Patent ID: 7701494
Filing Date: 2010-04-20
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image pickup device having an electron multiplying-charge coupled device, comprising: an electron multiplying magnification control unit of said electron multiplying-charge coupled device; an obtaining unit for obtaining signals which are output from light-shielded pixels of said electron multiplying-charge coupled device; an averaging unit for executing an inter-line averaging process to the signals obtained by said obtaining unit; a suppression unit for performing a predetermined low-level suppression and a predetermined high-level suppression to the signal averaged by said averaging unit in accordance with the electron multiplying magnification of said electron multiplying magnification control unit; a deriving unit for deriving image signals which are output from light-unshielded pixels of said electron multiplying-charge coupled device; a subtraction unit for subtracting the signal suppressed by said suppression unit from the image signals derived by said deriving unit; and an image signal processing unit for subjecting image signals output from the subtraction unit to image processing, wherein the electron multiplying magnification control unit controls a gain of electron multiplying of said electron multiplying-charge coupled device in accordance with image signals output from the image signal processing unit.