JP2005208312A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve operability and convenience in a movement photographing function. <P>SOLUTION: A moving mechanism 48 varying inclination to the optical axis of an imaging lens 10 is connected to the CCD 30 of a digital camera 2. A moving amount detection sensor 49 detecting the moving amount of the CCD 30 is connected to the mechanism 48. A CPU 43 controls the driving of the mechanism 48 in accordance with the manipulated variable of the cross key 23 of an operation part 20 while referring to the result of detection by the sensor 49. An operator operates the key 23 so as to obtain a desired focusing state while confirming a through-image and the moving amount displayed on an LCD 19. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus including an imaging element that outputs an imaging signal corresponding to a subject image formed by an imaging lens.

  As an imaging device, a digital camera that converts subject light captured by a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD image sensor (CCD) into digital image data and stores the digital image data in a storage medium such as a built-in memory or a memory card is widely used. In such a digital camera, by changing the inclination and position of the CCD with respect to the optical axis of the imaging lens, for example, image distortion when the subject is viewed from an oblique direction, or focusing on a subject on the same plane is performed. Some have a tilt shooting function for correcting the range (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-282039 JP 2001-94841 A

  In the digital cameras described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the operability and convenience when actually using the tilt shooting function are not taken into consideration, so that the utility value when mounted on an actual device may be halved.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an imaging apparatus capable of improving the operability and convenience of the tilt shooting function.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an imaging device including an imaging device that outputs an imaging signal corresponding to a subject image formed by an imaging lens, and the imaging device with respect to an optical axis of the imaging lens. A moving mechanism for moving the imaging element so as to shift the imaging plane, a movement amount detecting means for detecting a movement amount of the imaging element by the moving mechanism, and an operation for operating the movement of the imaging element by the moving mechanism And a control means for controlling the driving of the moving mechanism while referring to the detection result of the moving amount detecting means in accordance with the operation amount of the operating means.

  Note that the image processing apparatus includes a contour extraction unit that extracts a contour of the subject from image data obtained by digitally converting the imaging signal, and the control unit corrects the distortion of the contour extracted by the contour extraction unit. It is preferable that the movement mechanism is driven so that the movement amount of the imaging element is obtained and the imaging element is automatically moved by the obtained movement amount.

  Further, it is preferable that the control unit automatically returns the moving mechanism to an initial state before driving based on a detection result of the movement amount detecting unit.

  Further, it is preferable to include a display unit that displays the movement amount, and it is preferable to include a storage unit that stores the movement amount in association with the image data or individually.

  Further, it is preferable that photographing position detecting means for detecting the photographing position of the subject is provided, and the storage means stores the photographing position information obtained by the photographing position detecting means together with the movement amount. Furthermore, it is preferable to provide data reading means for reading the movement amount stored in another storage means and automatically setting the read movement amount as its own movement amount.

  According to the imaging apparatus of the present invention, the moving mechanism that moves the imaging element so as to shift the imaging surface of the imaging element with respect to the optical axis of the imaging lens, and the movement amount detection that detects the movement amount of the imaging element by the moving mechanism. Means, operation means for operating the movement of the image sensor by the movement mechanism, and control means for controlling the driving of the movement mechanism while referring to the detection result of the movement amount detection means according to the operation amount of the operation means. Therefore, the operability and convenience of the tilt shooting function can be improved.

  1 and 2, a lens barrel 11 for holding an imaging lens 10 is incorporated in the front surface of the digital camera 2 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. A pop-up strobe device 12 is built in the upper part of the lens barrel 11, and a light control sensor 13 is arranged in the vicinity thereof. The light control sensor 13 receives the strobe light reflected from the subject when the strobe light is emitted from the strobe device 12 toward the subject. The light reception signal from the light control sensor 13 is used for light amount integration. When the light amount integration value reaches a specified level, the strobe control circuit 47 (see FIG. 3) stops the strobe light emission.

  A release button 14, a power switch 15, and a mode dial 16 are provided on the upper surface of the digital camera 2, and a memory card slot into which a memory card 40 (see FIG. 3) is detachably mounted is covered on the side surface. A lid 17 is provided.

  A finder eyepiece window 18, a liquid crystal display (LCD) 19, and an operation unit 20 that constitute an electronic viewfinder are provided on the back of the digital camera 2. The LCD 19 displays captured images, so-called through images, and various menu screens. Further, the detection result of the movement amount of the CCD 30 by the movement amount detection sensor 49 described later is displayed.

