1119results about "Viewfinders" patented technology

A “Panoramic Viewfinder” provides an intuitive interactive viewfinder display which operates on a digital camera display screen. This interactive viewfinder provides real-time assistance in capturing images for constructing panoramic image mosaics. The Panoramic Viewfinder “brushes” a panorama from images captured in any order, while providing visual feedback to the user for ensuring that desired scene elements will appear in the final panorama. This visual feedback presents real-time stitched previews of the panorama while capturing images. In one embodiment, the viewfinder display of the Panoramic Viewfinder includes a “mosaic preview” which presents a stitched mosaic preview of the captured images; a live display window representing a “current content” of the camera viewfinder, which is mapped to a matching location within the mosaic preview; and an optional panoramic “cropping frame” overlaid onto the mosaic preview which illustrates a section of the mosaic which will survive a rectangular cropping of the mosaic.

A “Panoramic Viewfinder” provides an intuitive interactive viewfinder display which operates on a digital camera display screen. This interactive viewfinder provides real-time assistance in capturing images for constructing panoramic image mosaics. The Panoramic Viewfinder “brushes” a panorama from images captured in any order, while providing visual feedback to the user for ensuring that desired scene elements will appear in the final panorama. This visual feedback presents real-time stitched previews of the panorama while capturing images. In one embodiment, the viewfinder display of the Panoramic Viewfinder includes a “mosaic preview” which presents a stitched mosaic preview of the captured images; a live display window representing a “current content” of the camera viewfinder, which is mapped to a matching location within the mosaic preview; and an optional panoramic “cropping frame” overlaid onto the mosaic preview which illustrates a section of the mosaic which will survive a rectangular cropping of the mosaic.

An electronic viewfinder with a reflective microdisplay and associated optical elements in a design that utilizes one or more folded optical paths to achieve a compact size and volume that may have a dimension of less than 10 millimeters per side. Moreover, the optical design may have an effective focal length that is greater than the spacing of the optical elements from the microdisplay. Various embodiments include a pancake window arrangement with reflective surfaces that are spaced apart from each other and cube beamsplitter eyepieces with folded paths.

An image sensor assembly includes a fixed focal length optical lens; a mirror that reflects light from the scene to an optical lens and moves into a plurality of positions; and an image sensor that receives the light after it passes through the optical lens and captures a plurality of images that represents each image captured from each position of the mirror; wherein at least portions of the plurality of images are stitched together to form a composite image with a desired zoom factor.

A holographic waveguide display comprises: a source of light; at least one switchable grating layer comprising a multiplicity of grating regions each switchable between a diffracting state and a non diffracting state; means for spatio-temporally modulating light from the source to provide image light comprising at least one beam deflector for scanning the light in at least one of two orthogonal directions and at least one modulator for amplitude modulating the light. A first scanned angular range of light is diffracted through a first area into a first field of view by a first set of grating regions, and through a second area into to the first field of view by a second set of grating regions. Each grating region of the first and second sets has a first grating function. The first and second areas lie within an exit pupil of the display.

An image pickup apparatus includes an image-pickup lens having an aperture diaphragm, an image-pickup element that has a color filter which is periodically allocated colors in units of a predetermined unit array and that generates picked-up image data including pixel data of colors using received light, the color filter being adjacent to a light receiving surface, a microlens array unit that is arranged on an image forming surface of the image-pickup lens and whose microlenses are each allocated a plurality of pixels of the image-pickup element, and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the picked-up image data generated by the image-pickup element. The image processing unit includes a parallax component image generation unit that generates a plurality of parallax component images and an interpolation processing unit that performs color interpolation processing for each of the parallax component images.

A head-mounted camera of the present invention includes the following elements. A first image pickup device includes a first photographing optical system that can change the focal distance and a CCD for converting a subject image formed by the first photographing optical system into an image signal. A see-through image display portion displays a photographic frame indicating the photographic range as a virtual image so that it is superimposed on a subject substantially directly observed by a photographer. A remote controller includes a second operation switch for setting the visual angle of the photographic frame when viewed from the photographer. A controller / recorder includes a first CPU for setting the focal distance of the first photographing optical system so that the visual angle of the photographic frame set by the second operation switch coincides with the field angle of the first image pickup device.

An image capturing apparatus includes an image capturing device for generating image data, a line-of-sight-direction / angular velocity detecting portion for detecting biological information, such as the direction of a line of sight of a photographer or the angular velocity of the head of the photographer, when the photographer observes a subject, and a controller / recorder. Among those elements, the image capturing device and the line-of-sight-direction / angular-velocity detecting portion are worn on the head of the photographer. The controller / recorder records, in a recording memory, the image data and the biological information in association with each other together with time information concerning a time at which the image data is obtained and a time at which the biological information is obtained. Then, based on the recorded biological information, the recorded image data is edited.

