JP2006106550A - Photographic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately and inexpensively adjust exposure in accordance with light quantity in photographic environment even under a fixed exposure condition. <P>SOLUTION: In the photographic apparatus 100, the light quantity in a photographing chamber is detected by a light quantity sensor S2. Next, an exposure pattern corresponding to the detected light quantity is discriminated by a control part 11 on the basis of an exposure pattern table 131, and exposure start timing in a digital camera 30 is changed and set to exposure start timing corresponding to the discriminated exposure pattern. When a button for photographing is depressed to designate to perform photographing, thereafter, the control part 11 generates a control signal for designating the light emission of a stroboscope 20a and outputs it to a stroboscopic unit 20. Simultaneously, clocking is started, and when attaining the exposure start timing for the set exposure pattern, the shutter of the digital camera 30 is opened and exposure is started. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a photo photographic apparatus that takes ID photographs used for passports, resumes, etc., portraits, commemorative photos, and the like.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a box-type photography apparatus for taking an identification photograph or the like to be affixed to a driver's license, passport, resume, or the like has been widely used and installed in streets or stores. In such a photography apparatus, a customer can enter a photography box, and a customer can perform a photography operation according to a guide, whereby a printed photograph can be obtained easily and in a short time.

As described above, since the photographic apparatus is installed in various places such as outdoors and indoors, the light quantity in the photographic room changes depending on the installation environment. Even in a single device, the amount of light changes due to changes in outside light during the day and at night, so the exposure amount during shooting is also affected.
In recent years, the performance of photographing devices has improved, and devices that can change the aperture and adjust the shutter speed to adjust the exposure amount according to the ambient light at the time of photographing have been distributed (for example, see Patent Document 1). ).
JP-A-7-107424

  However, many photographing devices that can change the aperture and shutter speed are expensive, and are expensive when used in a photographic apparatus.

  In addition, when the aperture is changed, the depth of field fluctuates, resulting in unstable image quality. Similarly, the adjustment of the exposure amount by changing the shutter speed has a rough accuracy and the image quality becomes unstable.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a photographic apparatus capable of adjusting the exposure amount with high accuracy and low cost according to the amount of light in the photographic environment even under fixed exposure conditions.

The invention according to claim 1 is a photography apparatus,
In a photography apparatus comprising: a photographing unit that exposes a subject image under a predetermined exposure condition and generates a subject image according to the exposure amount; and a light emitting unit that emits auxiliary light during photographing.
A light amount storage means for storing the amount of auxiliary light measured in advance by the light emitting means;
A light amount detecting means for detecting a light amount in the photographing area before photographing;
Control means for adjusting the exposure amount by changing the exposure start timing by the photographing means based on the stored light amount of the auxiliary light and the detected detected light amount;
It is characterized by providing.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the exposure start timing is changed based on the light amount obtained by the auxiliary light and the detected light amount in the photographing area. By changing the exposure start timing, the incident light amount of auxiliary light can be changed, so even if exposure conditions such as exposure time and aperture cannot be adjusted in the photographing means, the exposure amount can be easily and accurately Can be adjusted. Further, since it does not depend on the performance of the photographing means, the exposure amount can be adjusted at a low cost.

First, the configuration will be described.
FIG. 1 shows a photography apparatus 100 in the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the photographic apparatus 100 is formed in a box shape, and an outlet 71 for taking out a printed photograph is installed on the outer wall of the photographic apparatus 100. The chair C is rotatably installed so that the subject M can sit down. In addition, the chair C is configured to be able to move up and down by rotation. Further, on the front side of the photographed person M, an operation procedure and other operation screens related to photographing, a display unit 40 for displaying photographed images and the like, an operation unit 60 for instructing operations, and a customer who is the photographed person M are in the photographing room. An entrance sensor S1 for detecting entry, a light amount sensor S2 for detecting the amount of light in the photographing room, and a coin mech 50 for adjusting the photographing fee are installed.

