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:
Mar. 09, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 20, 1999
Hitoshi Hashimoto, Sagamihara, JP;
Olympus Corporation, , JP;
Abstract
An autofocusing system is comprised of an image pickup device which performs a photoelectric conversion of an image of a subject, formed through an imaging optical system, to produce an electric image signal. An image pickup unit, including the imaging optical system, produces the subject image. A driving device drives the image pickup unit through one of a first range and a second range the second range being smaller than the first range. A high-frequency component detecting device detects a high-frequency component in an image signal obtained while at least a portion of the image pickup device is shifted by a predetermined quantity through the use of the driving device. A focusing drive device adjusts a focal condition of an image by an image signal on the basis of an output of the high-frequency component detecting device. An infrared light detecting device includes a light-emitting device for radiating infrared light toward the subject and a light-receiving device for receiving reflected light produced by a reflection of the infrared light from the subject. The infrared light detecting device includes an output signal corresponding to a subject distance on the basis of an output of the light-receiving device. A calculating device calculates a subject distance on the basis of an output of the infrared light detecting device. A control unit drives the image pickup unit in the first range when the subject distance calculated by said calculating device is shorter than a predetermined distance and drives the image pickup unit in the second range when the subject distance is longer than the predetermined distance.