JP2003153058A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and surely add character information to an image, that is photographed by an imaging apparatus on the spot of photographing, even if the imaging apparatus does not have character-inputting functions. SOLUTION: A digital still camera 10 and a cellular phone terminal 50 is loaded with Bluetooth function. When images are photographed by the camera 10, a mode switch 13 is switched to a reproduction mode, a photographed image 1 is displayed on a liquid crystal monitor 15, characters are inputted to the cellular phone terminal 50 for displaying strings 55, and the text data in the strings are transmitted to the camera 10 by the object push operation at the terminal 50. The CPU of the camera 10 converts received text data to segment data that suit an image file which is recorded in a memory for inserting into the header section of the image file, and the image file is rewritten.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup device such as a digital still camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When shooting an image with a digital still camera, the shooting date and time can be recorded in the image.
It is not possible to record the shooting location, target, shooting situation, etc. in the camera at the time of shooting.

Therefore, for example, when an image taken at a travel destination or the like is taken into a personal computer (personal computer) at home or the like and edited by album creating software of the personal computer or the like, a memo recorded in a notebook or a notebook at the time of shooting is used. A method to judge the shooting location and target, the shooting situation, the need to save, etc. by looking at or looking at the image displayed on the computer's display, leaving the necessary images and adding the necessary comments Is taken.

[0004]

However, in the method of recording a memo in a notebook or a notebook at the time of shooting, when the memo content is added to an image as a comment, the memo content must be input to a personal computer. It will be troublesome. Also,
The method to determine the shooting location and target, the shooting situation, the need to save, etc., by looking at the images displayed on the computer's display is when there are many shot images or time has elapsed since the shooting. If you do, you can not judge accurately,
It may not be possible to add appropriate comments.

If the camera is provided with a character input function so that the character information can be added to the image on the spot where the image is taken, the above problem can be solved. However, if the camera is provided with a character input function, the camera mechanism becomes complicated and the operability deteriorates.

In view of this, the present invention makes it possible to easily and surely add character information to an image taken by the image pickup device even when the image pickup device does not have a character input function. Is.

[0007]

According to the present invention, an image pickup section for outputting a photographed image as image information, a storage section for storing the image information, and an image based on the image information stored in the storage section are displayed. In an image pickup apparatus having a monitor unit that operates, a wireless reception unit that receives character information created on an external information processing terminal by a predetermined wireless communication method and the wireless reception unit when an image is displayed on the monitor unit. A control unit for adding the character information received by the unit to the image information which is the basis of the image.

In the image pickup apparatus configured as described above, by transmitting the character information created on the external information processing terminal from the external information processing terminal to the image pickup apparatus, even if the image pickup apparatus does not have a character input function, It is possible to easily and surely add text information to an image taken by the imaging device on the spot where the image is taken.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an image pickup system according to the present invention.
This is a case where the imaging system is configured by the digital still camera 10 as a server (reception side device) and the mobile phone terminal 50 as a Bluetooth push client (transmission side device).

On the front side of the digital still camera 10,
The lens 11 is provided, and the CCD is provided inside the lens 11.
(Charge Coupled Device), a mode switch 13 and a shutter switch 14 are provided on the upper surface side, and a liquid crystal monitor 15, a battery / memory card storage chamber 16, a cross key 17a, on the rear surface side.
It has a direct button 17b and a jog dial 17c, and is a blue as a push server.
It is equipped with a tooth function.

The portable telephone terminal 50 includes an operation input section 51 including various operation keys and character input keys, a liquid crystal display 52 as a display section, and the like.
It has a Bluetooth function as a push client.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block configuration of the digital still camera 10. Hereinafter, the digital still camera 10 will be referred to as the camera 10.

In the image pickup mode, by pressing the shutter switch 14 shown in FIG. 1, the CCD 12 is irradiated with light through the lens 11 and an image is taken. The image is output as image data by the read processing unit 21 and sent to the system bus 22.

