| 摘要 |
Intentionally defective pixels, whose number exceeds a storage capacity of a memory for defect correction, are formed in a predetermined pattern in an image pickup device. There is a plurality of patterns of the defective pixels, each being unique to each camera (image pickup device). An ID of the camera for specifying the pattern is read and defect pattern data corresponding to the ID of the camera is retrieved. Image data is read and the intentionally defective pixels are corrected based on the retrieved defect pattern data. Since the number of the intentionally defective pixels exceeds the storage capacity of the memory for defect correction, the image data cannot be reproduced in a normal manner when the defect pattern data corresponding to the pattern of the intentionally defective pixels cannot be retrieved. Thus, the image pickup device of the camera cannot be used in another image pickup apparatus by a third party.
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