A cleaning device for an imaging unit includes a housing that holds an imaging section, a protection cover provided in the visual field of the imaging section, a vibrator section that vibrates the protection cover, and a cleaning nozzle that discharges a cleaning liquid. The cleaning liquid discharged by the discharge section reaches a surface of side of the protection cover that is opposite to the side thereof adjacent to or in a vicinity of the imaging section. According to the vibrator section vibrating the protection cover, a portion of surface of the protection cover exhibits an amount of displacement larger than that of a portion of surface of the protection cover that the discharged cleaning liquid has reached.

A cleaning apparatus that cleans a detection surface of a detection element, comprises an attachment to which a detection apparatus including the detection element can be attached, a communication unit configured to communicate with the detection apparatus, a cleaning unit configured to clean the detection surface of the detection element, and a control unit configured to control a driving unit of the detection element included in the detection apparatus through the communication unit. When cleaning by the cleaning unit, the control unit controls the position of the detection element by driving the driving unit through the communication unit.

A control apparatus includes a detection unit configured to detect an object area in an image captured by an image capturing apparatus, a dividing unit configured to divide the image into a plurality of divided areas, a first calculation unit configured to calculate a luminance difference as a difference between a luminance value of the object area and a luminance value of each of the divided areas, a second calculation unit configured to calculate a first amount of change as a difference between luminance values of the object area before and after the image capturing apparatus executes exposure control and a second amount of change as a difference between luminance values of the divided area before and after the image capturing apparatus executes exposure control, and a determination unit configured to determine a photometric area.

Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying a dirty camera in a monocular camera comprising n cameras. For each of one or more cycles, a dirty counter variable for each of the n cameras is set to 0. For each of the n cameras, an image is captured from the camera and an image metric is determined for the image, e.g. brightness and/or contrast. If the image metric is 10% greater, or 10% less, than the image metric for any of the other n−1 cameras in the monocular camera, then that camera is determined to be dirty and a corrective action is taken, such as sending an alarm to an occupant the vehicle or initiating a cleaning operation. If the dirty condition persists for a camera that has been cleaned within a threshold period of time (i.e., recently), then an alarm is sent to an operator of the vehicle.

An electronic device for enhancing accuracy upon contactless body temperature measurement is provided. The electronic device includes an image sensor for obtaining an image of an object, a temperature sensor disposed at a position adjacent to the image sensor for measuring a temperature of the obtained object, and a controller for performing control to determine the temperature of the object using a focal length of a camera module including the image sensor corresponding to a time of obtaining the image of the object and a temperature output from the temperature sensor corresponding to the time of obtaining the image of the object.

The invention relates to a sensor module for a vehicle, the sensor module comprising at least one housing which houses at least one first detection device that is adapted to collect information about the vehicle's environment; the housing comprising one base adapted to be fixed to the vehicle, at least one cover joined to the base and at least one optical face joined to both the cover and the base; characterized in that the first detection device comprises at least one sensor, a casing which receives the sensor and an electric motor adapted to rotate the casing at sufficiently high-speeds.

Method of detecting and overcoming degradation of image quality during a weather event and activation of windshield wipers. The method takes a high-contrast region of interest (ROI) of an image captured by a camera of a vehicle vision system, applies a Laplacian Operator that focuses on the pixel level in the ROI, and calculates a variance of the Laplacian. Images having an ROI below a predetermined variance threshold are classified or flagged as a low-quality image. Once a low-quality image is flagged, the camera settings can be readjusted in a feedback loop to compensate for the loss in quality of the captured image. This method may be stored as a software routine and implemented by a vision control module of the vision system.

Provided is a lead-free piezoelectric material reduced in dielectric loss tangent, and achieving both a large piezoelectric constant and a large mechanical quality factor. A piezoelectric material according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure is a piezoelectric material including a main component formed of a perovskite-type metal oxide represented by the general formula (1): Na.sub.x+s(1−y)(Bi.sub.wBa.sub.1−s−w).sub.1−yNb.sub.yTi.sub.1−yO.sub.3 (where 0.84≤x≤0.92, 0.84≤y≤0.92, 0.002≤(w+s)(1−y)≤0.035, and 0.9≤w/s≤1.1), and a Mn component, wherein the content of the Mn is 0.01 mol % or more and 1.00 mol % or less with respect to the perovskite-type metal oxide.

A blemish detection and characterization system and techniques for an optical imaging device includes determining a ratio of the light intensity of the image lost to the blemish relative to an expected light intensity of the image without the blemish. The system and technique may include receiving an image, transforming an image into a processed image with transformations and filters, as well as determining a relative magnitude of an intensity of a portion of the processed image relative to another area of the image. The system and technique may include taking an action based on the relative magnitude including rejecting a sensor, reworking the sensor, cleaning the sensor, or providing information about the blemish to a system to use in weighing data collected from the sensor.

An optical system including one or more optical sensors and a processing unit capable of performing built-in tests of the optical sensor(s) and methods thereof are disclosed. The processing unit includes a built-in test module configured to detect a reduction of an optical quality of at least some of the images generated by at least one of the optical sensors with respect to an expected optical quality thereof. The built-in test module may be configured to determine whether the reduction of the optical quality thereof is due to the “external optical disturbances” (EOD) and/or failure of the optical sensor(s)/system. The processing unit may include a relative built-in test module configured to compare at least some images generated by at least two of the optical sensor(s) and to determine which of the at least two optical sensors thereof, if any, is subjected to at least one of the EOD and/or failure.