A solid-state image sensor capable of detecting a photon and having smaller circuit scale is provided. The solid-state image sensor includes a pixel array including a plurality of pixel cells, a pixel driving circuit configured to drive the plurality of pixel cells, a readout circuit, and a plurality of readout wires corresponding to respective columns of the pixel cell. Each of the plurality of pixel cells includes an avalanche photodiode configured to detect a photon by avalanche multiplication occurring when one photon enters, and a transfer transistor configured to transfer a detection result of the photon to the corresponding readout wire. The readout circuit determines whether a photon is detected or not, and outputs a determination result.

An image capturing apparatus includes an image sensor in which a plurality of unit pixels are arranged, each unit pixel including one microlens and at least one light receiving portion that produces a pulse signal when light is incident on the light receiving portion, wherein the unit pixel includes a counting circuit capable of counting the pulse signals of a plurality of the light receiving portions.

An enterprise system and method for maintaining and transitioning humans to a human-like self-reliant entity is presented. Said system including at least one a biological, biomechatronic, and mechatronic entity with a biological or artificial neural network to at least one transform or maintain. Embodiments are provided to assist in the transition of human between a biological state to a bio-mechatronic and mechatronic entity. Said entity's biological, biomechatronic, and mechatronic subsystems are configured to communicate and interact with one another in order for said enterprise system to manage, configure, maintain, and sustain said entity throughout the entity's life-cycle. Subsystem embodiments and components supported by the enterprise system are presented.

A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system can emit light toward an environment and detect responsively reflected light to determine a distance to one or more points in the environment. The reflected light can be detected by a plurality of plurality of photodiodes that are reverse-biased using a high voltage. Signals from the plurality of reverse-biased photodiodes can be amplified by respective transistors and applied to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The signal from a particular photodiode can be applied to the ADC by biasing a respective transistor corresponding to the particular photodiode while not biasing transistors corresponding to other photodiodes. The gain of each photodiode/transistor pair can be controlled by adjusting the bias voltage applied to each photodiode using a digital-to-analog converter. The gain of each photodiode/transistor pair can be controlled based on the detected temperature of each photodiode.

An image device has an array of pixels, each pixel having a photosensitive area, a first storage node and a second storage node. A pixel is illuminated for a first period of time, and charge accumulated on the photosensitive area of the pixel during the first period of time is stored on the first storage node of the pixel. The pixel of the array is illuminated for a second period of time, and charge accumulated on the photosensitive area during the second period of time is stored on the second storage node of the pixel. A first signal is generated based on the charge stored on the first storage node, and a second signal is generated based on the charge stored on the second storage node. The first and second signals are combined using at least one subtraction operation having the first and second signals as operands.

In a solid-state imaging element that detects a change in an amount of light on the basis of a photocurrent, erroneous detection due to a dark current or dark current shot noise is reduced. The solid-state imaging element includes a limiting circuit, a differentiating circuit, and a comparison circuit. The limiting circuit limits an electric signal generated by photoelectric conversion by a predetermined limit value and outputs the electric signal limited as an output signal. The differentiating circuit obtains an amount of change of the output signal output from the limiting circuit. The comparison circuit performs comparison between the amount of change obtained by the differentiating circuit and a predetermined threshold value to output a result of the comparison as a result of detection of an address event.

Photoelectric conversion device includes semiconductor chip including first semiconductor region, second semiconductor region arranged on the first semiconductor region, and third semiconductor region arranged on the second semiconductor region. Chip end face of the semiconductor chip is formed by the first semiconductor region, the second semiconductor region and the third semiconductor region. The first semiconductor region is of first conductivity type and the second semiconductor region is of second conductivity type. The third semiconductor region includes photoelectric conversion region, readout circuit region, and peripheral region. The peripheral region includes isolation region and outer periphery region arranged between the chip end face and the isolation region. The isolation region is of the second conductivity type and the outer periphery region is of the first conductivity type.

A 3 MOS camera includes a first prism that causes a first image sensor to receive IR light of light from an observation part, a second prism that causes a second image sensor to receive visible light of A % (A: a predetermined real number) of the light from the observation part, a third prism that causes a third image sensor to receive remaining visible light of (100−A) % of the light from the observation part, and a video signal processor that combines a color video signal based on imaging outputs of the second image sensor and the third image sensor and an IR video signal based on an imaging output of the first image sensor and outputs the combined signal to a monitor, the second image sensor and the third image sensor being respectively bonded to positions optically shifted by substantially one pixel.

A dynamic vision sensor (DVS) or change detection sensor reacts to changes in light intensity and in this way monitors how a scene changes. This disclosure covers both single pixel and array architectures. The DVS may contain one pixel or 2-dimensional or 1-dimensional array of pixels. The change of intensities registered by pixels are compared, and pixel addresses where the change is positive or negative are recorded and processed. Analyzing frames based on just three values for pixels, increase, decrease or unchanged, the proposed DVS can process visual information much faster than traditional computer vision systems, which correlate multi-bit color or gray level pixel values between successive frames.

A camera module has a magnet which is held by a magnet holder included in an optical device part together with a lens holder and which is used in common as a magnet in collaboration with a first coil to move an imaging device and the lens holder relative to each other in a direction of an optical axis, a magnet in collaboration with a second coil to move the imaging device and the optical device part relative to each other in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis, and a magnet of which a magnetic force is detected by a Hall device.