The system bus 22 has a CPU 23 and a CP.
A program including a later-described character information addition processing routine to be executed by U23, a ROM 24 in which necessary fixed information is written, a DRAM 25 functioning as a work area of the CPU 23, a flash memory 26 for recording an image file, and FIG. The liquid crystal monitor 15 shown in FIG. 1, the mode switch 13 shown in FIG. 1, the shutter switch 14, the cross key 17a, the operation button 18 including the direct button 17b and the jog dial 17c, and the USB (Universal Serial) for connecting to an external device.
l Bus) interface 28 is connected.

The flash memory 26 is the memory card 2
7 and is mounted in the storage chamber 16 shown in FIG.

From the read processing unit 21 to the system bus 22
The image data output to the
EG (Joint Photographic Exp)
erts Group) compression, and is written in the flash memory 26 as an image file of a predetermined format.

Also, the Bluetooth compatible antenna 3
1, a Bluetooth chipset 30 including a radio modem 32 and a link controller 33 is connected to the system bus 22 via a serial driver 34,
With the Bluetooth communication protocol,
As an object push profile for the communication of ETOTH, the mobile phone terminal 50 of FIG.
The text data transmitted from the camera to the camera 10 is Blu
When received by the Bluetooth chipset 30, the Bluetooth host controller interface (HCI) allows the serial driver 34 to
Is serially output to the system bus 22.

When a user takes an image with the camera 10 and wants to add character information to the image, the user switches the mode switch 13 to the reproduction mode. This gives C
The PU 23 reads the image file of the captured image from the flash memory 26, expands the compressed image data, and displays the captured image 1 on the liquid crystal monitor 15.

In this state, the user operates the mobile phone terminal 50.
Characters are input to the mobile phone terminal 50 by the operation input unit 51, and the character string 55 is displayed on the liquid crystal display 52 of the mobile phone terminal 50. The character string 55 can be easily created by the same operation as when creating a mail on the mobile phone terminal 50.

After creating the character string 55, the user transmits the text data of the character string 55 to the camera 10 by an object push operation (operation of transmitting information to a Bluetooth device in the vicinity) on the mobile phone terminal 50.

Mobile phone terminal 5 by Bluetooth
For transmission from 0 and reception by the camera 10, first, the camera 10 is set in the exchange mode (receivable state), then the mobile phone terminal 50 side selects the camera 10 as a push server, and then the mobile phone. This is realized by a series of procedures in which the object push operation is performed on the terminal 50 and then the camera 10 receives the data transmitted from the mobile phone terminal 50.

Then, in the exchange mode, the CPU 23 of the camera 10 adds the character information of the character string 55 to the image information of the photographed image 1 by the character information addition processing routine as shown in FIG.

That is, in the character information addition processing routine 40 of FIG. 3, the CPU 23 first determines in step 41 whether or not the mode has been changed, and when the mode has been changed, the character information addition processing ends. If the mode has not been changed, the process proceeds to step 42 and it is determined whether or not text data is received from the mobile phone terminal 50.

If the text data is not received, the process returns to step 41. When the text data is received, the process proceeds to step 43, the text data is written into the DRAM 25, and the process proceeds to step 44 to further write the text. The offset value of the header of the image file is recalculated from the size of the data.

In the image file written in the flash memory 26, as shown in FIG. 4A, the compressed image data is arranged after the header portion including the start code, the offset value and the tag (control information). The end code is placed after the, and the offset value indicates the length of the header portion, that is, the start position of the compressed image data.

In step 44, the CPU 23 converts the received text data into segment data which conforms to the data format of this image file, and then, in FIG.
As shown in (B), the offset value when the additional tag is inserted in the header portion, that is, the length of the header portion is calculated.

Next, the CPU 23 proceeds to step 45 to generate segment data, and further proceeds to step 46 to write back the image file. Specifically, in step 46, the information from the start code to the tag is written back to the storage destination of the image file, immediately after that, the segment data is written as an additional tag, and then the compressed image data and the end code are written back to write the image. Save the entire file again.

