483 results about "Shutter speed" patented technology

System and methods for querying digital image archives containing digital photographs and/or videos (collectively, "digital images"). The digital images are indexed in accordance with a plurality of recorded parameters including time, date and geographic location data (altitude and longitude), as well as image data such as lens focal length, auto focus distance, shutter speed, exposure duration, aperture setting, frame number, image quality, flash status and light meter readings, which are used for searching a database consisting of the digital images. These images are preferably generated by an image capturing system which is capable of measuring and recording a plurality of parameters with each captured digital image. The image retrieval system allows a querying user to search the image archive by formulating one or more of a plurality of query types which are based on the recorded parameters, and then retrieve and display those images having the specified parameters.

Real-time visual tracking using depth sensing camera technology, results in illumination-invariant tracking performance. Depth sensing (time-of-flight) cameras provide real-time depth and color images of the same scene. Depth windows regulate the tracked area by controlling shutter speed. A potential field is derived from the depth image data to provide edge information of the tracked target. A mathematically representable contour can model the tracked target. Based on the depth data, determining a best fit between the contour and the edge of the tracked target provides position information for tracking. Applications using depth sensor based visual tracking include head tracking, hand tracking, body-pose estimation, robotic command determination, and other human-computer interaction systems.

A video signal including illumination flicker component is integrated at each of unit areas (horizontal lines) in a frame (field) of the video signal. The integrated level at each of the unit areas at the frame and the integrated level at the corresponding unit area of an adjacent frame are averaged. Dividing is effected between results of the averaging and integrating every unit area. It is judged whether flicker exists in the video signal by frequency-analyzing results of the dividing result at the unit areas. The unit area may be plural adjacent lines where flickering are negligible. The averaging circuit may be circulation type of or FIR filter. Threshold level for judging the flicker is changed according to a shutter speed control signal. Flicker compensation may be executed by controlling shutter speed or the AGC according to flicker judging result. A still condition at a block in a frame may be detected from the integration result at plural frames. When the block is judged to be still, the flicker is judged. An ac line frequency detection is also disclosed to detect the frequency of the ac line from a video signal generated under illumination including flicker. An imaging circuit may be provided to generate the video signal therein.

This invention provides an infrared illuminator and camera system for imaging of auto vehicle license plates. The system works in ambient light conditions, ranging from bright sunlight, to dim light, to dark, to zero ambient light. It yields high-contrast imaging of the letters and numbers on retro-reflective license plates. The images of the license letter and number combinations can be read manually by a remote operator. They can be converted to text format with optical character recognition computer hardware and software. The text data can then be compared to data files listing license numbers to provide further data about the owner of a licensed vehicle. A decision can be made quickly about whether to allow a vehicle to proceed through a gate, or whether to take other action. The system uses a mono camera that is enhanced for infrared sensitivity and combined with a high power infrared illuminator to maximize range at night, and with shutter speeds set up to capture clear license plate pictures even with fast moving vehicles and even with their headlights on and interfering with human observation of the license plates. Optical filtering to pass infrared in the range of the illuminator and to reduce light outside this range, combines with a lens set up, to avoid vertical smear and sensor overload caused by headlights at night and by highlight reflected glare from the sun in daytime.

An imaging apparatus includes an integrating unit to integrate pixel values of pixels in each of a plurality of areas of an image; a holding unit to hold integration values generated by the integrating unit; an operating unit to operate a waveform of a differential value between integration values of the same areas in two images having a phase difference of flicker of 180 degrees; an extracting unit to extract phase and amplitude of the flicker on the basis of the waveform operated by the operating unit; a selecting unit to select a waveform of the flicker on the basis of shutter speed of the imaging apparatus; and a correcting unit configured to correct the pixel values of the pixels by using a correction value based on the flicker waveform selected by the selecting unit and the phase and amplitude extracted by the extracting unit.

A method and system for determining camera positioning information from an accelerometer mounted on a camera. The accelerometer measures the orientation of the camera with respect to gravity. Orientation measurement allows user interface information to be displayed in a “right side up” orientation on a viewfinder for any camera orientation. Alternatively, an artificial horizon indicator may be displayed in the viewfinder. The accelerometer may also measure camera movement. Camera movement information together with camera orientation can be used to determine camera usage. Additionally, camera movement information can be used to determine a minimum shutter speed for a sharp picture.

