Patent · US Expired

Auto-focusing apparatus with hill-climbing and full-scanning auto-focusing performances

US6130417A · kind A · utility

29Cited by
1References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateSep 4, 1998
Grant dateOct 10, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 4, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG03B7/093
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An auto-focusing apparatus comprises an image sensing element for photo-electrically converting an image focused by an focal lens into an image signal, an image sensing circuit for processing an image signal, an A/D converter for converting the image signal output from the image pickup circuit into a digital image signal, and an AE processing circuit and an AF processing circuit respectively for performing an automatic exposure process and an auto-focusing process, on the basis of the digital image signal, and determines the brightness of the subject on the basis of AE and AF evaluation values respectively obtained by the AE processing circuit and the AF processing circuit, and performs the auto-focusing process according to a hill-climbing AF method for a bright subject and the auto-focusing process according to the full-scanning AF method for a non-bright subject.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.