297results about How to "Suppresses degradation of image quality" patented technology

The present invention provides image pickup optical systems capable of suppressing the degradation of the image quality due to unnecessary light beams while attaining compaction by optimizing the shapes of the emission surfaces of reflection prisms. The image pickup optical system includes an incidence-side prism for reflecting incident light while folding it by about 90 degree and an image-surface side prism. An image pickup device is placed near the emission surface of the image-surface side prism. The incidence-side prism is formed to have a convex emission surface. This can reduce the amount of the unnecessary light beams (stray light) reflected by the aforementioned reflection surface and also causes the unnecessary light beams reflected by the emission surface and the reflection surface to be diffused, thereby significantly reducing the amount of unnecessary light beams directed to the light receiving surface of the image pickup device. This can suppress the occurrence of ghosts and the like due to unnecessary light beams as aforementioned.

There is provided a printing method that is performed by using a first nozzle ejecting color ink that is used for printing an image on a medium and is cured in a case where irradiation of an electromagnetic wave is received, a second nozzle ejecting a process solution that is used for processing the surface of the medium and is cured in a case where irradiation of an electromagnetic wave is received, and an irradiation unit emitting the electromagnetic wave. The printing method includes printing an image constituted by color dots on the medium by ejecting the color ink from the first nozzle so as to form the color dots on the medium and forming process dots in areas other than the image on the medium by ejecting the process solution from the second nozzle, emitting the electromagnetic wave onto the color dots and the process dots, coating the color dots and the process dots with the process solution after the electromagnetic wave is emitted onto the color dots and the process dots, and emitting the electromagnetic wave onto the process solution with which the color dots and the process dots are coated.

A photoelectric conversion device includes a pixel unit including a photoelectric converter, an amplifier arranged on the output side of the pixel unit, an output unit arranged on the output side of the amplifier, a first restriction circuit, and a second restriction circuit. The first restriction circuit restricts, between the amplifier and the output unit, a noise level read out from the pixel unit via the amplifier in reading out the noise level from the pixel unit. The second restriction circuit restricts, between the photoelectric converter and the amplifier, a noise level to be provided to the amplifier in reading out the noise level from the pixel unit.

A LCD device includes first and second LCD panels stacked one on another. Each of the first and second LCD panels includes a pair of transparent substrates, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched therebetween, and a pair of polarizing films sandwiching therebetween the pair of transparent substrates. A light diffusion layer having light diffusion function is interposed between the first LCD panel and the second LCD panel. The light diffusion layer reduces the intensity of the light passed by the first LCD panel, thereby alleviating the periodicity of the arrangement of dark areas and bright areas to alleviate the moire caused by light interference.

A digital image signal is divided into blocks. Each of the divided blocks is subjected to orthogonal transformation. As a result, the divided blocks are transformed into several frequency components. One or more frequency components are selected in accordance with a characteristic amount that is extracted from the several frequency components. Values of the selected frequency components are operated under a predetermined rule in accordance with an embedment signal that is generated from embedment information.

Disclosed is an illuminating optical unit in an image display unit for displaying an image by irradiating a GLV (spatial modulation device) with a laser beam and modulating the laser beam based on an image signal inputted to the GLV, which includes a polarized light rotation means for equally dividing a polarized light component of the laser beam into a P polarized light component and an S polarized light component, a polarized light beam splitter for separating from each other the P polarized light component and the S polarized light component equally divided by the polarized light rotation means, and an optical path difference generation means for generating an optical path difference not less than the coherence length of the laser beam between the laser beam of the P polarized light component and the laser beam of the S polarized light component.

