one or more of the plurality of electrode pads are not connected to any lead electrode, and each lead electrode connected to an electrode pad adjacent to any of the one or more of the plurality of electrode pads not connected to any lead electrode has a wide part whose width is greater than the width of the other lead electrodes. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309930 | INKJET PRINTHEAD SUBSTRATE, METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING INKJET PRINTHEAD SUBSTRATE, INKJET PRINT HEAD, AND INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS - An inkjet printhead substrate includes: a heat generating element configured to generate energy for ejecting ink; an electric wire electrically connecting the heat generating element and an electrode lead provided on a flexible film wiring substrate; a protecting film configured to protect the electric wire; an electrode pad to which the electrode lead is connected, the electrode pad being formed by providing an opening in the protecting film at a position above the electric wire; a region to which a sealing resin configured to protect an electrically connected portion of the electrode pad and the electrode lead is to be applied; and an ink-detecting electrode composed of a metal wire and formed at the region to which the sealing resin is to be applied. The metal wire has a smaller width than an opening provided in the protecting film from which the metal wire is exposed. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309931 | PRINTING HEAD AND MANUFACTURING METHOD OF PRINTING HEAD - There is provided a printing head which improves durability and increases reliability by reducing stress occurring in a bonding part between an electrode pad and an inner lead at cooling. The electrode pad and the inner lead are electrically connected in such a manner that in the bonding portions between the electrode pad and a stud bump, only a part of contacting portions between the electrode and the stud bump is bonded. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309932 | HEATER OF AN INKJET PRINTHEAD AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE HEATER - A heater of a thermal inkjet printhead. The heater is formed of tantalum aluminum oxynitride (Ta—Al—ON), wherein the tantalum aluminum oxynitride is formed of about 30 to about 60 atomic % tantalum, about 10 to about 30 atomic % aluminum, about 5 to about 30 atomic % oxygen, and about 5 to about 30 atomic % nitrogen. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309933 | LIQUID EJECTING HEAD - A compact print head enabling high-quality, high-speed printing is provided. A liquid ejecting head includes: a substrate, having elements that generate energy used to eject liquid from ejection openings, and provided with a liquid supply port that communicates with a surface of the substrate having the elements and a opposite surface thereof; a member, provided above the surface of the substrate, and having walls of a liquid flow path that communicates with ejection openings and the supply port; an insulating layer, provided so as to cover the supply port, and provided with a plurality of through-holes; and a conducting layer electrically coupled to the elements, and provided within the insulating layer so as to be insulated with respect to the liquid. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309934 | Droplet discharging apparatus and method of manufacturing the droplet discharging apparatus - A droplet discharging apparatus has a pressure chamber communicating with a nozzle, a vibration film forming a part of the pressure chamber, a piezoelectric element for vibrating the vibration film, a projection joined to the piezoelectric element and transmitting vibration of the piezoelectric element to the vibration film, and a flow path communicating with the pressure chamber. The apparatus has first and second members, with the vibration film, the projection, a groove, and a supply hole communicating with the groove being provided at the first member. The nozzle and the pressure chamber are formed in the second member. The first member and the second member are bonded together to form the flow path in the groove and also the pressure chamber in the recess. The groove and the recess partially overlap to form the flow path and the pressure chamber. A method is disclosed for manufacturing the droplet discharging apparatus. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309935 | Head chip, liquid jet head, and liquid jet device - To prevent an adhesive from flowing into nozzles, there is provided a head chip includes: a plate having a plurality of grooves; a cover plate having an introduction aperture; a nozzle plate fixed to an end surface of the plate, and has nozzles formed at the same intervals; and escape holes formed between the nozzle plate and the plate, each have a contour which surrounds a periphery of each of the nozzles with the contour being spaced apart from a contour of each of the nozzles by at least a given distance, accumulate the adhesive remaining at a time of fixing the nozzle plate therein, and allow the nozzles and the grooves to communicate with each other. The nozzles and the escape holes are so arranged as to be displaced from adjacent nozzles and adjacent escape holes by a given distance in a vertical direction of the nozzle plate. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309936 | METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A PIEZOELECTRIC ACTUATOR AND LIQUID EJECTION HEAD - The method of manufacturing a piezoelectric actuator includes the steps of: carrying out a first heat treatment of a diaphragm of stainless steel containing iron, chromium and aluminum, in a gas containing oxygen, so as to form an aluminum oxide film on a first surface of the diaphragm and form a chromium oxide film between the aluminum oxide film and the first surface of the diaphragm; forming a lower electrode on the aluminum oxide film; forming a piezoelectric body on a surface of the lower electrode reverse to a surface of the lower electrode on which the chromium oxide film and the aluminum oxide film are formed; forming an upper electrode on a surface of the piezoelectric body reverse to a surface of the piezoelectric body on which the lower electrode is formed; and calcining the piezoelectric body by carrying out a second heat treatment of the diaphragm with which the piezoelectric body is provided. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309937 | INK STORAGE MODULE CAPABLE OF CONTROLLING FLOW OF INK AND RELATED PRINTING SYSTEM - An ink storage module includes an ink flow control device and an air chamber. The ink storage module is accessible to an ink tank and an air-extracting device. The ink flow control device includes an ink storage chamber and a pressure control mechanism. The ink storage chamber is used for receiving and storing ink conveyed from the ink tank. The pressure control mechanism is connected to the ink storage chamber for controlling the connection of an external pressure to the ink storage chamber. The air chamber is disposed at a side of the ink flow control device and is accessible to the ink storage chamber. The air chamber is used for exhausting air extracted by the air-extracting device. When the pressure control mechanism controls the ink storage chamber to cut off the external pressure, the air-extracting device drives ink to flow from the ink tank to the ink storage chamber. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309938 | INK JET PRINT HEAD MANUFACTURING METHOD AND INK JET PRINT HEAD - An ink jet print head manufacturing method and an ink jet print head are provided in which a shape of an adhesive that bonds a support member and a print element substrate together is controlled to maintain a high level of ink ejection performance even if the print element substrate is reduced in size. The adhesive, after being disposed between the support member and the print element substrate, is elongated and then hardened. This process allows the shape of the adhesive to be controlled, securing a sufficient ink path between an ink supply port on the support member side and an ink introducing port on the print element substrate side. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309939 | LIQUID EJECTION HEAD, RECORDING APPARATUS HAVING THE SAME, AND RECORDING METHOD - A liquid ejection head includes at least one liquid ejecting substrate for ejecting liquid, a supporting member for supporting the at least one liquid ejecting substrate, the at least one liquid ejecting substrate being fixed to a main surface of the supporting member, and a plurality of liquid supplying members for supplying liquid to the at least one liquid ejecting substrate through the supporting member. A linear expansivity of each of the liquid supplying members is different from a linear expansivity of the supporting member. The plurality of the liquid supplying members are arranged along a longitudinal direction of the supporting member, with each of the liquid supplying members being bonded to a surface that is opposite the main surface of the supporting member. