Sony Corporation

Tokuichiro Yamada

Tsutomu Kume

Shinya Ishii

Ken Nakajima

Kenichi Sakai

Yoshinori Tomita

Zhiwen Li

An image pickup apparatus uses an image pickup device. A manual focus adjusting unit is configured to control a focus lens in response to a user's input operation. An edge detecting unit is configured to detect edge components from an image signal obtained by the image pickup device and to output detection levels of the detected edge components. A color signal replacement unit is configured to replace a signal of a pixel corresponding to the detection level with a predetermined color signal when the detection level satisfies a predetermined condition. A display unit is configured to display an image based on an output image signal from the color signal replacement unit.

Image pickup apparatus and display control method

An image signal processing apparatus may include a partial image data block obtaining unit configured to obtain partial image data blocks by dividing image data corresponding to a predetermined screen having a predetermined number of horizontal and vertical pixels into image data portions, each having a predetermined number of partial horizontal and vertical pixels, at predetermined positions; a packet generating unit configured to generate packets, each storing one of the partial image data blocks; and one or more signal processing units configured to receive the packets from a transmission path through which the image data is transmitted, perform signal processing in units of partial image data blocks stored in the packets, and output the image data in the form of packets to the transmission path.

Image signal processing apparatus and image signal processing method

A method for converting frames that can display smooth moving images is provided. A memory () to which image data of frames in the NTSC format is written is provided. A memory controller () for retrieving image data of an odd field and an even field from the memory () every odd field period and even field period in the frame period of the PAL format is provided. An interpolating circuit () is provided. The interpolating circuit () mixes the image data of the odd field retrieved by the memory controller () and image data of a next odd field at a predetermined ratio to output as image data of an odd field in the frame period of the PAL format, and mixes the retrieved image data of the even field and image data of a next even field at a predetermined ratio to output as image data of an even field in the frame period of the PAL format. A coefficient-generating circuit () for changing the mixing ratios in the interpolating circuit () every field period of the PAL format is provided.

Frame conversion method, frame conversion circuit, and electronic camera

An image pickup apparatus using a solid image pickup device includes a manual focus adjusting unit configured to control the position of a focus lens in response to a user's input operation; an edge detecting unit configured to detect edge components of each pixel from an image signal obtained by image pickup and to output detection levels of the detected edge components; a color signal replacement unit configured to replace a signal of a pixel corresponding to the detection level or signals of pixels in a predetermined range containing the corresponding pixel on the image signal with a predetermined color signal when the detection level is equal to or higher than a predetermined value; and a display unit configured to display an image based on an output image signal from the color signal replacement unit.

A circuit for converting the format of image data, the motion of the image data being smooth, includes a memory () to which moving image data in the NTSC format is written; a memory controller () retrieving respective signals, from the memory (), required for producing image data of an odd field and an even field in the PAL format; line-interpolating circuits () and () converting retrieved image data into first image data and second image, respectively, both image data having the line frequency of the PAL format; a frame-interpolating circuit () outputting the image data of the odd field in the PAL format by mixing image data of the odd field of the first image data and image data of the odd field of the second image data at a predetermined mixing ratio, and outputting the image data of the even field in the PAL format by mixing image data of the even field of the first image data and image data of the even field of the second image data at a predetermined mixing ratio; and a coefficient-generating circuit () changing the mixing ratios every field period in the PAL format.

Method for converting image data, converting circuit for image, and electronic camera

In image-data recording processing performed when a video output conforms to the PAL system, a display-signal processing section receives image data having a frame rate of 30 Hz recorded in a memory, through a bus, converts the image data to image data having an NTSC frame rate of 29.97 Hz by a frame-rate conversion method in which thinning out is performed according to the ratio of frame rates, and outputs it to a display section and a codec-IC interface. The display-signal processing section also converts to image data having a PAL frame rate of 25 Hz, and outputs it to a video-output interface. In other words, image data is processed at a frame rate not related to the output, and then converted to image data having a frame rate suited for the output, and output. This invention can be used in digital cameras.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Tokuichiro Yamada