Lots of Sensor & AF Patents Emerge

[Canon Rumors]

<a href="http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/Canon_rumours.html" target="_blank">Keith over at Northlight</a> has spotted a lot of sensor and autofocus patents that have made their way through the United States Patent Office.</p>
<p>There are patents related to autofocus, auto autofocus calibration (we had heard about “intelligent AF” in the past), on sensor A/D as well as more stacked “foveon style” sensor patents.</p>
<p>Keith gives a <a href="http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/cameras/Canon_rumours.html" target="_blank">full breakdown of the patents here</a>.</p>
<span id="pty_trigger"></span>

 

[ahsanford]

"Besides the upsides in image quality we expect from a Foveon sensor, we're also pretty #%!#ing stoked that switching sensor types will make it impossible for DXO to test our gear and say bad things about us anymore." -- buried somewhere in those patents

- A

 

[PureClassA]

Although no guarantee, I find the timing of this publication damn curious given the curtain being drawn next week on what we have to assume is the DX2. Yeah they just got published yesterday, but the reference dates on there go back a few years, listing 2010, 2011, and 2012. This sort of tech is certainly something you'd expect to debut on a 1 series body... I know I may be reaching here, but hey, this site is built for fun and speculation

 

[keriboi]

How are patents timing released? Could they have planned it 3 years ago to release it just before the 1dx2 is due to be released? Could the 1dx2 be the first multilayer sensor for canon? Cant wait for next week.

 

[ahsanford]

Although no guarantee, I find the timing of this publication damn curious given the curtain being drawn next week on what we have to assume is the DX2. Yeah they just got published yesterday, but the reference dates on there go back a few years, listing 2010, 2011, and 2012. This sort of tech is certainly something you'd expect to debut on a 1 series body... I know I may be reaching here, but hey, this site is built for fun and speculation

It's really hard to time releases with patent approvals. USPTO gets to stuff when they get to it, and when it's approved, it's public.

More likely, Canon will do it's best to smash it's IP into such tiny pieces that a clear end-product is not visible from looking at a single patent.

- A

 

[PureClassA]

Publication dates are largely irrelevant far as I know. The patent is protected (providing no conflicts of interest with prior patents) as of the filing date. I've seen some wide variety of lag times in various patents. Also, a patent is filed after the design has reached a certain maturity. It's entirely possible that everything we see here is already at a production phase. Note I said "possible" not "plausible". However, we know that on chip ADC is pretty much a given, so perhaps some radical new sensor design could be forthcoming as well. My only question is whether this foven design would negate the use of DPAF, which is something I'd suspect Canon would certainly have on the DX2.

 

[PureClassA]

Here's another thought. Would a new Mirrorless FF body not also be an interesting place to debut such a sensor?

 

[keithcooper]

There's quite a wide collection of patents just come out - I skipped over most of the photocopier and printer related ones ;-)

There were quite a few others covering things like transistor configurations in pixels and related aspects of sensor design/manufacture, such as

http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=09239423

 

[PureClassA]

There's quite a wide collection of patents just come out - I skipped over most of the photocopier and printer related ones ;-)

There were quite a few others covering things like transistor configurations in pixels and related aspects of sensor design/manufacture, such as

http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=09239423

Thanks for all you do Keith! What's your take on the Foven stuff actually making it to a DX2 or Mirrorless anytime soon? Seems like the ADC and AF patents are a given.

 

[keithcooper]

There's quite a wide collection of patents just come out - I skipped over most of the photocopier and printer related ones ;-)

There were quite a few others covering things like transistor configurations in pixels and related aspects of sensor design/manufacture, such as

http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=09239423

Thanks for all you do Keith! What's your take on the Foven stuff actually making it to a DX2 or Mirrorless anytime soon? Seems like the ADC and AF patents are a given.

This was the one that first caught my attention ;-)
Something like it has been appearing in patents (from several companies) for quite some time. This time it has quite a bit more practical detail on pixel structure.
That said, it's a big change and I suspect, with Canon's conservatism, a bit too big yet for a mainstream camera.

