JP2001245253A - Imaging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging device by which misunderstanding in grasping of information is eliminated by clarifying the correspondence relation of an information presenting object with its presenting information, through the use of information transmission by optical spatial transmission. SOLUTION: The imaging device is provided with a CCD 13, a buffer memory 20 for storing a photographed image in time series, a CPU 24 for segmenting a specified image area from a through-image, which is stored in the memory 20 and extracting information from the times-series luminance change of the specified image area and a liquid crystal display 4d for displaying extracted information through superimposition on the photographed image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus for displaying a picked-up image, and more particularly, to an image pickup apparatus having an information display function which can be applied to a description of a product at a store or a display at a museum or an exhibition. The present invention relates to an imaging device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, information on goods, exhibits, and the like is mainly displayed on paper, a banner, a signboard, a plate, or the like (hereinafter referred to as "information presentation material" for convenience). Was done in the form of information.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned conventional information presentation method has the following problems. (1) When the number of products for which information is to be presented, such as products, is large, the number of information products is also large, and the important products are not conspicuous. Information understanding, for example, the information of the product A may be misunderstood as the information of the product B. (2) Since the character information written on the information presentation can be read by anyone with normal vision, limited information (for example, the product Purchase price, maximum discount rate, etc.)
Although security measures such as encoding and writing are taken, too complicated encoding is inconvenient because it is inconvenient to use, and the security effect of information may be reduced and the information may be easily read.

[0004] Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to eliminate the misunderstanding of information grasp by using the information transmission by the optical space transmission to clarify the correspondence between the information presented object and the presented information. An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging device capable of performing the above.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
Imaging means, storage means for storing images taken by the imaging means in chronological order, cutout means for cutting out a specific image area from the image stored in the storage means,
Extraction means for extracting information from a time-series luminance change of the image area cut out by the cutout means, and display means for displaying the information extracted by the extraction means superimposed on the photographed image It is characterized by.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the system diagram of FIG. 1, an arbitrary number of products (products A to F) 2a to 2f corresponding to the information presentation target products are arranged on the display shelves 1a and 1b, and near the products 2a to 2f. The optical tag devices 3a to 3f are attached at appropriate positions. Further, an electronic still camera (corresponding to an image pickup device of the present invention) 4 operated by a clerk (not shown) is arranged at an arbitrary position in the forward direction of each of the products 2a to 2f. A hand-held body 4a is provided with operation keys such as a shutter button 4b and a mode switching key 4c, and is further provided with a liquid crystal display (corresponding to display means described in the gist of the invention) 4d and a photographic lens 4e.

Although details will be described later, the electronic still camera 4 can display a through image of an arbitrary subject (for example, a product A to a product F) on a liquid crystal display 4d on a monitor.
The image of the subject can be photographed and recorded electronically, and the recorded image can be reproduced and displayed on the liquid crystal display 4d when desired. If the image information includes a unique image area (an image area by a light beam emitted from one of the optical tag devices 3a to 3f; details will be described later), tag information (for example, product name, etc.) is obtained from the unique image area. ) Can be read out, converted to a text format, and superimposed and displayed on the through image. That is, the electronic still camera 4 of the present embodiment captures a desired optical tag device (for example, the optical tag device 3a) within the angle of view of the photographic lens 4e and displays a through image on the liquid crystal display 4d. It has a characteristic function that the transmission information (information of the product A) from the optical tag device 3a can be converted to text characters and superimposed and displayed on the through image.

FIG. 2 is an external view and a block diagram common to the optical tag devices 3a to 3f. Hereinafter, for convenience, one optical tag device 3a will be described as an example.
A light emitting window 5b for emitting a flashing light 5c in the infrared region and a label attaching portion 5h for attaching an identification label (for example, a label on which a product name or a model number is printed) are provided on the surface of the body. A connector 5i for connecting a cable 6a of an external device 6 such as a personal computer to one end.
And a light emitting unit 5a, a driving unit 5d, a control unit 5e, a storage unit 5f, an input unit 5g, a power supply unit (not shown), and the like are mounted inside the body.

