초록 ▼

An automatic range finding method and apparatus for a camera of the type which projects a line of light toward a scene including a subject to be photographed. Light reflected from the subject is received by a light sensor having a plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels arranged in a matrix. Th

An automatic range finding method and apparatus for a camera of the type which projects a line of light toward a scene including a subject to be photographed. Light reflected from the subject is received by a light sensor having a plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels arranged in a matrix. The photoelectric conversion pixels receiving the reflected light are detected, and the subject distance is determined according to a pixel line which contains one of the detected photoelectric conversion pixels nearest to the first pixel line.

대표청구항 ▼

In an automatic range finding method which comprises projecting a line of light toward a scene including a subject to be photographed; receiving light reflected from the subject by a light sensor having a plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels arranged in m lines and n column, m and n being po

In an automatic range finding method which comprises projecting a line of light toward a scene including a subject to be photographed; receiving light reflected from the subject by a light sensor having a plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels arranged in m lines and n column, m and n being positive integers, the first line of said plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels receiving light reflected from a subject at a shortest subject distance and the m-th line of said plurality of photoelectric conversion pixels receiving light reflected from a subject at a greatest subject distance; and determining the distance of the subject to be photographed according to a pixel line which contains a pixel receiving said reflected light; the improvement comprising detecting which photoelectric conversion pixels receive said reflected light; determining said subject distance according to, when a part of said reflected light is received by a short distance center pixel range which is defined by pixels arranged between the first to the I-th pixel lines, I being less than m, in at least one pixel column including the middle pixel column, a pixel line contains one of said detected photoelectric conversion pixels within said short distance center pixel range in preference to other pixel lines each of which contains any one of said detected photoelectric conversion pixels, or according to, when no part of said reflected light is received by said short distance center pixel range, a pixel line which contains one of said detected photoelectric conversion pixels nearest to said first pixel line; and providing a signal representative of said determined subject distance by which the focus of a camera lens is adjusted.