FIG. 2 shows an internal configuration of the photographic apparatus 100.
As shown in FIG. 2, the photographing apparatus 100 includes a main body unit 10, a strobe unit 20, a digital camera 30, a display unit 40, a coin mech 50, an operation unit 60, a printer unit 70, a communication unit 80, an entrance sensor S1, and a light quantity. The sensor S2 is provided.

  The main unit 10 includes a control unit 11, an I / O control 12, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 13, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 14, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk-R) 15, and an I / F 16. The flash unit 20, coin mech 50, speaker 55, and operation unit 60 are connected via the I / O control 12, and the printer unit 70 is connected via the I / F 16.

  The control unit 11 reads out various programs such as a system program stored in the ROM 13 and a print processing program (see FIG. 5) and a photographing processing program (see FIG. 6) according to the present invention, expands them in the RAM 14, and follows the programs. Central control of the operation of each part. In addition, the control unit 11 has an image processing function that performs various image processing such as gradation conversion processing, sharpness enhancement processing, trimming, size adjustment, and the like on the captured image in cooperation with the image processing program. .

  In the printing process, the operation screen and announcement sound data are read from the DVD 15 and the operation screens are sequentially displayed on the display unit 40, and the announcement sound corresponding to the displayed operation screen is output from the speaker 55. When a print condition is selected and operated on the operation screen, information on the selected print condition is temporarily stored in the RAM 14 and set. Further, when the data of the photographic image is generated by the photographic processing, the photographic image is subjected to predetermined image processing and then displayed on the display unit 40. Then, when print output is instructed, image processing for print output is performed on the photographed image, and the processed image is synthesized with a predetermined print format read from the ROM 13 to generate print data.

  In the photographing process, an exposure pattern corresponding to the amount of light detected by the light amount sensor S2 is determined based on the exposure pattern table 131 of the ROM 13. Each exposure pattern has a different exposure start timing, that is, a time for opening the shutter in the digital camera 30. Details of the exposure pattern will be described later. Then, setting information such as the exposure start timing of the determined exposure pattern is temporarily stored in the RAM 14 to change the exposure pattern.

  After setting the exposure pattern, a control signal for instructing light emission of the strobe 20 a is generated in accordance with a shooting instruction operation, and is output to the strobe unit 20. At the same time, timing is started, and when the exposure start timing corresponding to the set exposure pattern is reached, a control signal for photographing instruction is output to the digital camera 30 to open the shutter. The opened shutter is automatically closed by the digital camera 30 after a predetermined exposure time has elapsed. That is, the control means can be realized by the cooperation of the photographing processing program and the control unit 11.

  The I / O control 12 is an interface that mediates the exchange of information between the main body unit 10, the strobe unit 20, the coin mech 50, and the operation unit 60. A control signal from the control unit 11 is sent to the strobe unit 20, the coin unit The operation signal from the operation unit 60 is transmitted to the control unit 11 while being transmitted to the mech 50.

  In addition to the system program, the ROM 13 stores various control programs such as a print processing program and a photographing processing program, data processed by each program, and the like.

Further, the ROM 13 stores an exposure pattern table 131 in which an exposure pattern corresponding to the detected light quantity is determined, and the light quantity storage means can be realized by the ROM 13.
As shown in FIG. 3, the exposure pattern table 131 stores the setting information of the exposure pattern to be set and the exposure start timing in the exposure pattern according to the light amount detected by the light amount sensor S2.

  Three exposure patterns A, B, and C are prepared, and the detected light quantity is 0 to 20 (%) of the total light quantity (total light quantity obtained by strobe light, which is obtained in advance by measurement). ) Is set to the exposure pattern A, 21 to 60% (exposure pattern B), and 61 to 100 (%) is set to the exposure pattern C.

Hereinafter, each of the exposure patterns A to C will be described.
FIG. 4 is a graph showing the amount of light in the photographic room that is displaced over time after the flash 20a emits light. As shown in FIG. 4, the amount of light in the photographing room has a peak value immediately after light emission, and then gradually decreases and converges to a value of 0 after about 18 ms. The area surrounded by the curve indicating the displacement of the light amount indicates the total amount of light obtained by the strobe light, and the amount of light obtained within 3 ms after the light emission is about 50% of the total amount of light, and the afterglow after 5 ms is all. About 30% of the amount of light.
In each of the exposure patterns A to C, the exposure start timing is adjusted so that the strobe light can be obtained by a desired amount of light at the time of photographing based on the displacement of the light amount previously obtained by measurement. .

