H04N9/097

IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGING METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM
20200120314 · 2020-04-16 · ·

An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging sensor including a plurality of pixels; a color filter including a plurality of filters arranged to correspond to the pixels; a first light source configured to irradiate a subject with visible light; a second light source configured to irradiate the subject with near-infrared light; a first processor including hardware, the first processor being configured to control an irradiation timing of each of the first light source and the second light source; and a second processor including hardware, the second processor being configured to generate a plurality of pieces of near-infrared image data on different near-infrared regions based on first image data and second image data, the first image data being generated by the imaging sensor by capturing an image of the subject, the second image data being generated by the imaging sensor by capturing an image of the subject.

Thin dual-aperture zoom digital camera
10620450 · 2020-04-14 · ·

A dual-aperture zoom camera comprising a Wide camera with a respective Wide lens and a Tele camera with a respective Tele lens, the Wide and Tele cameras mounted directly on a single printed circuit board, wherein the Wide and Tele lenses have respective effective focal lengths EFL.sub.W and EFL.sub.T and respective total track lengths TTL.sub.W and TTL.sub.T and wherein TTL.sub.W/EFL.sub.W>1.1 and TTL.sub.T/EFL.sub.T<1.0. Optionally, the dual-aperture zoom camera may further comprise an optical OIS controller configured to provide a compensation lens movement according to a user-defined zoom factor (ZF) and a camera tilt (CT) through LMV=CT*EFL.sub.ZF, where EFL.sub.ZF is a zoom-factor dependent effective focal length.

HD color imaging using monochromatic CMOS image sensors integrated in 3D package

HD color video using monochromatic CMOS image sensors integrated in a 3D package is provided. An example 3DIC package for color video includes a beam splitter to partition received light of an image stream into multiple light outputs. Multiple monochromatic CMOS image sensors are each coupled to one of the multiple light outputs to sense a monochromatic image stream at a respective component wavelength of the received light. Each monochromatic CMOS image sensor is specially constructed, doped, controlled, and tuned to its respective wavelength of light. A parallel processing integrator or interposer chip heterogeneously combines the respective monochromatic image streams into a full-spectrum color video stream, including parallel processing of an infrared or ultraviolet stream. The parallel processing of the monochromatic image streams provides reconstruction to HD or 4K HD color video at low light levels. Parallel processing to one interposer chip also enhances speed, spatial resolution, sensitivity, low light performance, and color reconstruction.

Imaging systems having broadband monochromatic and chromatic image sensors

An imaging device may have a monochrome image sensor and a bi-chromatic image sensor. A beam splitter may split incident light between the two image sensors. The monochrome image sensor may have an array of broadband image sensor pixels that generate broadband image signals. The bi-chromatic image sensor may have an array of red and blue image pixels that generate red and blue image signals. The image sensors may be coupled to processing circuitry that performs processing operations on only the broadband image signals to produce monochrome images, or on the red, blue, and broadband image signals to produce color images. Processing operations used to produce color images may include chroma-demosaicking and/or point filter operations.

IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS
20200053266 · 2020-02-13 ·

An image capturing apparatus comprises: a first image sensor having a plurality of pixels each counts a number of entering photons and outputs a count value as a first image signal; a second image sensor having a plurality of pixels each outputs an electric signal corresponding to a charge amount obtained by performing photoelectric conversion on entering light as a second image signal; and a generator that generates an image by selecting one of the first image signal and the second image signal.

Parallax minimization stitching method and apparatus using control points in overlapping region

Provided is a parallax minimization stitching method and apparatus using control points in an overlapping region. A parallax minimization stitching method may include defining a plurality of control points in an overlapping region of a first image and a second image received from a plurality of cameras, performing a first geometric correction by applying a homography to the control points, defining a plurality of patches based on the control points, and performing a second geometric correction by mapping the patches.

Medical camera

A medical camera includes a camera head having a first a first color separation prism, a second color separation prism, a third color separation prism, and a fourth color separation prism. The four color separation prisms respectively separate light incident from an affected area into a blue, red and green color components, and an infrared (IR) component. A light emission surface of the first color separation prism is disposed opposite to a light emission surface of the second color separation prism. A light emission surface of the third color separation prism is disposed across an incident ray which is incident vertically to an object side incident surface of the first color separation prism.

Color separation prism and imaging device

A color separation prism includes a filter, a first prism, a second prism, and a third prism. The first prism allows incidence of light transmitted through the filter, and the first reflective film reflects a first color component of the visible light and a part of the invisible light, among the light beams incident on the first prism. The second prism emits the light reflected by a second reflective film, and the second reflective film reflects the second color component of the visible light and a part of the invisible light, among the light beams incident on the second prism. The third prism emits the light transmitted through the second reflective film. The first reflective film and the second reflective film allocate the invisible light and the visible light emitted from each prism so as to obtain approximately uniform amount of the light.

DUAL PATH ENDOSCOPE
20190394371 · 2019-12-26 · ·

A novel dual-path-endoscope where a multi-function light source produces a first-light and a second-light toward an object. The first-light exhibits first-light-characteristics. The second-light exhibits second-light-characteristics different from the first-light-characteristics. The endoscope includes two light-paths, the disparity there between is larger than zero. Each light-path includes a respective pupil and a respective light-separator coupled with the pupil, transmitting there through one of the first-light and the second-light, associating the first-light and the second-light with a respective light-path. The dual-channel-imager includes two imager sensors, each associated with a respective light-path and optically coupled with a respective light-separator. Each imaging-sensor exhibits sensitivity to the characteristics of the respective one of the first-light and the second-light. A first imaging-sensor acquires a first-image of the first-light reflected of the object and a second imaging-sensor acquires a second-image of the second-light reflected of the object. The processor processes the acquired images.

Imaging device
10516836 · 2019-12-24 · ·

An imaging device includes a light splitting unit which splits first light from a subject into second light and third light, first and second imaging units, and an arithmetic unit. The first light includes the second light having infrared light and at least one of green light and blue light, and the third light having red light or the green light. The first imaging unit includes a first and a second light reception regions. The first light reception region generates at least one of the group consisting of a B signal according to the blue light and a G signal according to the green light. The second light reception region generates an IR signal according to the infrared light. The arithmetic unit generates a visible light image signal from the R signal, the G signal, and the B signal and generates an infrared light image signal from the IR signal.