The light-emitting section 5a emits infrared blinking light 5c for optical space transmission through a light-emitting window 5b, and the drive section 5d turns on and off (light-off period) the blinking light 5c. A driving voltage for controlling the driving voltage. For example, when the battery voltage is aV, the drive unit 5 generates a drive voltage that changes periodically between aV and 0V, and the light-emitting unit 5a turns on during the aV period and turns off during the 0V period. 5c is launched for optical space transmission. There are two types of optical space transmission: a baseband system in which information is transmitted simply by turning on and off the light, and a broadband system in which the on period of light is modulated at a predetermined carrier frequency. (Line waveform), there is no significant difference between them, and therefore, in this specification, no distinction is made between these methods.

The control unit 5e takes in information from an external device 6 such as a personal computer via an input unit 5g, writes the information in the storage unit 5f, and writes the information in the storage unit 5f, as will be described in detail later. A process is performed in which the inserted information is read, converted into a predetermined signal format, and output to the drive unit 5d. FIG. 3A is a conceptual diagram of the information written in the storage unit 5f. In the illustrated example, “product name”, “model number”,
In each of the information items such as “sales price” and “purchase price”, arbitrary character information taken from the external device 6 such as a personal computer via the input unit 5g, for example, product name: OO ×
×, Model number: B001, Manufacturer: A, Price: 1
0000 yen, purchase price: 8000 yen, ... are written. FIG. 3B is a format structure diagram of the signal sequence 7 output from the control unit 5e to the driving unit 5d. The signal sequence 7 is a sequence of binarized signals, and has a predetermined start code (TOF: Top of Field code for convenience).
, A data unit 7b for storing information read from the storage unit 5f, and an end unit 7c for storing a predetermined end code (for convenience, an EOF: End of Field code). It has a side-by-side structure. Note that the structure of the signal sequence 7 is not limited to this example. It is sufficient if the receiving side has a structure that can specify the start and end of the sequence. The driving unit 5d drives the light-emitting unit 5a according to the signal sequence 7, and the light-emitting unit 5a is turned on / off according to the logic of each signal constituting the signal sequence 7 (for example, on when there is 1 logic, 0, 0).
The flashing light 5c, which is turned off when the logic is turned on, is emitted through the light emitting window 5b for optical space transmission.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an electronic still camera 4 as an example of the information presentation device of the present invention. In this figure, 4e is a photographic lens, 11 is a diaphragm mechanism provided on the optical axis of the photographic lens 4e, 12 is a driving unit of the diaphragm mechanism 11, and 13 is an image pickup signal of a subject by receiving light passing through the diaphragm mechanism 11 (Hereinafter referred to as CCD: corresponding to an image pickup means described in the gist of the invention), 14 is a driver of the CCD 13, and 15 is an image pickup time of the CCD 13 (electronic shutter time: hereinafter simply referred to as shutter time). A timing generator for generating various timing signals such as a signal to be processed, 16 is a sample and hold circuit for sampling an image signal from the CCD 13 and removing noise, and 17 is an analog-to-digital converter for converting the image signal after noise removal into a digital signal. It is a vessel. Here, the CCD 13
It has the ability to convert light in the visible light range from the subject into an imaging signal, and also has the ability to receive and convert the blinking light 5c in the infrared range emitted from the optical tag devices 3a to 3f into an imaging signal. There must be.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a color process circuit for generating a combined luminance / color difference signal (hereinafter referred to as a YUV signal) from the output of the digital-to-analog converter 17, 19 a video transfer circuit, and 20 a YUV sequentially generated by the color process circuit 18. A buffer memory for holding signals (corresponding to storage means described in the gist of the invention); 21 a compression / decompression circuit for performing compression / decompression processing using a predetermined encoding method (generally, JPEG method) when recording and reproducing the YUV signal; Reference numeral 23 denotes a fixed or removable flash memory for recording the compressed YUV signal.

A CPU 24 executes a control program stored in a program memory 24a in a work memory 24b to control recording and reproduction of an image and various controls accompanying these controls. (Corresponding to extraction means). Reference numeral 25 denotes a key input unit that generates a key input signal corresponding to various button operations such as a shutter button 4b and a mode switching key 4c, and 26 converts a YUV signal held in the buffer memory 20 into a signal format suitable for display. A digital video encoder, 4d is a liquid crystal display for an image monitor for displaying a signal from the digital video encoder 26, and 28 is a bus connecting each part.

