Automatic focusing where variance in the focus due to a relative shift in mounted positions of sensors is suppressed is performed. An imaging apparatus including a photometric sensor and a ranging sensor includes an image data generating unit configured to generate image data by using the photometric sensor, a detection unit configured to detect a region including an object from the image data generated by the image data generating unit, a determination unit configured to divide the image data into blocks corresponding to discretely arranged ranging points of the ranging sensor, and to determine a proportion of an area occupied by the region including the object for each block, and a focusing unit configured to focus on a ranging point of the ranging sensor corresponding to a block where the area occupied by the region including the object is at a predetermined proportion or more.

An optical assembly includes a partial reflector that is optically coupled with a first polarization volume holographic element. The partial reflector is capable of receiving first light having a first circular polarization and transmitting a portion of the first light having a first circular polarization. The first polarization volume holographic element is configured to receive the first portion of the first light and reflect the first portion of the first light as second light having the first circular polarization. The partial reflector is capable of receiving the second light and reflecting a first portion of the second light as third light having a second circular polarization opposite to the first polarization. The first polarization volume holographic element is configured to receive the third light having the second circular polarization and transmit the third light having the second circular polarization.

The invention provides an autonomous vehicle with a video camera that merges images taken a different light levels by replacing saturated parts of an image with corresponding parts of a lower-light image to stream a video with a dynamic range that extends to include very low-light and very intensely lit parts of a scene. The high dynamic range (HDR) camera streams the HDR video to a HDR system in real time—as the vehicle operates. As pixel values are provided by the camera's image sensors, those values are streamed directly through a pipeline processing operation and on to the HDR system without any requirement to wait and collect entire images, or frames, before using the video information.

A smart mirror can show live or recorded streaming video of an instructor performing a workout in a package that is attractive and unobtrusive enough to hang in a living room. The smart mirror includes a mirror surface with a fully reflecting section and a partially reflecting section. A display behind the partially reflecting section shows the video when the smart mirror is on and is almost invisible when the smart mirror is off. The smart mirror also has a speaker, a microphone, and a camera to enable a user to view the video content and interact with the instructor. The smart mirror may connect to the user's smart phone, a peripheral device (e.g., a Bluetooth speaker) to augment user experience, a biometric sensor to provide biometric data to assess user performance, and/or a network router to connect the smart mirror to a content provider, an instructor, and/or other users.

One embodiment of the present disclosure provides an external detection see-through door of a cabinet that stores objects. The external detection see-through door includes a transmission window, a sensor configured to detect a specific external condition in front of the transmission window, a light emitting module configured to increase an amount of emitted light according to a signal from the sensor, which has detected the specific external condition, to increase an amount of light that is reflected from inside the cabinet and heads toward the transmission window, and an optical film that is provided on the transmission window and has a light transmittance that prevents the cabinet from being see-through from the outside before the sensor detects the specific condition and allows the cabinet to be see-through from the outside due to light that is reflected from inside the cabinet and transmitted through the transmission window and the optical film due to the light emitting module increasing the amount of emitted light according to the signal from the sensor that has detected the specific external condition.

A display device of one implementation of the present disclosure includes a light source, a retroreflective member disposed in a range which can be observed from a preset observation range of an observer, and a beam splitter which reflects light from the light source toward the retroreflective member and transmits the light reflected by the retroreflective member. The light source and the retroreflective member are positioned so that light specularly reflected by the retroreflective member does not enter the observation range.

A cloaking device includes cloaking region boundary planes oriented non-planar to each other, each of the cloaking region boundary planes having an outward facing mirror surface and an inward facing opaque surface. The cloaking device includes a cloaking region bounded at least partially by the inward facing opaque surfaces of the cloaking region boundary planes. Half mirrors are spaced apart and generally parallel to the outward facing mirror surfaces such that a half mirror is spaced apart and generally parallel to each outward facing mirror surface. Light from an object on an object-side of the cloaking device is directed around an article within the cloaking region and forms an image on an image-side of the cloaking device such the article appears transparent to an observer looking towards the object.

A floating image display device includes a floating-image-formation optical system that forms an image at an opening part as a floating image from an image displayed on an image display unit, an authentication unit that judges whether or not a subject passing through the opening part is an authorized subject, and an image control unit that makes the image display unit switch contents of the image when the subject is judged as the authorized subject. The floating-image-formation optical system can include a beam splitter and a retroreflective sheet. Another floating image display device includes an image display unit that displays a first image, a floating-image-formation optical system that forms an image at an opening part as a floating image from the first image, and an image projection unit that projects a second image onto a subject moving through the floating image when the subject passes through the opening part.

A light guide device that does not cause non-uniformity in image light and external light and does not cause ghosts, and a virtual image display apparatus provided with the light guide device. The light guide device includes a parallel light guide, an incident section, and an emission section. Here, the light guide device is set such that image light rays are reflected without reflecting from a boundary surface between the parallel light guide and the reflection unit and head for an observer. Thus, the image light rays only pass through half mirrors, which are positioned in positions where the image light rays are emitted from the reflection unit of the emission section or are positioned therearound. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent luminance non-uniformity or light reduction by reducing the number of times of the image light rays to be observed pass through the half mirrors.

In illustrative implementations, an imaging system may comprise a lens, an optical cavity and a time-of-flight camera. The imaging system may capture an image of a scene. The image may be formed by light that is from the scene and that passes through the optical cavity and the lens. In some cases, the lens is in front of the optical cavity, enabling the Euclidean distance between the lens and the camera sensor to be less than the nominal focal length of the lens. In some cases, the lens is inside the optical cavity, enabling the camera to acquire ultrafast multi-zoom images without moving or changing the shape of any optical element. In some cases, the lens is behind the optical cavity, enabling the system to perform ultrafast multi-spectral imaging. In other cases, an optical cavity between the scene and time-of-camera enables ultrafast ellipsometry measurements or ultrafast spatial frequency filtering.