  The operation unit 20 includes a zoom operation button 21 that changes the zoom lens of the imaging lens 10 to the wide side and the tele side, a menu button 22 that is operated when a menu screen is displayed on the LCD 19 and a selection content is determined, When the cursor is moved in the menu screen, the cross key 23 is used to operate the movement of the CCD 30 by the moving mechanism 48 described later.

  The digital camera 2 can select a still image shooting mode for shooting still images, a moving image shooting mode for shooting movies, a playback mode for displaying captured images on the LCD 19, and a setting mode for performing various settings. These modes are switched by rotating the mode dial 16. In the moving image shooting mode, along with shooting of moving images, surrounding sounds are recorded via a microphone (not shown).

  The release button 14 is a two-stage push switch. When the release button 14 is lightly pressed (half-pressed) after framing by the electronic viewfinder or the LCD 19, various photographing preparation processes such as automatic exposure adjustment and automatic focus adjustment are performed. In this state, if the release button 14 is pressed once more (fully pressed), the imaging signal for one screen on which the imaging preparation processing has been performed is converted into image data, and then image processing and compression processing described later are performed. Recorded in the memory card 40.

  In FIG. 3 showing the electrical configuration of the digital camera 2, a CCD 30 for converting subject light incident from the imaging lens 10 into an imaging signal is disposed behind the imaging lens 10. The imaging signal converted by the CCD 30 is input to a correlated double sampling circuit (CDS) 31. The CDS 31 outputs the imaging signal input from the CCD 30 as R, G, and B image data that accurately corresponds to the accumulated charge amount of each cell of the CCD 30.

  Image data output from the CDS 31 is amplified by an amplifier (AMP) 32. The A / D converter (A / D) 33 converts the image data amplified by the AMP 32 into digital image data. Digital image data output from the A / D 33 is transmitted to the image signal processing circuit 34.

  The image signal processing circuit 34 performs various types of image processing such as gradation conversion, white balance correction, and γ correction processing on the image data. The image data that has been subjected to various types of image processing by the image signal processing circuit 34 is temporarily stored in the SDRAM 35. The image data stored in the SDRAM 35 is converted into a composite signal by the LCD driver 36 and displayed on the LCD 19.

  The YC processing circuit 37 reads the image data that has been subjected to various types of image processing by the image signal processing circuit 34 from the SDRAM 35 and converts it into a luminance signal Y and color difference signals Cr and Cb. The compression / decompression processing circuit 38 performs image compression on the converted image data in a predetermined compression format (for example, JPEG format).

  The image data compressed by the compression / decompression processing circuit 38 is recorded on the memory card 40 via the card I / F 39. The image data recorded on the memory card 40 is transmitted to an external device such as a personal computer via a communication I / F 41 and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector 42.

  The CPU 43 is connected to each unit via the bus 44 and controls the overall operation of the digital camera 2. In addition to the release button 14 and the operation unit 20 described above, an EEPROM 45 and a photometry / ranging circuit 46 are connected to the CPU 43. The EEPROM 45 stores various control programs and setting information. The CPU 43 reads these pieces of information from the EEPROM 45 to the SDRAM 35 which is a working memory, and executes various processes.

  The photometry / ranging circuit 46 detects the luminance of the subject and the distance between the subject and the imaging lens 10 and transmits the detection result to the CPU 43. Based on this detection result, the CPU 43 adjusts various parameters of the imaging lens 10 so as to obtain an appropriate focal length and exposure amount. The photometry / ranging circuit 46 drives a strobe control circuit 47 that controls the imaging lens 10 and the strobe device 12 based on the adjustment signal fed back from the CPU 43.

  The flash mode of the strobe device 12 includes, for example, an automatic flash mode that automatically flashes when the subject brightness is low, a forced flash mode that flashes regardless of subject brightness, a flash prohibit mode that prohibits strobe flash, and a red-eye phenomenon. There are red-eye reduction modes to be reduced, and these can be selected by operating the operation unit 20.

  The CCD 30 is connected to a moving mechanism 48 that changes the inclination of the imaging lens 10 with respect to the optical axis. The moving mechanism 48 is driven and controlled by the CPU 43. The movement mechanism 48 is connected to a movement amount detection sensor 49 that detects the movement amount of the CCD 10 (the driving amount of the driving motor 66 (see FIG. 5)). The movement amount detection sensor 49 is composed of, for example, an encoder that measures the number of rotations of the male screw 63 (see FIG. 5) by the drive motor 66, and transmits the detection result to the CPU 43.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the moving mechanism 48 includes a moving table 60 that holds the CCD 30, a pedestal 62 that is connected to the moving table 60 by four springs 61 and is fixed in the lens barrel 11, and A drive unit 67 including a male screw 63, a female screw 64, a rotation limiting member 65, and a drive motor 66 is provided.

