7327 results about "Ccd camera" patented technology

The present invention was made in the light of the foregoing backgrounds, and an object thereof is to provide a forceps channel add-on device for an endoscope, provided on an outer periphery of an insertion portion of the endoscope. The forceps channel add-on device for an endoscope is an external forceps channel device for an endoscope, which is capable of providing two forceps channels or more without controlling the luminous intensity and the field of view of the endoscope, capable of extracting a substance larger than the bore diameter of the forceps channel multiple times while using the endoscope in a state of not being drawn out, without imposing a heavy burden on a patient, and also capable of performing examination after an operation as to whether complications are incurred after the evulsion, whether there is any other affected part overlooked, and so forth. An external forceps channel device for an endoscope, provided with an external forceps channel which is capable of being repeatedly inserted and extracted in a way of being guided by a guide provided on an endoscope separately and independently therefrom along an outside of an insertion portion of the endoscope while using the endoscope without drawing it out, the endoscope incorporating an air supply path, a light source, a CCD camera, and a forceps channel and including the insertion portion and an maneuvering portion, characterized in that provided is the external forceps channel capable of repeatedly extracting a foreign substance larger than a bore diameter of the incorporated forceps channel in a way of being guided by the guide along the outside of the endoscope, together with the whole external forceps channel itself in a state where the foreign substance is grasped by forceps inserted through the external forceps channel, and that provided is the external forceps channel capable of being repeatedly inserted in a way of being guided by the guide along the outside of the endoscope in a state where the endoscope is not drawn out.

A surgery system comprising at least one smart instrument, a computer system, and a sensor system adapted to wirelessly sense the position of the at least one smart instrument and to transmit position information to the computer system, wherein the sensor system includes a sensor array and the sensor array includes at least three linear CCD cameras and at least one infrared transceiver.

Automatic tracking lighting equipment for automatically tracking a target to be illuminated. A spotlight is supported for pivoting in horizontal and vertical directions on a ceiling surface. A horizontal drive mechanism changes the horizontal angle of the spotlight and a vertical drive mechanism changes the vertical angle of the spotlight. A CCD camera picks up the image of a target area to be illuminated. An image recognition unit processes the image from the CCD camera to recognize the target to be illuminated and to specify its coordinates. A coordinate calculation unit calculates how far to move the spotlight based on a distance of the target to be illuminated. A movable control unit converts the output of the coordinate calculation unit into drive signals for the horizontal drive mechanism and for the vertical drive mechanism and outputs drive signals to pivot the spotlight in a desired direction.

A method of making purchases with a mobile communications device account from a vending machine includes providing a mobile communication device with an image capture mechanism; providing a vending machine with a data display; capturing the data display of the vending machine with the image capturing mechanism; decoding the data display in the mobile communication device to determine a URL for a vendor server and an identification number for the vending machine; transmitting the identification number to the vendor server; authorizing the dispensing of product from the vending machine by the vendor server; and billing the mobile communication device user account on a mobile communication device accounting server.

The enumeration of cells in fluids by flow cytometry is widely used across many disciplines such as assessment of leukocyte subsets in different bodily fluids or of bacterial contamination in environmental samples, food products and bodily fluids. For many applications the cost, size and complexity of the instruments prevents wider use, for example, CD4 analysis in HIV monitoring in resource-poor countries. The novel device, methods and algorithms disclosed herein largely overcome these limitations. Briefly, all cells in a biological sample are fluorescently labeled, but only the target cells are also magnetically labeled. The labeled sample, in a chamber or cuvet, is placed between two wedge-shaped magnets to selectively move the magnetically labeled cells to the observation surface of the cuvet. An LED illuminates the cells and a CCD camera captures the images of the fluorescent light emitted by the target cells. Image analysis performed with a novel algorithm provides a count of the cells on the surface that can be related to the target cell concentration of the original sample. The compact cytometer system provides a rugged, affordable and easy-to-use technique, which can be used in remote locations.

A method for detecting tooth decay and other tooth anomalies wherein a tooth is transilluminated with a near-infrared light source preferably in the range from approximately 795-nm to approximately 1600-nm, more preferably in the range from approximately 830-nm to approximately 1550-nm, more preferably in the range from approximately 1285-nm to approximately 1335-nm, and more preferably at a wavelength of approximately 1310-nm, and the light passing through the tooth is imaged for determining an area of decay in the tooth. The light source is a fiber-optic bundle coupled to a halogen lamp or more preferably a superluminescent diode, and the imaging device is preferably a CCD camera or a focal plane array (FPA).

