Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Motohiro Ishikawa

Masayoshi Sekine

Kotaro Yano

Katsumi Iijima

Sunao Kurahashi

Nobuo Fukushima

Masakazu Matsugu

Yuji Koide

Kenichi Kondo

Gaku Watanabe

Koichi Sono

Katsuhiko Mori

Shigeki Okauchi

Tatsushi Katayama

Toshiaki Kondo

Takeo Sakimura

Jun Tokumitsu

Makoto Hiramatsu

Images sensed through object lensesR andL, having zoom lenses, with image sensorsR andL are processed by image signal processorsR andL, and an image of an object in each of the sensed images is separated from a background image on the basis of the processed image signals. The separated image signals representing the image of the object enter the image processor, where a three-dimensional shape of the object is extracted on the basis of parameters used upon sensing the images. The parameters are automatically adjusted so that images of the object fall within the both image sensing areas of the image sensorsR andL and that they fall within the both focal depths of the image sensorsR andL.

Image sensing and image processing apparatuses

A control system having device units removably attachable to a control device such as a computer is arranged to optimize the allocation and distribution of electric power to the device units and also displays of varied kinds. For this purpose, each device unit of the system includes a communication circuit arranged to transmit information of electric power consumption and an operating state of the device unit detachably connected to the control device such as a computer, a stopping circuit for partly stopping a function of the device unit according to a control signal sent in reply from the control device on the basis of information of varied kinds transmitted through the transmission circuit to the control device. The control device, on the other hand, includes a communication circuit arranged to receive the information on the device unit from the device unit, and a control circuit arranged to compare the information of electric power consumption and the operating state received by the communication circuit with information of the amount of electric power which can be supplied to the device unit and to send the control signal to the device unit for partly stopping the function of the device unit according to the result of comparison. Further, the control device changes a display made therein and controls the operation of the device unit according to information of the operating state and the connected state of the device unit.

Control system and units removably attachable to the same

Image data having a high S/N ratio is obtained even when the exposure time is relatively long. To achieve the above object, there is provided an image input apparatus in which an accumulation mode is set with the shutter open, thereby acquiring image data A. The shutter is then closed, and the accumulation mode is set to acquire subtraction data between the image data and black image data A. This processing is repeated to acquire image data Aand subtraction data Aand these subtraction data are added. These operations AAand Aare repeated a predetermined number of times to update addition data, and image processing is performed on the basis of the updated addition data.

Image input apparatus having addition and subtraction processing

In order to transfer at a high speed a large amount of data, such as data of a moving image, an image pickup system having an image pickup apparatus is arranged to convert an object image inputted through an optical system into an electrical signal, to convert the electrical signal into a digital signal by an A/D conversion part, to obtain from the digital signal a video signal in a predetermined form by a video signal generating part, to convert a color space of the video signal by a color space converting part in such a way as to compress the video signal according to a look-up table held within the color space converting part, and to transfer the compressed video signal to an external personal computer through an interface part.

Image pickup system with color space conversion

A control system having device units removably attachable to a control device arranged to optimize the allocation and distribution of electric power to the device units and also displays of varied kinds. For this purpose, each device unit of the system includes a communication circuit arranged to transmit information of electric power consumption and an operating state of the device unit detachably connected to the control device, The control device, includes a communication circuit arranged to receive the information on the device unit from the device unit, and a control circuit arranged to compare the information of electric power consumption and the operating state received by the communication circuit with information of the amount of electric power which can be supplied to the device unit and to send the control signal to the device unit for partly stopping the function of the device unit according to the result of comparison.

An image sensing apparatus includes an image input unit () for inputting an image, a detection unit () for detecting a state of movement of the image input unit () in an image input operation, a storage unit () for storing a plurality of images input by the image input unit () and movement information corresponding to the state of movement detected by the detection unit (), and an image generating unit () for generating an image from an arbitrary viewpoint position on the basis of the plurality of images and the movement information stored in the storage unit.

Virtual image sensing and generating method and apparatus

A three-dimensional information processing apparatus for obtaining three-dimensional information from an object having a three-dimensional shape, and performing predetermined information processing, comprises: a camera for sensing images of the object from a plurality of coordinate positions using an image sensing system having one or a plurality of optical systems. A plurality of depth information are extracted from image sensing related information sensed by the camera at the plurality of coordinate positions, and the plurality of extracted depth information are converted and unified into depth information expressed by a unified coordinate system.

Three-dimensional information processing apparatus and method

In an image pickup system, an image pickup unit is connected to a computer which has a display device. In order to make a display by matching the characteristic of the image pickup unit with that of the display device, the image pickup unit is provided with a control part which is arranged to measure a signal processing speed of the computer, to compare the signal processing speed with an image pickup speed or a picked-up image data output speed of the image pickup unit and to vary an image pickup action or a picked-up image data output action of the image pickup unit according to a result of the comparison or according to an operation performed by an operator of the image pickup system.

Image pickup system and picked-up image signal processing apparatus

Images sensed through object lenses R and L, having zoom lenses, with image sensors R and L are processed by image signal processors R and L, and an image of an object in each of the sensed images is separated from a background image on the basis of the processed image signals. The separated image signals representing the image of the object enter the image processor , where a three-dimensional shape of the object is extracted on the basis of parameters used upon sensing the images. The parameters are automatically adjusted so that images of the object fall within the both image sensing areas of the image sensors R and L and that they fall within the both focal depths of the image sensors R and L.

An image processing apparatus in which a plurality of images obtained by photographing a three-dimensional object from a plurality of viewpoints are integrated by using image-pickup parameters such as position, pose, focal lengths, and aberration information of a camera at these viewpoints, thereby integrating shapes at arbitrary viewpoints of the three-dimensional object.

Image processing apparatus

There is disclosed a binocular camera which can realize panoramic view and stereoscopic view during image sensing. There is also disclosed a binocular camera which has two image sensing optical systems, a circuit for synthesizing right and left sensed parallax image signals to a panoramic image or a three-dimensional image, and a display for displaying the synthesized image signal.

Processing of image obtained by multi-eye camera

A control system having device units removably attachable to a control device such as a computer is arranged to optimize the allocation and distribution of electric power to the device units. Each device unit of the system includes a communication circuit arranged to transmit information of electric power consumption and an operating state of the device unit detachably connected to the control device such as a computer, a stopping circuit for partly stopping a function of the device unit according to a control signal sent in reply from the control device on the basis of information of varied kinds transmitted through the transmission circuit to the control device. The control device is arranged to receive information on the device unit from the device unit, and a control circuit arranged to compare the information of electric power consumption and the operating state received by the communication circuit with information of the amount of electric power which can be supplied to the device unit. Further, the control device and controls the operation of the device unit according to information of the operating state and the connected state of the device unit.

Image pickup system adaptable to computer processing power and/or display

A compound eye image pickup apparatus with reduced parallax having two optical image pickup systems wherein the cross points between entrance pupils and optical axes of the two optical image pickup systems are generally coincident.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa-ken, Japan

Motohiro Ishikawa