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:
Sep. 06, 2011
Filed:
Oct. 15, 2004
Applicants:
Masaaki Fukuhara, Mito, JP;
Isao Furusawa, Hitachinaka, JP;
Tatsuhiko Monji, Hitachinaka, JP;
Inventors:
Assignee:
Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd., Hitachinaka-shi, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N 5/228 (2006.01); H04N 9/64 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
A camera apparatus for vehicles including an imaging element and a lens comprises a gradation generation unit for stepwise changing the light amount reaching a whole or part of the imaging element. By this, a gradation region is formed on the imaging element and it absorbs assembling errors during manufacturing and positional shifts attributed to a road surface slope or the like. Even when an inverse light state is caused, it is possible to improve the image processing performance with an ecconomical configuration.