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:
May. 21, 2013
Filed:
Aug. 05, 2010
Takashi Kawai, Chiba, JP;
Takashi Kawai, Chiba, JP;
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus and method capable of improving operability regarding a zooming operation and suppressing the photographing of an unstably focused image. A zoom information acquisition sectionacquires the information specifying both a zoom direction of zoom-in or zoom-out and a zoom speed. A subject information acquisition sectionacquires the information, which specifies the coordinate position of the upper left corner of an AF tracking frame and the area of the AF tracking frame, regarding a detected subject. A threshold value setting sectionsets the value of a predetermined zoom speed as a threshold value for determining whether or not to release a subject tracking AF function. A switching determination sectiondetermines whether or not to release the subject tracking AF function on the basis of the zoom speed acquired by the zoom information acquisition sectionand the threshold value set by the threshold value setting section