Canon 2014 Annual Report Download - page 27

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C
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STRATEGY 25
high status in the field of intellectual property. In
2014, Canon was granted 4,055 patents in the United
States, ranking it third in the world and the top ranked
Japanese company for a tenth consecutive year.
Reinforcing Core Technologies
Canon is concentrating efforts on pre-competitive
fields areas, involving research that can take more
than ten years. At the same time, the Company is con-
tinually bolstering activities centered on key parts and
key devices in order to enhance the competitiveness of
its products.
For instance, we seek to boost the sensitivity, image
quality, and noise reduction of CMOS sensors for inter-
changeable lens digital cameras to realize new types
of visual expression for cameras. By raising the per-
formance levels of these devices to the full extent, we
are developing sensors applicable to functions used in
such areas as medical research and surveillance and
security. We are now promoting businesses of CMOS
sensor components.
Initiatives to Establish New Businesses
In the medical equipment field toward the establish-
ment of new pillars of growth, we are conducting
research in Japan into photoacoustic tomography (PAT)
technique for displaying blood vessels in three-dimen-
sional images, using laser radiation and ultrasonic detec-
tors. Canon in Japan is also conducting research into
adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (AO-SLO),
which enables examination of the retina at the cellular
level. In the United States, we are complementing our
work in DNA diagnostic systems with research in the
fields of biomedical optical imaging and medical robot-
ics technologies, with the aim of developing new medi-
cal devices and commercializing them.
In the industrial equipment field, Canon applies
its optical, capturing and imaging technologies to
advanced 3D measurement and recognition technolo-
gies. The technologies are part of our ongoing research
on Super Machine Vision, which will serve as the eyes of
intelligent robots.
Canon’s 120-megapixel ultrahigh-resolution CMOS sensor for video recording can output full HD video in real time from any approximately
one-sixtieth-sized section of its total surface area. Accordingly, images captured with the sensor maintain high levels of defi nition and clar-
ity even when cropped or digitally magnifi ed.