An image capturing apparatus is provided with an image sensor that has a first pixel group and a second pixel group, a focus adjustment unit that executes focus adjustment of an imaging lens based on the signal from the second pixel group, a readout unit that has a first thinning and readout mode that thins and reads out signals from the plurality of pixels at a predetermined thinning ratio and thinning phase, and a second thinning and readout mode that thins and reads out signals from the plurality of pixels with a difference in at least one of the thinning ratio and the thinning phase from the first thinning and readout mode, and a selecting unit that selects in which mode to operate the readout means from among the first and second thinning and readout modes in accordance with the state of the image capturing apparatus.

A photoelectric conversion device includes a pixel unit including a photoelectric converter, an amplifier arranged on the output side of the pixel unit, an output unit arranged on the output side of the amplifier, a first restriction circuit, and a second restriction circuit. The first restriction circuit restricts, between the amplifier and the output unit, a noise level read out from the pixel unit via the amplifier in reading out the noise level from the pixel unit. The second restriction circuit restricts, between the photoelectric converter and the amplifier, a noise level to be provided to the amplifier in reading out the noise level from the pixel unit.

When a shutter speed in shooting by an image capture apparatus using an image stabilization apparatus is higher than a first predetermined value and lower than a second predetermined value which is higher than the first predetermined value, a shake compensation driving unit sets the movable range of a shake compensation lens to be wider than that when it is lower than the first predetermined value or higher than the second predetermined value. While providing an anti-shake capacity necessary for the situation, a phenomenon in which the shake compensation lens stays at a maximum driving position and degradation of the image quality caused by deviation of the shake compensation lens from the center of the optical axis can be suppressed.

An encoding apparatus comprises, a detection unit configured to determine a characteristic of the image of each of a plurality of blocks and to detect whether visual degradation in each block is noticeable, a determination unit configured to determine a quantization parameter of each block based on a detection result, a transformation unit configured to perform orthogonal transformation of the block and quantization using the quantization parameter, an encoding unit configured to perform variable-length encoding of a transformation result, an inverse transformation unit configured to inversely transform the transformation result to generate a locally decoded image, and a calculation unit configured to calculate a reference value to change a criterion to determine the characteristic of the image, wherein the detection unit detects a block having noticeable visual degradation by changing the criterion in accordance with the reference value.

A display apparatus for driving light emitting elements to emit light at a timing shifted according to the order of scanning lines, is arranged to control the light emission intensity of the light emitting element in accordance with an image signal and include a drive unit for driving the light emitting elements of the respective scanning lines in a light emission pattern including a first impulse operation period light emission pattern and a second impulse operation period light emission pattern.

In order to reduce noise appropriately according to scaling factor and a degree of motion of an image and to suppress degradation in image quality resulting from the noise reduction to a negligible level, a noise reduction control section outputs a noise detection instruction, a noise detection threshold instruction and a filtering mode instruction based on a scale factor output from a scale factor calculating section and a motion detection result output from a motion detecting section. A mosquito noise reducing section and a blocking artifact reducing section in a noise reducing section adaptively conducts an appropriate noise reducing process using noise detection sensitivity and the number of filter taps and a filter coefficient of a smoothing filter according to these instructions.

An encoding apparatus comprises, a detection unit configured to determine a characteristic of the image of each of a plurality of blocks and to detect whether visual degradation in each block is noticeable, a determination unit configured to determine a quantization parameter of each block based on a detection result, a transformation unit configured to perform orthogonal transformation of the block and quantization using the quantization parameter, an encoding unit configured to perform variable-length encoding of a transformation result, an inverse transformation unit configured to inversely transform the transformation result to generate a locally decoded image, and a calculation unit configured to calculate a reference value to change a criterion to determine the characteristic of the image, wherein the detection unit detects a block having noticeable visual degradation by changing the criterion in accordance with the reference value.

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of loop detecting sensors which detect various levels of loops formed on a recording material; and a controlling device which selects a specific one out of the loop sensors in accordance with information on the recording material, and then, switches a conveyance speed of a fixing roller pair in response to a detection signal output from the specific sensor, so as to control in such a manner as to keep the loop of the recording material within a constant range, the controlling device selecting the loop detecting sensor for detecting a loop of a level in accordance with the information on the recording material, so as to perform a loop keeping control for the recording material in response to the detection signal output from the selected loop detecting sensor.

