Minolta Company, Ltd.

Takeshi Ogoshi

Gen Sasaki

Toru Ishii

Yukari Maeda

Hiroaki Kubo

Katsuyuki Nanba

Kenji Nakamura

Tetsuyuki Tanimoto

Nobuo Hashimoto

Atsuhiro Noda

Takeshi Ono

Takeshi Aoi

An image pick-up apparatus includes: an image sensing section which photoelectrically converts light from an object into an electrical output having a logarithmic function in relation to an amount of the light to produce image data regarding a light image of the object; an extracting section which extracts a particular portion having a specified luminance from the light image; a discriminating section which discriminates whether the particular portion has a light source; a data generating section which generates white balance adjustment data of the image data at a specified interval; and a changing section which changes the generation interval based on a result of the discriminating section. This apparatus can assure suitable and accurate color correction in accordance with a changed light source and for each of a variety of photographic scenes.

Image pick-up apparatus

An image reader apparatus includes: an image pickup device which is controllably exposed to an object to produce an image signal of the object; a mover which moves the object and the image pickup device relative to each other; a storage operable to store an image signal; a writing device which is operable to write an image signal in the storage; a reading device which is operable to read an image signal from the storage; a discriminator which discriminates whether one of the writing device and the reading device is in operation; and a controller which controls the exposure of the image pickup device in accordance with a result of the discriminator.

Image reader apparatus

A film image reading system includes: a number of photoelectric conversion elements for converting a light image of a film image to an analog image signal indicative of a magnitude corresponding to a light amount; an exposure controller for controlling exposure time of the conversion elements; a converter for converting the analog image signal to a digital image signal; a signal correcting device for correcting the digital image signal to a proper output image signal in accordance with a reference relationship between digital image signal and output image signal, the reference relationship having a first range for variables of digital image signal and a second range for variables of output image signal; and a range changing device for changing the first range of the reference relationship in accordance with a controlled exposure time.

Film image reading system

An image sensing system is provided with a fluorescent lamp which performs AC lighting to irradiate an object, an inverter power source which supplies currents to the fluorescent lamp, a lighting frequency changing circuit which changes the frequency of the current supply, a lens which images an image onto a film, and a CCD image sensing device which is capable of changing the period of exposure by the formed image and which outputs the image of the object as an electric signal through photoelectric conversion. The exposure period of the CCD image sensing device is controlled by a microcomputer and a timing generator. The lighting frequency changing circuit is controlled so that the phase of the exposure period and the phase of the current supply to the fluorescent lamp are in synchronism with each other.

Image sensing system including a light source

A film image reading system includes: an image pickup device which picks up a light image of an image recorded on a film to produce raw image signals corresponding to three colors of the light image and indicative of magnitudes corresponding to light amounts of their respective three colors; a signal processor which processes raw image signals of three colors in accordance with a reference to produce output image signals corresponding to three colors of the light image, the output image signals being operable to ensure a proper color balance; a first calculator which calculates differences between a high magnitude image signal of a particular color and respective high magnitude image signals of the remaining colors; and a second calculator which calculates differences between an average magnitude image signal of the particular color and average magnitude image signals of the remaining colors; and a reference changer which changes the reference of the signal processor based on differences calculated by the first and second calculators.

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Amagasaki, Japan

Takeshi Ogoshi