Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Makoto Ise

Daisuke Yoshida

Seiji Hashimoto

Tadashi Okino

Tatsuya Arai

Nobuo Fukushima

Shigeo Yamagata

Hiroshi Maki

Isao Hayashi

Shinobu Watanabe

An image sensor including a first signal processing circuit including a first ramp signal generation circuit and a first analog-to-digital (AD) conversion circuit, a second signal processing circuit including a second ramp signal generation circuit and a second AD conversion circuit, and wiring connected so that a first ramp signal output from the first ramp signal generation circuit is supplied to the first and second AD conversion circuits, and a second ramp signal output from the second ramp signal generation circuit is supplied to the first and second AD conversion circuits.

Image sensor and imaging apparatus

A solid-state image pickup element, including: a pixel array including a plurality of pixels; a first calculator that calculates a phase difference evaluation value for focus detection by a phase difference detection method based on signal from the pixel; and a second calculator that calculates a contrast evaluation value for focus detection by a contrast detection method based on signal from the pixel, wherein, when the first calculator completes calculation of the phase difference evaluation value, the phase difference evaluation value is output regardless of whether or not output of an image signal acquired by the pixel array is completed, and wherein, when the second calculator completes calculation of the contrast evaluation value, the contrast evaluation value is output regardless of whether or not output of the image signal acquired by the pixel array is completed.

Solid-state image pickup element, apparatus, and method for focus detection

An imaging element having a layered structure including a first chip having a pixel portion in which pixels for photoelectrically converting an optical image of an object and generating a pixel signal are arranged two-dimensionally and a second chip in which a drive means of the pixel portion is arranged, and having a first output path to output the pixel signals of at least a first pixel group in the pixel portion and a second output path to output the pixel signals of a second pixel group, comprises the a conversion means for converting the pixel signals of the first and second output paths into digital signals and a control information generation means for generating control information of a photographing operation of the object by using the digital signal converted by the conversion means, wherein at least a part of the conversion means is arranged in the first chip.

Imaging element, imaging apparatus, its control method, and control program

A frame memory and a computing processing unit are provided within an image pickup device having a first semiconductor substrate and a second semiconductor substrate mutually stacked and electrically directly connected, and digital image data having undergone resize processing are output from the image pickup device.

Image pickup device and imaging apparatus with reducing magnification processing

An image capture apparatus has an A/D converter that compares a pixel signal read out from a pixel having a photoelectric conversion element with a reference signal whose voltage changes over time, and obtains, as an A/D conversion result of the pixel signal, a digital value corresponding to a time required for a magnitude relationship between the pixel signal and the reference signal to change. The A/D converter determines a level of the pixel signal using a threshold value, makes a change rate of the voltage of the reference signal different depending on a determination result, and changes the threshold value according to a signal expansion amount of the pixel signal after A/D conversion.

Image capture apparatus and control method thereof

Solid-state image pickup element, method of controlling a solid-state image pickup element, and image pickup apparatus

In a first sensitivity level, an AD converter performs AD conversion selectively using, in accordance with the level of the analog signal, any one of a first reference signal and a second reference signal that have mutually different slopes, and in a second sensitivity level that is different from the first sensitivity level, the AD converter performs AD conversion only using a third reference signal.

Photoelectric conversion apparatus and image capturing system

An image capturing apparatus which performs moving image recording and still image capturing comprises: an image sensing unit configured to output an image signal in accordance with a quantity of incident light; a developing unit configured to perform development processes for a moving image or a still image for image signals output from the image sensing unit; a storage unit configured to store image signals output from the image sensing unit; and a control unit configured to control to perform a development process for a moving image corresponding to one frame of the image signals output from the image sensing unit and a development process for part of one frame of the image signals stored in the storage unit within a one-frame period of the moving image capturing, in a case where the still image capturing is performed during moving image recording.

Image capturing apparatus and method of controlling the same

An image capturing apparatus comprising an image capturing unit is provided. A zoom control unit controls a zoom ratio during shooting. An image capture control unit controls the image capturing unit such that a plurality of images with different exposure conditions are captured in a predetermined period. A generation output unit generates a composite image from the plurality of images and outputs the generated composite image. A determination determines whether or not the zoom ratio is being changed during the predetermined period. In a case where it is determined that the zoom ratio is being changed, the generation output unit outputs one of the images captured by the image capturing unit during the predetermined period, instead of the composite image.

Image capturing apparatus for generating composite image and control method thereof

An image pickup apparatus that can reduce power consumption of the image pickup apparatus, and take high-definition moving images at high speed without bringing about decreases in recordable time and the number of still images taken. An image pickup processing unit is operated in a plurality of operation modes, and has an image pickup device and a plurality of processing units that process image pickup signals outputted from the image pickup device. An interval control circuit causes the image pickup processing unit to switch between a standby ON state and a standby OFF state in predetermined timing. A control signal is outputted to the interval control unit according to an operation mode of the image pickup processing unit. When the image pickup processing unit lies in a predetermined operation mode, a control signal for causing the interval control circuit to perform the switching is outputted to the interval control circuit.

Image pickup apparatus that can reduce power consumption

An image processing apparatus that enables to make a periodic noise in a captured image less noticeable without making the whole construction thereof complicated. An image pick up unit accumulates electric charges corresponding to an optical image of a target object and transfers the accumulated electric charges, and also reads them out as image signals. A control unit drives the image pick up unit to read out the image signals consecutively from the image pick up unit in a field-by-field base in such a manner so as to make the horizontal cycle of each field different from one another.

Image processing apparatus, control method, and computer-readable storage medium

An image pickup apparatus capable of improving a conversion speed of column parallel A/D converters, while preventing a gradation representation of image pickup signals from becoming rough. The image pickup apparatus includes a CMOS sensor having A/D converters provided on output sides of column amplifiers for respective columns of two-dimensionally arranged pixels. The A/D converters have a first operation mode in which they operate with a first number of conversion bits and at a first conversion speed and a second operation mode in which they operate with a second number of conversion bits and at a second conversion speed. A signal processing circuit adds together plural pieces of two-dimensionally arranged pixel data output from the A/D converter that operate in the second operation mode, thereby expanding the number of gradation bits of the pixel data from the second number of conversion bits.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Makoto Ise