Canon Patent Application Roundup for March 22nd

Happy Spring to all our readers as we sift through this weeks 150+ patent applications and find ones that we think you may be interested in.

With all patent applications this information tends to be a bit forward looking into what Canon may or may not do, but as well,it gives us an idea into what Canon may be working on now.

Japan Patent Application 2018-042191

This patent application deals with making various areas of the back LCD touch sensitive when you put  your face up to the viewfinder.  No one likes their nose deciding to change settings, and this is possibly an advancement of Canon's touch zone AF.

In imaging devices, such as a digital camera of an eyepiece finder in which a touch panel is arranged downward, when a user looked into an eyepiece finder, the user's nose touched the touch panel and processing which a user does not mean might be performed.

...

The present invention is made in view of the above points, and it aims at improving the operability of the touch operation to the touch panel arranged near the finder performed while looking into a finder. 

Japan Patent Application 2018-042222

This patent application looks to improve the frame rate when using a DPAF sensor with AI servo AF.  With DPAF sensors, the sensor reads AF information, then switches modes and reads the image information.  Improving the efficiency of those operations reduces the degradation of AF speed for AF acquisition.

Japan Patent Application 2018-46336

Canon looking at improving DPAF sensors further with periphery pixels being offset.  This patent application deals with using shift amounts for the offset pixels on the periphery of the sensor to improve the spread of AF points.

Japan Patent Application 2018-45238 

Diffractive Optics is still ongoing research in Canon, and there's several patent applications dealing with DO elements this week.

This first patent application is looking to improve the yield of manufacturing the diffractive optical element.

Any improvement in the yields and efficiency in manufacturing may lead us to see DO elements in cheaper lenses.

Japan Patent Application 2018-044063

More Diffractive Optics goodness.  This patent application looks at a different chemical composition for the DO element to improve the ease of creating the diffractive element in a mold.

Japan Patent Application 2018-045047

It appears that Canon is looking at improving the battery life when using the Macro lenses that include LED's in them.  Whether this means we could be expecting a firmware update in future cameras, or future macro lenses; either I would assume is possible.

I do believe this patent deals with the camera instruction the lens when and how to turn off the light and not leave it on all the time possibly overriding the switch conditions on the lens itself.

Japan Patent Application 2018-045249

This patent application deals with the creation of a GND (graduated neutral density) filter with lower flare or ghosting