  A receiving hole 68 is formed in the center of the four sides of the moving base 60, and the male screw 63 and the tip of the rotation restricting member 65 protrude from the receiving hole 68. The receiving hole 68 is formed in a trumpet shape that becomes wider toward the pedestal 62, and a spherical female screw 64 is in contact with the wide recessed portion.

  The male screw 63 is formed on the rotation shaft of the drive motor 66 and is rotated by the drive of the drive motor 66. The female screw 64 is provided with an insertion hole 64a through which a rotation limiting member 65 fixed to the drive motor 66 is inserted, and the rotation limiting member 65 limits the rotation in the direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG.

  When the drive motor 66 of the upper drive unit 67 is driven to rotate the male screw 63 from the state of FIG. 5A, the female screw 64 moves on the male screw 63 in the direction A in the figure, and the female screw 64 is moved. Then, the movable table 60 is pushed in the direction A through the recessed portion of the receiving hole 68, and the upper portion of the movable table 60 moves forward against the bias of the spring 61 as shown in FIG. Thereby, the imaging surface 30a of the CCD 30 is inclined downward with respect to the optical axis of the imaging lens 10.

  When the upper or lower drive unit 67 is driven, the imaging surface 30a of the CCD 30 is inclined downward or upward as viewed from the front, and so-called tilt imaging can be performed. When the left or right drive unit 67 is driven, the imaging surface 30a is inclined to the right or left side, and so-called swing imaging can be performed.

  A plurality of the four drive units 67 are not driven at a time, and when any one of the drive units 67 is driven, the other drive units 67 are not driven. When the CPU 43 drives one drive unit 67 and tilts the imaging surface 30 a of the CCD 30 and then drives another drive unit 67, the CPU 43 drives first based on the detection result of the movement amount detection sensor 49. After the driving unit 67 that has been operated is automatically returned to the initial state before driving, the other driving unit 67 is driven.

  The up / down / left / right direction keys of the cross key 23 of the operation unit 20 correspond to the up / down / left / right tilt directions of the CCD 30 by the moving mechanism 48. The CPU 43 controls driving of the movement mechanism 48 while referring to the detection result of the movement amount detection sensor 49 according to the operation amount of the cross key 23 of the operation unit 20. That is, the drive motor 66 is driven so that the movement amount corresponds to the operation amount of the cross key 23 while performing detection by the movement amount detection sensor 49. The operator operates the cross key 23 so as to achieve a desired in-focus state (such as focusing on the entire surface of the tilted subject) while checking the through image displayed on the LCD 19 and the amount of movement.

  When shooting is performed by driving the moving mechanism 48 and this image data is recorded on the memory card 40, the detection result of the moving amount detection sensor 49 (the moving amount of the CCD 30) is associated with the image data or individually recorded. To do. The recorded movement amount can be read out from the memory card 40 by operating the operation unit 20 when, for example, it is desired to perform photographing repeatedly with the same movement amount. When the movement amount is read, the CPU 43 automatically drives the movement mechanism 48 by the read movement amount. As a method of associating the movement amount of the CCD 30 with the image data, an area for recording the movement amount of the CCD 30 is provided in advance in an Exif tag constituting the image data.

  Next, the operation of the digital camera 2 having the above configuration will be described. First, the power switch 15 is operated to turn on the digital camera 2, and the mode dial 16 is operated to select the still image shooting mode.

  Under the still image shooting mode, the subject light incident through the imaging lens 10 is photoelectrically converted by the CCD 30 and sampled by the CDS 31. Image data output from the CDS 31 is amplified by the AMP 32 and converted to digital image data by the A / D 33.

  The digitally converted image data is subjected to various types of image processing by the image signal processing circuit 34 and then sequentially stored in the SDRAM 35 and displayed as a through image on the electronic viewfinder or LCD 19. When the release button 14 is half-pressed in this state, the luminance of the subject and the distance between the subject and the imaging lens 10 are detected by the photometry / ranging circuit 46, and a shooting preparation process is performed based on the detection result. .

