IMAGING DEVICE AND IMAGING SYSTEM

• US 20140055661A1
• Filed: 02/01/2013
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Imamura, Norihiro, Korenaga, Tsuguhiro, Yamagata, Michihiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,658,463 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/342
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00096 Optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/04 combined with photographic or television appliances
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/041 Capsule endoscopes for imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/441 Skin evaluation, e.g. for skin disorder diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/06 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/21 Polarisation-affecting properties G01N21/19 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/359 using near infrared light
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4738 Diffuse reflection precedence is given to G01N21/55 - G01N21/57 if specular component is taken into consideration, e.g. also for testing fluids, fibrous materials
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/499 using polarisation effects
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 13/14 for use with infrared or ultraviolet radiation G02B13/008, G02B13/16 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/28 for polarising used in stereoscopes G02B30/25
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/286 for controlling or changing the state of polarisation, e.g. transforming one polarisation state into another G02B5/3083 takes precedence; light guide coupling means utilising polarising elements G02B6/34
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 3/0056 arranged along two different directions in a plane, e.g. honeycomb arrangement of lenses G02B3/0043 takes precedence; miniaturised objectives for electronic devices employing wafer level optics G02B13/0085
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/201 in the form of arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/3033 in the form of a thin sheet or foil, e.g. Polaroid

Abstract

An imaging apparatus disclosed in the present application includes a lens optical system L, an imaging device N including a plurality of first and second pixels P1 and P2, and an arrayed optical device K, wherein: the lens optical system L includes a first optical region D1 which primarily passes therethrough light oscillating in a direction of a first polarization axis and a second optical region D2 which passes therethrough light oscillating in every direction; and the arrayed optical device K makes light having passed through the first optical region D1 incident on the first pixels P1 and makes light having passed through the second optical region D2 incident on the second pixels P2.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

a lens optical system;

an imaging device including a plurality of first pixels and a plurality of second pixels on which light having passed through the lens optical system is incident; and

an arrayed optical device being arranged between the lens optical system and the imaging device and including a plurality of optical elements each having a lens surface, wherein;

the lens optical system includes a plurality of optical regions, and the plurality of optical regions include a first optical region which primarily passes therethrough light oscillating in a direction of a first polarization axis and a second optical region which passes therethrough light oscillating in any direction; and

the plurality of optical elements of the arrayed optical device make light having passed through the first optical region incident on the plurality of first pixels and light having passed through the second optical region incident on the plurality of second pixels.

2. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first optical region passes therethrough light of a first wavelength band, and the second optical region passes therethrough light of a second wavelength band.

5. The imaging apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first wavelength band is a wavelength band of near infrared light.

6. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of optical regions of the lens optical system further includes a third optical region other than the first and second optical regions;

the third optical region primarily passes therethrough light oscillating in a direction of a second polarization axis which is different from the first polarization axis; and

the arrayed optical device makes light having passed through the third optical region incident on a plurality of third pixels other than the plurality of first and second pixels.

7. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of optical regions of the lens optical system further include third and fourth optical regions other than the first and second optical regions;

the first, second, third and fourth optical regions pass therethrough light of first, second, third and fourth wavelength bands which are different from one another; and

the arrayed optical device makes light having passed through the third and fourth optical regions incident on a plurality of third and fourth pixels, respectively, other than the plurality of first and second pixels.

8. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of optical regions of the lens optical system further include third and fourth optical regions other than the first and second optical regions;

the first and third optical regions pass therethrough light of the same wavelength band, and second and fourth optical regions pass therethrough light of wavelength bands different from wavelength bands of light passing through the first and the third optical regions, respectively; and

the arrayed optical device makes light having passed through the third and fourth optical regions incident on a plurality of third and fourth pixels, respectively, other than the plurality of first and second pixels.

9. The imaging apparatus of claim 8, wherein the third optical region primarily passes therethrough light oscillating in a direction of a second polarization axis different from the first polarization axis.

10. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the imaging device further includes a plurality of third and fourth pixels on which light having passed through the lens optical system is incident;

the plurality of optical regions further include third and fourth optical regions;

the third optical region passes therethrough light oscillating in any direction;

the arrayed optical device makes light having passed through the third and fourth optical regions incident on the plurality of third and fourth pixels; and

the plurality of first, second and third pixels include filters having first, second and third spectral transmittance characteristics, respectively.

11. The imaging apparatus of claim 10, wherein:

the plurality of fourth pixels have the first spectral transmittance characteristics; and

the fourth optical region passes therethrough light of a predetermined wavelength band and passes therethrough light oscillating in a direction of a second polarization axis different from the first polarization axis.

