| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080251695 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE SENSING METHOD - An image sensing apparatus and an image sensing method of the invention are configured in such a manner that an image sensor having two or more different photoelectric conversion characteristics is used, a gain of image signals having the respective photoelectric conversion characteristics acquired by the image sensor is calculated based on the image signals having the respective photoelectric conversion characteristics, and gain control is performed with respect to each of the photoelectric conversion characteristics, using the calculated gain. This arrangement enables to control the imaging sensitivity without changing the dynamic range. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080252762 | SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSING DEVICE, METHOD FOR DRIVING SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSING DEVICE, AND IMAGE SENSING SYSTEM INCORPORATED WITH SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSING DEVICE - In a solid-state image sensing device, a method for driving the solid-state image sensing device, and an image sensing system incorporated with the solid-state image sensing device of the invention, pixel signals having two or more different photoelectric conversion characteristics to be outputted from a pixel section are amplified by using an analog gain with respect to each of the photoelectric conversion characteristics for outputting the amplified pixel signals. This enables to reproduce an image having a wide dynamic range while suppressing lowering of the frame rate. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080260298 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE SENSING METHOD - An image sensing apparatus is configured such that the level of each of first and second output signals obtained by exposing a color image sensor by using mutually differing first and second photoelectric conversion properties is compared with one of threshold values to thereby select output signals to be used as signals for constituting an image from among the first and second output signals for individual color components thereof. The threshold values are set for the individual color components based on the first and second output signals. | 10-23-2008 |
| 20090059026 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - In an image processing device, an image processing method, and an image pickup apparatus according to an aspect of the invention, a compression characteristic is generated based on one of multiple smoothed images to be generated based on an input image, and a compressed base component image having a smaller dynamic range than the dynamic range of a base component image is generated by using the compression characteristic. The image processing device, the image processing method, and the image pickup apparatus enable to more advantageously define a proper compression characteristic, and compress the dynamic range of the input image in a simplified manner and with high quality, as compared with the background art. | 03-05-2009 |
| 20090059040 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An image processing device includes a corrector for performing an optical correction of correcting a distortion of an image by interpolating image data of the distorted picked-up image resulting from an optical characteristic of an image pickup section, and locally changing a resolution of the image; and a compressor for performing a dynamic range compression of compressing a dynamic range of the image data by extracting an illumination component from the image data based on a space frequency of the image, and compressing the extracted illumination component, wherein the compressor performs the dynamic range compression with respect to image data of an after-correction-image to be obtained after the optical correction is performed by the corrector. | 03-05-2009 |
| 20090080771 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS - An illumination component extractor is operable to extract an illumination component from input image data by: performing a smoothing process a certain number of times to generate a plurality of smooth image data having resolutions different from one another from the input image data, the smoothing process including an operation of filtering the input image data with use of a low-pass filter having a predetermined size and an operation of downsampling the filtered input image data; and performing an inverse-smoothing process a certain number of times, the inverse-smoothing process including an operation of replacing an edge portion of a smooth image data having a lower resolution with a smooth image data having a higher resolution, and an operation of upsampling the replaced smooth image data. The input image data is color image data which has been obtained by an image sensor including a number of pixels having different spectral sensitivities. | 03-26-2009 |
| 20100302405 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image sensing apparatus includes: an image sensing device for sensing light representing a subject image; a first component extractor for extracting a first component having a predetermined frequency out of a photographic image obtained by the image sensing device; a second component extractor for extracting a second component having a frequency higher than the frequency of the first component out of the photographic image; a compressor for compressing a dynamic range of the first component extracted by the first component extractor with a predetermined compression ratio; an image generator for generating an image based on a compressed first component obtained by compressing the dynamic range of the first component by the compressor, and the second component extracted by the second component extractor; and a compression correction coefficient calculator for calculating a compression correction coefficient used in compressing the first component, using the second component extracted by the second component extractor, wherein the compressor determines the compression ratio in such a manner that the larger compression correction coefficient increases the compression ratio based on the compression correction coefficient calculated by the compression correction coefficient calculator, and compresses the dynamic range of the first component based on the determined compression ratio. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20110037870 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image sensing apparatus includes: an image sensing section for sensing an image of a subject; a detector for detecting a luminance of the subject; a compressor for compressing a dynamic range of the subject image; and a controller for controlling a compression characteristic to be used in compressing the dynamic range based on a detection result of the detector. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110063451 | IMAGE PICKUP APPARATUS AND IMAGE PICKUP ELEMENT - A luminance signal and a color information signal having high S/N ratios are generated by combining a visible luminance image component and an infrared image component at an appropriate ratio according to brightness of a subject such as brightness on a sunny day or brightness in darkness. An image pickup element | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110122282 | IMAGING DEVICE - [Object] To convert a pixel value obtained from a non-reference photoelectric conversion characteristic into a pixel value obtained from a reference photoelectric conversion characteristic without variation, and to prevent generation of fixed pattern noise in an image. An image sensor | 05-26-2011 |
