Minolta Company, Ltd.

Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Camera Co., Ltd.

Yasumasa Sugihara

Kenji Ishibashi

Yasushi Tanijiri

Hiromu Mukai

Hideki Nagata

Yasushi Kobayashi

Kiyoshi Nishitani

Kohtaro Hayashi

Hiroyuki Okada

Ichiro Kasai

Jun Ishihara

Masato Kato

Naoki Ishihara

Rieko Hasegawa

An image observation device which is so arranged that a user can look an image in through an ocular window thereof with the device being fitted to the user's head for example, that the image changes in linkage with movement of the user's head, and that unnecessary change of the image is prevented during the observation. The image observation device includes an eye access detector for detecting whether the user's eyes approach thereto or not, and includes, a controller by the operation of which the image changes in linkage with movement of the user's head only if the eye access detector detects that the user's eyes approach thereto, and by the operation of which the image does not change in linkage with movement of the user's head if the eye access detector does not detect that the user's eyes approach thereto.

Image observation apparatus

The object is to provide an image viewing system that allows easy image viewing with reduced eyestrain, whether for wide-angle or enlarged viewing. The rotation of the viewer's head is detected by means of piezo-electric vibration gyroscopes,and,, and the coefficient for setting the amount of change in the camera system's image shooting direction with reference to the detected direction is changed in accordance with the focal length of the camera system's zoom lens systems. Moreover, the amount of change in the image shooting direction may be changed manually by means of sensitivity setting lever,mounted on HMD

Image viewing system and image display device

In a stereoscopic system including a three-dimensional camera and an HMD, by setting the convergences of the three-dimensional camera and the HMD in accordance with the distance to the object to be shot, a stereoscopically viewable object distance range is increased and a natural stereoscopic image is provided. The three-dimensional camera is provided with a convergence setter which varies the directions of left and right cameras, and the HMD is provided with a convergence setter which varies the directions of left and right virtual image projectors. The distance to the object is detected based on the distance between the left and right images taken by the three-dimensional camera, and the convergence setters of the three-dimensional camera and the HMD are controlled in accordance with the detected distance. The convergence setter of the three-dimensional camera performs focusing, interlocking with the convergence setting. The convergence setter of the HMD sets the dioptric power, interlocking with the convergence setting.

Stereoscopic system with convergence and dioptric power adjustments

An image taken by a mobile camera is displayed on a head-mounted display provided with an acceleration sensor to detect movement of the observer's head, and the size of the image viewed by the observer wearing the display is varied according to the movement of the observer's head. For varying the image size, the camera is equipped with a zoom lens to change the size of shooting area, or alternatively, the display is equipped with a zoom lens as the eyepiece to enlarge or reduce the size of the displayed image. An image showing the appearance of the camera is displayed being superimposed on the image taken by the camera in order to facilitate the control of the camera by the observer.

Image display apparatus having a display controlled by user's head

An HMD is provided with two piezoelectric vibrating gyros which detect vertical and horizontal angular velocities, and a horizontal sensor which detects a vertical angle. While the user's head rotates, shooting direction of a three-dimensional camera is varied in accordance with the angles obtained by integration of the detected angular velocities. While the head is stationary, the obtained vertical angle and the output of the gyro is corrected based on the angle detected by the horizontal sensor. The shooting direction of the camera can be manually set irrespective of the direction of the head, and information on the viewing direction is displayed together with a taken image.

Image display apparatus

A telescope has an objective lens system, an eyepiece optical system, and a third lens system between the objective lens system and the eyepiece optical system. The objective lens system is provided with a circular shape lens whose upper and lower portions are cut off. The eyepiece optical system is also provided with a circular shape lens whose upper and lower portions are cut off. The third lens system is provided with a circular shape lens which is disposed in a position where a light beam formed by the objective lens system has a smaller cross-sectional area.

Compact telescope

A pair of binoculars includes a first optical system; a second optical systems; a light rays separators that extracts from the first optical system a portion of light rays that pass through the first optical systems; a device for examining the extracted light rays; a device for adjusting parts of the first and second optical systems based on a results of the examination of the extracted light rays; and a light reducer located in the second optical system for separating light rays equivalent to the light rays extracted by the light rays separator from the light rays passing through the second optical system.

Binoculars with extraction of a portion of light rays

A system that is mounted in a camera capable of focal point detection and that performs correction of the focal point detection data in accordance with the temperature, wherein the temperature inside the photo-taking lens barrel is measured and the focal point detection data is corrected based on the temperature data for the interior of the photo-taking lens barrel. Using this construction, because the temperature of a lens element comprising the photo-taking lens can be accurately measured even where the ambient temperature of the camera has suddenly changed, for example, appropriate correction suitable for the temperature conditions may be performed. Also disclosed is a construction in which the correction of the focal point detection data is performed based on not only the temperature data but also the focal length data for the photo-taking lens. Using this construction, appropriate correction suitable for the temperature conditions may be performed even when, for example, the focal length of the photo-taking lens has changed.

Photo-taking lens temperature compensation system

A binocular has the right and left optical systems. A distance between these optical systems is variable for an adjustment of the pupil distance. A protecting member is arranged to protect objective lenses and eyepieces of the optical systems by sheltering them when the binocular is housed. The protecting member is movable to release the sheltering condition to expose the lenses and the eyepieces when the binocular is used. The protecting member is driven in liaison with an operation of the adjustment of the pupil distance.

Self-housing binocular

In a finder optical system provided separately from a taking lens system, an objective lens system forms a primary image which is an inverted image of a subject, a relay lens system erects the primary image formed by the objective lens system to form a secondary image which is an erecting image and can change the size of the secondary image, and an ocular enlarges the secondary image formed by the relay lens system and can change the enlargement ratio. The finder optical system is useful for a camera constituting the trimming system.

Finder optical system

A finder optical system provided separately from a photo-taking lens comprises, from the object side: an object lens from forming a primary image which is an inverted image of an object and for erecting the primary image to form an erecting image; and an eyepiece for enlarging said erecting image. The object lens comprises a gradient index lens.

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Hashimoto, Japan

Yasumasa Sugihara