The present invention provides a very flexible, digital system for capturing and storing panoramic images using progressive scan (that is, non interlaced) technology. The system includes a digital image input device and an associated control computer. Since the image capture device is digital it can be easily and flexibly controlled by software in the control computer. The image input device has six lenses positioned on the six faces of a cube. While the image input system can have other lens configurations, the use of six lenses in a cubic configuration is optimal for a system that is used to capture a spherical panorama. The six lenses simultaneously focuses different images on six CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices). The image input device also includes an embedded controller, and data compression circuitry. The embedded controller controls the exposure time of the CCDs (i.e. the effective aperture and effective shutter speed) and reads image data from the CCDs. The image data read from the CCDs is compressed, multiplexed, and sent to the control computer. The control computer stores the images in frames, each of which have one image from each of the six lenses. Each frame includes six images that were simultaneously recorded and any associated information, such as audio tracks, textual information, or environmental information such as GPS (Global Position System) data or artificial horizon data. The control computer includes a user interface which allows a user to specify control information such as frame rate, compression ratio, gain, etc. The control computer sends control information to the embedded controller which in turn controls the CCDs and the compression circuitry. The images can be sent from the control computer to a real time viewer so that a user can determine if the correct images are being captured. The images stored at the control computer are later seamed into panoramas and made into panoramic movies.

Image light from an object is dispersed by a light dispersing device. When a plurality of image sensors are used for picking up images, an image in which a moving object is stopped is picked up with a high shutter speed, and at the same time, a motion-blurred image in which the moving object is picked up at a slow shutter speed. The obtained images are synthesized. The synthesized image has a slow synchronized flash effect. Accordingly, an image having a slow synchronized flash effect can be obtained without using a flash.

A method and system for categorizing non-textual subject data, such as digital images, content-based data and meta-data to determine outcomes of classification tasks. The meta-data is indicative of the operational conditions of a recording device during the capturing of the content-based data. For example, the non-textual subject data may be a digital image captured by a digital camera, and the meta-data may include automatic gain setting, film speed, shutter speed, aperture/lens index, focusing distance, date and time, and flash/no flash operation. The subject image is tagged with selected classifiers by subjecting the image to a series of classification tasks utilizing both content-based data and meta data to determine classifiers associated with the subject image.

The invention relates to a method which can prevent handheld camera equipment from shaking when shooting. The method comprises the following steps of: judging a normal shutter speed needed by brightness on a current scene whether have exceeded a safe shutter speed of the handheld camera equipment or not; if no, directly releasing a shutter for shooting; if so, analyzing high-speed image sequences based on a preview mode to confirm size of the current handheld camera equipment when the equipment is shaking; confirming current shaking whether is larger than a set threshold value according to a preset threshold value range, if the current shaking is smaller than the set threshold value, so a user can be allowed to press down the shutter for shooting; if the shaking continuously becomes larger within a certain time, a condition for shutter releasing is not satisfied, so exposure parameters can be automatically adjusted, namely, gain can be automatically increased, meanwhile, exposure time is reduced, moreover, the threshold value used for judging degree of shaking is correspondingly enlarged, so that the shooting is easier to be reached within an allowable shaking range.

An imaging apparatus includes the functions of conducting automatic exposure control and of conducting shake correction with respect to digital image data acquired by an image pickup unit. The imaging apparatus includes: a determining unit that determines whether or not the shake correction is being implemented; and a switching unit which, when it has been determined by the determining unit that the shake correction is being implemented, switches the shutter speed such that the shutter speed is raised in comparison to when it has been determined by the determining unit that the shake correction is not being implemented. An imaging method determines whether or not the shake correction is being implemented, and when it has been determined that the shake correction is being implemented, switches the shutter speed such that the shutter speed is raised in comparison to when it has been determined that the shake correction is not being implemented.

An imaging apparatus capable of preventing photographing sensitivity from being increased more than necessary, reducing image quality degradation caused by camera shake or object shake and easily photographing images in good image quality. Digital camera 1 includes image shake correcting selection 16 that corrects shake of an optical image of a photographing object formed by the imaging optical system L, digital signal amplification section 110 that amplifies an image signal with a gain set by digital signal gain setting section 111, face detection section 120 that detects a face of a fast-moving specific photographing object such as a child or pet, and motion detection section 100 that detects motion of the face of the specific photographing object based on an output of face detection section 120, wherein when a fast-moving specific photographing object such as a child or pet or the face of the specific photographing object is detected, microcomputer 3 increases the gain of a photographing sensitivity changing function compared with when no specific photographing object such as a child or pet is detected, increases ISO sensitivity, increases a shutter speed and shortens exposure time.