As described above, the electronic still camera 4 can be used for an arbitrary subject (for example, a product A to a product F).
Has an image monitor function of displaying a through image on the liquid crystal display 4d as a monitor, an image capture function of photographing the subject image and electronically recording the image, and a display function of reproducing and displaying the recorded image on the liquid crystal display 4d when desired. And, in addition to these features,
It has a function of superimposing and displaying the information transmitted in the optical space on the through image. Therefore, in particular, only by directing the photographic lens 4e toward a desired product by this function, the light space transmission information from the optical tag device arranged near the product is displayed on the liquid crystal display 4d together with the through image of the product. The unique effect that it can be obtained is obtained.

The operation will be described below. FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart common to the optical tag devices 3a to 3f. Hereinafter, for convenience, one optical tag device 3a will be described as an example. When the power is turned on, the optical tag device 3a checks the storage content of the storage unit 5f to determine whether or not information is stored (step S1). S11). If not stored, it is determined whether or not the external device 6 is connected via the input unit 5g (step S12). If connected, information is fetched from the external device 6 and stored in the storage unit 5f. Write (step S13), and if not connected, the processing operation ends. On the other hand, if the information has been written in the storage unit 5f, the information is read (step S14), and FIG.
The signal sequence 7 is generated by setting it in the data portion 7b of the signal format (b) (step S15), and the signal sequence 7 is output to the driving portion 5d to drive the light emitting portion 5a (step S16), and then again. , And the processing after step S14 is repeated.

Therefore, the optical tag device 3 a
g, information from an external device 6 such as a personal computer is fetched, and the information is written into the storage unit 5f.
The operation of reading out the information written in f, converting it into a predetermined signal format, and outputting the converted signal to the drive unit 5d is mainly performed by the control unit 5e.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a control program of the electronic still camera 4. This program is executed by the CPU 24 when the power of the electronic still camera 4 is turned on. When this program is executed, first, in step S2
After performing initial settings such as an operation check in step 1, the operation mode (recording mode or reproduction mode) using the mode switching key 4c is determined in step S22, and the branching process (reproduction mode processing in step S23) according to the determination result is performed. And the operation of executing the recording mode process of step S24). Although there are other operation modes such as a system setting mode, they are omitted here for simplification of description.
The reproduction mode process of step S23 is a process of arbitrarily reading a captured image recorded in the flash memory 23 and reproducing and displaying the captured image on the liquid crystal display 4d. (The function of superimposing the image on the image), and the description is omitted here.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the recording mode process in step S24. When this flowchart is started, first, in step S31, a CCD image, that is, an image signal output from the color process circuit 18 is read and stored in the buffer memory 20, and then, in step S32, a through display processing is performed based on this image signal. Execute This through display processing is processing closely related to a characteristic function of the present invention (a function of superimposing and displaying information transmitted through the optical space on a through image).
In short, when the through-the-lens image includes the optical space transmission information, the optical transmission information is extracted from the through-the-lens image, the information is converted into text characters, and is superimposed and displayed on the through-the-lens image.

The through display processing in step S32 is repeatedly executed until it is determined in step S33 that the shutter key 4b of the key input section 25 is half-pressed. As a result, the through image (or the image in which the through image and the optical space transmission information are superimposed) is displayed on the liquid crystal display 4d while being updated at a predetermined cycle. Thereafter, when the half press of the shutter key is detected in step S33, the process proceeds to step S34.
To set the proper exposure corresponding to the brightness of the subject, and if the full press of the shutter key is detected in step S35, the CCD image at that time is compressed and recorded (captured) in the flash memory 23 in step S36. Is completed.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flow chart of the through display processing in step S32. When this flowchart starts, first, in step S41, the buffer memory 2
At 0, it is determined whether or not there is a unique image area in the CCD image. The unique image area is an image including optical space transmission information, and is a spot image formed by blinking light 5c emitted from optical tag devices 3a to 3f. For example, as shown in FIG. 9A, the CCD image 29 including the image 29a of the product 2a, the image 29b of the display shelf 1a, the image 29c of the optical tag device 3a, and the image 29d of the blinking light from the optical tag device 3a. In the case of, the image 29d of the blinking light indicated by hatching is the unique image area. If it is not determined that the unique image area exists, the process proceeds to step S
When the CCD image is displayed as a through image at 42, and the existence of the unique image area is determined, the area is cut out at step S43. FIG. 9B shows the cut-out image 3
This is an example of 0, in which a blinking light image 29d is cut out from the CCD image 29 of FIG. 9A. When the peculiar image area is cut out, information is extracted in step S44. The information is binary information represented by a time-sequential change in luminance of the unique image area (see the image 29d in FIG. 9B), and as shown in FIG. Each successive cutout image 30 ₁ , 30 ₂ ,..., 3
Is that of the binary information represented by the luminance value change of a specific image area included in the 0 _n. For example, images 30 ₁ and 30 ₃
And specific image area included in the 30 _n and high brightness, the specific image region included in an image 30 ₂ and the low luminance, by threshold decision these luminance values [101 ...
.. 1] (provided that the high luminance value is logic 1 and the low luminance value is logic 0).