The foregoing application describes a system and method of performing a minimally invasive surgical operation. More specifically, the invention involves the use of disposable cannula and slender dilators of variable lengths, which incorporate a source of illumination to carry light to a surgical site and video capabilities for capturing and displaying images from a CMOS or CCD camera device. According to one embodiment, fiber optics run semi-circumferentially or along walls of the cannula / dilator and terminate at about a centimeter from the distal end of the cannula / dilator, thereby preventing illumination from “bottoming out” at the floor of the incision. According to one alternate embodiment, the light fibers may be fashioned in an annulus around one or more camera chips to provide illumination and video of the surgical site. In still another embodiment, the light fibers may be replaced by light emitting diodes in a more remote light source or alternatively at the distal-tip of the CMOS or CCD camera device.

A CCD camera takes rearview images of a vehicle so as to input them into a superposing image displaying device, and a vehicle index database stores a vehicle index indicating a vehicles's protruding region such as a spare tire for displaying the protruding region over a rear end of a rear reference position such as a bumper of the vehicle in the rearview image. A superposed image displaying device superposes the vehicle index stored in the vehicle index database and the rearview image taken by the CCD camera so as to provide a monitoring device. Thus, a rearview monitoring apparatus for a vehicle for displaying the rearview image of the vehicle and information of the protruding region for occupants in the vehicle can be provided.

A robot includes a face extracting section for extracting features of a face included in an image captured by a CCD camera, and a face recognition section for recognizing the face based on a result of face extraction by the face extracting section. The face extracting section is implemented by Gabor filters that filter images using a plurality of filters that have orientation selectivity and that are associated with different frequency components. The face recognition section is implemented by a support vector machine that maps the result of face recognition to a non-linear space and that obtains a hyperplane that separates in that space to discriminate a face from a non-face. The robot is allowed to recognize a face of a user within a predetermined time under a dynamically changing environment.

The present invention relates to a system (80) for determining analyte concentration. The system (80) includes an optical detection system (92) that detects fluorescence from fluorescent binding assays in a biosensor (88). A processing system (96) may be used to determine analyte concentration from the fluorescence detected by the optical detection system (92). The optical detection system (92) may include photodetectors with or without in series lenses. Alternatively, a CCD camera (146) may be used.

An automatic groove-tracing welding system is capable of carrying out a welding operation, particularly, a welding operation involving weaving, without requiring monitoring even if conditions of a groove is different from design conditions of the groove. An image processor 3 receives an image signal representing an image of a weld zone 52 including the tip of a welding wire from a camera head 2 provided with a CCD camera, processes the image of the weld zone 52 to determine the position of a groove, calculates the positional relation of the groove with a welding torch 1, and sends a position correction for correcting the position of the welding torch 1 so that the welding path of the tip of the welding torch 1 may coincide with a predetermined middle part in the groove to a robot controller 43 for controlling a welding robot. When the automatic groove-tracing welding system performs a welding operation involving weaving, the image processor 3 receives a weaving phase signal representing phases of weaving from the robot controller 43, calculates the positional relation between the groove and the welding torch on the basis of the phase of weaving, and sends a weaving width correction signal to the robot controller 43.

This present invention relates to a fluorescence endoscope apparatus, developed for diagnosing various illnesses within a body, especially for diagnosing a tumor inflamed region; and an application method of the same. The purpose of this invention is to enhance the accuracy of the examination. The fluorescence light endoscope apparatus in accordance with the present invention is comprised of an endoscope probe; a multiple light source that provides illumination light or excitation light of short wavelength onto a diagnostic region; a color CCD camera and a high sensitive monochromatic CCD camera placed on the back of an endoscope ocular lens; a reference test sample; a computer; and a monitor. The method of the present invention embodies a preliminary correction of the fluorescence endoscope apparatus of the present invention in accordance with the reference test sample; a general endoscopy using the illumination light, and an image observation and examination of the same diagnostic region using the fluorescence light and the reflected excitation light simultaneously; an auto-correction of brightness and unevenness of the fluorescence light images of the diagnostic region according to the reference test sample data; an evaluation of the brightness of the fluorescence light in the diagnosis region; storing numerical data that characterizing images and brightness of the fluorescence light in the diagnosis region; and storing image collected via two cameras as digital video clips.