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309940 | LIQUID STORAGE TANK INCLUDING A PRESSURE REGULATOR - A liquid tank for storing liquid includes a liquid chamber, a vent, and a pressure regulator. The liquid chamber includes a wall and the vent leads to atmosphere. The pressure regulator includes an enclosure, a first capillary media member, and a second capillary media member. The enclosure extends into the liquid chamber from the wall of the liquid chamber and includes a hole opening into the liquid chamber. The first capillary media member has a first pore size and is located in the enclosure proximate to the vent. The second capillary media member has a second pore size and is located in the enclosure adjacent to the hole. The second pore size is less than the first pore size. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309941 | INK TANK FOR INKJET PRINTERS - The present invention relates to an ink tank for an ink jet printer. The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing the ink tank, as well as well as a method of refilling the ink tank. The ink tank includes an ink tank body and an ink tank lid bonded to the ink tank body at a bond joint. The ink tank lid comprises an opening that leads to a holding area that is adapted to contain a capillary media therein. The holding area comprises a wall that forms a boundary between the capillary media and an enclosure defined by the ink tank body and the ink tank lid. The opening is sized to permit an insertion and removal of the capillary media to and from the holding area when the ink tank lid is bonded to the ink tank body at the bond joint. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309942 | PRINTING APPARATUS - Even when a printing medium is fed from a curving sheet feeding path on which a plurality of printing media are stackable, high quality printing is performed without bothering a user at all. To this end, the printing is performed after the printing medium is entirely conveyed to a flat conveyance path. More specifically, the printing medium fed from the curving sheet feeding path is conveyed, without being printed, to a position where the rear end of the printing medium gets out of the sheet feeding path, and then is reversely conveyed to a flat conveyance path. After that, the printing is performed while the printing medium is conveyed on the flat conveyance path. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309943 | INK CARTRIDGE CARRIER - An ink cartridge carrier for mounting an ink cartridge that includes a flange includes a backplane, a cradle fixed to the backplane and configured for receiving the ink cartridge, and a cover rotatably mounted to the backplane. The cover includes a top board, and a slide way extending from the top board for the flange to be slid along and supported thereupon. One of the cradle and the cover includes a clasp, the other one of the cradle and the cover includes a clipping portion defining a clipping hole. The clasp is capable of being clipped into the clipping hole. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309944 | Electronic apparatus - An electronic apparatus includes a circuit portion having a connector to which an interface cable is connected, a case for accommodating the circuit portion and having a wiring route for the interface cable leading from the connector to an external space and a connection opening for exposing the wiring route, and a cover for opening or closing the connection opening. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309945 | PRINTING APPARATUS - A printing apparatus includes a thermal head in which a plurality of heating elements are provided in a width direction of paper, an analyzing unit which analyzes whether an input print layout contains any bar code, a calculating unit which calculates a print ratio of a bar code portion in the paper for each line of the print layout in the case where the analyzing unit analyzes that at least the print layout contains a bar code, a setting unit which sets a printing velocity corresponding to the print ratio for one line in the bar code portion calculated by the calculating unit in the case where the analyzing unit analyzes that the print layout contains the bar code and a changing unit which changes a velocity at which the thermal head performs printing on the paper for one line to the printing velocity set by the setting unit. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309946 | Thermal Response Correction System for Multicolor Printing - Thermal history control is performed in a thermal printer in which a single thermal print head prints sequentially on multiple color-forming layers in a single pass. Each pixel-printing interval may be divided into segments, each of which may be used to print a different color. The manner in which the input energy to be provided to each print head element is selected may be varied for each of the segments. Different energy computation functions may be used to compute the energy to be provided to the print head in each of the segments based on the predicted print head element temperature at the beginning of the segment, the color to be printed, and the energy that was supplied when printing other colors during the time period between the beginning of the segment of the current pixel-printing interval and the end of the equivalent segment of the previous pixel-printing interval. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309947 | PRINT HEAD WITH UNIFORM LOADING - An improved print head assembly is disclosed that provides even pressure over the width of a print face across a platen roller. Accordingly, the print head assembly can perform edge-justified printing operations without portions of the print being faint or skewing due to uneven pressure across the print head. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309948 | PRINTING APPARATUS - A printing apparatus includes a pulse motor which operates to carry a recording medium, a thermal head to print on the recording medium, a pulse motor control unit which controls the pulse motor so that the pulse motor is operated at a carrying velocity based on a print ratio of input print data, a head control unit which controls the thermal head in a first or second head control mode, a head detection unit which detects the type of thermal head attached in the printing apparatus and a judgment unit which judges on the basis of the type of head detected by the head detection unit whether to control the thermal head by the first head control mode or the second head control mode. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309949 | THERMAL TRANSFER PRINTER - A thermal transfer printer includes: a pealing roller which is disposed downstream of a printing position set between a thermal head and a platen roller and defines a peeling start position of an ink ribbon; and a tension plate which is disposed on a further downstream side than the peeling roller and slidably stretches the ink ribbon under a tension relative to the printing position, via the peeling roller. With a back tension being ensured by means of the tension plate to prevent slackness of the ink ribbon, the peeling roller performs peeling, thereby avoiding retention of dust or the like and the lowered quality of paper due to such retention. In this manner, problems such as wrinkles occurring with the ink ribbon are eliminated without damaging paper, and further, improvement of printing quality is compatible with that of paper quality, through a design based upon a mechanism concerning the occurrence of wrinkles. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309950 | PRINTER AND PULSE MOTOR CONTROL METHOD - In a portable printer that uses a pulse motor for feeding a recording medium and includes a printing head that prints the recording medium, a printer controller that controls the printing head, and a pulse motor controller that controls the pulse motor, rest level setting information having rest levels and rest times set in correspondence to one another is previously stored, the elapsed time after a printing process is started is counted, the operating time of the pulse motor is counted, a rest level is determined based on the elapsed time after the printing process is started and the operating time of the pulse motor, a rest time is set by referring to the rest level setting information based on the determined rest level and a rest process is performed based on the thus set rest time. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309951 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PRINT MEDIA BACK-FEED CONTROL FOR A PRINTER - A system and method is disclosed for print media back-feed control for a printer. The invention incorporates use of a downstream sensor to detect at least one of a leading edge of a print media or an indicia correlated to parameters of the print media. The print media can then be back-fed by a controller to accurately position a print line of the print media proximate to a print head of the printer without losing sufficient nip pressure. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309952 | LIGHT SOURCE APPARATUS, AND OPTICAL SCANNING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS USING THE SAME - A disclosed light source apparatus includes a light source including multiple light emitting devices; an optical element configured to transmit light emitted from the light source; a tube configured to hold the optical element; and a tube holder configured to fix the tube by holding an end of the tube close to the light source or by holding the end of the tube on the light emission side away from the light source. A positional displacement preventing member is provided at the other end of the tube on a light emission side away from the light source in such a manner as to be slidable on the tube in the direction of an optical axis and prevent positional displacement of the tube in all directions perpendicular to the optical axis. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309953 | DRAWING DEVICE AND METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - A drawing device ( | 2009-12-17 |
20090309954 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTING AND APPLYING NON-CONTIGUOUS FEATURES IN A PATTERN - Two or more sets of non-contiguous features are selected from a pattern of non-contiguous features, and each set is imaged separately during a single scan of a multi-channel imaging head. The non-contiguous features selected in each set can be selected such that they are imaged with substantially the same transferred characteristics. The non-contiguous features selected in all the sets can be selected such that the pattern is completely imaged after all of the sets have been separately imaged, and each imaged non-contiguous feature in the completely imaged pattern has substantially the same imaged characteristics. The one or more sets can be selected such that the selected non-contiguous features of one set are interleaved with the selected non-contiguous features of another set. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309955 | AD HOC TELEPRESENCE MANAGER - In one embodiment, a method for managing ad hoc telepresence sessions is described. The method includes sensing a presence of a user in an ad hoc telepresence zone. The method also includes managing a list of contacts associated with the user. The method also includes determining an availability of a remote user at a remote telepresence zone. The remote user is selected from the list of contacts associated with the user. The method also includes displaying a list of available remote users. The method also includes initiating a telepresence session between the user and the remote user according to an input from the user to select the remote user from the list of available users. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309956 | TECHNIQUES TO MANAGE A WHITEBOARD FOR MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCE EVENTS - Techniques to manage a whiteboard for multimedia conference events are described. An apparatus may comprise a whiteboard manager component operative to manage whiteboard recording, image processing and reproduction operations for a multimedia conference event. The whiteboard manager component may comprise an image quantizer module operative to receive an image of a writing surface with pen strokes, and quantize each pixel of the image into a predetermined number of colors, an attribute extractor module communicatively coupled to the image quantizer module, the attribute extractor module operative to extract stroke attribute information for the pen strokes from the quantized pixels, and a whiteboard interface module communicatively coupled to the attribute extractor module, the whiteboard interface module operative to send the stroke attribute information to a meeting console for rendering as digital pen strokes on a digital writing surface. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309957 | OMNIDIRECTIONAL IMAGING APPARATUS - Disclosed is an omnidirectional imaging apparatus capable of obtaining substantially the same amount of image data per unit azimuth angle in subject information within the same azimuth angle range, in the entire image region of an omnidirectional image, and forming a high-quality panoramic image over the entire image region. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309958 | DISPLAY DEVICE - A display device provides first and second images. The display device includes a display panel having electro-optical elements, including a first element group with first-image display elements displaying the first image and a second element group with second-image display elements displaying the second image. A light advance control unit controls light emitted from the first element group to advance to a first area displaying the first image and controls light emitted from the second element group to advance to a different, second area displaying the second image. The first and second element groups are controlled such that a first period in which the first-image display elements are driven and at least a part of the second-image display elements is not driven and a second period in which the second-image display elements are driven and at least a part of the first-image display elements is not driven are repeated. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309959 | STEREOSCOPIC IMAGE PROJECTOR AND ADAPTER FOR STEREOSCOPIC IMAGE PROJECTOR - A stereoscopic image projector includes: an image generator configured to generate three left-eye wavelength-specific images and three right-eye wavelength-specific images having different wavelengths by modulating three light beams having the different wavelengths in spatial modulators; an image combiner configured to combine the three left-eye wavelength-specific images into a single left-eye combined image and the three right-eye wavelength-specific images into a single right-eye combined image; a relay lens configured to receive the left-eye and right-eye combined images and focus real images of the left-eye and right-eye combined images that are separated from each other; a light guide configured to separately guide the real images of the left-eye and right-eye combined images; a left-eye image projection lens and a right-eye image projection lens respectively configured to project the real images of the left-eye and right-eye combined images guided through the light guide on a screen so that left-eye and right-eye images are focused. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309960 | Portable multispectral imaging systems - Multiport multispectral portable imaging systems having at least two cameras with charge-coupled device sensors, a front lens unit, at least two rear lens units, a beamsplitter, and at least two bandpass filters is used to detect contaminants on food. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309961 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM - There is provided an image processing apparatus that includes a feature data calculating unit, a distribution map generating unit, and a display control unit. The feature data calculating unit calculates feature data of each image contained in a group of sequential images that are taken by an image taking apparatus. The distribution map generating unit includes a representative vector calculating unit and a representative vector arrangement determining unit, and generates a distribution map that represents an overall trend of the group of sequential images. The representative vector calculating unit calculates a predetermined number of representative vectors that represent a plurality of images contained in the group of sequential images. The representative vector arrangement determining unit determines arrangement of the calculated representative vectors on the distribution map. The display control unit displays the distribution map on a display unit. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309962 | BIOLOGICAL FEATURE INPUT DEVICE AND BIOLOGICAL FEATURE INPUT METHOD - To obtain biological feature information of high authentication accuracy. A biological feature input device includes an imaging device, and a finger guide for guiding the finger to a position at which the image of the finger can be picked up. The finger guide is configured with a finger abutment part which supports a tip side of the finger placed on the finger guide, and a finger holding device which displaces a position of the finger abutment part towards a direction the finger is pointing when the finger is placed on the abutment part. The finger guide is provided with a guide position detecting part which detects the position of the finger abutment part. The imaging device picks up the image of the finger when the abutment part is detected at a position that is set in advance. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309963 | MICROSCOPE IMAGING SYSTEM, ITS STORAGE MEDIUM STORING EXPOSURE ADJUSTMENT PROGRAM, AND ITS METHOD - A microscope imaging system includes obtaining a second image area being a focus area composed of one or more pixels arbitrarily specified in a first image area indicated by an entire area or a predetermined area of an outputted image; generating a first brightness histogram of the first image area and a second brightness histogram of the second image area; calculating a relative brightness value of the second image area against the first image area by detecting a feature point of the second brightness histogram and calculating a position corresponding to a feature point of the second brightness histogram in the first brightness histogram; and controlling an imaging drive unit for driving an imaging unit until the brightness value reaches the calculated one. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309964 | PORTABLE VIEWING DEVICE - There is a portable viewing device for viewing difficult to view areas, wherein the portable viewing device includes a telescoping wand. The wand includes a body housing. The body housing includes a wireless transmission module, a first end including a selectably rechargeable power module configured to dock with a recharge module and a second end. The portable viewing device also includes a color camera coupled by a ball and joint swivel camera mount to the first end of the telescoping wand. The portable viewing device further includes a display device in communication with the color camera and configured to display visual information therefrom. The portable viewing device also includes a docking station having a recharge module, coupled to the display device and configured to selectably couple to the first end of the telescoping wand, thereby allowing the wand to dock thereto and be recharged. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309965 | TESTING METHOD, TESTING AND PROCESSING SYSTEM, PROCESSING DEVICE, TESTING DEVICE, MANUFACTURING/TESTING DEVICE, AND MANUFACTURING/TESTING METHOD - An inspecting method for grasping the inspection result on an intermediate (or an n-th) treatment without long extension of time, in case predetermined treatments of a predetermined number (N times) are exerted on a plurality of sheets running on a conveyor line, before all the treatments of N-times are ended. The inspecting method for inspecting an object subjected to the predetermined treatment includes performing the predetermined treatment repeatedly by the N-times (N: a natural number of 2 or more) sequentially on the individual objects being conveyed on the conveyor line, and an inspecting step of testing such a leading one of the objects as has been subjected to the n-th (n: a natural number of 1 or more but N or less) treatment, and returning the tested object to after such one of the targets as was subjected to the n-th treatment. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309966 | METHOD OF DETECTING MOVING OBJECTS - A method for detecting moving objects includes: (a) capturing and establishing a background image; (b) capturing at least one current image; (c) transforming the background image and the current image from an RGB color format into an HSI color format; (d) subtracting the background image from the current image according to a background subtraction rule for generating at least one moving object; (e) performing a vertical scanning and a horizontal scanning on the moving object for generating a minimum bounding box of the moving object; (f) calculating a characteristic datum of the moving object according to the minimum bounding box; (g) tracking the moving object according to the characteristic datum with a Euclidean distance rule; (h) classifying the moving object according to the characteristic datum, the tracking result generated by step (g) and a minimum distance classifier. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309967 | Hand-held inspection tool and method - The hand-held inspection tool enhances the ability of an on-site inspector to detect and communicate the presence of contamination on an object or in an area. An on-site inspector directs an excitation light in the sensing head of the tool into an area of interest. If the targeted contamination is present, the excitation light causes the contamination to emit fluorescence. The emitted fluorescent light passes through a narrow spectral band-pass video camera filter and is detected by a video camera mounted in the tool sensing head. The video camera transmits the image to a display visible to the on-site inspector. The invention also includes a means of recording, documenting, and wirelessly communicating the inspection process so that remotely located personnel can view the inspection, and respond to the inspection findings in real time. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309968 | Accessorizable security camera - An accessorizable security camera has at least one functional accessory and a camera body having a case, security camera optoelectronical module, a front cap assembly and a rear cap. The case is tubular and has a front opening, a rear opening, an outer surface and at least one guiding structure. The at least one guiding structure may be a recess being formed longitudinally on the outer surface of the case. The at least one functional accessory may be a weather cover, an auxiliary light source, an auxiliary mounting bracket, a motion sensor, a combination thereof or the like. The at least one functional accessory has a mounting structure corresponding to the guiding structure and being selectively and detachably mounted in the guiding structure. Therefore, the at least one functional accessory may be easily mounted on the camera body by using the mounting structure to increase flexibility of use. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309969 | CAMERA SYSTEM FOR MONITORING A SPACE AREA - A camera system for monitoring a space area has a camera unit including an image sensor and a number of optical elements which form an imaging optics. A system body has at least one receptacle for the camera unit. A mounting part serves for aligning the system body relative to the space area. The optical elements are fastened on an objective body which has a mounting flange. The objective body is fastened in the receptacle by means of the mounting flange. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309970 | Vehicle Operation System And Vehicle Operation Method - A vehicle operation system has: a shot image acquisition portion acquiring a shot image from an image shooting device mounted on a vehicle; an input portion to which movement information on the vehicle is input; and a display portion displaying an image based on the movement information in a form superimposed on an image based on the shot image. The vehicle operation system operates the vehicle based on the movement information. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309971 | DEVICE FOR OPENING A VEHICLE LOCK AND FOR CAPTURING AN IMAGE ON THE EXTERIOR OF THE VEHICLE - This device has the double function of opening the lock upon actuation of a handle (20), and as the need may arise, of capturing the exterior of the vehicle in an image via a camera (31). In order to optimally carry out these two tasks, and for a space-saving configuration, it is proposed to configure a hole in the back wall of a support shell (10) receiving the handle (20), the housing (23) of a module being mounted on this hole. The camera (31) is supported in a pivoting and translatory manner in the module housing (23) via a camera mount (32) between a retracting position and an extending position (31.2). Furthermore, a drive (30) and a gear are mounted on the module housing (33) for a rotational-translatory displacement (32.2) of the camera (31). | 2009-12-17 |
20090309972 | Drive recorder and system - It is an object to provide a drive recorder and a system that that can reduce operations for adjusting an attachment position of a camera. The drive recorder for recording images captured by a camera in a recording medium includes, mode selection means for selecting an angle adjustment mode of the camera, and a control unit for outputting image data based on the images to a display unit ( | 2009-12-17 |