As described above, the information carried on the blinking light from the optical tag device 3a includes a predetermined start code (T
OF) and a predetermined end code (EOF) before and after, so that the start code and the end code are obtained from the binary signal sequence obtained by the information extraction in steps S45 and S47. In step S46, step 48, and step S49, the data block between the two codes (the data block 7b in FIG. 3B) is recognized.
Then, at step S42, a process of superimposing and displaying information included in the data block on the through image is executed.

That is, when a predetermined start code (TOF) is detected in step S45, new display information is generated. Until a predetermined end code (EOF) is detected in step S47, the new display information includes the information in the data block. Is repeated, and when a predetermined end code (EOF) is detected in step S47, the new display information is superimposed on the CCD image in a predetermined format, and the process proceeds to step S42.
To execute a through display. FIG. 10 (b)
Is a display example of a through image including new display information. In this figure, an image 31 includes images 29a, 29b, and 29 of a product 2a, a display shelf 1a, an optical tag device 3a, and blinking light.
c, 29d, and a balloon-shaped character display area 32.
○ XX ”,“ B001 ”,“ Company A ”,“ 10000 ”
Character information such as "circle", "8000 yen", etc. is displayed and is information transmitted in the optical space by blinking light from the optical tag device 3a, that is, the storage unit of the optical tag device 3a. 5f (FIG. 3)
(See (a)).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the information written in the storage unit 5f of the optical tag devices 3a to 3f arranged near the products 2a to 2f can be transmitted in the optical space. Since the electronic still camera 4 receives the information and superimposes the information on the liquid crystal display 4d,
The following effects can be obtained. (1) Information presentation materials such as paper, banners, signs, and plates can be unnecessary or minimized. Therefore, for example, even if the number of commodities increases, the essential commodities do not become inconspicuous. In addition, the correspondence between each product and its information is described on the liquid crystal display 4d of the electronic still camera 4.
Therefore, the user does not misunderstand the information, for example, misunderstanding the information on the product A with the information on the product B. (2) Only a person who has the electronic still camera 4 (hereinafter referred to as a “specific person”) can visually recognize the information transmitted in the optical space. For this reason, by including limited information such as the purchase price of the product and the maximum discount rate in the information, and by using the specific person as a clerk, it is ensured that the limited information is kept confidential to anyone other than the specific person. Can be

[0024]

According to the present invention, it is possible to eliminate or minimize information presentations such as paper, banners, signs, and plates. In addition, since the correspondence between each product and the like and the information can be visually confirmed by the information presentation device, erroneous information understanding, for example, information of the product A is not misunderstood as information of the product B.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram and a use state diagram of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an external view and a block diagram of the optical tag device of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of information written in a storage unit of the optical tag device and a structural diagram of a transmission format including the information.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an imaging device (electronic still camera) according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart common to the optical tag device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a control program of the electronic still camera.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a recording mode process.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a through display process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a CCD image including a unique image area.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a luminance change state of a unique image area and a through image display state including a balloon-shaped character display area.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 electronic still camera (imaging device) 4d liquid crystal display (display means) 20 buffer memory (storage means) 24 CPU (cutout means, extraction means) 29d image (specific image area)

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup unit, a storage unit that stores images picked up by the image pickup unit in time series, a cutout unit that cuts out a specific image area from an image stored in the storage unit, and the cutout unit Extracting means for extracting information from the time-series luminance change of the image region cut out by the extracting means, and display means for displaying the information extracted by the extracting means superimposed on the photographed image. Imaging device.