  When the cross key 23 is operated by the operator, the drive motor 66 of the drive unit 67 corresponding to the direction of the operated key is driven. By driving the drive motor 66, the male screw 63 is rotated and the female screw 64 is moved in the A direction on the male screw 63, and the moving table 60 is moved in the A direction via the recessed portion of the receiving hole 68 by the female screw 64. The movable base 60 is tilted against the bias of the spring 61 by being pushed.

  At this time, the drive amount of the drive motor 66 is detected by the movement amount detection sensor 49, and the detection result is transmitted to the CPU 43 and displayed on the LCD 19 together with the through image. In the CPU 43, the detection result of the movement amount detection sensor 49 is compared with the operation amount of the cross key 23, and when these become the same amount, the drive of the drive motor 66 is stopped.

  When one drive unit 67 is driven and the imaging surface 30a of the CCD 30 is tilted, and key input for driving the other drive unit 67 is performed, based on the detection result of the movement amount detection sensor 49, The drive unit 67 that has been driven first is automatically returned to the initial state before the drive, and then the other drive unit 67 is driven.

  After shooting preparation processing, when shooting is executed by fully pressing the release button 14, the image data stored in the SDRAM 35 at that time is read to the YC processing circuit 37, and the luminance signal Y and the color difference signals Cr and Cb are read. After the conversion, the compression processing is performed by the compression / decompression processing circuit 38 and recorded in the memory card 40 via the card I / F 39.

  When shooting is performed by driving the moving mechanism 48, the detection result of the moving amount detection sensor 49 (the moving amount of the CCD 30) is associated with the image data or individually recorded in the memory card 40.

  When the movement amount of the CCD 30 recorded on the memory card 40 is read by the operation of the operation unit 20, the movement mechanism 48 is automatically driven by the CPU 43 by the read movement amount.

  With the configuration as described above, tilt shooting can be performed simply by operating the cross key 23 while confirming the through image displayed on the LCD 19 and the movement amount of the CCD 30. In addition, the amount of movement can be recorded in the memory card 40 when tilting is performed, and the recorded amount of movement can be read out, and the moving mechanism 48 is automatically driven by the amount of movement read out. Therefore, the shooting conditions can be adjusted with good reproducibility when the same subject needs to be shot many times or when it is difficult to view the subject during night shooting.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the digital camera 70 according to the second embodiment of the present invention has a contour extraction processing circuit 71. Further, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a moving mechanism 72 is provided. The contour extraction processing circuit 71 performs contour extraction processing on the image data stored in the SDRAM 35 to extract the contour of the subject. As the contour extraction processing circuit 71, a known technique (for example, a band pass filter) is used, and contour extraction processing is performed by analyzing a high frequency component of image data.

  7 and 8, the moving mechanism 72 includes a moving base 80 that holds the CCD 30, a pedestal 82 that is connected to the moving base 80 by two springs 81 and is fixed in the lens barrel 11, and an eccentric cam 83. And a drive unit 85 including a drive motor 84.

  A groove 87 into which a front end of a movement restricting member 86 extending from the back surface of the pedestal 82 is fitted is formed in the back surface of the moving table 80. Movement is restricted. The eccentric cam 83 is in contact with the upper center portion of the movable table 80 and is rotated by driving of the drive motor 84.

  When the drive motor 84 is driven and the eccentric cam 83 is rotated from the state shown in FIG. 8A, the movable table 80 moves in the direction D in the figure by the bias of the spring 81 as shown in FIG. Alternatively, the moving base 80 moves in the C direction against the bias of the spring 81. As a result, the imaging surface 30 a of the CCD 30 moves up and down with respect to the optical axis of the imaging lens 10.

  When the imaging surface 30a of the CCD 30 is moved in the C direction, so-called fall imaging can be performed. Further, when the imaging surface 30a is moved in the D direction, so-called rise shooting can be performed. Also in this case, as in the first embodiment, the upper and lower keys of the cross key 23 of the operation unit 20 correspond to the vertical movement direction of the CCD 30 by the moving mechanism 72, and the operation amount of the cross key 23 of the operation unit 20 is as follows. Accordingly, the CPU 43 controls the driving of the movement mechanism 72 while referring to the detection result of the movement amount detection sensor 73. In this case, the effective readout range of the imaging signal output from the CCD 30 is switched according to the movement amount of the CCD 30.

  The CPU 43 obtains the movement amount of the CCD 30 that corrects the distortion of the contour of the subject extracted by the contour extraction processing circuit 71, and moves the imaging surface 30a of the CCD 30 automatically by the obtained movement amount. 72 is driven. Here, as a method of obtaining the movement amount, for example, when the subject is looked up at an angle and the contour 90 of the subject is distorted as shown in FIG. 9A, the height h of the contour 90 is approximately third etc. Then, the ratio between the side L1 near 2 / 3h and the side L2 near 1 / 3h is obtained, and the amount of movement L1 = L2 is determined from this ratio as shown in FIG.

