An autofocus apparatus includes a control unit configured to set an offset amount based on information relating to a shape of a first high-frequency component of an image signal obtained by photoelectrically converting an object image formed by an image pickup optical system that includes a focus lens while driving the focus lens, and to move the focus lens to a position that shifts from a first position of the focus position by a sum of the offset amount and a predetermined amount that is determined by characteristic information of the image pickup optical system.

An image processing apparatus includes a first phase difference detector configured to detect two phase differences in a range that contains a phase difference that provides the highest correlation between a pair of image signals, a comparator configured to compare a signal representative of a matching degree when the pair of image signals have a first phase difference among the two phase differences, and a signal representative of a matching degree when the pair of image signals have a second phase difference among the two phase differences, a signal separator configured to separate a pair of signal components relating to a specific object from the pair of image signals, based on a comparison result by the comparator, and a second phase difference detector configured to detect a phase difference that provides the highest correlation between the pair of signal components separated by the signal separator.

An imaging device includes: a pixel array section having an array of pixels, each of which has a photoelectric converting device and outputs an electric signal according to an input photon; a sense circuit section having a plurality of sensor circuits each of which makes binary decision on whether there is a photon input to a pixel in a predetermined period upon reception of the electric signal therefrom; and a decision result IC section which integrates decision results from the sense circuits, pixel by pixel or for each group of pixels, multiple times to generate imaged data with a gradation, the decision result IC section including a count circuit which performs a count process to integrate the decision results from the sense circuits, and a memory for storing a counting result for each pixel from the count circuit, the sense circuits sharing the count circuit for integrating the decision results.

A control apparatus (100) includes a focus detection unit (101) that detects a defocus amount, a control unit (102) that automatically changes a parameter relating to a tracking operation during the tracking operation depending on an image capturing state, and a focusing unit (103) that preforms focusing based on the defocus amount and the parameter.

A system and method for correcting nonuniformity in far-infrared (FIR) images captured by a shutterless FIR camera. The method includes determining a noise of a current image based on updating a noise estimate of a previous image with a noise estimate of a current image; determining a weight mask matrix of the current image, where the weight matrix includes high values corresponding to pixels of the current image in which noise estimation is facilitated, and low values corresponding to pixels of the current image in which noise estimation is inhibited; applying the weight mask matrix to the current image; and correcting the nonuniformity of the current image incrementally based on the determined noise of current image and the applied weight mask matrix.

A system and method for correcting fixed pattern noise in far-infrared (FIR) images captured by a shutterless FIR camera. The method includes: determining a drift coefficient based on previously determined calibration values and high pass filter values applied to an input FIR image captured by the shutterless FIR camera; smoothing the drift coefficient based, in part, on previously computed drift coefficient values; and removing noise from the input image based on the smoothed drift coefficient value.

A process that allows the removal of fixed-pattern noise in effective images formed by electromagnetic sensor arrays in a light field, which includes at least the following steps: (a) The formation of a digital image from an electromagnetic sensor array; (b) the formation of a light field that must have at least 2?2 digital images of a scene, with a separation distance of at least the size of the effective area of an electromagnetic sensor; and (c) the reconstruction of an image by means of digital refocusing from the light field.

An image processing method includes: capturing a first image by a camera at a first timestamp; shifting, by an actuator connected to the camera, a lens of the camera; capturing a second image by the camera at a second timestamp after the first timestamp; performing, by a processing circuit, an image fusion to the first image and the second image to de-noise fixed pattern noises; and generating an output image based on a shift amount of the lens of the camera between the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

An imager array may be provided as part of an imaging system. The imager array may include a plurality of infrared imaging modules. Each infrared imaging module may include a plurality of infrared sensors associated with an optical element. The infrared imaging modules may be oriented, for example, substantially in a plane facing the same direction and configured to detect images from the same scene. Such images may be processed in accordance with various techniques to provide images of infrared radiation. The infrared imaging modules may include filters or lens coatings to selectively detect desired ranges of infrared radiation. Such arrangements of infrared imaging modules in an imager array may be used to advantageous effect in a variety of different applications.

Imaging systems and methods are disclosed that use locally flat scenes to adjust image data. An imaging system includes an array of photodetectors configured to produce an array of intensity values corresponding to light intensity at the photodetectors. The imaging system can be configured to acquire a frame of intensity values, or an image frame, and analyze the image frame to determine if it is locally flat. If the image frame is locally flat, then that image data can be used to determine gradients present in the image frame. An offset mask can be determined from the image data and that offset mask can be used to adjust subsequently acquired image frames to reduce or remove gradients.