US 7,623,781 B1Granted

Image shooting apparatus

AssigneeMega Vision Corporation

InventorMasayuki Sassa

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Abstract

An image pickup device capable of dividing an image into two or three portions and capturing the image portions as divided. The image pickup device comprises a splitting part (135), which includes both a bi-prism for splitting an incident light into two and a tri-prism for splitting an incident light into three, and an exchange mechanism for exchanging the bi-prism and tri-prism. The splitting part (135) can be located other than a position where the focus position of a main lens (131), on which a light from a subject (140) is incident, coincides with the focus positions of relay lenses (132,133,134) that guide the split lights. This arrangement allows images of normal, twice or three times wide, which are equivalent to images as acquired by a single, two or three cameras, respectively, to be captured, recorded, reproduced, relayed, transmitted, displayed, or screened.

Claims4

Dependent claims

An image shooting apparatus, comprising:

a bi-splitting device for splitting incident light into two split light portions, which bi-splitting device can be located at a position other than a position where a focal position of a main lens on which light from an object to be image-captured is incident coincides with a focal position of a relay lens which guides the split light portions;
a tri-splitting device for splitting the incident light into three split light portions, which tri-splitting device can be located at a position other than the position where the focal position of the main lens on which light from the object to be image-captured is incident coincides with the focal position of the relay lens which guides the split light portions;
the bi-splitting and tri-splitting devices being configured such that all of the incident light that is split into two split light portions by the bi-splitting device is split into three split light portions by the tri-splitting device;
and
an exchange device for exchanging between the bi-splitting device and the tri-splitting device.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/591,717Filed 4 Mar 2005
Priority: JP 2004-0620755 Mar 2004
Granted: 24 Nov 2009
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

G03B 37/04
Panoramic or wide-screen photography; Photographing extended surfaces, e.g. for surveying; Photographing internal surfaces, e.g. of pipe: with…
G02B 5/04
Optical elements other than lenses: prisms
G02B 7/1805
For prisms; for mirrors: for prisms
G02B 27/1066
Beam splitting or combining systems: for enhancing image performance, like resolution, pixel numbers, dual magnifications or dynamic range, by…