Image pickup apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAkihiro Fujiwara, Tomohiro Harada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image pickup apparatus comprising: right and left optical systems; shutters disposed in correspondence with each of the right and left optical systems, for time-divisionally switching between incident light; a micro computer for controlling an open/close timing of the shutters; and an image pickup element for picking up an image input via the right and left optical systems, wherein the microcomputer variably controls the open/close timing of the shutters in accordance with exposure timing information of the image pickup element.
Claims39
An image pickup apparatus comprising:
- right and left optical systems;
- shielding means disposed correspondingly to each of said right and left optical systems, for time-divisionally switching between incident light;
- control means for controlling an open/close timing of said shielding means;
- and
- image pickup means for picking up an image input via said right and left optical systems,
- wherein said control means variably controls the open/close timing of said shielding means in accordance with exposure timing information of said image pickup means.
A lens unit capable of being removably mounted on a camera unit, comprising:
- a) right and left optical systems having right and left parallaxes and being capable of picking up a stereo image;
- b) shielding means disposed in each of said right and left optical systems, for time-divisionally switching between incident light;
- c) control means for controlling an open/close timing of said shielding means;
- and
- d) communication means for communicating with the camera unit,
- wherein said control means controls the open/close timing of said shielding means in accordance with exposure timing information of the camera unit, received from the camera unit via said communication means.
A camera system including a camera unit and a lens unit capable of being removably mounted on the camera unit,
- wherein said camera unit comprises:
- a) image pickup means for picking up an image focussed by said lens unit and outputting a video signal;
- and
- b) camera side control means for transmitting exposure timing information of said image pickup means to said lens unit;
- and
- wherein said the lens unit comprises:
- c) right and left optical systems having right and left parallaxes and being capable of picking up a stereo image;
- d) shielding means disposed in each of said right and left optical systems, for time-divisionally switching between incident light beams;
- and
- e) lens side control means for controlling an open/close timing of said shielding means in accordance with the exposure timing information received from the camera unit.
17 The camera system according to claim 16, wherein the exposure timing information is information as to an accumulation time of said image pickup means of said camera unit.
An image pickup system including a lens unit and a camera unit, the lens unit picking up an object with right and left parallaxes and being exchangeable, said image pickup system comprising transmission means for transmitting information as to an accumulation timing of an image pickup element from said camera unit to said lens unit.
An image pickup system including a lens unit and a camera unit, said lens unit picking up an object with right and left parallaxes and being exchangeable, said image pickup system comprising transmission means for transmitting information as to an accumulation timing of an image pickup element from said camera unity to said lens unity.
An image pickup control method comprising:
- a step of time-divisionally driving shielding means disposed correspondingly to each of right and left optical systems, to switch between incident light;
- a step of picking up an image input via said right and left optical systems with image pickup means;
- and
- a step of controlling an open/close timing of said shielding means in accordance with exposure timing information of said image pickup means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.