The present technology relates to an imaging apparatus, an imaging method, and a program that perform appropriate exposure control, to thereby enable a desired object to be appropriately imaged. The present technology includes: an imaging unit including a plurality of pixels having different spectral characteristics; and an exposure control unit setting information associated with exposure control on the plurality of pixels depending on specification information for specifying a kind of a measurement target. Alternatively, the present technology includes: an imaging unit including a plurality of pixels having different spectral characteristics; and an exposure control unit setting information associated with exposure control on the plurality of pixels on the basis of a predicted output value of each of the plurality of pixels based on a spectral characteristic related to a measurement target. The present technology is applicable to an imaging apparatus which senses vegetation, for example.

This invention relates to a method of and system for facilitating detection of a particular predetermined gas in a scene under observation. The gas in the scene is typically associated with a gas leak in equipment. To this end, the system comprises an infrared camera arrangement; a strobing illuminator device having a strobing frequency matched to a frame rate of the camera; and a processing arrangement. The processing arrangement is configured to store a prior frame obtained via the infrared camera arrangement; and compare a current frame with the stored prior frame and generate an output signal in response to said comparison. The system also comprises a display device configured to display an output image based at least on the output signal generated by the processing arrangement so as to facilitate detection of the particular predetermined gas, in use.

The invention relates to a method for assessing contrasts on surfaces (2), in particular for optically identifying structured and/or pictorial surfaces (2), e.g. of paintings (1) or sculptures, said method being simple to use independently of the location and safe. For this purpose, the method involves the steps of—focusing a camera (5) onto a prominent image dot (3) on the surface, —creating at least two images of a recognizable, high-contrast area of the image dot (3), —storing the image having the greatest depth of detail as a reference image.

The contamination sanitation inspection system (CSIS) allows a user to capture an image of a large scene (such as a food processing line, a food service facility, a food products storage area, or a plant production area/facility) and identify contamination within the scene and preferably represent the contamination on a spatially accurate map (or floorplan) so that contamination within the inspection map area is clearly identified and recorded for subsequent treatment. In an alternative embodiment, the CSIS also includes a decontamination system to sanitize any identified contamination.

The invention relates to a method for recognizing surfaces (2), in particular for optically recognizing or identifying structured and/or pictorial surfaces (2), said method involving the steps of —focusing a camera (5) onto a prominent image dot (3) on the surface (2), —creating at least one live video stream of a recognizable, high-contrast area of the image dot (3), and —guiding the camera (5) to the image frame of the video having the greatest depth of detail by focusing a camera (5) onto a prominent image dot (3) on the surface (2) to be sensed, —creating at least two images of a recognizable, high-contrast area of the image dot (3), —storing the image having the greatest depth of detail as a reference image, —analyzing each image frame of the live video stream, —comparing the image frame having the greatest depth of detail with a target image or reference image.

Systems and methods for detecting determining a volume of urine in an absorbent article such as a diaper. A diaper loading application obtains a first measurement of ambient light received from a photodetector while a light source is off and a second measurement from the photodetector while the light source is transmitting light on an absorbent article. The application determines a normalized measurement of light reflected from an absorbent article by removing an ambient light signal from the second measurement based on the first measurement. The application determines, from the normalized measurement, a presence of urine in the absorbent article. The application further determines an estimated volume of urine in the absorbent article, wherein the determining is based on an elapsed time since the presence of urine and an activity state of an infant wearing the absorbent article.

The present invention comprises a surface to maximize the viewing of an impression in a vehicle body. This may comprise a fabric which has at least one dark colored stripe parallel to at least one light colored stripe; a compressible frame across which the said fabric is affixed, where when the frame is uncompressed the fabric is stretched taut across the frame and where the frame is compressed the fabric is slack across the frame; and a handle on the frame where a user can hold the frame and not interfere with the fabric affixed to said frame. When a user is holding the handle of the frame at an angle between 0° and 180°, the user can reflect radiant energy through said fabric onto the vehicle body and create a whorl reflection pattern on the impression to maximize viewing of said impression by the user.

A system for recommending ultraviolet protection for a subject's skin includes an interrogation device, an analysis device, and an output device. The interrogation device has an ultraviolet sensitive module configured to generate interrogation data based on sensed electromagnetic energy reflected by the subject's skin in response to irradiation of the subject's skin by an ultraviolet electromagnetic energy source. The analysis device is configured to receive the interrogation data from the interrogation device and generate an ultraviolet analysis, which includes a recommendation for further ultraviolet protection of the subject's skin, based at least in part on the interrogation data. The output device receives the ultraviolet analysis and outputs the recommendation for further ultraviolet protection of the subject's skin.

A method for inspecting an object to assist in determining whether the object has a surface defect. The method includes moving the object in a first direction and illuminating the object under ambient lighting conditions. The method also includes capturing at least one image of the object under the ambient lighting conditions while the object moves in the first direction. In addition, the object is illuminated under object lighting conditions and at least one image of the object under the object lighting conditions is captured while the object moves in the first direction to provide at least one object image. Further, the method includes selecting at least one object image having at least one indication of a possible defect to provide images having defect candidates and comparing the defect candidates with previously defined characteristics associated with the defect to facilitate determination of whether a defect exists.

A method for determining national crop yields during the growing season is provided. In an embodiment, a server computer system receives agricultural data records for a particular year that represent covariate data values related to plants at a specific geo-location at a specific time. The system aggregates the records to create geo-specific time series for a geo-location over a specified time. The system creates aggregated time series from a subset of the geo-specific time series. The system selects a representative feature from the aggregated time series and creates a covariate matrix for each specific geographic area in computer memory. The system determines a specific crop yield for a specific year using linear regression to calculate the specific crop yield from the covariate matrix. The system determines a forecasted crop yield for the specific year using a sum of the specific crop yields for the specific year, as adjusted.