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.

Date of Patent:
Feb. 13, 2018

Filed:

May. 29, 2015
Applicant:

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation, Kanagawa, JP;

Inventor:

Koji Kurata, Tokyo, JP;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N 5/235 (2006.01); H04N 5/265 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N 5/2352 (2013.01); H04N 5/265 (2013.01);
Abstract

To obtain an appropriate exposure condition even in second photographing when generating an image with an expanded dynamic range. An exposure control unit controls an imaging element including a normal pixel for generating an image signal and a low-sensitivity pixel for generating a low-sensitivity image signal and having lower photoelectric conversion sensitivity to visible light than the normal pixel under a predetermined exposure condition and causes the imaging element to output the image signal and the low-sensitivity image signal. A low-sensitivity histogram generating unit generates a low-sensitivity histogram indicating an appearance frequency distribution of the low-sensitivity image signal based on the low-sensitivity image signal. A short-time exposure condition calculating unit calculates a short-time exposure condition with an exposure time shorter than the exposure condition based on the generated low-sensitivity histogram. A short-time exposure control unit controls the imaging element under the calculated short-time exposure condition and causes the imaging element to output a short-time exposure image signal as an image signal generated by the normal pixel. A combining unit combines the image signal and the short-time exposure image signal.


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