JP2005236496A - Image recording display system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image recording display system capable of quickly switching an image displayed fully on the screen of an image display device such as an LCD display of a digital camera and displaying the image with beautiful image quality. <P>SOLUTION: The image recording display system is provided with a function of generating and recording an image 45 for display whose number of pixels are matched with the number of pixels of an image display device 41 separately, in addition to a main image and a thumbnail 44 in the case of recording the image, and when the image is fully displayed on the screen of the image display device 41, the image 45 is displayed as it is so that the beautiful image can quickly be switched and displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image recording and display system having image display means such as a liquid crystal display and capable of displaying recorded or photographed images on the image display means.

  In recent years, a large number of digital cameras have been commercialized by many manufacturers and are becoming popular in ordinary households. Many digital cameras have a display device such as a liquid crystal monitor, and one of the features is that you can check the captured images on the spot.

  In a digital camera, image data obtained by photoelectric conversion is compressed and recorded on a recording medium such as a semiconductor memory. In the compression process, compression according to the JPEG standard (hereinafter referred to as JPEG compression) is usually performed. In the recorded file, the number of pixels is set before recording (or shooting), and there are two types of images: a main image recorded with the number of pixels matching the setting, and an image called a thumbnail obtained by reducing the main image. It is recorded. When displaying an image on a display device, the compressed main image or thumbnail image is displayed after being expanded. Such a thumbnail image display is disclosed in Patent Document 1.

Regarding the handling of image files recorded by a digital camera, the DCF standard described in Non-Patent Document 1 and the Exif standard described in Non-Patent Document 2 are known, and the main image and thumbnail are related to the file structure. There is a description related to the image.
JP 2002-374482 A JEIDA Standard Camera File System Standard (DCF) Version 1.0 JEIDA-49-2-1998 JEIDA Standard Digital Camera Image File Format Standard (Exif) Version 2.1 JEIDA-49-1998

  In a conventional image recording and display system such as a digital camera, a main image is usually used when displaying one image on the entire screen of a display device. On the other hand, in order to record higher-definition or delicate images, it is necessary to increase the number of pixels at the time of recording, and the number of pixels of the main image increases year by year due to advances in CCD (solid-state imaging device) and the like. It is coming. As a result, the time and load required for the main image expansion processing are increasing, and the expansion processing may take several seconds. When switching the display, it takes time for the expansion process of the image to be displayed next, so that it becomes a problem that the image cannot be selected quickly. There are digital cameras that can quickly switch images by displaying thumbnails instead of main images, but thumbnails have the disadvantage of poor image quality. In addition, a method has been devised in which a thumbnail is displayed first, the main image is decompressed on the back, and the display is switched from the thumbnail to the main image when the main image decompression is completed (see Patent Document 1). In terms of handling the main image, it is still difficult to reduce the load.

  The present invention records a third image (display image) to be displayed on the image display means of the image recording / display system in addition to the main image and thumbnail when recording an image, and images one image. When displaying on the full screen on the display means, the main feature is that the display image is used.

  In the image display in the image recording / display system of the present invention, when recording an image, a display image in accordance with the number of pixels that can be displayed by the image display means of the image recording / display system is recorded and recorded in addition to the main image and thumbnail. When displaying the image data, the display image is displayed.

  As a result, when displaying an image on the image display means of the image recording and display system, the size of the image to be expanded can be significantly smaller than that of the main image, so that the time required for the expansion process can be greatly shortened. . In addition, since recording is performed with the number of pixels matching the number of pixels displayed by the image display means, it is possible to display an image with the same image quality as when the main image is displayed.

  The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is an image recording / displaying system comprising image display means for displaying a recorded image, and when recording an image, the main image, thumbnail and A display image is recorded, and the number of pixels of the display image is determined based on the number of pixels of the image display means, and is smaller than the preset number of pixels of the main image and larger than the number of pixels of the thumbnail. The image is an image recording and display system characterized in that it is used when displaying one image on the image display means in a full screen. The image displayed on the image display means is a main image. In this case, the image quality can be maintained and the images can be quickly switched and displayed.

