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:
Feb. 15, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 14, 1997
Applicant:
Inventor:
Kazuhito Ohashi, Yokohama, JP;
Assignee:
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N / ; G03G / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
358446 ; 358475 ; 358509 ; 399198 ;
Abstract
According to an image pickup apparatus of this invention, a light source illuminates an object, an image pickup unit picks up an image of the illuminated object, an amplifier circuit amplifies the output signal for the image pickup unit, and a control unit adjusts the light amount of the light source after setting the maximum gain of the amplifier circuit and controls the image pickup unit to pickup the image of the object. An image pickup operation can be performed by irradiating an object with a minimum amount of light that the circuitry is capable of coping with.