An image capturing apparatus comprises an image capturing unit which captures image data of an object, a zoom image data generating unit which generates items of zoom image data having different zoom magnifications, a display control unit which displays through images on a display unit based on the items of the generated zoom image data, a selection unit which selects one of the zoom magnifications by selecting one of the through images displayed on the display unit, and a recording control unit which records image data corresponding to the selected zoom magnification in a storing medium.

The information terminal body may be designed to foldably pivot a pair of flat cases each having a display unit through a hinge which is equipped with a photographing optical system for the camera function unit of which optical axis of lens is perpendicular to an axial center of the hinge. The display units display information from communication channels and images taken in by the camera. The cases may have the display units such that the display units face outside in a folded state. At least one of the two display units may be a finder for photographers, while the other may be a finder for the subject persons. The terminal is equipped with a shutter button and a terminal operation button. The terminal operation button works also as a shutter button. The information terminal is also equipped with a viewfinder for the camera lens system.

A camera support assembly including an elongated support, such as a extensible support, which support extends between a base assembly and a handgrip, whereby a user of the camera may secure a camera to the base assembly and, while holding the handgrip, position the camera a distance away, which may be greater than arms length, to capture a still or moving image of the user, of an obstructed scene, or of hard to reach and / or unsafe areas.

An electronic still camera includes a finder optical system for viewing a subject image. An imaging section obtains the subject image. A display section displays the subject image based on image data associated with the subject image obtained by the imaging section. A mode selecting section selects either a first mode in which the electronic still camera performs imaging operation using the imaging section while a user views the subject image through the finder optical system or a second mode in which the electronic still camera performs imaging operation using the imaging section while the user views the subject image on the display section. A first focus detection circuit performs a first focus detecting operation when the first mode is selected by the mode selecting section. A second focus detection circuit performs a second focus detecting operation when the second mode is selected by the mode selecting section.

This invention provides a camera system, including voice recognition, one or multiple microphones, gaze tracking, touch sensitive inputs and others. The voice recognition unit is operable for, among other things, receiving multiple different voice commands, recognizing the vocal commands, associating the different voice commands to one camera command and controlling at least some aspect of the digital camera operation in response to these voice commands. The gaze tracking unit is operable for, among other things, determining the location on the viewfinder image that the user is gazing upon. One aspect of the touch sensitive inputs provides that the touch sensitive pad is mouse-like and is operable for, among other things, receiving user touch inputs to control at least some aspect of the camera operation. Another aspect of the disclosed invention provides for gesture recognition to be used to interface with and control the camera system.

An aspect of the present invention provides a lens-interchangeable camera which has operability equal to a right-handed user and a left-handed user without necessity of any addition of extra members and without sacrificing a design for a smaller size. Since a camera according to the present invention does not need any extra members, a user-friendly camera which eliminates any disadvantage for a use by left-handed persons at a high level that any conventional cameras have not yet achieved can be achieved. Also, since a camera body can be disposed on a left side as needed even for a right-handed user and the right-handed user can operate the camera body only with his / her left hand, this form is convenient when the user picks up images while the user is operating another apparatus with his / her right hand.

This is a method for limiting access to selected features of a freely distributed multimedia file, by disabling selected features of the file (using encryption, compression, or other access denial), distributing the file with some enabled features as an inducement to new users, and offering to enable more features when a new user attempts to use a disabled feature. A licensing system then receives a request from the user's system, identifying a specific operating context and one or more features desired by the corresponding user. Accounting is done and an authorization is sent to the user or the user's system to enable the features. However, the authorization is uniquely associated with the measured operating context of the user and the features remain enabled only for said operating context, thus limiting full operation to authorized users, while permitting new users access to limited operations.

The information terminal body may be designed to foldably pivot a pair of flat cases each having a display unit through a hinge which is equipped with a photographing optical system for the camera function unit of which optical axis of lens is perpendicular to an axial center of the hinge. The display units display information from communication channels and images taken in by the camera. The cases may have the display units such that the display units face outside in a folded state. At least one of the two display units may be a finder for photographers, while the other may be a finder for the subject persons. The terminal is equipped with a shutter button and a terminal operation button. The terminal operation button works also as a shutter button. The information terminal is also equipped with a viewfinder for the camera lens system.

A camera support assembly including an elongated support, such as a extensible support, which support extends between a base assembly and a handgrip, whereby a user of the camera may secure a camera to the base assembly and, while holding the handgrip, position the camera a distance away, which may be greater than arms length, to capture a still or moving image of the user, of an obstructed scene, or of hard to reach and / or unsafe areas.