  The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention according to claim 1, the number of pixels of the display image is the same as that of the image display means. By matching the number of pixels of the image with the number of pixels of the image display means, the display speed can be maximized without degrading the image quality.

  Further, in the invention according to claim 3, in the invention according to claim 1 or 2, when the image is displayed on the image display means, the display image is displayed when the display image exists, When there is no display image, a thumbnail or a main image is displayed, and an image taken with a device such as another digital camera is displayed with the image recording and display system of the present invention. It has the effect of being able to.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the display image generating means is provided, and the display image is generated from a main image or a thumbnail. In the case of image data that has been photographed by another device such as a digital camera and has no display image, the display image can be added later.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to claim 4, wherein the display image generated by the display image generation means is associated with a main image or a thumbnail and recorded. In the case of image data that has been photographed by another device such as a digital camera and has no display image, the display image can be automatically added.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image recording / displaying system comprising an image display means for displaying a recorded image, wherein the main image and thumbnail are recorded for the same image when the image is recorded. The number of pixels of the thumbnail is the same as the number of pixels of the display means, and the thumbnail is used when one image is displayed on the image display means in a full screen. This is a display system, and the image displayed on the image display means maintains the same image quality as when the main image is displayed, and has an effect that the image can be quickly switched and displayed.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image recording / displaying system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The image recording / displaying system according to the present embodiment is assumed to be a digital camera, but is not limited to this.

  In FIG. 1, 01 is a control unit that controls the operation of each part of the apparatus, 02 is a display unit as an image display unit such as a liquid crystal display, 03 is an operation unit, 04 is an optical system device such as a lens, and 05 is an electrical unit for imaging. A CCD (solid-state imaging device) for conversion into a signal, 06 is an image data creation unit that performs processing such as compression and expansion of image data, and 07 is a recording medium such as a semiconductor memory card.

  The operation of the image recording and display system according to this embodiment configured as described above will be described below.

  When there is an instruction input for recording an image by the operation unit 03, it is taken in as an electrical signal by the CCD 05 via the optical system device 04. The electrical signal is processed by the image data creation unit 06, displayed on the display unit 02, and recorded on the recording medium 07. In a normal digital camera, the image data creation unit 06 creates a main image recorded with the number of pixels corresponding to the set value of the digital camera and an image obtained by reducing the main image called a thumbnail. These two images can be recorded in one file, but may be recorded separately in two files. In this embodiment, in addition to the main image and the thumbnail, a display image having an intermediate number of pixels between the main image and the thumbnail is also created. This display image may be recorded in the same file as the main image or thumbnail, or may be a single independent file. The image before the display image is created and compressed may be displayed as it is as the preview screen. The rules for the recorded file names will be explained later.

  A mode of recording a display image according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, the case where the display image is an independent file will be described with reference to FIG. One of the standards defining image recording rules for digital cameras is the DCF standard (see Non-Patent Document 1). In the DCF standard, a folder 22 named “DCIM” is created in the root 21 of the storage medium 07, and a folder named “XXXXXYYY” is created under the folder 22. Here, X is an arbitrary alphabetic character, and YYY is a three-digit number from 100 to 999. In FIG. 2, it is assumed that folders 100_PANA (23) and 101_PANA (24) have been created. Further below that, AAAABBBB. It is recorded with the file name CCC. Here, A is a number or one alphabetic character, BBBB is a number called a 4-digit object number from 0001 to 9999, and CCC is an extension such as JPG.

  In FIG. 2, P1000001. JPG (25), P1000001. VFM (26), P1000002. Three files, JPG (27), are recorded. P1000001. JPG (25), P1000001. When files having the same object number exist in the same folder, such as VFM (26), they are managed in association with each other. For example, when deleting a certain file (P1000001.JPG (25) in FIG. 2), it is necessary to delete all files having the same object number in the folder (P1000001.VFM (26) in FIG. 2). In this embodiment, in accordance with this standard, a display image is recorded in a file having the same object number as the file in which the main image is recorded, so that these can be managed in association with each other.

