Patent · US Active

Imaging apparatus and imaging method

US8836767B2 · kind B2 · utility

4Cited by
0References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateDec 14, 2011
Grant dateSep 16, 2014
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 16, 2032

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N23/651
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An imaging apparatus and an imaging method, wherein a focus location direction discriminator estimates a direction toward a focus location based on two contrast evaluation values corresponding to two imaging optical systems having different image focusing locations. Therefore, the imaging apparatus and the imaging method can directly start an AF operation at current image focusing locations of two imaging optical systems, without setting the image focusing locations to fixed initial locations in a focusing operation of the imaging optical systems. As a result, AF operation time and power consumption are reduced without failing to find a direction of image focusing location.

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