The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 21, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 21, 1997
Hiroshi Itoh, Hachioji, JP;
Akihiro Kubota, Kokubunji, JP;
Yukihiro Sugimoto, Tokyo, JP;
Toshiyuki Noguchi, Fussa, JP;
Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In a frame-by-frame color image pickup apparatus, images of light components transmitted through red, green, and blue filters of a rotating filter are introduced to an image pickup device arranged in an optical path with rotating filter. The cells in the image pickup device are grouped into cell blocks, each block made up of four cells arranged in one horizontal row and four vertical columns. The rotational speed of the rotating filter is increased, and the cells within each block selected by switches for reading are fixed when an image is dynamic, a quarter of all the cells are read at one cycle of revolution of the rotating filter, and the remaining cells are interpolated to form one frame image. Color breakup is thus precluded. When an image is still, the cells selected are switched at each cycle of revolution of the rotating filter, and all the cells are read over four cycles of revolution of the rotating filter. Thus, a high resolution color image is obtained. The color image pickup apparatus thus improves virtually a pickup rate from the image pickup device, alleviating color breakup. The still image is presented without degrading its resolution.