A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus comprises image solid object detecting means for detecting image solid objects based on image information outputted from a CCD camera, millimeter wave solid object detecting means for detecting millimeter wave solid objects based on signals outputted from a millimeter wave radar, fusion solid object establishing means for establishing fusion solid objects composed of single image solid objects, single millimeter wave solid objects and a combination of the image solid objects and the millimeter wave solid objects by fusing the image solid objects and the millimeter wave solid objects, first reliability judging means for judging a degree of reliability of the fusion solid objects based on a detecting situation of the respective fusion solid objects by the image solid object detecting means, second reliability judging means for judging a degree of reliability of the fusion solid objects based on a detecting situation of the respective fusion solid objects by the millimeter wave solid object detecting means and preceding vehicle selecting means for selecting a preceding vehicle from the fusion solid objects when it is judged that the fusion solid objects have a specified level of reliability according to either of the first reliability judging means and the second reliability judging means.

A CCD camera takes rearview images of a vehicle so as to input them into a superposing image displaying device, and a vehicle index database stores a vehicle index indicating a vehicles's protruding region such as a spare tire for displaying the protruding region over a rear end of a rear reference position such as a bumper of the vehicle in the rearview image. A superposed image displaying device superposes the vehicle index stored in the vehicle index database and the rearview image taken by the CCD camera so as to provide a monitoring device. Thus, a rearview monitoring apparatus for a vehicle for displaying the rearview image of the vehicle and information of the protruding region for occupants in the vehicle can be provided.

A method and system for full-field fringe-projection for 3-D surface-geometry measurement, referred to as “triangular-pattern phase-shifting” is disclosed. A triangular grey-scale-level-coded fringe pattern is computer generated, projected along a first direction onto an object or scene surface and distorted according to the surface geometry. The 3-D coordinates of points on the surface are calculated by triangulation from distorted triangular fringe-pattern images acquired by a CCD camera along a second direction and a triangular-shape intensity-ratio distribution is obtained from calculation of the captured distorted triangular fringe-pattern images. Removal of the triangular shape of the intensity ratio over each pattern pitch generates a wrapped intensity-ratio distribution obtained by removing the discontinuity of the wrapped image with a modified unwrapping method. Intensity ratio-to-height conversion is used to reconstruct the 3-D surface coordinates of the object. Intensity-ratio error compensation involves estimating intensity-ratio error in a simulation of the measurement process with both real and ideal captured triangular-pattern images obtained from real and ideal gamma non-linearity functions. A look-up table relating the measure intensity-ratio to the corresponding intensity-ratio error is constructed and used for intensity-ratio error compensation. The inventive system is based on two-step phase-shifting but can be extended for multiple-step phase-shifting.

The invention relates to a vector-relation-based method for calibrating single-line laser radar and a CCD camera. Point set information of the laser radar for scanning a V-shaped target is extracted in a laser coordinate system, and direction vectors and intersection coordinates of straight lines in two different planes of the target are obtained by means of straight line fitting; the CCD camera is used for capturing images in a camera coordinate system, target plane equations and an equation of a plane passing through an original point and laser radar scanning lines are obtained by processing image information, a straight-line equation of laser radar scanning is built, and furthermore, the direction vectors and the intersection coordinates of the straight lines are obtained; finally, calibration is finished according to the relations between direction vectors and the intersection coordinates of the straight lines corresponding to the different coordinate systems. According to the method, no object in a calibration scene needs to be moved, collection of all calibration data can be completed at a time, and calibration efficiency is improved greatly. According to the method, the direction vectors of the straight lines of the laser scanning target planes under the coordinate systems of sensors to be calibrated are obtained directly, calibration precision is guaranteed, and meanwhile the calibration algorithm is simplified.

The invention relates to a device and method for detecting micro defects on the bright and clean surface of a metal part based on machine vision. The device comprises an imaging, positioning and adjusting mechanism and a processing unit, wherein the imaging, positioning and adjusting mechanism comprises a base plate, a guide rod, a fixed support, a sliding support, a stepping motor, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera, a telecentric lens and parallel light sources, wherein the imaging and coaxial lighting of the CCD camera are primarily adjusted; an image collection card, an industrial personal computer, an equipment control card and an alarm are electrically connected in the processing unit and are used for collecting, transmitting, storing, processing, displaying and alarming image. The method comprises coaxial lighting adjustment and image processing, wherein coaxial lighting adjustment comprises the steps of triggering the equipment control card via software of the industrial personal computer to drive the stepping motor, and adjusting the rotating angles of the parallel light sources until the coaxial lighting condition is satisfied; and image processing comprises the steps of detecting defects on the internal surface of the detected part, respectively detecting large and small defects on the outer edge on the surface of the detected part, displaying the processing images in real time and judging the results.