A camera and method are usable for capturing images of scenes illuminated by ambient light. The camera has a body and an electronic imager disposed in the body. The electronic imager captures an ambient light image as a multicolored electronic image. A color detector is disposed in the body. The color detector measures the ambient light to provide a color value. A user interface disposed on the outside of said body, shows the electronic image and an indication of the color value. The indication is independent of the color balance of the electronic image.

A liquid crystal display panel in which a signal electrode provided on a first substrate (1), a counter electrode provided on a second substrate (2), and a liquid crystal layer (18) between the substrates, and which carries out display without polarizers by changing the degree of transmission and scattering by means of a voltage applied to a pixel part. A light source part (27) is provided along the periphery of both substrates (1, 2), and a polarization separating device (30) is provided between the liquid crystal panel and the light source part (27).

A process and apparatus is described to improve a digital camera user interface and increase ease of use and functionality of a digital camera by quickly, accurately and robustly permitting cursor control and designation in a digital camera display. A digital camera is used as a pointing device such as a mouse or trackball. The motion of the camera is detected, and the motion of the camera is used to position graphic elements on the camera's own display. The camera's motion can be detected with sensors, such as gyroscopes, or the camera itself can be used as a motion sensor. One application of this involves using the camera as a computer mouse, or like a gun-sight, to select images from a sheet of low-resolution (“thumbnail”) images. The motion of the camera is tracked, and the user aims at the desired image from a sheet of thumbnail images. The thumbnails appear to be fixed relative to the world because the camera can continuously reposition them in the display based upon the motion of the camera. The user can then select a thumbnail in an intuitive manner by simply pointing the camera at the desired thumbnail. For alternative embodiments, the interface can be used to select regions of greater extent than can be viewed in the viewer or to virtually review images.

The present invention relates to a device (4) for positioning the face of a user relative to an image-capture apparatus (1), the positioning device comprising a picture-taking device (7) arranged to supply horizontally-reversed images, a display screen (5) for displaying the reversed images and connected to the picture-taking device, and means for superposing on the images displayed on the screen at least one positioning reference mark (6) for the user, the positioning reference mark and the displayed images lying substantially in the same plane. The invention also provides a corresponding method and image-capture apparatus.

A high-performance and low-cost image-forming optical system has a reduced number of constituent optical elements and is made extremely thin, particularly in a direction perpendicular to an image pickup device, by folding an optical path using only three reflecting surfaces. The image-forming optical system has a front unit including a first prism 10, an aperture stop 2, and a rear unit including a second prism 20. The first prism 10 has a first transmitting surface 11, a first reflecting surface 12, and a second transmitting surface 13. The second prism 20 has a first transmitting surface 21, a first reflecting surface 22, a second reflecting surface 23, and a second transmitting surface 24. An optical path incident on the first reflecting surface 22 and an optical path exiting from the second reflecting surface 23 intersect each other. The first reflecting surface 12 of the first prism 10 and the first and second reflecting surfaces 22 and 23 of the second prism 20 have a curved surface configuration that gives a power to a light beam. The curved surface configuration is a rotationally asymmetric surface configuration that corrects aberrations due to decentration.

A digital camera of the present invention enables a lens unit to be attachable / detachable with respect thereto. The digital camera of the present invention includes a plurality of display portions, a control portion that causes the plurality of display portions to selectively display the image data generated by the image pickup element or image data obtained by subjecting the image data generated by the image pickup element to predetermined processing as a moving image in real time, and a setting portion capable of switching displays of images with respect to the plurality of display portions. After the control portion causes the lens unit to perform an autofocus operation in accordance with setting of the displays of the images with respect to the plurality of display portions by the setting portion, the control portion switches the displays of the images with respect to the plurality of display portions.

A photographing apparatus includes an imaging-plane tilter configured to tilt an imaging plane, formed by a photographing optical system, relative to a plane that is orthogonal to an optical axis of the photographing optical system; a focus detector provided with a plurality of focus detection areas; and a tilt controller configured to control the imaging-plane tilter to tilt the imaging plane based on focus deviation amounts of the plurality of focus detection areas.

An aspect of the present invention provides a lens-interchangeable camera which has operability equal to a right-handed user and a left-handed user without necessity of any addition of extra members and without sacrificing a design for a smaller size. Since a camera according to the present invention does not need any extra members, a user-friendly camera which eliminates any disadvantage for a use by left-handed persons at a high level that any conventional cameras have not yet achieved can be achieved. Also, since a camera body can be disposed on a left side as needed even for a right-handed user and the right-handed user can operate the camera body only with his / her left hand, this form is convenient when the user picks up images while the user is operating another apparatus with his / her right hand.