When the image file is written back in this way,
The CPU 23 proceeds to step 47, and as shown in FIG. 1, the mark 2 indicating that the character information is added at a predetermined position, for example, the upper left position on the display screen of the liquid crystal monitor 15.
Is displayed as an OSD (On Screen Display).

The user can confirm that the character information is added by looking at the display of the mark 2.

Further, the user operates the operation unit 18 to instruct to display a character string based on the added character information, display position of the character string, and size and color of characters forming the character string. Can be selected.

The display position of the character string is, for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the upper part 15a of the display screen of the liquid crystal monitor 15
And the lower part 15b can be selected, the size of the character can be selected from among large, medium and small, and the color of the character can be selected from among black, white and red. The camera 10 is configured so that any of the above can be selected.

From the contents of the image 1 displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 15 and the number of characters of the character string 55 created on the mobile phone terminal 50, the user can keep the main portion of the image 1 covered with the character string. A desired display position of the character string and a desired size and color of the character are determined and selected so that the entire character string is displayed and the character can be clearly read.

After displaying the character information addition mark 2 in step 47, the CPU 23 proceeds to step 48, determines whether or not to display the character string based on the presence / absence of the display instruction from the operation unit 18, and does not display the character string. Sometimes, the process returns to step 41, but when displaying, the process proceeds to step 49.
As shown in FIG. 5B, the segment data inserted in the header portion as the additional tag, as shown in FIG. 5B, has the size and color selected by the user at the position selected by the user on the display screen of the liquid crystal monitor 15. Character string 3 OS
Display D and return to step 41.

If the user has only instructed to display the character string but has not selected the display position of the character string and the size and color of the character, in step 49,
The CPU 23 displays a character string at a predetermined position with characters of a predetermined size and color.

The camera 10 may be configured so that the user can select only the display position of the character string, the size of the character, or the color of the character.

According to this embodiment, even if the camera 10 does not have a character input function, the character information can be easily and surely added to the image taken by the camera 10 on the spot where the image is taken.

The character information added to the image information of the image taken by the camera 10 can be edited on the camera 10 as one method.

In this case, the user switches the camera 10 to the edit mode, and the images recorded in the flash memory 26 as image files are displayed one by one on the liquid crystal monitor 1.
5 is displayed, and when a certain image is displayed, an instruction is made to insert a character string into the image by operating the operation unit 18, and the insertion position of the character string and the character string are displayed. The size and color of the characters to be composed can be selected, or the deletion of the character string can be instructed.

As the insertion position of the character string, for example, either the upper part or the lower part of the image can be selected similarly to the display position of the character string on the liquid crystal monitor 15 when the character information is added. The size of, for example, large,
The camera 10 is configured so that one of medium and small can be selected and, for example, one of black, white, and red can be selected as the character color.

Also in this case, the user can insert the entire character string without obscuring the main part of the image with the character string based on the content of the image and the number of characters of the character string to be inserted, so that the character can be read clearly. The desired insertion position of the character string and the desired size and color of the character are determined and selected.

By instructing and selecting in this way, the CPU 23 executes editing by the editing processing routine as shown in FIG.

That is, in the edit processing routine 60 of FIG. 6, the CPU 23 first determines in step 61 whether or not to insert a character string, and inserts segment data as an additional tag in the header portion of the image file of the image. If the user has instructed to insert a character string, the process proceeds to step 62, and the character string of the size and color selected by the user is displayed at the position selected by the user in the image. The image data in the state where is inserted is generated.

If the user has only instructed to insert the character string and has not selected the insertion position of the character string and the size and color of the character, in step 62,
The CPU 23 generates image data in a state where a character string is inserted in a predetermined position with a character of a predetermined size and color.

On the other hand, when the segment data is not inserted as an additional tag in the header portion of the image file of the image, or even when it is inserted, when the user instructs to delete the character string, the CPU 23 makes a step The process proceeds from 61 to step 63 to generate image data in which no character string is inserted.