  The exposure pattern A is a pattern that starts exposure when the strobe 20a actually emits light as shown in FIG. 4, and is set when the amount of light detected in the photographing room is as low as 0 to 20%. . Here, assuming that the exposure time of the digital camera 30, that is, the time from opening the shutter to closing it is 12 ms, the exposure pattern A has the shutter opened for a predetermined exposure time of 12 ms from the time of light emission. Since exposure is performed, almost all of the strobe light is taken in. Further, since the strobe 20a takes a certain amount of time after receiving the light emission instruction control signal until it actually emits light, there is a time lag between the light emission instruction and the actual light emission. Therefore, if the deviation time is 3 ms, in the case of the exposure pattern A, the exposure starts simultaneously with the light emission. Therefore, the exposure pattern is adjusted to open the shutter 3 ms after the light emission instruction is given to the strobe 20a. In the table 131, the exposure start timing of the exposure pattern A is set to “+3 ms (with the light emission instruction as a reference)”.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the exposure pattern B is a pattern in which the exposure is started simultaneously with the light emission instruction, the afterglow is cut, and the light quantity around the peak value is taken in. Therefore, in the exposure pattern table 131, the exposure start timing of the exposure pattern B is set to “0 ms”.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the exposure pattern C is a pattern that incorporates afterglow afterglow, and the exposure start timing is adjusted so that the exposure starts 5 ms after the actual light emission. Therefore, when the emission instruction is used as a reference, the exposure start timing of the exposure pattern C is set to “+8 ms” in the exposure pattern table 131 so that the shutter is opened after the emission delay (3 ms) +5 ms = 8 ms. Yes.

  The RAM 14 forms a work area for temporarily storing various programs executed by the control unit 11 and data related to these programs. The RAM 14 has an area for temporarily storing image data of a photographed image photographed by the digital camera 30.

  The DVD 15 stores image data of a captured image (original image) captured by the digital camera 30 and also stores image data of a processed image that has been subjected to various image processes by the control unit 11. In addition to storing image data of various operation screens such as fee guidance and setting of print conditions, sound data of guide announcement voices in various operation screens is stored.

  The I / F 16 is an interface that mediates exchange of information between the main body unit 10 and the printer unit 70, and transmits print data generated by the control unit 11 from the main body unit 10 to the printer 70.

  The strobe unit 20 controls the light emission timing and light emission amount of the strobe 20a installed in each part of the photographing room in accordance with the light emission instruction control signal from the control unit 11, and the strobe 20a responds to the control of the strobe unit 20. Light emitting means for emitting light.

  The digital camera 30 is a photographing unit including an image sensor such as a shutter, an optical lens, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), an A / D converter, and the like. A subject image input via the optical lens is captured by the image sensor. An image signal is generated by photoelectric conversion. Then, digital image data is obtained from the analog image signal by the A / D conversion unit, and the digital image data is output to the main body unit 10. Note that a digital video camera capable of recording a moving image may be applied as the photographing unit instead of the digital camera 30.

  The digital camera 30 does not have automatic adjustment functions such as an aperture and an exposure time, and the exposure conditions are fixed conditions. The shutter of the digital camera 30 may be a mechanical shutter that blocks light entering the lens, or may be an electronic shutter that a CCD has. The digital camera 30 opens the shutter when a shooting instruction control signal is input from the control unit 11 and closes the shutter when a predetermined exposure time elapses. As described above, in this embodiment, the exposure time of the digital camera 30 is 12 ms.

  The display unit 40 is a display unit that includes an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like, and displays an operation screen according to an instruction from the control unit 11 or pre-displays a captured image.