12. The imaging apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first, second, third and fourth pixels of the imaging device are arranged in a Bayer array.

15. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of first pixels include 1A and 1B pixels, the plurality of second pixels include 2A and 2B pixels, the plurality of third pixels include 3A and 3B pixels, and the plurality of fourth pixels include 4A and 4B pixels;

an optical element in the k^th row makes light having passed through the first region incident on the 1A pixel and the 3A pixel and makes light having passed through the second region incident on the 2B pixel and the 4B pixel; and

an optical element in the k+1^th row makes light having passed through the first region incident on a plurality of 2A pixels and the 4A pixel and makes light having passed through the second region incident on the 1B pixel and the 3B pixel.

20. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the arrayed optical device is a lenticular lens.

21. The imaging apparatus of claim 20, wherein:

in the arrayed optical device, the lens surfaces of the plurality of optical elements are each a cylindrical surface extending in a first direction, and the plurality of optical elements are arranged in a second direction; and

each of the plurality of optical elements is arranged so as to correspond to two rows of pixels including one row of first pixels and one row of second pixels.

22. The imaging apparatus of claim 7, wherein the arrayed optical device is a microlens array.

24. The imaging apparatus of claim 22, wherein each of the plurality of optical elements is arranged so as to correspond to one of the plurality of first pixels, one of the plurality of second pixels, one of the plurality of third pixels, and one of the plurality of fourth pixels.

25. The imaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the arrayed optical device is formed on the imaging device.

26. The imaging apparatus of claim 25, further comprising a microlens provided between the arrayed optical device and the imaging device,

wherein the arrayed optical device is formed on the imaging device with the microlens interposed therebetween.

27. The imaging apparatus of claim 26, wherein the microlens provided between the arrayed optical device and the imaging device is a binary refractive index distribution type optical element or a multi-level refractive index distribution type optical element.

3-4. -4. (canceled)

13. An imaging apparatus comprising:

a lens optical system including a filter which passes therethrough light of a predetermined band, and having a first region which primarily passes therethrough light oscillating in a direction of a first polarization axis, and a second region which is located at a position different from the first region and which passes therethrough light oscillating in any direction;

an imaging device including a plurality of first pixels on which light having passed through the lens optical system is incident, a plurality of second pixels including a filter having first spectral transmittance characteristics, a plurality of third pixels including a filter having second spectral transmittance characteristics, and a plurality of fourth pixels including a filter having third spectral transmittance characteristics; and

an arrayed optical device being arranged between the lens optical system and the imaging device and including a plurality of optical elements each having a lens surface,

wherein the arrayed optical device makes light having passed through the first optical region incident on the plurality of first pixels, and makes light having passed through the second optical region incident on the plurality of second, third and fourth pixels.

14. An imaging apparatus comprising:

a lens optical system includes a first region which primarily passes therethrough light oscillating in a direction of a first polarization axis, and a second region which is located at a position different from the first region and which passes therethrough light oscillating in any direction;

an imaging device including a plurality of pixels and an imaging surface, wherein the plurality of pixels include a plurality of first and second pixels on which light having passed through the lens optical system is incident and which includes a filter having first spectral transmittance characteristics, a plurality of third pixels including a filter having second spectral transmittance characteristics, and a plurality of fourth pixels including a filter having third spectral transmittance characteristics; and

an arrayed optical device being arranged between the lens optical system and the imaging device and including a plurality of optical elements each having a lens surface, wherein;

the plurality of pixels are arranged on the imaging surface by being arranged in m rows in a second direction from a 1^st row to an m^th (m is an integer greater than or equal to

     2), each row being a group of pixels including 1 to 1 pixels arranged in a first direction (1 is an integer greater than or equal to

     2);

a position of a center in the first direction of each of 1 pixels arranged in a j^th row (1≦

j<

m) of the m rows is generally equal to a position of a center in the first direction of each of 1 pixels arranged in a j+1^th row; and

the plurality of optical elements are arranged on a surface of the arrayed optical device in t columns in the first direction from a 1^st column to a t^th columns (t is an integer greater than or equal to

     2), each column being a group of optical elements including 1 to s optical elements (s is an integer greater than or equal to

     2) arranged in the second direction, wherein a position of a center in the second direction of an optical element arranged in a k^th column (1≦

k<

t) of the t columns is shifted in the second direction from a position of a center in the second direction of an optical element arranged in a k+1^th column.

16-19. -19. (canceled)

23. (canceled)

28-36. -36. (canceled)