20090309973 | CAMERA CONTROL APPARATUS AND CAMERA CONTROL SYSTEM - A camera control apparatus simultaneously transmits main camera direction information to all cameras. Then, the camera determined so as to act as a main camera in accordance with an address contained in the main camera direction information controls the direction thereof in accordance with the main camera direction information. The camera determined so as to act as a sub camera converts the main camera direction information into sub camera direction information based on a relative positional relation with the main camera and controls the direction thereof in accordance with the sub camera direction information. Thus, a subject to be imaged can be always caught and displayed on the monitor screen without causing a control delay. That is, a subject to be imaged can be automatically tracked without being lost from the monitor screen. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309974 | Electronic Surveillance Network System - We have defined an automated detection system consisting of a combined visible and Short Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) camera that identifies vehicle identification number and the number of occupants in a given vehicle, as well as the speed of the automobile. This information is processed in conjunction with law enforcement rules to determine whether the particular vehicle driver is in violation to enable the law enforcement personnel to issue traffic violation ticket and mail it to the registered driver's address. Such an automated system could be placed at strategic locations along the stretch of the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) or carpool lanes and interconnected with backend computing and decision support system to assist law enforcement personnel in identifying vehicle driver violating the HOV or carpool lane rules and in issuing violation tickets to the registered driver of the particular vehicle. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309975 | Dynamic Multi-Perspective Interactive Event Visualization System and Method - An event visualization system. The system uses a digital video capture array. The array is synchronized into a composited video feed file. The composited video feed file has a number of unit perspective video files. Each unit perspective video file has a coordinate location, a unit frame height, and a unit frame width. The unit perspective video files can be played simultaneously for individual display in a digital event player. The digital event player is operated on a client. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309976 | System, Method and Computer Readable Medium for Determining an Informational Property of Wayside Equipment Adjacent to a Route - A system is provided for determining an informational property of wayside equipment adjacent to a route. The system includes a camera to collect visible spectral data of the wayside equipment. The camera is attached to a powered system traveling along the route. The system includes at least one filter to filter a known portion of the visible spectral data based upon known filter properties. The system further includes a controller coupled to the camera, to compare unfiltered visible spectral data with the filtered visible spectral data, in conjunction with the known properties of the filter, to determine the informational property of the wayside equipment. The unfiltered visible spectral data includes the data collected by the camera prior to the at least one filter being applied to the camera. Additionally, a method and computer readable medium are provided for determining an informational property of wayside equipment adjacent to a route. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309977 | BENCHMARKING AND CALIBRATING VIDEO QUALITY ASSESSMENT TOOLS - Architecture for emulating a wide variety of possible degradations in a video signal and applying the degradations to video quality assessment (VQA) tools and quality of assessment (QoA) systems to test that performance consistently responds to all possible degradations. Methods are provided for producing deterministic impairments to the video signal, where the impairments mimic the effect of video compression or lossy delivery networks. The methods can be integrated into a software and/or hardware products built to exercise and quantify the performance of an active VQA systems and integrated to calibrate passive QoA systems. The methods can be used to produce a reference content database for further use in benchmarking QoA systems and a database that cross correlates with representative mean opinion scores (MOS) collected from subjective testing. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309978 | Receiver, situation-of-installation notification method, and transmitting and receiving system - A receiver includes: a band detection unit that detects a frequency band within which the receiver can be connected to a transmitter by radio; a quality detection unit that detects the transmission quality level of video data, which is transmitted from the transmitter, using the frequency band detected by the band detection unit; and a notification unit that notifies an area in which the frequency band within which the receiver can be connected to the transmitter by radio is detected and the transmission quality level is detected to be higher than a predetermined threshold. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309979 | Image analysis using a hybrid connected component labeling process - A hybrid connected component labeling process for analyzing digitized or binary images includes the following steps. Firstly, a forward scan is executed to assign a forward label to each foreground pixel in the image. Then, a backward scan is executed to assign a backward label to each foreground. The backward labels are rearranged and label connection is recorded. A label allocation table including final labels and reference labels is provided for recording the use of the labels. When an object is considered as noise, the label corresponds to the pixels of the object is released by updating the label allocation table. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309980 | IMAGE ACQUIRING DEVICE WITH POSITIONING ASSISTING FUNCTIONALITY - An image acquiring device with positioning assisting functionality is for acquiring an image of an object to be captured, and includes a positioning assisting unit and an image acquiring unit. The positioning assisting unit emits light toward a planar surface. The light forms at least one positioning mark on the planar surface. The image acquiring unit is for acquiring an image of an image acquiring region associated with the positioning mark. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309981 | METHOD FOR DIGITAL PHOTO MANAGEMENT AND DISTRIBUTION - Digital images are captured on a digital camera, automatically formatted, and uploaded to a server for review and collaborative modifications. An on-line web gallery is automatically generated by the server whereby low resolution versions of the images are transferred to the server and appear in the gallery within seconds from capturing the images. Among other things, a viewer located remotely from a photographer can observe new images in the gallery in real time as they are captured, place a request for post-production modifications to selected images and download a high resolution version of selected images. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309982 | Method and System for Image Stabilization - An optical image stabilizer for use in a camera to compensate for an unwanted movement of camera, wherein two bending actuators are used to shift a lens element or the image sensor in different directions in a plane so as to shift a projected image on the image sensor in response to the unwanted camera movement. The plane is substantially perpendicular to the optical axis of camera, and longitudinal axis of each bending actuator is substantially parallel to the optical axis. The actuator can be fixedly mounted on one end so that the other end is allowed to bend. The actuator can be fixedly mounted on both ends so that the middle section is allowed to bend. Alternatively, the middle section is fixedly mounted and both ends can be used for shifting an imaging component. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309983 | MOTION DETECTOR AND IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE, INTERCHANGEABLE LENS AND CAMERA SYSTEM INCLUDING THE MOTION DETECTOR - The blurring caused by a tiny tremor movement is eliminated, which almost perfectly without being affected by intentional camera movement by distinguishing the unintentional tremor movement from other movements (or disturbances). A motion detector includes: a motion detecting section for detecting a movement of an image capture device and outputting a detection signal, of which the amplitude and frequency represent the movement; a motion signal generating section for generating a motion signal representing a physical quantity corresponding to the magnitude of the movement based on the detection signal; a notification signal generating section for generating a notification signal that marks start and end of a movement of the image capture device, which is a non-tremor movement, based on the detection signal that has been output; and a control section for controlling the motion signal generating section by reference to the notification signal such that an output of the motion signal is fixed at a predetermined one from the start through the end of the non-tremor movement. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309984 | HYBRID IMAGE STABILIZATION FOR VIDEO CAMERA - The invention relates to a method of stabilizing the images of a scene, acquired by means of an observation device of an imaging system, comprising the step of digital processing of a stream of successive images. It comprises a step of acquiring gyrometric measurements by means of at least one gyrometric sensor secured to the observation device, of using these gyrometric measurements to determine so-called approximate shifts undergone between successive images, and the image processing step comprising a sub-step of using the approximate shifts and the image stream acquired to determine so-called fine shifts undergone between successive images. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309985 | IMAGING APPARATUS - An imaging apparatus with an image sensor and a correction optical system movable in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis includes a vibration detection unit configured to detect a vibration applied to the imaging apparatus, a vibration correction unit configured to drive the correction optical system to correct an image vibration according to an output from the vibration detection unit, a motion vector detection unit configured to detect a motion vector based on an image signal output from the image sensor, an amplifier unit configured to amplify the output from the vibration detection unit, a gain setting unit configured to set a gain of the amplifier unit based on the motion vector; and a gain control unit configured to allow or inhibit the setting of the gain of the amplifier unit set based on the motion vector, according to a change of an imaging condition of the imaging apparatus, wherein the vibration correction unit performs a vibration correction based on the output from the vibration detection unit and the gain of the amplifier unit when the setting of the gain of the amplifier unit is allowed by the gain control unit. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309986 | Modular portable motion control system - A modular portable motion control camera system includes one or more motion control blocks that are connected together directly to each other, connected together with connecting hardware, or connected to other equipment to be moved by the motion control block to create robotic camera control systems. Each motion control block has its own mechanics, servo motor, control circuitry, and interface connections. The motion control blocks are networked together and controlled with a computer running custom motion control software to allow complex individual or synchronous control. Each motion control block includes a body with a rotating motorized plate. Inside the body each motion control block has its own motor control circuitry, servo motor, and gears to bring motion from the motor to the rotating motorized plate. Electrical connectors are inserted into the body to provide all the necessary electrical connections. Mounting tabs on each end of the body have evenly spaced threaded holes and countersunk through holes. Through these mounting tabs and holes, the motion control block easily mounts to other motion control blocks, to accessories, or to anything object or equipment user wishes to attach it to. The rotating motorized plate has threaded mounting holes and alignment grooves so that other parts and accessories can be easily attached and aligned. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309987 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE-CAPTURING SYSTEM, REPRODUCTION CONTROL METHOD, RECORDING CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An information processing apparatus includes a video obtaining unit configured to obtain a plurality of items of video data captured by a plurality of image-capturing devices; a position information obtaining unit configured to obtain position information including an orientation and an angle of view of each of the image-capturing devices; a reproduction position calculation unit configured to calculate a reproduction position of each item of the video data so that a projection direction and an angle of view of the item of the video data matches the orientation and the angle of view of a corresponding one of the image-capturing devices by using the position information; and a reproduction controller configured to reproduce each item of the video data at the corresponding reproduction position. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309988 | Recording apparatus and method, reproducing apparatus and method, and program - The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and method, a reproducing apparatus and method, and a program that make it possible to photograph and record a still image and moving images before and after the still image as well. In step S | 2009-12-17 |
20090309989 | Camera capable of taking movie - An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging unit that repeatedly captures images of a subject to obtain image information; a recording unit that records timing information indicative of a given point in time during an imaging period of the image information; and a display unit that displays an image corresponding to the timing information, which is extracted from the image information, in response to an end of the imaging period. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309990 | Method, Apparatus, and Computer Program Product for Presenting Burst Images - An apparatus for presenting burst images is provided. The apparatus may include a processor that may be configured to receive a plurality of burst images. Each burst image may differ from the other burst images based on a variable parameter, such as, but not limited to, exposure, focus, and/or time, or to the state of a target, such as the varying facial expression of a person. The processor may also be configured to provide for a presentation of a sample burst image. In this regard, the sample burst image may be one of the plurality of burst images. The processor may be further configured to receive a selected location within the presentation of the sample burst image and provide for a presentation of a plurality of burst image fragments associated with each of the plurality of burst images. In this regard, the burst image fragments may be portions of each of the burst images, where the areas of each burst image may be determined based on the selected location. Associated methods and computer program products may also be provided. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309991 | Pseudo-digital average sub sampling method and apparatus - A method of k*k subsampling, where k is an integer greater than one, a full frame readout on a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns, each pixel belonging to one of at least two sets, a first set configured to sense a first value of an image parameter and a second set configured to sense a second value of the image parameter, the method including sampling signals of k pixels of at least one set in a first row to output subsampled signals, converting the subsampled signals into digital signals having a lower resolution than the full frame readout, repeating sampling and converting for k rows, and adding digital signals for the first to kth rows within the at least one set. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309992 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR, AND CONTROL PROGRAM FOR IMPLEMENTING THE CONTROL METHOD - An image pickup apparatus which is capable of interrupting a data searching process quickly without detecting a user pressing a search interruption button. A system controller circuit carries out a searching process for searching least one desired data from a plurality of data stored in a nonvolatile memory or a memory card. When a change-of-status of the image pickup apparatus is detected, for example, when a shutter button has been pressed halfway, the system controller circuit interrupts the searching process and executes an interruption process. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309993 | IMAGE SURFACE ILLUMINANCE VARYING APPARATUS, EXPOSURE CORRECTING APPARATUS, AND EXPOSURE CORRECTING METHOD - An image surface illuminance varying apparatus includes a variable power optical system in which the optical power thereof can be varied by changing a relative position of a plurality of optical elements thereof; and a light-quantity ratio varying optical element whose transmittance varies in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the variable power optical system, the light-quantity ratio varying optical element being located in a light path of the variable power optical system to reduce an illuminance difference of an imaging surface. A distance from the light-quantity ratio varying optical element, which is moved along the optical axis, to a diaphragm or a shutter is varied in accordance with the power varying operation. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309994 | Tone Correcting Method, Tone Correcting Apparatus, Tone Correcting Program, and Image Equipment - A face detecting unit detects presence/non-presence of a face and its position from an input image or its reduced image. A parameter calculation control unit calculates a correction parameter according to the presence/non-presence of the face. When the face is detected, a face area correction parameter calculating unit calculates a correction parameter having characteristics such that as a representative luminance value is larger, the image becomes darker, and as smaller, the image becomes brighter based on a boundary luminance level. When a face is not detected, a standard correction parameter calculating unit | 2009-12-17 |
20090309995 | Automatic white balance using non-uniform averaging - The specification disclosed embodiments of an apparatus comprising an automatic white balance (AWB) circuit coupled to a pixel array to transform red, green, and blue color data obtained from each pixel into x and y chromaticity values for each pixel, determine a distance between the Planckian locus and the x and y chromaticity values for each pixel, determine a weight for each pixel based on the distance between its x and y chromaticity values and the Planckian locus, determine red, green, and blue adjustments for each pixel using its weight, and apply a white balance adjustment to the red, green and blue values obtained from each pixel. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309996 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND PROGRAM - In an image processing apparatus which can always provide an excellent processed image, an analysis unit analyzes condition information representing a condition at a time when an image is obtained and being included in image information, and determines an algorithm of an image correction process for the image based on the analyzed result. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309997 | Image Capturing Device - An image-capturing device, such as a camera or a camera-equipped wireless communication device, includes touch-sensitive user controls disposed on a housing of the device. The touch-sensitive user controls detect user movement along the controls, and allow a user to control one or more image-capturing functions of the device based on a detected direction of user movement along the touch-sensitive user controls. | 2009-12-17 |
20090309998 | ELECTRONIC IMAGE CAPTURE WITH REDUCED NOISE - The present invention relates to an electronic image capture system for capturing an electronic image having reduced noise, and a method for capturing an electronic image having reduced noise, for example from a digital camera device. An electronic image capture system ( | 2009-12-17 |
20090309999 | SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSOR AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD OF SAME - A signal processing method of a solid-state image sensor includes comparing a high-sensitivity-pixel output signal and a first threshold value to determine whether or not the high-sensitivity-pixel output signal reaches a level of a saturated-high-sensitivity-pixel output signal. If the high-sensitivity-pixel output signal does not reach the level of the saturated-high-sensitivity-pixel output signal, a difference value between the high-sensitivity-pixel output signal and an amplified low-sensitivity-pixel output signal is calculated. The amplified low-sensitivity-pixel output signal is obtained by multiplying a low-sensitivity-pixel output signal by a sensitivity ratio, which is obtained by dividing a sensitivity value of a high sensitivity pixel by a sensitivity value of a low sensitivity pixel. A first or second image signal is output according to whether an absolute value of the difference value is smaller than a second threshold value or not. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310000 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE - An analog signal photo-electrically converted in a pixel of a light receiving area is converted to a digital signal by an ADC. The digital signal is processed by a digital signal processing circuit, and then, successively output as a digital video signal. The digital signal processing circuit has a first signal processing block for detecting and correcting a pixel defect and preventing a noise, and a second signal processing block for restoring apparent resolution lost by the processing by the first signal processing block. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310001 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, DRIVING METHOD THEREOF, AND CAMERA - A solid-state imaging device which optimizes gains for each color without a need for complicated control of changing the resistance values of variable resistances and switching switches depending on pixels from which signals are to be read, while preventing an S/N deterioration in AD conversion. The solid-state imaging device comprises: a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix; column amplifiers, each amplifying signals generated by pixels of a corresponding one of columns of the matrix; and column AD converters, each performing AD conversion on a signal generated by a corresponding one of the column amplifiers, wherein each of the plurality of pixels corresponds to a color among colors, and each of the column amplifiers amplifies output signals generated by all pixels of a corresponding one of the colors, among pixels of the corresponding column of the matrix. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310002 | SOLID-STATE IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - A frequency converting unit | 2009-12-17 |
20090310003 | IMAGE SENSOR - An image sensor for an electronic imaging device includes an array of pixel detectors. Each pixel detector includes a photosensor ( | 2009-12-17 |
20090310004 | WIDE APERTURE IMAGE SENSOR PIXEL - An image sensor includes a unit cell of four pixels. The unit cell includes four photosensitive regions that collect charge in response to light; four transfer transistors that respectively pass the charge from each of the four photosensitive regions to one common charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism; three control wires in which a first control wire controls two of the transfer transistors and a second control wire controls one of the transfer transistors and a third control wire controls one of the transfer transistors; an amplifier connected to the common charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism that outputs an output signal in response to a signal from the charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism; and a reset transistor connected to the common charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism for resetting the charge-to-voltage conversion mechanism to a predetermined signal level. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310005 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING APPARATUS - A solid-state imaging apparatus including: a pixel section having a plurality of pixels arranged into two dimensions for converting an incident light into a signal electric charge and for outputting an electrical signal corresponding to the signal electric charge; vertical signal lines for reading the signals of the pixel section column by column; a horizontal signal line for reading the signals through switches from the vertical signal lines; and a variable amplification section for reading the signal from the horizontal signal line with amplifying it by a predetermined amplification factor, and further includes a control section for effecting a control so that a signal level on the horizontal signal line does not exceed a predetermined limit level when signals are read out from the vertical signal lines to the horizontal signal line. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310006 | Solid-state image pickup device - There is provided a solid-state imaging device suitable for taking and analyzing binary or multilevel images including a plurality of regions that are partitioned under a certain rule. A solid-state imaging device | 2009-12-17 |
