A photoelectric transducer includes a wiring structure and a photoelectric conversion section provided on a substrate. The photoelectric conversion section includes a first electrode and a photoelectric conversion layer provided on the first electrode. The wiring structure includes a first wiring layer including a wiring pattern. The distance between the bottom face of the first electrode and the substrate is shorter than the distance between the bottom face of the wiring pattern and the substrate.

An imaging sensor of an imaging reader senses return light from a target to be read by image capture along an imaging axis over a field of view that extends along mutually orthogonal, horizontal and vertical axes. Two aiming light assemblies are offset from the sensor, and direct an aiming light pattern at the target. The pattern has an aiming mark in a central area of the pattern, and a pair of aiming light lines that are collinear along the horizontal axis. The visibility of the aiming mark is enhanced by optically configuring the aiming mark to be different in brightness and/or color and/or size and/or state of existence relative to a remaining area of the pattern. The aiming mark of enhanced visibility constitutes a prominent visual indicator of a center zone of the field of view.

An endoscope apparatus, comprising: an image pickup device; a detection device that detects whether or not an image region at which a part of an object region is edged along a direction parallel to the scan lines in a state that is different to a case where a plurality of the scan lines are simultaneously exposed exists in a frame image due to differences of exposure timings for each of the scan lines based on an image feature amount in the frame image that is obtained from the image data for each of the scan lines that is outputted from the image pickup device; and an exposure control device that lengthens an exposure time of each of the scan lines by the image pickup device in comparison to a case where the detection device does not detect the image region, if the detection device detects the image region.

An imaging system includes a plurality of pixel circuits each having a photodiode, a biasing circuit and a charge-to-voltage converter. The photodiode is configured to generate charges in response to light or radiation. The biasing circuit is configured to provide a constant bias voltage across the photodiode so as to drain the charges generated by the photodiode. The charge-to-voltage converter is configured to accumulate the charges drained by the biasing circuit and convert the accumulated charges into a corresponding output voltage.

A sensor system (1) for inspecting oil, which comprises a micromechanical cell (10) defining a cavity (12), the micromechanical cell (10) being configured for allowing the entrance of oil (5) within said cavity (12) and the outcome of oil (5) from said cavity (12) through respective inlet (11a) and outlet (11b). The sensor system (1) comprises inside said micromechanical cell (10): a first transparent protective means (13a) configured to isolate the inner part of said first member (101) from said oil (5); a second transparent protective means (13b) configured to isolate the inner part of said second member (102) from said oil (5); a light source (14) disposed in said first member (101) and configured to emit incoherent light towards said oil (5) disposed within said cavity (12); an opaque plate (16) disposed between said light source (14) and said first transparent protective means (13a), said plate (16) having a pin-hole (165) configured to permit the passage of illumination towards said oil (5), said pin-hole (165) being located at a first distance (z1) from a focussing plane (F) defined by said oil (5) in cavity (12); and an image sensor (17) disposed in said second member (102) situated on the opposite side of the space (12) with respect to said first member (102) and configured to capture a sequence of images of the oil disposed within said cavity (12), said image sensor (17) being located at a second distance (z2) from said focussing plane (F) defined by said oil (5) in cavity (12).

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for a frequency selective imager. In particular, the frequency selective imager includes an array of pixels arranged in a focal plane array. Each pixel includes at least one nanoparticle-sized diameter thermoelectric junction that is formed between nanowires of different compositions. When a nanoparticle-sized diameter thermoelectric junction senses a photon, the nanoparticle-sized diameter thermoelectric junction emits an electrical pulse voltage that is proportional to an energy level of the sensed photon. In one or more embodiments, the frequency selective imager is a frequency selective optical imager that is used to sense photons having optical frequencies. In at least one embodiment, at least one of the nanowires in the frequency selective imager is manufactured from a compound material including Bismuth (Bi) and Tellurium (Te).

The image sensor includes a pixel array including a plurality of unit pixels each including a single transistor and a photodiode connected to a body of the single transistor, a row driver block configured to enable one of a plurality of rows in the pixel array to enter a readout mode, and a readout block configured to sense and amplify a pixel signal output from each of a plurality of unit pixels included in the row that has entered the readout mode.

Provided is a signal readout circuit including: a first capacitor that holds a first electric charge; a second capacitor that holds a second electric charge; an amplifier section including an amplifier having first and second input terminals and first and second output terminals, outputting a first potential input to the first input terminal to the first output terminal with a gain of 1 and outputting a second potential input to the second input terminal to the second output terminal with a gain of 1; and a switch circuit that switches on/off state of a connection of a terminal of the first or second capacitor with at least one of the first and second input terminals and the first and second output terminals of the amplifier, wherein a difference between the first electric charge and the second electric charge is an amount indicating a voltage value of a predetermined voltage signal.

An image sensor for reducing channel variation and an image processing system including the same. The image sensor includes first to m.sup.th pixels (m≧2), each of which is connected to a corresponding column line from among first to m.sup.th column lines and is configured to output a respective pixel signal.’ The image sensor further includes first to m.sup.th bias circuits, each of which is connected to a corresponding column line from among the first to m.sup.th column lines and is configured to fix a voltage of the corresponding column line to a bias voltage when a column line-specific pixel is not selected to output the respective pixel signal. An analog-to-digital converter in the image sensor is configured to convert the pixel signals into digital signals.

In one embodiment, coloring artifacts of a color image output by a camera are minimized by taking into account a distortion introduced by the lens. Based on the distortion, the color reconstruction determines which pixels in the grayscale image to include in the reconstruction process. Additionally, the color reconstruction can take into account edges depicted in the grayscale image to determine which pixels to include in the reconstruction process. In another embodiment, coloring artifacts in a 360 degree color image are minimized by performing the color reconstruction process on a three-dimensional surface. Before the color reconstruction takes place, the two-dimensional grayscale image is projected onto a three-dimensional surface, and the color reconstruction is performed on the three-dimensional surface. The color reconstruction on the three-dimensional surface can take into account the distortion produced by the lens and/or can take into account the edges depicted in the two-dimensional and three-dimensional grayscale image.