  By managing with such a folder structure, for example, \ DCIM \ 100_PANA \ P1000001. The main image and the thumbnail image are added to JPG as follows: \ DCIM \ 100_PANA \ P1000001. As the display image is recorded in the VFM, the object numbers are the same and can be recorded separately in two files. When displaying an image with a digital camera, P1000001. Expand and display the VFM. In other digital cameras, a file with the extension VFM is not displayed because it is not recognized as an image file, and a file with the extension JPG is displayed.

  Next, the case of recording in one file will be described with reference to FIG. One of the image file format standards for digital cameras is the Exif standard (see Non-Patent Document 2). Many digital cameras record image files in a format compliant with the Exif standard. In the Exif standard, a thumbnail image 35 is recorded in an area called an application marker segment 1 (APP1) 31, and an area called an application marker segment 2 (APP2) 32 is used for a format defined by another standard. Extended data is recorded. The main image 34 is recorded in the subsequent area. The data size that can be recorded in APP1 is 64 kB or less, and the number of pixels of the thumbnail is not specified. However, most digital cameras record a 160 × 120 pixel image. In an expanded form of the Exif standard, for example, an extended area called application marker segment 3 (APP3) 33 is provided, and a display image is recorded in APP3 so that a display image can be recorded in a file including a main image and a thumbnail. Can be. It is possible to record a plurality of display images by recording an image having a plurality of pixels in APP3.

  The number of pixels of the display image in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, 41 is an image display device (corresponding to the display unit 02), 42 is a shutter (corresponding to the operation unit 03), 43 is an operation button (also corresponding to the operation unit 03), and 44 is a thumbnail (image of the number of pixels). , 45 indicates a display image (indicating an image of the number of pixels). In FIG. 4, as an example, the display pixel number of the image display device 41 is described as 76.68 million pixels (horizontal 320 × vertical 240 pixels). When photographing with a normal digital camera, the number of pixels of the thumbnail 44 is 192,000 pixels (horizontal 160 × vertical 120 pixels). In order to display the thumbnail 44 in the full screen of the image display device 41, it is necessary to enlarge the image of the thumbnail 44 twice in both the vertical and horizontal directions. Therefore, there is a problem that the image quality of the displayed image becomes rough. Normally, after the main image is decompressed, it is displayed by being thinned in accordance with the number of pixels that can be displayed on the screen. However, the decompression process takes time for the larger number of pixels and cannot be displayed immediately.

  Therefore, the present invention solves this problem by recording in advance an image having the same number of pixels as the image display device 41 as a display image 45. In this example, since the image display device 41 has 76.68 million pixels, the number of pixels of the display image 45 is also 76.68 million pixels. This size is the image display device of the camera (display unit such as an LCD). ) And different values. Further, the number of pixels of the display image is not necessarily the same as that of the image display device, and in some cases, the number of pixels may be larger or smaller than the size of the image display device. Further, the number of pixels of the display image may be adjusted by user settings. Furthermore, a plurality of display images may be recorded with different numbers of pixels. In short, the display speed and image quality may be improved compared to conventional devices that display main images and thumbnails.

  Next, details of operations until an image is recorded in the digital camera according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When the shutter is pressed, a still image is first captured in step S01, and image processing for display is performed in step S02. An image is displayed in step S03, a main image is created in step S04, and a thumbnail is created in step S05. In step S06, the main image and thumbnail are recorded in the file. If the recording has not been completed normally in step S07, the file writing process in step S06 is performed again. If it has been completed normally, the number of pixels of the image display device is acquired in step S08, and a display image is created in step S09. In step S10, the display image is recorded in the file. If the recording is not normally completed in step 11, the file writing process in step S10 is performed again. If it ends normally, it ends as it is. The image including the display image is recorded by the procedure as described above.

