579results about "Signal generator with multiple pick-up device" patented technology

A camera phone includes a phone stage for generating voice signals, a first image sensor for generating a first sensor output, a first fixed focal length wide angle lens for forming a first image of the scene on the first image sensor, a second image sensor for generating a second sensor output, and a second fixed focal length telephoto lens pointing in the same direction as the first lens and forming a second image of the same scene on the second image sensor. A control element selects either the first sensor output from the first image sensor or the second sensor output from the second image sensor. A processing section produces the output image signals from the selected sensor output, and a cellular stage processes the image and voice signals for transmission over a cellular network.

There are many, many inventions described herein. In one aspect, what is disclosed is a digital camera including a plurality of arrays of photo detectors, including a first array of photo detectors to sample an intensity of light of a first wavelength and a second array of photo detectors to sample an intensity of light of a second wavelength. The digital camera further may also include a first lens disposed in an optical path of the first array of photo detectors, wherein the first lens includes a predetermined optical response to the light of the first wavelength, and a second lens disposed in with an optical path of the second array of photo detectors wherein the second lens includes a predetermined optical response to the light of the second wavelength. In addition, the digital camera may include signal processing circuitry, coupled to the first and second arrays of photo detectors, to generate a composite image using (i) data which is representative of the intensity of light sampled by the first array of photo detectors, and (ii) data which is representative of the intensity of light sampled by the second array of photo detectors; wherein the first array of photo detectors, the second array of photo detectors, and the signal processing circuitry are integrated on or in the same semiconductor substrate.

An electronic camera for producing an output image of a scene from a captured image signal includes a first imaging stage comprising a first image sensor for generating a first sensor output and a first lens for forming a first image of the scene on the first image sensor, and a second imaging stage comprising a second image sensor for generating a second sensor output and a second lens for forming a second image of the scene on the second image sensor. The sensor output from the first imaging stage is used as a primary output image for forming the captured image signal and the sensor output from the second imaging stage is used as a secondary output image for modifying the primary output image, thereby generating an enhanced, captured image signal.

A digital imaging system and method using multiple cameras arranged and aligned to create a much larger virtual image sensor array. Each camera has a lens with an optical axis aligned parallel to the optical axes of the other camera lenses, and a digital image sensor array with one or more non-contiguous pixelated sensors. The non-contiguous sensor arrays are spatially arranged relative to their respective optical axes so that each sensor images a portion of a target region that is substantially different from other portions of the target region imaged by other sensors, and preferably overlaps adjacent portions imaged by the other sensors. In this manner, the portions imaged by one set of sensors completely fill the image gaps found between other portions imaged by other sets of sensors, so that a seamless mosaic image of the target region may be produced.

An electronic camera includes first and second imaging stages for capturing separate images of a scene, one of the stages being designated as a default imaging stage. A processor enables capture and display of the separate images, and further responds to an operator selection of one of the imaging stages as a primary capture unit which is to be primarily used for capturing an image of the scene that is stored by the digital camera. If the operator selection does not occur within a predetermined time period, or if the camera is actuated before the time has run out, the processor automatically selects the default imaging stage as the primary capture unit.

A method and apparatus for capturing image data from multiple image sensors and generating an output image sequence are disclosed. The multiple image sensors capture data with one or more different characteristics, such as: staggered exposure periods, different length exposure periods, different frame rates, different spatial resolution, different lens systems, and different focal lengths. The data from multiple image sensors is processed and interleaved to generate an improved output motion sequence relative to an output motion sequence generated from an a single equivalent image sensor.

Present embodiments relate to techniques for capturing images. One embodiment may include an image sensor, comprising a substrate, a first pixel cell array disposed on the substrate, a first photographic lens arranged to focus light onto the first pixel cell array, a second pixel cell array disposed on the substrate, a second photographic lens arranged to focus light onto the second pixel cell array, and an image coordination circuit configured to coordinate the first array and lens with the second array and lens to provide an image. The first pixel cell array and the first photographic lens may be configured to cooperate to capture a first image of a scene, and the second pixel cell array and the second photographic lens may be configured to cooperate to capture a second image of the scene.

Directions normal to images of an object captured by at least two cameras from different points of view are aligned with each other to form corrected object images, and a correspondence is determined between at least one pixel position on a horizontal line in one of the corrected object images and at least one pixel position on the same horizontal line in another of the corrected object images. The correspondence is determined by determining a similarity in brightness and color components at the pixel positions and a parallax between the corrected object images A robust, accurate image matching can be done by making dynamic matching between all pixels on a scan line in the images captured by the cameras.

Large format, digital camera systems (10, 100, 150, 250, 310) expose single detector arrays 20 with multiple lens systems (12, 14, 16, 18) or multiple detector arrays (104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120, 152, 162, 172, 182, 252, 262, 272, 282, 322, 324) with one or more single lens systems (156, 166, 176, 186) to acquire sub-images of overlapping sub-areas of large area objects. The sub-images are stitched together to form a large format, digital, macro-image (80, 230'', 236'', 238'', 240''), which can be colored. Dampened camera carrier (400) and accelerometer (404) signals with double-rate digital signal processing (306, 308) are used.

In some arrangements, product packaging is digitally watermarked over most of its extent to facilitate high-throughput item identification at retail checkouts. Imagery captured by conventional or plenoptic cameras can be processed (e.g., by GPUs) to derive several different perspective-transformed views—further minimizing the need to manually reposition items for identification. One claim recites a system for capturing imagery of retail items supported by a fixture, comprising: at least one camera unit having at least one operative camera to capture imagery of at least a portion of the retail items supported by the fixture; and one or more processors configured to process the captured imagery to discern identifying information associated with the imaged retail items. In one implementation the at least one camera unit comprises a plurality of cameras, wherein a field of view of a first one of the plurality of cameras overlaps with a field of view of a second one of the plurality of camera units. A great variety of other features, claims, combinations and arrangements are also detailed.