  In the above case, first, the subject is photographed without driving the moving mechanism 72, and the contour extraction processing circuit 71 performs contour extraction processing on the photographed image data. Then, the extracted contour is image-recognized by the CPU 43, and when the recognition result shows that the interval is narrow (wide) above the subject and the interval is wide (narrow) below, the moving mechanism 72 is driven to perform tilt shooting. A message as to whether or not to perform the operation is displayed on the LCD 19 to allow the operator to select it.

  In the second embodiment, the case where the image pickup surface 30a of the CCD 30 is moved up and down by the moving mechanism 72 has been described. However, the image pickup surface 30a is moved left and right so that so-called shift shooting can be performed. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which these can be combined with tilt and swing photography by the moving mechanism 48 of the first embodiment.

  If a GPS (Global Positioning System) function for detecting the shooting position of the subject is provided, the shooting position information (coordinates, orientation, altitude, etc.) obtained thereby is also stored in the memory card 40 together with the movement amount of the CCD 30. It is preferable to record. In this way, the shooting conditions can be adjusted with higher reproducibility. Also, the amount of movement of the CCD 30 recorded in another storage medium is read by wired communication such as a USB cable or wireless communication using infrared rays or radio waves, and the read amount of movement is automatically set as its own amount of movement. Data reading means for setting may be provided.

  Note that the moving mechanism is not limited to the screw or the eccentric cam of the above-described embodiment, and for example, an actuator made of a giant magnetostrictive material whose dimensions change according to the strength of the magnetic field generated by electromagnetic induction may be used. In the above embodiment, the digital camera has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to other imaging devices such as a camera-equipped mobile phone.

1 is a front external perspective view of a digital camera according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a back external view of a digital camera. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a digital camera. It is a front external perspective view which shows the structure of a moving mechanism. It is sectional drawing of a moving mechanism, (A) shows the initial state, (B) shows the state which inclined CCD30, respectively. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of the digital camera which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a front external appearance perspective view which shows the structure of the moving mechanism which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. 8A and 8B are cross-sectional views of the moving mechanism shown in FIG. 7, where FIG. 7A shows an initial state, and FIG. 7B shows a state where the CCD 30 is moved upward. It is explanatory drawing showing the outline of a to-be-photographed object, (A) shows at the time of normal imaging | photography, (B) shows at the time of tilt photography.

Explanation of symbols

2, 70 Digital camera 10 Imaging lens 14 Release button 19 Liquid crystal display (LCD)
20 Operation section 23 Four-way controller 30 CCD
34 Image signal processing circuit 35 SDRAM
40 memory card 43 CPU
45 EEPROM
48, 72 Movement mechanism 49, 73 Movement amount detection sensor 60, 80 Movement base 62, 82 Base 63 Male screw 64 Female screw 66, 84 Drive motor 67, 85 Drive unit 68 Receiving hole 71 Contour extraction processing circuit 83 Eccentric cam 90 Contour

Claims (7)

In an imaging device including an imaging element that outputs an imaging signal corresponding to a subject image formed by an imaging lens,
A moving mechanism for moving the imaging element so as to shift the imaging surface of the imaging element with respect to the optical axis of the imaging lens;
A moving amount detecting means for detecting a moving amount of the image sensor by the moving mechanism;
Operating means for operating movement of the image sensor by the moving mechanism;
An image pickup apparatus comprising: a control unit that controls driving of the moving mechanism while referring to a detection result of the movement amount detection unit according to an operation amount of the operation unit. Contour extraction means for extracting the contour of the subject from image data obtained by digitally converting the imaging signal,
The control means obtains a movement amount of the image sensor that corrects distortion of the contour extracted by the contour extraction means,
The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the moving mechanism is driven so that the image pickup element is automatically moved by the calculated amount of movement.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit automatically returns the movement mechanism to an initial state before driving based on a detection result of the movement amount detection unit.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying the movement amount.   5. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising storage means for storing the movement amount in association with the image data or individually. A shooting position detecting means for detecting the shooting position of the subject;
The imaging apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the storage unit stores shooting position information obtained by the shooting position detection unit together with the movement amount.   7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a data reading unit that reads out the movement amount stored in another storage unit and automatically sets the read movement amount as its own movement amount. .

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