Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Masahide Hirasawa

Susumu Kozuki

Naoya Kaneda

Koji Takahashi

Katsuji Yoshimura

Hiroyuki Wada

Hiroto Ohkawara

Hiroto Yasumura

Minoru Noji

Hirofumi Suda

Tatsuya Yamazaki

Masamichi Toyama

Kunihiko Yamada

Tomohiko Sasatani

Masahiro Takei

Kitahiro Kaneda

Motokazu Kashida

Toshiyuki Masui

Ryunosuke Iijima

Kenichi Nagasawa

Akihiro Fujiwara

Hitoshi Yasuda

Isao Harigaya

Mitsuo Niida

Taeko Tanaka

Toshimichi Ouchi

Satoshi Nakayama

Tatsuzo Ushiro

Toshiaki Mabuchi

Toshinobu Yamaguchi

Hirokazu Mogi

Kohji Takahashi

Masakazu Kurobe

Kuniniko Yamada

A video camera includes a gate circuit for extracting a sharpness signal relative to an area which is set in a portion of a picture, a focus adjusting device for performing focus adjustment on the basis of the sharpness signal relative to the area, and an area selecting circuit for controlling the gate circuit to vary the area in size and determining a size of the area during a driving of a variator lens in accordance with a size of the area and a focal length used before the driving of the variator lens.

Video camera apparatus including automatic focusing

In an image pickup control apparatus capable of remotely and reliably controlling an image pickup apparatus from another apparatus, control data for controlling the image pickup apparatus is stored in advance and is transmitted to the image pickup apparatus when the image pickup apparatus is connected via data communications interface units.

Image pickup control apparatus, image pickup control method, image pickup control system, and storage medium

An automatic focus adjusting device in which a distance measuring area is set from a plurality of distance measuring areas including a first distance measuring area and a second distance measuring area which differs in size from the first distance measuring area. A state of focus is discriminated in a distance measuring area before a focus adjusting operation is started by driving an optical element for focus adjustment when the optical element is in an in-focus state, and on the basis of the discrimination, a distance measuring area to be used after the focus adjusting operation is started is selected from the first distance area and the second distance area.

Automatic focus adjusting device with distance measuring area selection based on discrimination of a state of focus

The case of an image sensing apparatus such as a video camera is simplified by reducing the number of parts provided on the surface of the apparatus without eliminating a remote-control function. The video camera is formed to have an opening for introducing sensed light from a subject and first remote-control signal light which remotely controls the video camera into the interior of the camera case, and for projecting second remote-control signal light, by which the video camera remotely controls an external apparatus, to the exterior of the camera. After the first remote-control signal light is introduced into the interior of the camera case via the opening, the light is received by a remote-control light-receiving element and the second remote-control signal light is projected to the exterior of the camera case via the opening. As a result, the first remote-control signal light and the second remote-control signal light can be made to traverse the same optical path as that of the sensed light from the subject. This makes it unnecessary to provide the surface of the camera case with a window for the first remote-control signal light and second remote-control signal light.

Image sensing apparatus

A lens control device is arranged such that, in deciding a direction in which a focus lens is to be driven on the basis of the amount of change caused to take place in the level of a video signal by causing the focus lens to vibrate at a predetermined amplitude, the amplitude of the vibration of the focus lens is controlled according to the state of an AGC circuit.

Lens control device

An image pickup apparatus is provided with a pixel shifting device for shifting the incident light entering the image pickup device thereby substantially improving the resolution, and an image memory, and adapted to prevent deterioration of the resolution in case of reading a partial image from the image memory, by increasing the resolution using the pixel shifting device.

Image pickup apparatus for applying predetermined signal processing in conjunction with an image shifting mechanism

An information communicating apparatus and method are featured in retrieving one or more device constituting a network which satisfies predetermined conditions (e.g., connector type and data transfer speed) and has a communication port not connected to another unit of device. The retrieved device is then graphically displayed on a display screen. Users can be informed of the device having a vacant port in a manner easy to understand, and add-on of new device to the network can be realized readily and efficiently.

Unconnected-port device detection method, apparatus, and storage medium

There is disclosed a video camera which has a normal moving image sensing mode, and a still image sensing mode for sensing an image on a negative film set in a film adapter attached as a still image. An optical image of a subject is photoelectrically converted into an image signal, and whether or not the subject is a negative film is detected on the basis of a predetermined signal component in the image signal. If it is detected that the subject is the negative film, the still image sensing mode starts while setting signal processing in a negative/positive conversion mode and setting the focal length of the lens system at the wide-angle position.

A selection apparatus including a display unit for indicating a plurality of displays on the same screen, a line-of-sight position detecting unit for detecting a line-of-sight position of an operator on the screen, and an input unit through which the operator inputs an instruction, the input unit operating without using a line of sight. The selection apparatus also includes a control unit. When the display unit displays all of the displays on the same screen in response to an instruction input through the input unit, and the line-of-sight position detecting unit detects the line-of-sight position on any of the displays, the control unit selects the display on which the line-of-sight position has been detected. The control unit differentiates a status of display of the selected display from those of the non-selected displays. The control unit then executes the contents of the selected display. Preferably, for example, a photographer may perform function selection by manipulating a switch while looking at a function menu displayed on the screen.

Selection apparatus using an observer's line of sight

An image processing apparatus and system, which can effectively use the functions of an interface and which can fully use an image forming apparatus, is connected to a plurality of image forming apparatuses via an interface. The image processing apparatus includes an image output circuit for transmitting the image to be formed via the interface, an input circuit for inputting the image forming conditions, and a mode designation circuit for designating the image communication mode of the interface in accordance with the image forming conditions input by the input circuit.

Image processing apparatus and system

A lens control device comprising a variator lens group for zooming, a focusing lens group for compensating for a change introduced into the focused position as a result of a zooming operation by the variator lens group, a conversion lens group for changing a focusable shifting area of the variator lens group from a first area to a second area, a computing circuit for determining driving information for driving the focusing lens group during the shifting of the variator lens group, based on focused position data, according to object distance, of the focusing lens group relative to the position of the variator lens group, and a control circuit for shifting the variator lens group from the first area to the second area in response to the mounting of the conversion lens group and for controlling a computing operation of the computing circuit so that a focused position of the focusing lens group is determined when the variator lens group moves within the second area.

Lens control device with AF restart feature

A lens controlling apparatus includes a lens-driving stepping motor, a driving current forming circuit for forming a driving current waveform to be supplied to the stepping motor, an inputting circuit for inputting a stop instruction to stop the lens-driving stepping motor, a stopping circuit for performing the operation of stopping the stepping motor in accordance with the stop instruction, a phase detecting circuit for detecting the phase of the driving current waveform to be supplied to the stepping motor, and an inhibiting circuit for inhibiting the stop instruction from being executed except when the phase of the driving current waveform detected by the phase detecting circuit is a predetermined phase.

Growing community of inventors

Sagamihara, Japan

Masahide Hirasawa