Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Hiroshi Itoh

Toshiyuki Noguchi

Akihiro Kubota

Yukihiro Sugimoto

Yoshio Hagihara

Yuichi Gomi

Seisuke Matsuda

Shigeru Hosokai

A pixel portion of an image pick-up device having a pixel portion of pixels arranged in matrix converting a subject image to an electric signal, and a scanning unit of sub-scanning circuits outputting a video signal, a first scanning circuit selecting a pixel position in a first matrix direction and a second scanning circuit selecting a pixel position in a second direction intersecting the first direction. One of the first and second scanning circuits shares the signal lines. The image pick-up device includes a scanning control circuit controlling the first and second scanning circuits. The pixel area structures of the pickup device are uniform, the wirings are uniform, and the vertical and horizontal driving systems and an output system are uniform. Thus, pixel signals outputted from two output systems have no property differences and image quality is improved.

Image pick-up device

An image pick-up apparatus includes an image pick-up device and a filter circuit. The image pick-up device includes a pixel portion for converting a subject image into an electric signal, a scanning circuit for dividing the pixel portion into a plurality of areas, for non-linearly dividing the boundary of the areas of at least one side of the adjacent areas based on the unit of pixel, and a plurality of output circuits for individually outputting video signals. The filter circuit performs filter processing of the video signals outputted from the plurality of output circuits for the pixels near the boundary of the areas. Thus, the image quality can be improved in the multi-channel output system.

Image pick-up apparatus

An image pickup apparatus including: CCD image pickup device; a light blocking plate for shutting out light incident upon the image pickup device; an exposure period controlling section for setting exposure time by controlling the light blocking plate and the image pickup device; a dark signal storing section for storing dark signals obtained from the image pickup device in a state where light is shut out by the light blocking plate; a subtracting section for subtracting the dark signals from main image pickup signals of the image pickup device; a defect detecting section for detecting defects from the subtracted image pickup signals outputted from the subtracting section; and a defect correcting section for performing correction of the detected fault pixels. It is thereby possible to achieve an image pickup apparatus capable of detecting and correcting at high accuracy those fault pixels occurring afterwards because of changes due to the passage of time or those fault pixels transiently occurring under certain modes.

Image pickup apparatus

A color image processing apparatus for detecting and correcting fault pixels in a color image pickup device having a plurality of pixels each with a correspondingly disposed filter device of color filter having a plurality of filter devices respectively of predetermined colors, including means for detecting fault pixels by establishing a correlation among pixel signals along an arrangement of consecutive ones of identical color, and means for correcting pixel signals corresponding to the fault pixels detected at the fault pixel detecting means. By thus establishing a correlation among pixel signals along an arrangement of consecutive ones of identical color to detect and correct fault pixels, the fault pixels are efficiently detected in a small range and correction of the fault pixels is performed in real time.

Color image processing apparatus

A solid-state image pick-up system according to the present invention comprises an image pick-up lens for making incident light from a subject form an image on an image pick-up surface, a light source alternately emitting a plurality of color light beams at a given period, a solid-state image pick-up device for receiving the subject light separated through the color separating section to convert it into a given subject picture signal, an image pick-up mode selecting circuit for selecting one of a standard mode for picking up a dynamic mode and a high-sensitivity mode for picking up a still picture, and a control section for controlling the period for the color separating section on the basis of the output of the image pick-up mode selecting circuit.

Solid state image pick-up system

A solid-state image pick-up system according to the present invention comprises an image pick-up lens for making incident light from a subject form an image on an image pick-up surface, a color separating section for separating the incident light into a plurality of color components at a given period, a solid-state image pick-up device for receiving the subject light separated through the color separating section to convert it into a given subject picture signal, an image pick-up mode selecting circuit for selecting one of a standard mode for picking up a dynamic mode and a high-sensitivity mode for picking up a still picture, and a control section for controlling the period for the color separating section on the basis of the output of the image pick-up mode selecting circuit.

Solid state image pick-up system having color separating means and controller for controlling the color separating means according to a dynamic and a still picture mode

A solid-state image pick-up system having an image pick-up lens for making incident light from a subject form an image on an image pick-up surface, a color separating section for separating the incident light into a plurality of color components at a given period, a solid-state image pick-up device for receiving the subject light separated through the color separating section to convert it into a given subject picture signal, an image pick-up mode selecting circuit for selecting one of a standard mode for picking up a dynamic mode and a high-sensitivity mode for picking up a still picture, and a control section for controlling the period for the color separating section on the basis of the output of the image pick-up mode selecting circuit.

Solid-state image pick-up system having a color separating section controlled according to the detection of either a dynamic or a high sensitivity mode

In a frame-by-frame color image pickup apparatus, images of light components transmitted through red, green, and blue filters of a rotating filter are introduced to an image pickup device arranged in an optical path with rotating filter. The cells in the image pickup device are grouped into cell blocks, each block made up of four cells arranged in one horizontal row and four vertical columns. The rotational speed of the rotating filter is increased, and the cells within each block selected by switches for reading are fixed when an image is dynamic, a quarter of all the cells are read at one cycle of revolution of the rotating filter, and the remaining cells are interpolated to form one frame image. Color breakup is thus precluded. When an image is still, the cells selected are switched at each cycle of revolution of the rotating filter, and all the cells are read over four cycles of revolution of the rotating filter. Thus, a high resolution color image is obtained. The color image pickup apparatus thus improves virtually a pickup rate from the image pickup device, alleviating color breakup. The still image is presented without degrading its resolution.

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Hiroshi Itoh