A multifunctional sky camera system and techniques for the use thereof for total sky imaging and spectral irradiance/radiance measurement are provided. In one aspect, a sky camera system is provided. The sky camera system includes an objective lens having a field of view of greater than about 170 degrees; a spatial light modulator at an image plane of the objective lens, wherein the spatial light modulator is configured to attenuate light from objects in images captured by the objective lens; a semiconductor image sensor; and one or more relay lens configured to project the images from the spatial light modulator to the semiconductor image sensor. Techniques for use of the one or more of the sky camera systems for optical flow based cloud tracking and three-dimensional cloud analysis are also provided.

A method for inspecting a surface (12) of a piece of nuclear power plant equipment includes scanning the surface (12) with an acquisition field (20) of a matrix array camera (14). The acquisition field (20) moves relative to the surface (12) at a movement speed. The method also includes acquiring, by means of the matrix array camera (14), an image (22) of the acquisition field (20), with a certain acquisition frequency. Each image (22) includes a first number of lines of pixels. The method also includes extracting, from each image (22), a first set of lines, the first set comprising a second number of continuous lines of pixels, the second number being between 2 and the first number; and constituting a final image (32) of the surface (12) by juxtaposing the lines extracted from each image (22). The movement speed, the acquisition frequency, the first number of lines and the second number of lines are chosen such that the final image (32) covers the entire surface (12) without interruption.

There is provided a control device including a control unit configured to perform exposure control of a first pixel group and exposure control of a second pixel group independently of each other, the first pixel group and the second pixel group being disposed in a single imaging surface. The control unit controls gain or an exposure time of the first pixel group and gain or an exposure time of the second pixel group independently of each other.

Techniques to selectively capture media using a single user interface element are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus may comprise a touch controller, a visual media capture component, and a storage component. The touch controller may be operative to receive a haptic engagement signal. The visual media capture component may be operative to be configured in a capture mode based on whether a haptic disengagement signal is received by the touch controller before expiration of a first timer, the capture mode one of a photo capture mode or video capture mode, the first timer started in response to receiving the haptic engagement signal, the first timer configured to expire after a first preset duration. The storage component may be operative to store visual media captured by the visual media capture component in the configured capture mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

In combination with a hand-held firearm comprising a barrel having a longitudinal axis and a muzzle disposed at a distal end of the barrel, the improvement including a secondary viewing device with a housing coupled to the barrel of the firearm and having a first camera retained by, and disposed on a first side of, the housing of the secondary viewing device, disposed substantially adjacent to the muzzle of the firearm, and directed in a viewing orientation substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the barrel of the firearm for viewing targets lateral to the firearm, the secondary viewing device and the firearm operably configured to have simultaneous and omnidirectional rotation with one another by a user.

A method for a computing device to enhance video chatting Includes receiving a live video stream, processing a frame in the live video stream in real-time, and transmitting the frame to another computing device. Processing the frame in real-time includes detecting a face, an upper torso, or a gesture in the frame, and applying a visual effect to the frame. The method includes processing a next frame in the live video stream in real-time by repeating the enhancing, the detecting, and the applying.

A system and method that allows the capture of a series of images to create a single linear panoramic image is disclosed. The method includes capturing an image, dynamically comparing a previously captured image with a preview image on a display of a capture device until a predetermined overlap threshold is satisfied, generating a user interface to provide feedback on the display of the capture device to guide a movement of the capture device, and capturing the preview image with enough overlap with the previously captured image with little to no tilt for creating a linear panorama.

A method of generating one or more new digital images using an original digitally-acquired image including a selected image feature includes identifying within a digital image acquisition device one or more groups of pixels that correspond to the selected image feature based on information from one or more preview images. A portion of the original image is selected that includes the one or more groups of pixels. The technique includes automatically generating values of pixels of one or more new images based on the selected portion in a manner which includes the selected image feature within the one or more new images.

An electronic device, comprising a processor which is configured to reconstruct in real-time a preview image of compressed sensing image data.

There is provided a lens unit equipped with multiple focus lenses provided inside a lens barrel, multiple actuators corresponding to the respective multiple focus lenses and configured to move each of the multiple focus lenses inside the lens barrel, and a control circuit configured to control movement of the multiple focus lenses according to different rules between a case of a position of each of the multiple focus lenses being inside a designated range of satisfactory optical performance, and a case of being outside the range.