20090310007 | IMAGE-PICKUP DEVICE AND DISPLAY APPARATUS - An image-pickup device includes a photoelectric conversion element | 2009-12-17 |
20090310008 | DETECTION DEVICES - A detection device for detecting an object image comprises a detection unit and a read-out unit. The detection unit comprises at least one detection array. The at least one detection array comprises a plurality of detection cells disposed in M detection rows, M≧2. The detection cells generate a plurality of detection signals, and the detection signals represent specific color information. The read-out unit receives the detection signals from the at least one detection array and generates an image signal according to the received detection signals. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310009 | Image Recording and Reproducing Device - An image recording and reproducing device includes: an image sensor that captures an image of a photographic subject; a storage unit that stores captured image data generated by the image sensor; a photography control unit that causes the image sensor to capture an image repeatedly, and causes the storage unit to accumulate the captured image data at a rate of P frames per unit time; a display unit that displays a reproduced image according to the captured data; and a display control unit that sequentially reads out the captured image data accumulated in the storage unit, and causes the display unit to display a reproduced image according to this captured image data that has been read out, at a rate of S frames per unit time that is lower than P frames per unit time. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310010 | Information processing apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium recording information processing program - An information processing apparatus capable of being opened and closed includes storage means, display means, and taken image display control means. The storage means stores a taken image therein. The display means has a display screen provided in a surface which is located inside when the information processing apparatus is closed and which is located outside when the information processing apparatus is opened. The taken image display control means displays a taken image on the display screen, and changes a taken image to be displayed between before and after closing and opening the information processing apparatus when the information processing apparatus is closed and opened again. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310011 | Method for Focus Control - A camera or other optical system is focused by generating a plurality of digital images each obtained with a different focus setting of the optical system. These images are analysed to generate for each image a score (S) by comparing first groups of pixels chosen from the image with second groups chosen from the image such that the pixels of each second group have same respective positional relationships with respect to one another as the pixels of the first group with which it is compared have to one another, the score (S) being a function of the number of matches obtained with said comparisons. The focus setting that gives the score corresponding to the largest number of matches is chosen. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310012 | DIGITAL CAMERA - A digital camera of the present invention includes a microcomputer | 2009-12-17 |
20090310013 | FLASH DEVICE, IMAGING APPARATUS, CAMERA SYSTEM, AND CONTROL METHOD FOR FLASH DEVICE - A flash device connectable to an imaging apparatus includes a light emission unit arranged for continuous light emission, a calculation unit configured to calculate a reach distance of flash light from the light emission unit based on an exposure time for flash photographing set in the imaging apparatus, and a display control unit configured to cause information indicating the reach distance calculated by the calculation unit to be displayed. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310014 | DIGITAL E8-VSB RECEPTION SYSTEM AND E8-VSB DATA DEMULTIPLEXING METHOD - A method of processing a digital television (DTV) signal is disclosed. Herein, the DTV signal is generated by performing Reed-Solomon (RS) encoding on additional data, multiplexing the RS-encoded additional data with main data. RS encoding the multiplexed additional and main data, interleaving the RS-encoded additional and main data, trellis encoding the interleaved additional and main data, and transmitting a Radio Frequency (RF) DTV signal including the trellis-encoded additional and main data. The method to process the DTV signal includes receiving the DTV signal including the additional data multiplexed with the main data through an antenna, in which signaling information is periodically inserted in the additional data. The received DIV signal is demodulated including performing channel equalization on the demodulated DTV signal. Trellis decoding is performed on the channel-equalized DIV signal. Further, the additional data from the trellis-decoded DTV signal is extracted including removing dummy data from the extracted additional data. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310015 | TRANSFORMATION OF A VIDEO IMAGE FROM A HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGE TO A LOW DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGE - A method and system for transforming a video image from a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image on an array of pixels to a Low Dynamic Range (LDR) image. An old luminance generated from a color space of the HDR image is scaled and segmented into stripes. Each stripe has at least one row of the array. A target zone surrounding a current pixel in each stripe is determined from a search strategy selected from a linear search strategy and a zone history-based search strategy. A convolution of the scaled luminance at a current pixel of each stripe is computed using a kernel specific to the target zone. The convolution is used to convert the stripes to tone-mapped luminance stripes which are collected to form a tone mapped luminance pixel array that is transformed to the color space to form the LDR image. The LDR image is stored and/or displayed. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310016 | VIDEO OUTPUT APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - There is provided a video output apparatus which inputs a video content that can have at least three different resolutions. A format detector ( | 2009-12-17 |
20090310017 | Video signal display system, video signal reproducing apparatus, and video signal display method - A video signal display system includes: a reproducing apparatus including a decoder that decodes input video data to produce a video signal, an IP converter that, when the video signal produced by the decoder is an interlaced video signal, converts the interlaced video signal into a progressive video signal, a pseudo-interlacing unit that performs pseudo-interlacing in which the progressive video signal converted by the IP converter undergoes pseudo-interlacing so that the progressive video signal is converted into a pseudo-interlaced signal, and a first controller; and a display apparatus including a display processor that carries out a display process for displaying a video signal, and a display that can at least display the video signal that has undergone the display process in the display processor. | 2009-12-17 |
20090310018 | DISPLAY APPARATUS AND DRIVING METHOD THEREOF - A display apparatus and a driving method thereof capable of assuring reliability in frame inversion driving and improving cinema video image quality are provided. To accomplish this, a display apparatus of the embodiment replaces at least one of a plurality of frame images obtained by doubling the frame rate, with a different image before display. Specifically, the display apparatus replaces at least one of the double-speed converted plural frame images with a high-frequency emphasized image and at least one with a low-frequency component image, and displays the frame images. Furthermore, the display apparatus replaces an image at the border between cinema images with a different image before displaying. | 2009-12-17 |