Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Goichi Morikawa

Go Tokura

The camera includes a sensor for sensing the photographer's iris image and registering the image in advance. The iris image is recorded in the image of a subject by a digital MCU at a timing different from that at which the image of the subject is captured. The recording timing is that at which the camera power supply is turned off, that at which a recording medium is ejected from the camera or that at which the iris image to be recorded is changed to changed to the registered iris image of another photographer. The recording of the iris image is achieved by embedding it as a watermark or by appending it to metadata.

Picture taking apparatus and method of controlling same

A digital still camera records a photographer's biological information on a photographic image reliably and protects the copyright of photographic images without affecting processing, and in a manner transparent to operation, at the time of photographing a subject. Biological information (iris information) that is registered beforehand by the photographer is recorded as personal data on an ID card. If an image is taken in a state in which the ID card bearing the recorded personal data has been inserted into the apparatus, iris information that has been sensed by an iris sensor is checked when a power supply is turned on. If the two compared items of iris information match, the personal data is added onto the image of the photographed subject.

Imaging apparatus and control method utilizing biometric information

The camera includes a sensor for sensing the photographer's iris image and registering the image in advance. The iris image is recorded in the image of a subject by a digital MCU at a timing different from that at which the image of the subject is captured. The recording timing is that at which the camera power supply is turned off, that at which a recording medium is ejected from the camera or that at which the iris image to be recorded is changed to the registered iris image of another photographer. The recording of the iris image is achieved by embedding it as a watermark or by appending it to metadata.

A focus detecting device includes a defocus amount detecting circuit for detecting an amount of defocus obtained at each of a plurality of focus areas disposed within an image plane, a selecting circuit for, on the basis of amounts of defocus detected respectively at the plurality of focus areas, dividing the plurality of focus areas into a plurality of groups and selecting a focus area capturing a target object from among the plurality of groups, a posture sensor for detecting a posture of an apparatus, a weighting circuit for, on the basis of positions of the plurality of focus areas within the image plane, dividing the plurality of focus areas into a plurality of groups and respectively weighting the plurality of groups, the weighting circuit making grouping of the plurality of focus areas differently according to the posture of the apparatus, and a deciding circuit for deciding at least one focus area from among the plurality of focus areas by adding a result of weighting made by the weighting circuit to a result of selection made by the selecting circuit.

Focus detecting device and apparatus having the same

In a camera capable of setting an auto-bracketing photo-taking mode of photographing on a plurality of frames of a film continuously with a photo-taking exposure value changed automatically and stepwise, when the auto-bracketing photo-taking mode is set, photographing is performed with a predetermined standard exposure value on both of a start frame and an end frame of a continuous photo-taking in the auto-bracketing photo-taking mode, and photographing is performed with an exposure value different from the predetermined standard exposure value on a frame between the start frame and the end frame, so that the start frame and the end frame of the continuous photo-taking in the auto-bracketing photo-taking mode can be made to be photo-taking frames with the same exposure condition.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Goichi Morikawa