Hitachi, Ltd.

Toshirou Kinugasa

Ryuji Nishimura

Junji Kamimura

Disclosed is an imaging apparatus capable of realizing a camera shake correction function while reducing the size and power consumption of the apparatus without deteriorating the use efficiency of an image sensor thereof. An imaging device has photoelectric conversion elements arranged two-dimensionally and a transfer path for transferring electric charge converted by the photoelectric conversion element. A motion detection unit detects motion of the apparatus according to timing pulses generated by a time management circuit at shorter intervals than exposure time. A drive circuit transfers the electric charge previously read onto the transfer path for a predetermined distance according to the detected motion. Electric charge newly read out and converted by the photoelectric conversion elements at the intervals of the timing pulses is added to the previous electric charge which has been transferred on transfer path.

Imaging apparatus

A photoelectric sensor outputs a signal by a first signal read mode and a second signal read mode. In the first signal read mode, the sensor outputs the pixel signals accumulated in the plural while subsampling the pixel signals for every one line. In the second signal read mode, the sensor outputs sequentially the pixel signals accumulated in two the plural pixels while adding the pixel signals from two pixels adjoining each other. An interlace/non-interlace converter converts the signal output by the photoelectric sensor in the first signal read mode to a non-interlaced signal. A signal processor generates a first video signal by converting the signal converted by the interlace/non-interlace converter into a specified image format in the first signal read mode, and generates a second video signal by converting the signal output by photoelectric sensor into the specified image format, such as a 4:2:2 YUV signal. A rate converter converts the number of output images per a unit time of the second video signal into another number. An encoder generates a first image data or a second image data by compressing the first or second video signals output from the signal processor according to an encoding method such as JPEG. A memory device memorizes the first or second image data output from the encoder. A decoder reproduce the first video signal by decoding the first image data memorized in the memory device.

Growing community of inventors

Hiratsuka, Japan

Toshirou Kinugasa