When settling a purchase price, a troublesome input is omitted and an input mistake or the like is prevented. The content data delivery server 42 makes the QR code generation unit 49 generate a QR code including encoded URL data of the settlement unit 70, a medium identifier data IDm and so forth. The QR code is displayed on a display 26. After imaging the displayed QR code by a CCD camera 58, the QR code is analyzed and a data is read therefrom. It is transmitted to a settlement server 71 and a settlement request is performed.

A robot apparatus 1 is to be electrically charged autonomously. An electrical charging device 100 is provided with two markers, namely a main marker 118 and a sub-marker 119, and the heights of the markers are pre-stored in the robot apparatus. When the robot apparatus 1 is to find the direction and the distance to the electrical charging device 100, a CCD camera 20 finds the direction vector of the marker from the photographed image. This direction vector is transformed into a position vector of a camera coordinate system {c} and further into a position vector of the robot coordinate system {b}. The coordinate in the height-wise direction in the robot coordinate system {b} is compared to the pre-stored height to find the distance between the markers and the robot apparatus and the direction of the robot apparatus.

The e-Mirrors system promotes a new standard of driving safety views device, which upgrade regular glass mirrors from optical reflective to optoelectronic. The e-Mirrors system overcomes lots problems of conventional mirrors: blind spots, poor rear view, poor object approaching view etc. Variety new design vehicles made in the century 21 need higher standard safety view devices to drive in more & more crowded traffic system since population is growing rapidly. Time to change! Trend to go optoelectronic safety view. The e-Mirrors system integrates ultra night vision multi micro CCD cameras, high definition low distortion Lens, multiple mini LCD panels, New concept design camera mounts, video processor (or switch) all in 1. Each component apply unique design, each view setting has its technique. Using e-Mirrors to fill the absence of central rear mirror in trucks and buses large vehicles, drivers will be stress free. Driving everyday becomes easy, safely and fun! After tested in many vehicles, this e-Mirrors system proofs the most creative and the state of the art safety device since the invention of airbag. Its application will significantly reduce the traffic accidents causing by driver's “did not see it” error every year. Airbags now are legal mandatory devices for motor vehicles. However, airbags deploy to reduce lost of lives only after the collision, not able to reduce traffic accidents. Wish this handy e-mirrors system, cost less than airbags, be the second mandatory device for all vehicles soon!

The present invention provides a three-dimensional digital entity magnifying glass technique-assisting and training / educational distribution system incorporating three-dimensional visual training functions by means of image composition that enables a three-dimensional visual instruction containing a depth when giving visual instructions to an HMD worn by a medical practitioner to thereby display only images of a pointing device or various kinds of instruments among image information of the instructor's CCD camera and synchronously and compositely displaying a three-dimensional visual training image output from an image-processing apparatus that can display an after-image of the image for an arbitrary time setting into image information of the CCD camera, thereby providing equal-scaling display of image information to which an instruction and a comment by use of a visual display / instruction image are added three-dimensionally as well as an instrument actually used by the instructors (groups of lecturers) on the three-dimensional HMD of the medical practitioner.

A teaching position correcting device which can easily correct, with high precision, teaching positions after shifting at least one of a robot and an object worked by the robot. Calibration is carried out using a vision sensor (i.e., CCD camera) that is mounted on a work tool. The vision sensor measures three-dimensional positions of at least three reference marks not aligned in a straight line on the object. The vision sensor is optionally detached from the work tool, and at least one of the robot and the object is shifted. After the shifting, calibration (this can be omitted when the vision sensor is not detached) and measuring of three-dimensional positions of the reference marks are carried out gain. A change in a relative positional relationship between the robot and the object is obtained using the result of measuring three-dimensional positions of the reference marks before and after the shifting respectively. To compensate for this change, the teaching position data that is valid before the shifting is corrected. The robot can have a measuring robot mechanical unit having a vision sensor, and a separate working robot mechanical unit that works the object. In this case, positions of the working robot mechanical unit before and after the shifting, respectively, are also measured.

A portable surveillance camera and a personal surveillance system are disclosed. More specifically, provided are a portable surveillance camera comprising a mini-camera such as a CMOS camera or a CCD camera, and a system for surveilling a predetermined place using the portable surveillance camera. The personal surveillance system receives multimedia data such as image, sound, event and control data on real time from the portable surveillance camera installed in various areas such as a house, a shop or an office with a control device connectable to a network such as a LAN or an internet, and then monitors or stores the multimedia data. Also, the personal surveillance system can search, surveille, control, edit and store multimedia data such as image, sound, event and control data for a desired period of time from data stored in the portable surveillance camera or the control device.