There is provided an image capturing apparatus, comprising an image capturing unit configured to acquire video data at a first frame rate or a second frame rate higher than the first frame rate; and a control unit configured to perform control of an aperture and an exposure time within a range in which the exposure time is shorter than or equal to a maximum exposure time that is a reciprocal of a frame rate of the image capturing unit, so that luminance of the image signal acquired by the image capturing unit is at a predetermined level, wherein when the image capturing unit is operating at the first frame rate, the control unit performs the control within a range in which the exposure time is shorter than a first time that is a reciprocal of the first frame rate.

This invention scans a block using a window having a size of p×q pixels, and encodes p×q sub-block data each formed from pixel data at relatively identical positions in windows. A blocking unit receives a 16×16-pixel block image. A sub-block division unit scans the received block for each 2×2-pixel window, and generates 2×2 sub-block data each having a size of 8×8 pixels. Each sub-block is formed from pixel data at relatively identical positions in windows. A variable length coding unit encodes each sub-block data. When the sum of encoded sub-block data exceeds an allowable encoded data amount, a sub-block elimination unit eliminates encoded sub-block data until the sum becomes equal to or smaller than the allowable encoded data amount. The sub-block elimination unit outputs the remaining encoded sub-block data as encoded data of a block of interest.

White balance correction amounts are read from a region in which white balance correction amounts are recorded in a region in which print information is recorded in a smart media. An overall white balance correction average value is computed. From the white balance correction average value, an AWB additional control amount which is to be additionally corrected at a digital still camera is computed. A current AWB additional control amount and the above AWB additional control amount are multiplied to determined a new AWB additional correction amount which is set in the camera. Similarly, a correction circuit, a γ conversion circuit, a YCrCb matrix circuit, and a contour correction circuit are set on the basis of a brightness correction amount, a gradation correction amount, a tint correction amount, and a contour correction amount.

The present invention relates to an image processing device and method, program and recording medium for achieving grayscale compression capable of suppressing image quality degradation using a simple configuration. A detection section 63 performs a detection process of a signal Y′ that has been subjected to the processes of a luminance signal generating section 61 and perception equalization section 62, thus finding average intensities of lighting in bright and dark areas of an input image. A control MPU 64 finds adaptation gains kAr and kBr based on the average intensities. Processing the signal Y′ with an edge-preserving LPF 65 provides a lighting component signal Y′lp. A detail extraction section 66 computes the difference between the signal Y′ and lighting component signal Y′lp, thus extracting a detail component signal Y′de of the image of the signal Y′. Thereafter, the lighting component of the signal Y′ is subjected to grayscale compression by a tone curve process section 68, while the detail component of the image of the signal Y′ is subjected to grayscale compression by a detail adjustment section 67.

The present invention provides an image display apparatus capable of reducing a hold blur in accordance with circumstances. A black inserting process for inserting a black display area into a display screen in a liquid crystal display panel 2 according to at least one of substance of a video signal in an original frame and brightness of viewing environment for user is performed. Concretely, for example, when a video signal in the original frame is a cinema signal (film signal), the black inserting process of inserting a black display area into the display screen in the liquid crystal display panel 2 is performed. More concretely, for example, a backlight driving unit 71 performs switching drive between turn-on and turn-off of a backlight 72 so that the black inserting process is performed on the display screen in the liquid crystal display panel 2.

A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel (LCD panel), an area light source device which illuminates the LCD panel, a driving unit which drives the LCD panel and the area light source device, and a control unit which controls the driving unit. The LCD panel includes display pixels. The area light source device includes plural kinds of light sources which are successively turned on in one frame period. The control unit includes means for controlling the driving unit in a manner to execute video signal write and reset signal write after the video signal write, in a period in which one of the plural kinds of light sources is turned on in the one frame period. The video signal write and the reset signal write are executed with the same polarity, and a polarity of potential of the display pixels is reversed between frame periods.