However, someone else brings it out, expect a whole new sensor arms race ;-)

 

[PureClassA]

This was the one that first caught my attention ;-)
Something like it has been appearing in patents (from several companies) for quite some time. This time it has quite a bit more practical detail on pixel structure.
That said, it's a big change and I suspect, with Canon's conservatism, a bit too big yet for a mainstream camera.

However, someone else brings it out, expect a whole new sensor arms race ;-)

Yeah... Sigma's ... didn't really count...

 

[mclaren777]

On-chip A/D conversion has me really excited for next week's announcements! ;D

 

[Stu_bert]

Thanks for sharing Keith.

According to the USPTO site the average time is 24.6 months to approve a patent.

PCT is a way of filing a patent in a format which maybe submitted to 100 countries which support the agreement, if I've read it correctly.

According to this site which explains the front page

http://www.bpmlegal.com/howtopat1.html

the date the patent was filed is field 22. The other dates appear to refer to approval information outside the US. But the fact that they were filed on different dates, but the publication dates (the date the patent is granted) are the same is not just random chance (just my view). These patents must have some connection to imminent releases I believe. Now that doesn't mean that Canon is releasing such a sensor in the 1DX II, but there is "coverage" within that patent of tech within the imminent releases.

Patents can of course be updated, as the design is refined - so the sensor patent is from Dec 2010, and I would guess it has been refined since - pure subjectiveness on my behalf based on the average approval time.

Also as an aside, patents in the US are always published on a Tuesday

Still a flurry of patent approvals just before a flagship launch has got to stimulate excitement and anticipation before the inevitable "letdown" ;D

of course is is 2:30am here, so I've probably misread it all

 

[Pompo]

On-chip A/D conversion has me really excited for next week's announcements! ;D

what are the benefits of on chip A/D conversion?

 

[Stu_bert]

And this link talks about automatic publication after 18 months not being necessarily the case

http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2015/08/03/the-myth-of-the-18-month-delay-in-publishing-patent-applications/id=60185/

And there's a way of requesting nonpublication...

Far too complex, lol... guess we'd better wait for the NDAs to expire and the products to launch...

 

[Stu_bert]

On-chip A/D conversion has me really excited for next week's announcements! ;D

what are the benefits of on chip A/D conversion?

Reduce the amount of noise introduced within the camera to the image. Sonikon and other manufacturers went this route. Reduce the noise floor and you improve the usable DR.

 

[Jack Douglas]

"2016 January

27th Time for a three layer stacked non bayer sensor from Canon?
A Canon patent [USPTO] showns a three level sensor (back illuminated unlike some previous patents)"

Anyone more into semiconductors? This looks like a sequential read of the three sensors which are continuously illuminated, fed out by a CMOS gate. What is the back-lighting?

Jack

 

[MrToes]

Really looking forward to what Canon will bring to the table. With the hope of more DR to make life easier in the few high contrast shots on pesky wedding venues!

 

[Ozarker]

Although no guarantee, I find the timing of this publication damn curious given the curtain being drawn next week on what we have to assume is the DX2. Yeah they just got published yesterday, but the reference dates on there go back a few years, listing 2010, 2011, and 2012. This sort of tech is certainly something you'd expect to debut on a 1 series body... I know I may be reaching here, but hey, this site is built for fun and speculation

It's really hard to time releases with patent approvals. USPTO gets to stuff when they get to it, and when it's approved, it's public.

More likely, Canon will do it's best to smash it's IP into such tiny pieces that a clear end-product is not visible from looking at a single patent.

- A

The first production (which has certainly started months ago) could have had "Patent Pending" labels ready in case the patents were not yet released at announcement time. Now that the patents have been released they can just put standard labels on the product. That's just a guess. I have absolutely no idea how it all works.

 

[Ozarker]

Canon doesn't innovate. Canon is always behind the curve. Canon is notoriously conservative and overly cautious. Canon is a slow dinosaur of a company. Canon is ten years behind everyone else.

Sony will eat Canon's lunch.

So will Fuji.

So will Nikon.

Canon is dead soon.

: : : : : : : : : : : :