An optical system for a scanning probe microscope provides both an optical on-axis view and an optical oblique view of the sample by means of two optical paths each providing an image to a CCD camera via an auto-zoom lens. A shutter alternately blocks the image of either view from reaching the auto-zoom lens. The CCD camera provides the optical image to a video display which also displays the scanning probe image, thus eliminating the need for eyepieces and allowing easy viewing of both the optical and scanning probe images simultaneously.

The invention relates to a visual inspection technology. In order to meet the requirements of fast and high-accurate surface three-dimensional (3D) topography online measurement and the detection requirements of a production line on intelligence, fastness, high accuracy and low cost, the invention adopts the technical scheme that: a high-speed scanning and overall imaging 3D measurement method comprises the following steps of: carrying out external modulation on a driving power supply by using a laser so as to control the output of a word line laser; rotating a multifaceted prism under the drive of a high-speed motor, wherein line-structured light outputted by the laser is reflected and projected to the surface of a measured object by the multifaceted prism; and placing a photoelectric detector at a position which is the limit position projected by the line-structured light during the rotating process of the multifaceted prism, carrying out exposure on an area-array CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) camera during the process that the line-structured light scans the whole area, and establishing a measurement model, wherein the 3D coordinate (xp, yp, zp) of the surface feature point of the measured object is obtained according to a formula by using an image coordinate (u[theta]p, v[theta]p) formed by the area-array CCD camera and [theta]p. The high-speed scanning and overall imaging 3D measurement method is mainly applied to the fast and high-accurate surface 3D topography online measurement.

The information processing apparatus allows, based on an image obtained by photographing a user by the CCD camera 8, to recognize the movement direction of the user and when generating a command corresponding to the recognized movement direction, to create the gesture recognition screen 100 in a search state indicating that the apparatus is searching for the user's movement and display it on a liquid crystal display 10 so as to certainly notify the user that the user's movement is recognizable and it is in a standby state. Further, the information processing apparatus allows, before recognizing the movement direction of the user's action based on the image obtained by photographing the user by the CCD camera 8, to generate a gesture recognition screen 100 in advance for making the user visualize a recognizable movement direction and display a target division 107 arranged in a horizontal line on the gesture recognition screen 100 so as to notify the user in advance that right-and-left movement is recognizable, using the target division 107. Furthermore, the information processing apparatus allows, based on the image obtained by photographing the user's hand with the CCD camera 8, to recognize the movement direction of the hand in the image and generate a visual feedback screen representing the trail of the movement of the recognized hand and display it on the liquid crystal display 10 so as to make the user learn on how the movement of the hand was recognized, by feedback.

The invention discloses an accurate part positioning method based on binocular microscopy stereo vision, which belongs to the technical field of computer visual measuring and relates to an accurate precision part positioning method based on the binocular microscopy stereo vision. A binocular microscopy stereo vision system is adopted, two CCD (charge coupled device) cameras are adopted to acquire the images of the measured parts, the image information in the to-be-measured area on the measured part is amplified by a stereo microscope, a checkerboard calibrating board is adopted to calibrate the two CCD cameras, and a Harris corner point detecting algorithm and a sub-pixel extracting algorithm are adopted to extract feature points. The extracted feature points are subjected to the primary matching and correcting of matching point pairs, and the feature point image coordinates are inputted to a calibrated system to obtain the space actual coordinates of the feature points. The accurate part positioning method based on the binocular microscopy stereo vision solves the measuring difficult problems generated by the small size of the to-be-measured area, high positioning demand, non-contact and the like. The accurate positioning of the precision part is well finished by adopting the non-contact measuring method of the binocular microscopy stereo vision.

The invention discloses a calibration method of correlation between a single line laser radar and a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera, which is based on the condition that the CCD camera can carry out weak imaging on an infrared light source used by the single line laser radar. The calibration method comprises the steps of: firstly, extracting a virtual control point in a scanning plane under the assistance of a cubic calibration key; and then filtering visible light by using an infrared filter to image infrared light only, carrying out enhancement, binarization treatment and Hough transformation on an infrared image with scanning line information, and extracting two laser scanning lines, wherein the intersection point of the two scanning lines is the image coordinate of the virtual control point in the image. After acquiring multiple groups of corresponding points through the steps, a correlation parameter between the laser radar and the camera can be solved by adopting an optimization method for minimizing a reprojection error. Because the invention acquires the information of the corresponding points directly, the calibration process becomes simpler and the precision is greatly improved with a calibrated angle error smaller than 0.3 degree and a position error smaller than 0.5cm.