An encoding apparatus encodes an image by tile in a smallest possible size while suppresses segmentation of a specific region in the image into tiles. Vertical lines at left and right ends of n-th face region are defined as boundary candidate vertical lines Lh(n) and Lm(n), and horizontal lines at upper and lower ends of the n-th region, as boundary candidate horizontal lines Lu(n) and Ls(n). A divider determines a horizontal line of another region existing within the range of the horizontal lines Lu(n) and Ls(n) of the n-th region as a line to be deleted. Further, the divider determines a vertical line of another region existing within the range of the vertical lines Lh(n) and Lm(n) as a line to be deleted. This processing is performed to the final region, then image data is divided using horizontal and vertical lines except the lines determined as lines to be deleted.

A display apparatus driving circuit capable of reducing the amount of heat generated at a driving unit while suppressing degradation in image quality is provided. A display apparatus driving circuit according to the present invention includes: a source driver for driving a display unit; a heat detecting circuit for detecting amount of heat generated at the source driver, and outputting a heat detection signal when the detected amount of generated heat is equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value; and a heat reduction circuit for changing, when the heat detection signal is received, a driving method of the display unit to reduce the amount of heat generated at said source driver.

Provided is an image processing apparatus that reduces the processing time taken to encode image data that has been divided into blocks, as well as suppresses a reduction in image quality. To accomplish this, among block images obtained by dividing the image into blocks, the image processing apparatus executes encoding processing using a first method with priority on important block images such as those including thin lines or characters. Furthermore, the image processing apparatus executes encoding processing using a second method if the encoded data amount of blocks that have been encoded becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

A system controller sets an optical correction ratio, which is a distribution ratio in which a shake angle detected by a gyro sensor is distributed to optical shake correction, in accordance with an optical zoom magnification and controls a prism driver to correct the shake angle multiplied by the optical correction ratio by the optical shake correction, and also controls a read controller to correct the rest of the angle by electronic shake correction.

There is provided an electrophotographic photosensitive member used in an electrophotographic apparatus which meets energy saving and higher image quality. The electrophotographic photosensitive member has excellent potential properties, and can suppress the image quality degradation caused by interference. The electrophotographic photosensitive member of the present invention including on a conductive substrate at least a photoconductive layer mainly composed of amorphous silicon, a surface layer, and at least one intermediate layer interposed between the photoconductive layer and the surface layer, wherein the surface layer contains a metal fluoride (exclusive of silicon fluoride) and the intermediate layer contains a metal oxide.

Disclosed are a printing apparatus and printing method which suppress degradation of the image quality caused by discharge failure complement. In the printing apparatus, virtual data are generated for predetermined dots in a scanning direction on the basis of printing data of a plurality of dots in the scanning direction of an inkjet printhead that are printed by an ink discharge failure nozzle among a plurality of nozzles. The priorities of dots subjected to complementary printing among a plurality of dots within a predetermined adjacent area where the printing data and virtual data are printed are decided on the basis of the printing data and virtual data. A position subjected to complementary printing is decided on the basis of the priorities, printing data, and virtual data. Printing data and virtual data which actually cause ink discharge are so moved as to print at the position. Corrected printing data to be actually printed is generated on the basis of the moved data. Printing is performed by driving the inkjet printhead on the basis of the corrected printing data.

A lens array sheet includes a lens layer having a lens surface on which a plurality of lenses are formed in an array, and a light diffusion layer arranged at an opposite side to the lens surface of the lens layer, for diffusing light directing toward the lens layer, wherein the light diffusion layer has a light reflection portion, which is embedded in at least a part of a non-light focusing region of the lens layer, for reflecting light passing through the non-light focusing region and directing toward the lens layer.