| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080204905 | DRIVING MECHANISM AND OPTICAL ELEMENT DRIVING APPARATUS - An optical-element driving mechanism is configured to drive an optical element, and includes a uniaxial driving mechanism that includes a linear actuator that drives in a first direction, and a link mechanism that converts a displacement in a direction orthogonal to the first direction. The linear actuator is level with the link mechanism in an optical-axis direction. The uniaxial driving mechanism is arranged in order of the link mechanism and the linear actuator in a radial direction when viewed form an optical axis of the optical element. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080252990 | Optical apparatus - To provide an optical apparatus which controls an interface state to change a focal length by using an optical element having a container sealing first liquid that is conductive or polarized and second liquid that does not mutually mix with the first liquid with their interface in a predetermined form and electrodes provided in the container and of which optical characteristics change according to change of interface form due to application of voltage to the electrodes, and in particular an optical apparatus that controls a duty ratio of alternating current voltage applied to said electrodes for changing said interface form. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080317454 | IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR - An image capturing apparatus includes an image sensor, composition unit, coupling unit, and arithmetic unit. The image sensor has a plurality of pupil-divided focus detection portions each formed from a first focus detection pixel and second focus detection pixel. The composition unit composites signals output from the first focus detection pixels to obtain a first composite signal, and composites signals output from the second focus detection pixels to obtain a second composite signal in each of sections assigned to the image sensor to include a plurality of focus detection portions. The coupling unit couples first composite signals to obtain a first coupled signal, and couples second composite signals to obtain a second coupled signal in the plurality of sections. The arithmetic unit calculates the defocus amount of an image forming optical system on the basis of the first and second coupled signals. | 12-25-2008 |
| 20090040632 | Driving System and Optical-Element Driving System - A driving system for driving an optical element in a first direction includes a linear actuator for producing a displacement in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, a displacement picking unit being extendable in a third direction, perpendicular to both of the first and second directions, for picking out a displacement of the linear actuator, and a direction converting unit disposed at the third-direction side of the linear actuator, for converting a direction of the displacement picked out by the displacement picking unit. | 02-12-2009 |
| 20110025904 | FOCUS DETECTION DEVICE AND IMAGING APPARATUS HAVING THE SAME - A focus detection device having imaging pixels and focus-detecting pixels using a phase-difference focus detection method implements high-precision focus detection. In the focus detection device, a plurality of pixels each having a photoelectric conversion unit for converting an incident light flux into signal charges, and a microlens having a focus position near the photoelectric conversion unit are arranged. The plurality of pixels include a plurality of imaging pixels for generating a shot image, and a plurality of focus-detecting pixels for generating an image signal for focus detection by the phase-difference focus detection method. An opening for giving a pupil division function to the focus-detecting pixel is formed using electrodes arranged to read out signal charges from the photoelectric conversion unit. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110037888 | IMAGE SENSOR AND FOCUS DETECTION APPARATUS - A focus detection apparatus includes an image forming optical system, an image sensing unit which photoelectrically converts the object image, and a focus detection unit which detects the focus state of the imaging optical system from a pixel signal from the image sensing unit. The focus detection unit includes a first focus detection pixel which divides the exit pupil of the image forming optical system in the first direction and receives a light beam, and a second focus detection pixel which divides the exit pupil of the image forming optical system in the second direction different from the first direction, and receives a light beam. The first and second focus detection pixels are periodically arranged near the lattice points of a 2-dimensional lattice formed from first lattice lines set in a predetermined unit area of the image sensing unit, and second lattice lines crossing the first lattice lines. | 02-17-2011 |