The camera 10 may be configured so that the user can select only the insertion position of the character string, the size of the character, or the color of the character.

According to the above method, the edited image data generated in step 62 or 63 is directly transmitted by the USB interface 28 to an external device such as a personal computer or a printer connected to the camera 10 and the external device is connected to the external device. The device can output the edited image.

The edited image data generated in step 62 or 63 is written in the flash memory 26 so as to rewrite the image file recorded in the flash memory 26, and then the memory card 27 is stored in a personal computer or the like. Attach it to an external device or read the rewritten image file from the flash memory 26
It is also possible to transmit to the external device by the SB interface 28 and output the edited image in the external device.

When the character information is edited on the camera 10 as described above, when the CPU 23 displays the character string in step 49 of the character information addition processing routine 40 of FIG. Of the flash memory 26 so that the edited image data is rewritten into the image file recorded in the flash memory 26.
The camera 10 can also be configured to write to.

As another method, the character information added to the image information of the image taken by the camera 10 can be edited together with the image information on an external personal computer.

In this case, the memory card 27 in which the image file as shown in FIG. 4A or 4B is recorded is attached to the personal computer, or the image as shown in FIG. The file is read from the flash memory 26, transmitted to the personal computer by the USB interface 28, and edited by the editing processing routine as shown in FIG. 7 which is the application software of the personal computer.

That is, in the edit processing routine 70 of FIG. 7, the CPU of the personal computer first determines in step 71 whether or not there is an additional tag in the header portion of the image file. After reading the additional tag, the process proceeds to step 73 to execute the corresponding process. If there is no additional tag, the process proceeds from step 71 to step 74 to execute the corresponding process.

As the corresponding processing in step 73 when there is an additional tag, the CPU of the personal computer decompresses the compressed image data and displays the image on the display of the personal computer, and the segment data forming the additional tag is used. , Display a character string on the display, and execute processing according to the user's operation.

The user can display the displayed character string as it is,
You can modify or modify the image, or delete the displayed character string, and save only the image in the storage device of the personal computer. It can be inserted inside or added outside the image and printed out.

As the corresponding processing in step 74 when there is no additional tag, the CPU of the personal computer decompresses the compressed image data, displays the image on the display of the personal computer, and executes the processing according to the user's operation. To do.

As an information processing terminal that creates a character string as a Bluetooth push client and transmits character information to a digital still camera, in addition to a mobile phone terminal, a PDA (Personal Digital) is used.
Assistant) or the like can be used.

Further, the present invention can be applied to an image pickup apparatus such as a digital video camera in addition to the digital still camera.

Further, as a wireless communication system between the image pickup device and the external information processing terminal, a system other than Bluetooth can be used.

[0058]

According to the present invention, even if the image pickup device does not have a character input function, the character information can be easily and surely added to the image taken by the image pickup device on the spot where the image is taken.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of an imaging system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a functional block configuration of an embodiment of a digital still camera.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a character information addition processing routine of the digital still camera.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an image file before and after addition of character information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a case of displaying a character string on a monitor unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an edit processing routine of the digital still camera.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an edit processing routine of a personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

Since the main parts are all described in the figure, they are omitted here.

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup apparatus having an image pickup section for outputting a taken image as image information, a storage section for storing the image information, and a monitor section for displaying an image based on the image information stored in the storage section. In the above, in the wireless receiving unit that receives the character information created on the external information processing terminal by a predetermined wireless communication method, and when the image is displayed on the monitor unit, the character information received by the wireless receiving unit is displayed. An image pickup apparatus comprising: a control unit that adds image information that is a basis of the image. 2. The control unit has a function of displaying a mark indicating that the character information is added on the monitor unit when the character information is added to the image information. The imaging device described. 3. The control unit has a function of displaying, when the character information is added to the image information, a character string based on the added character information on the monitor unit. Imaging device. 4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit has a function of selecting a display position of a character string or a size or a color of a character forming the character string.