Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Corporation

Eastman-Kodak Company

Junzo Sakurai

Takayuki Kijima

Atsushi Kohashi

Hiroyuki Watanabe

Katsuyoshi Yamaguchi

Dai Kawase

Hideyuki Kawanabe

Mitsuhiko Saito

Yoshitaka Ogawa

Masaki Yokouchi

Koji Kato

Keiji Kunishige

Hideaki Yoshida

Keiichi Mori

Toshiyuki Noguchi

Jitsunari Kojima

Shinichiro Aizaki

Ryuji Hirata

In a correction data storing unit of a digital camera which captures a microscopic image, image data of a light image without a sample, image data obtained by using a filter for removing a defective portion for the light image without a sample, image data where a region without being corrected (or a region being corrected) is set in the light image without the sample, and shading correction data calculated from image data obtained by setting a mask region where data after being corrected is set to 0 are stored. An operator obtains, captures, records, and stores an observation image satisfactory for great-looking by using arbitrary shading correction data. In this way, a captured image satisfactory for great-looking is obtained by making a suitable shading correction according to a shading characteristic, which is caused by an optical system.

Microscopic image capturing apparatus, microscopic image capturing method, and storage medium having a microscope image capturing program stored thereon

For computing a plurality of white balance gains with regard to a single image data item, a target image is first divided into a plurality of blocks. Then, a representative value of each block is computed, and a value representing the relative contribution of each light source type to a whole image is calculated based on the representative value which is obtained. Once the representative value of each block and the contribution level of each type of light source are obtained, a MWB gain and an AWB gain are computed using these results. Because the computation of the representative value of each block, which is a calculation operation performed for each pixel, is performed only once, the computation time can be greatly reduced.

Digital camera and gain computation method

An optical microscope apparatus selectively arranges a plurality of optical elements in an optical path, and includes: a manual switch unit capable of manually switching any of the plurality of optical elements; a detection unit detecting an arrangement status of manually switched optical elements; a storage unit storing information relating to the arrangement of the plurality of optical elements for each observing method; and an arrangement control unit arranging the plurality of optical elements according to the detection result by the detection unit and the information stored in the storage unit.

Optical microscope apparatus, optical element arranging method, and storage medium

A point defect and a line defect in a captured image resulting due to an imaging element defect in a digital camera are interpolated. A defect correction circuit of a digital camera simultaneously corrects a point flaw, a vertical line flaw, and a horizontal line flaw in a captured image. In consideration of cases in which a point flaw and a vertical line flaw are present adjacent to each other, the defect correction circuit executes predetermined difference calculations using pixels surrounding a target pixel to be corrected and determines an interpolation pattern based on a comparison of magnitude among the difference calculation values. The defect correction circuit also selects, for interpolation, an interpolation pattern from among interpolation patterns prepared in advance based on an adjacent pattern of the point flaw and line flaw. The adjacent pattern is detected by a defect decode circuit

Pixel defect correction device

An image processing apparatus includes: an image pickup section for converting an object light into image signals of Bayer RGB array; a color information detecting section for obtaining color information of the object from the image signals obtained by the image pickup section; a first luminance data generating section for finding luminance data for use in edge enhancement processing based on G signals of the image signals obtained by the image pickup section; a second luminance data generating section for finding luminance data for use in edge enhancement processing based on all color signals of the image signals; a selector for providing an output by switching between outputs of the first and second luminance data generating section; and a selection signal generating section for generating selection signal for controlling the switching of the selector based on color information obtained at the color information detecting section. The image processing apparatus is thereby achieved as capable of edge enhancement processing at favorable S/N and with less occurrence of edge noise in high saturation regions and low saturation regions.

Image processing apparatus having a digital image processing section including enhancement of edges in an image

A CCD imaging elementhas a two-dimensional array of a plurality of pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions. A read-out mode switching circuit switches a full read-out mode and a horizontal line thinning-out mode with respect to the imaging elementone over to the other. A read-out circuit reads out an image signal from the imaging element. A defective pixel compensation circuitexecutes compensation for defective pixels on the basis of adjacent pixel signals thereto. In the full read-out mode, the defective pixel compensation is executed by using four normal pixels adjacent to the defective pixel in the horizontal and vertical line directions. In the thinning-out read-out mode, the defective pixel compensation is executed by using two normal pixels adjacent to and on opposite sides of a horizontal line defective pixel in the horizontal line direction, said two normal pixels lying along the same horizontal line as said defective pixel.

Defective image compensation system and method

A camera comprises a beam splitter configured to divide an incident light from a subject through a photographing lens, an eyepiece lens configured to observe the incident light divided by the beam splitter with a viewfinder, a relay lens provided between the beam splitter and the eyepiece lens, and a shutter provided in a vicinity of the relay lens and configured to cut a reverse-incident light from the eyepiece lens.

Camera having a shutter to cut reverse-incident light from the eyepiece lens

According to a driving method for an interline type CCD imaging device, the voltage level to be applied to a channel electrode in a vertical charge transfer line to which at least one photodiode is connected is controlled to form a shallower potential well just in the channel. At least the voltage levels applied to channel electrodes in the VCCD connected to the PDs are controlled such that potential wells formed within respective channels becomes shallower.

Solid-state imaging apparatus capable of reducing leakage charge under the read gate

An electronic imaging system includes a CCD image sensor arrangement having a two dimensional array of pixels. The pixel array converts light incident thereon to an electric signal. The pixels are arranged in a plurality of horizontal rows or lines, the lines being arranged vertically. A control arrangement selectively controls operational modes of the system. One mode provides for sequential scan reading out of pixel signals for entire lines of the CCD for still picture recording. Another mode provides for reading out pixel signals concerning k (k is a positive integer) vertically continuous lines of the CCD for still picture recording or dynamic image processing. Thus it is possible to provide a high pixel density solid-state image sensor output at a high frame rate without use of any high drive frequency.

Electronic imaging system

Image processing apparatus

An imaging apparatus includes an interline type CCD image sensor having 1,000,000 or more pixels, which has a Bayer configuration color filter suitable for reading all pixel signals in a line-sequential scanning manner. The imaging apparatus drives the CCD image sensor in a high speed mode usually, and in a high quality image mode only for a trigger depression. In the high speed mode, the CCD image sensor outputs pixel signals for one line at intervals of three lines in the vertical direction. During the high speed mode operation of the CCD image sensor, images are displayed on a liquid crystal display portion at a frame rate of 60 frames/second, the images being recognized by the human eyes as a dynamic image, i.e., a motion picture.

Image pickup apparatus capable of performing both a still image process and a dynamic image process

In an image pickup apparatus comprising a CCD image pickup device made up of a plurality of pixels constituted by photodiodes which are two-dimensionally arrayed, a vertical register and a horizontal register, and a CPU for driving and controlling the CCD image pickup device, the CPU has a driving function in an all-pixel read mode for reading pixel signals from all the pixels of the CCD image pickup device, a driving function in a thinning (skipping) read mode for reading pixel signals from all the pixels in a thinned-out fashion, and a device shutter function for extracting signal electric charges from each pixel to control an exposure time. In the thinning read mode, the operation of extracting the signal electric charges from each pixel is carried out one or more times for each read period of one frame.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Junzo Sakurai