Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Hideki Ikedo

Hirokazu Kobayashi

Nobuhiro Takeda

Takafumi Kishi

Kazuki Ohshitanai

Ken Sasaki

Hisataka Hirose

Keiji Nagata

An image pickup apparatus capable of performing an appropriate correction processing that suppresses an influence of high luminance light is provided. The image pickup apparatus comprising at least one processor and/or circuit configured to function as inferring a luminance of a high luminance subject having a pixel signal saturation level or higher based on image signals generated from a plurality of pixels, and determining an area for obtaining a correction value used when correcting the image signals based on the inferred luminance of the high luminance subject.

Image pickup apparatus and image pickup element, which are capable of performing appropriate correction processing that suppresses influence of high luminance light, control method for image pickup apparatus, and storage medium

An image capturing apparatus comprises a plurality of light-receiving circuits, each outputting a pulse signal in response to a photon being incident; a plurality of counter circuits that count the respective pulse signals output by the plurality of light-receiving circuits; and a correction circuit that corrects counts from the plurality of counter circuits and outputs the corrected counts as image data. The correction circuit calculates a correction coefficient on the basis of counts obtained by the plurality of counter circuits in a state where pulse widths of the pulse signals differ or under conditions where generation frequencies of the pulse signals differ, and performs the correction using the correction coefficient.

Image capturing apparatus and control method thereof

An image sensor, comprising a pixel region in which a plurality of pixel units are arranged, each pixel unit having first and second photoelectric conversion portions, a first output portion that outputs, outside of the image sensor, a first signal based on a signal from the first photoelectric conversion portion of the pixel units, and a second output portion that outputs a second signal based on a signal from the first photoelectric conversion portion and a signal from the second photoelectric conversion portion of the pixel units, wherein output of the first signal from the first output portion and output of the second signal from the second output portion are performed in parallel.

Image sensor and image capturing apparatus

An image sensor comprises a pixel array having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, a readout unit that controls readout of signals from the plurality of pixels, an output unit that outputs the read signals as an image signal and an extraction unit that performs feature amount extraction processing to extract a feature amount using the read signals. The readout of the signals by the readout unit and the feature amount extraction processing by the extraction unit are processed in parallel.

Image sensor and control method thereof, and image capturing apparatus and control method thereof

An image sensor comprises: a plurality of pixels, each pixel including a light-receiving portion that outputs an electrical signal obtained by photoelectrically converting incident light and an A/D converter that AD-converts the electrical signal, the plurality of pixels configured to be capable of AD-converting a signal output from the light-receiving portion of a first pixel, among a predetermined plurality of pixels, using the A/D converter of another pixel, every predetermined plurality of pixels; and a selection circuit that selects a pixel to AD-convert the electrical signal output from the light-receiving portion of the first pixel, every predetermined plurality of pixels. The A/D converters of the predetermined plurality of pixels carry out the AD conversion in parallel.

An image sensor of a photon counting type that suppresses a reduction in the efficiency of photon detection dependent on a pixel position, is disclosed. The image sensor comprising a pixel region in which a plurality of pixels are arrayed in a matrix, each pixel including a photoelectric conversion region and an avalanche breakdown region. In a plan view of a pixel, a size of the avalanche breakdown region is smaller than a size of the photoelectric conversion region. In addition, at least some of pixels arranged in a peripheral region of the pixel region, the avalanche breakdown region is formed such that a position thereof is shifted with respect to a position of the avalanche breakdown region in pixels arranged in a central region of the pixel region.

An image sensor comprising one or more processors and/or circuitry which functions as: a plurality of pixels each of which detects photons incident during a predetermined exposure period, counts a number of the photons, and outputs a first count value; a calculator that calculates a second count value per unit time based on the exposure period and the first count value; and a corrector that acquires a correction coefficient based on the second count value and corrects a detection error of the first count value using the correction coefficient, wherein the corrector acquires a larger value as the correction coefficient in a case where the second count value is a first value than in a case where the second count value is a second value which is smaller than the first value.

Image sensor with correction of detection error

Image sensor comprising detection error correction using correction coefficient based on count values from plural pixels

An image sensor comprises: a plurality of pixels each including a sensor portion that generates pulses at a frequency corresponding to a frequency at which photons are incident; counters that count a number of pulses generated by each of the sensor portions; and a detector that detects whether or not a count value obtained by any of the counters has reached a first threshold. The counters are reset based on a result of detection performed by the detector.

Image sensor, image capturing apparatus, and image capturing method

A solid-state image pickup element as an embodiment includes: a plurality of pixels each including a sensor that generates pulses with a frequency based on a reception frequency of photons and a counter that counts the number of the pulses; and a setting portion that sets, in an exposure period, a state where the pulses are counted in the pixels and a state where the pulses are not counted in the pixels, with a timing based on an arbitrary pattern.

Solid-state image pickup element, image pickup apparatus, and image pickup method for performing encoded exposure with high temporal resolution

An image sensor in which at least a portion of an imaging plane thereof has a curved shape, wherein the imaging plane includes a plurality of pixels that are two-dimensionally arranged, each of the plurality of pixels having: a photoelectric conversion region that is provided with an impurity region of a first conductivity type that is formed in a semiconductor substrate; and an impurity region of a second conductivity type that is formed on a substrate surface side of the photoelectric conversion region, and impurity concentration in the impurity region of the second conductivity type varies depending on a position on the imaging plane.

An image capturing system comprising: a pixel area including pixels; processors that process an image signal read out from the pixel area; a generation unit that generates readout pixel patterns having different pixel densities and nonuniform pixel patterns used for reading out a signal from the pixels; a setting unit that sets one of the pixel densities for each of divided regions obtained by dividing the pixel area; and a control unit that controls to read out an image signal from each divided region using the readout pixel pattern corresponding to the set pixel density. The setting unit sets the pixel density for each divided region such that a higher pixel density is set to a divided region where image capturing processing with higher image quality is to be performed among the divided regions.

Image capturing system and control method of image capturing system

An image capturing apparatus includes: pixels that are arranged in a matrix and each include a photoelectric conversion portion; a column output line; an AD converter; a setting unit that sets a first driving mode for causing the AD converter to convert the analog signals into the digital signals with a resolution of n bits, or a second driving mode for causing the AD converter to convert the analog signals into the digital signals with a resolution of m bits; and a controller that controls an operation period, which extends from a start of outputting of the analog signals to a start of an operation of converting the analog signals into the digital signals, to be shorter when the setting unit has set the second driving mode than when the first driving mode has been set.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Hideki Ikedo