There is disclosed a shake prevention apparatus for compensating for a disturbance in an image resulting from a camera shake. A shake of a camera main body is measured by a gyro sensor. Upon sampling the output signal from the sensor by an A/D converter, a sampling timing corresponding to a shutter speed is set. Especially, a timing is generated so that the sampling timing corresponds to the central position of the charge storage period of a CCD.

The invention discloses a power-saving method of an image capture device, which is applied to an image capture device with a flash lamp, and comprises the following steps: storing a first exposure travel table and a second exposure travel table in the image capture device; under a normal mode, shooting according to the first exposure travel table by the image capture device; and under a power-saving mode, shooting according to the second exposure travel table by the image capture device, wherein the first exposure travel table has a first shutter speed for correspondingly opening the flash lamp, the second exposure travel table has a second shutter speed for correspondingly opening the flash lamp, and the first shutter speed is faster than the second shutter speed. According to the operation mode of the image capture device, the exposure travel table of the image capture device can be adjusted by the method correspondingly, thus prolonging the service time of the image capture device.

A camera creates successive digital images of a scene, and computes a stability measure estimate blur in a final photograph of the scene. The camera combines information such as lens focal length, focus distance, scene brightness value, and shutter speed to determine alternate camera settings that may reduce the blur. The camera communicates to the photographer suggested camera setting changes that may reduce the blur. The communication may optionally happen before the final photograph is taken or after, and may take one of several forms. The camera may optionally be a digital camera. The setting change suggestions may optionally be stored in an image file with a final digital photograph.

This development is about the camera control method for a vehicle license plate recognition system. In detail, it is about the applying variable shutter speed and gain level per image frames that are captured through a CCTV camera of vehicle license plate recognition system. The entire control is done through 3 steps. The first step is to build up a lookup table of electronic shutter speed and gain level to generate images of various brightness levels and archive the created lookup table on to a memory of a camera. The second step is to calculate the average value of image brightness and write the multiple parameters of electronic shutter speed and gain level that match with the calculated average brightness value in the lookup table to a camera control register. The third step is to output series of images of various brightness that are captured under various shutter speeds and gain levels by the control from the camera register. This development is to get series of images with various brightness instantly by adjusting shutter speed and gain level of each frame to avoid recognition failure due to inadequate (too bright or too dark in recognizing numbers in a plate) image frame in harsh conditions such as strong sun lights or fluctuating brightness, which may confuse camera in controlling shutter speed and gain level for getting proper images to recognize.

A technique of acquiring a width obtaining an appropriate exposure with minimum restrictions, while accurately correcting flickering is provided. An exposure control method includes integrating a video signal obtained by shooting a subject by means of a CMOS imaging element as input video signal over not less than a horizontal period, normalizing the integral value or the difference value of the integral value between neighboring fields or frames, extracting the integral value or the difference value after the normalization as flicker spectrum, determining, based on the extracted flicker spectrum, the presence or absence of a flicker component contained in the video signal obtained by the imaging element and controlling the exposure value, using a program diagram for preferentially employing the shutter speed less liable to produce flickering when it is determined that the video signal contains a flicker component.

An image capture method includes performing light metering with respect to a subject in response to a first control signal, setting an ISO value and a shutter speed value based on result of the light metering, increasing the ISO value by a first amount and decreasing the shutter speed value by a second amount in response to a second control signal to capture a plurality of images, where the second amount is greater than the first amount, performing gamma correction with respect to the plurality of images to increase brightness of each image, and synthesizing the plurality of gamma corrected images to obtain a single image with improved brightness.

To track the movement of a common subject contained in a sequence of image frames time-sequentially captured by a digital camera, feature points of the subject are extracted from a first image frame, and corresponding points to the extracted feature point are identified in a second image frame that is captured after the first image frame. When the number of traceable feature points, to which the corresponding points can be identified, is less than a predetermined value, the speed of movement of the subject is judged high, and the shutter speed of the digital camera is set at a higher value.