An illumination channel, a stereoscopic optical channel and another optical channel are held and positioned by a robotic surgical system. A first capture unit captures a stereoscopic visible image from the first light from the stereoscopic optical channel while a second capture unit captures a fluorescence image from the second light from the other optical channel. An intelligent image processing system receives the captured stereoscopic visible image and the captured fluorescence image and generates a stereoscopic pair of fluorescence images. An augmented stereoscopic display system outputs a real-time stereoscopic image comprising a three-dimensional presentation of a blend of the stereoscopic visible image and the stereoscopic pair of fluorescence images.

The color image sensor generates an image signal representing a subject. The color image sensor has a light sensor and imaging elements arranged to form images of the subject in light of different colors on respective regions of the light sensor. The light sensor includes sensor elements and is operable to generate the image signal in response to light incident on it.

A digital imaging system being configured for synthesizing an image of a plenoptic optical device, comprises a photosensor array comprising a plurality of photosensors arranged in a predetermined image plane, and a microlens array comprising a plurality of microlenses arranged for directing light from an object to the photosensor array, wherein the photosensor array and the microlens array are arranged with a predetermined distance, the microlenses have different focal lengths varying over the microlens array, and the image plane of the photosensor array is arranged such that the distance between the photosensor array and the microlens array does not equal the microlenses' focal lengths. Furthermore, a plenoptic optical device including the digital imaging system and a method for processing image data collected with the digital imaging system are described.

The invention discloses a method for forming a panoramic video based on multi-view video streaming, which comprises the following steps: 1) using a plurality of cameras to capture video with an omnidirectional coverage at different viewing angles; 2) establishing one-to-one correspondence of synchronous frames in each video streaming; 3) correcting each video streaming independently by the camera's calibration; 4) panoramically joining a group of the synchronous video frames and calculating the joint parameter of each frame; 5) applying the jointed parameter to the joint of each frame in each video streaming to obtain a panoramic video formed by the panoramic frames. Compared with the prior method that uses a concave lens or a convex lens to focus lights and then reduce into a panoramic video, the invention has the advantages of low cost, no picture distortion, and suitability for the shooting during movement.

A multi-eye camera includes imaging units which are detachably attached to a camera main body. The camera main body has a concave container portion to which at most four imaging units in either vertical or horizontal orientation can be attached at the same time. A length between the optical axes of two imaging units is denoted by a base length R. Attachment positions and orientations of the imaging units can be changed according to a distance from the multi-eye camera to a subject for being captured, so that the length of the base length R is optimized for the subject.

In one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus is disclosed including an image sensor, a color filter array, and an image processor. The image sensor has an active area with a matrix of camera pixels. The color filter array is in optical alignment over the matrix of the camera pixels. The color filter array assigns alternating single colors to each camera pixel. The image processor receives the camera pixels and includes a correlation detector to detect spatial correlation of color information between pairs of colors in the pixel data captured by the camera pixels. The correlation detector further controls demosaicing of the camera pixels into full color pixels with improved resolution. The apparatus may further include demosaicing logic to demosaic the camera pixels into the full color pixels with improved resolution in response to the spatial correlation of the color information between pairs of colors.

An image pickup apparatus includes an image-pickup lens having an aperture diaphragm, an image-pickup element that has a color filter which is periodically allocated colors in units of a predetermined unit array and that generates picked-up image data including pixel data of colors using received light, the color filter being adjacent to a light receiving surface, a microlens array unit that is arranged on an image forming surface of the image-pickup lens and whose microlenses are each allocated a plurality of pixels of the image-pickup element, and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the picked-up image data generated by the image-pickup element. The image processing unit includes a parallax component image generation unit that generates a plurality of parallax component images and an interpolation processing unit that performs color interpolation processing for each of the parallax component images.

A light valve such as an active matrix LCD between crossed polarizers, utilizing, for instance, individual transistors to control each "pixel area" of the LCD and storage elements to store video signal data for each pixel, with optically shielded "dead spaces" between pixels to eliminate electric field cross-talk and non-information-bearing light bleed-through, is illuminated with a bright independent light source which creates a video image projected via specialized projection optics onto an internal or external screen without distortions, regardless of the angle of projection onto the screen. Use of heat sinks, IR reflective coatings, heat absorbing optics, optional fluid and a thermistor controlled pixel transistor bias voltage injection servo circuit stabilizes image performance, maintaining accurate color and contrast levels as the LCD changes temperature. In one embodiment of the invention, use of a multi-color LCD with a stepped cavity, producing different thicknesses of LCD for the different wavelengths that pass through it, allows a linear correspondence between the wavelengths passing through the LCD to produce true black, high contrast and CRT-like color rendition. A dichroic mirror arrangement is used to overlap differently colored pixels in the projected image. Use of striped mirrors duplicate pixels, where necessary, eliminating spaces between pixels, creating a continuous image with no apparent stripes or dots. A special venetian-blind type of screen is also disclosed and methods for using the system to view three-dimensional video are also explained.

According to an aspect of the invention, since two range images (first and second range images) are individually generated by a first range image generating device and a second range image generating device by different methods, and one range image (a third range image) is generated on the basis of those range images, highly accurate range images are generated. Furthermore, as the first range image generating device and the second range image generating device commonly use image sensors, the increase in hardware size and in cost due to the use of two devices for generating range images can be restrained.