  Next, in the digital camera according to the present embodiment, the details of the operation until an image is displayed on the image display device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When an image to be displayed is selected, it is first checked in step S31 whether an image for image display exists. If a display image exists, the display image is read from the recording medium in step S32 and decompressed, and then displayed on the image display device in step S33, and the display operation is terminated. If there is no display image, it is checked in step S34 whether a thumbnail exists. If a thumbnail exists, the thumbnail is decompressed in step S35, then the thumbnail is displayed in step S36, and further, it is checked whether the main image can be displayed in step S37. If the main image can be displayed, the main image is decompressed in step S38 and then displayed in step S39. If the main image cannot be displayed, the display operation is terminated while the thumbnail is displayed.

  If the thumbnail does not exist in step S34, it is checked in step S40 whether the main image can be displayed. If the main image can be displayed, the main image is decompressed in step S41 and then displayed in step S42. Exit. If the main image cannot be displayed, the display operation is terminated by notifying that an image cannot be displayed by an error display or the like in step S43.

  By performing image display as described above, when a display image according to the present invention exists, the display image is displayed more beautifully than a conventional device, and there is no display image. In this case, the thumbnail or main image can be displayed by the same procedure as that of a normal digital camera, and compatibility with other digital cameras in the display can be maintained.

  When the recording medium 07 is a removable memory card, image data recorded by a different device may be reproduced. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, thumbnails or main images are displayed. Therefore, if there is no display image as determined in step S31, a display image can be generated from the main image or thumbnail. If the display image generated in this manner is recorded in the recording medium in association with the main image, the display image can be displayed in subsequent operations. In this way, display image generation means (or algorithm) can be added to the present embodiment.

  The display image may be a thumbnail itself. In this case, it is desirable that the number of pixels of the image display device is the same as the number of pixels of the thumbnail.

  The image recording / displaying system according to the present invention can reduce the size of the image to be expanded smaller than that of the main image when displaying the image on the image display means. It is effective as a device, apparatus, system, terminal, etc. for recording and displaying images regardless of whether they are still images or moving images.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image recording / displaying system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. Conceptual diagram for explaining a folder structure in a recording medium of the image recording / displaying system Conceptual diagram for explaining a file structure in a recording medium of the image recording / displaying system Conceptual diagram for explaining the display image size in the image recording and display system Flow chart showing the operation during recording of the image recording and display system Flow chart showing the operation at the time of display of the image recording / display system

Explanation of symbols

01 Control unit 02 Display unit 03 Operation unit 04 Optical system 05 CCD
06 Image data creation section 07 Recording medium

Claims (6)

An image recording / displaying system comprising image display means for displaying a recorded image,
When recording an image, a main image, a thumbnail, and a display image are recorded for the same image, and the number of pixels of the display image is determined based on the number of pixels of the image display means and set in advance. Less than the number of pixels of the main image, more than the number of pixels of the thumbnail,
The image recording and display system, wherein the display image is used when one image is displayed on the image display means on a full screen. 2. The image recording and displaying system according to claim 1, wherein the number of pixels of the display image is the same as that of the image display means. When displaying an image on the image display means, a display image is displayed when the display image exists, and a thumbnail or a main image is displayed when the display image does not exist. The image recording / displaying system according to claim 1 or 2. 3. The image recording / displaying system according to claim 1, further comprising display image generating means for generating the display image from a main image or a thumbnail. 5. The image recording and displaying system according to claim 4, wherein the display image generated by the display image generating means is recorded in association with a main image or a thumbnail. An image recording / displaying system comprising image display means for displaying a recorded image,
When recording an image, a main image and a thumbnail are recorded for the same image, and the number of pixels of the thumbnail is the same as the number of pixels of the display means,
2. The image recording and display system according to claim 1, wherein the thumbnail is used when a single image is displayed on the image display means on a full screen.

Images