  The coin mech 50 is a cash registering machine equipped with a coin or bill deposit port, a change refund port, etc., and calculates a change amount from the amount deposited from the deposit port and a prescribed shooting fee, and according to the change amount. The coin or banknote is discharged into the change refund port.

  The speaker 55 outputs a guide announcement sound or the like based on the input sound data.

  The operation unit 60 includes a touch panel configured integrally with the display unit 40, various function buttons such as a selection button and a shooting button provided on the inner wall of the shooting room, and an operation corresponding to the pressed button. The signal is output to the control unit 11.

  The printer unit 70 is a printing unit that performs print output based on print data input from the control unit 11. As a printing method of the printer unit 70, a sublimation type thermal transfer method in which an image is formed by sublimating and transferring a color material is applied. However, the recording medium and the image receiving material are superposed on each other to apply heat. The recording layer may be transferred to an image receiving layer of an image receiving material, and a melt transfer recording method for forming an image may be applied, or an electrophotographic method, an ink jet method, or other printing methods may be used. Moreover, a silver salt photographic image may be formed.

  The communication unit 80 is a communication unit including a communication interface such as a network interface card and a modem, and transmits and receives information to and from external devices on the communication network. For example, image data can be transferred to another photographic apparatus and printed out, or image data can be transferred to a host server and registered.

  The entrance sensor S1 detects that the customer has entered the photography room, and outputs a detection signal to the control unit 11 when the entrance of the customer is detected. As the entrance sensor S1, an optical sensor or the like including a light emitter and a light receiver can be applied.

  The light amount sensor S <b> 2 is a light amount detection unit that detects the amount of light in the photographing room, and generates a detection signal and outputs it to the control unit 11. As the light quantity sensor S1, a sensor using a photodiode or the like is applicable.

Next, the operation of the photography apparatus 100 will be described.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the print processing executed by the photographic apparatus 100.
In the print processing shown in FIG. 5, first, based on the detection signal input from the room sensor S1, it is determined in the control unit 11 whether or not the customer has entered the photographing room (step S1), and it is determined that the customer has entered the room. (Step S1; Y), an operation screen for guiding a charge for photographing is displayed on the display unit 40. The customer inserts a predetermined shooting fee into the deposit port of the coin mech 50 according to the guide on the operation screen.

  When the shooting fee is inserted, a fee settlement process is performed in the coin mech 50 (step S2), and when there is a change, the change is discharged to the refund port. Next, an operation screen for selecting and operating the print condition is displayed on the display unit 40. On the operation screen, print conditions such as black and white and color, and print sizes for license, resume, passport, large size, etc. are selectively displayed as print conditions. When the customer selects a desired print condition on this operation screen, the selected print condition is temporarily stored in the RAM 14 and set in the photographic apparatus 100 (step S3).

When the print conditions are set, the process proceeds to exposure adjustment processing in step S4.
The exposure adjustment process will be described with reference to FIG.
In the exposure adjustment process shown in FIG. 6, first, the light quantity in the photographing room is detected by the light quantity sensor S2 (step T1). Next, based on the exposure pattern table 131, an exposure pattern corresponding to the detected light amount is determined by the control unit 11, and the exposure start timing in the digital camera 30 is changed and set to the exposure start timing corresponding to the determined exposure pattern. (Step ST2).

  For example, when the detected light amount is 10% of the total light amount and the light amount in the photographing room is small, the exposure pattern A is changed and set to incorporate a large amount of strobe light. In addition, when the detected light amount is about 30% of the total light amount, it is changed to the exposure pattern B that takes in only the peak light amount, and when the detected light amount is as large as 65% of the total light amount, only the afterglow is reduced. The exposure pattern C that takes in the amount of light is changed and set.

  On the other hand, on the display unit 40, an operation screen for shooting operation is displayed. On this operation screen, a note about shooting is displayed and a shooting button is displayed. After the customer is ready for shooting, the customer can input an instruction to start shooting by pressing the shooting button.

  In the photographic device 100, after the exposure start timing is changed, the pressing operation of the shooting button is waited. When the pressing operation is performed and shooting is instructed (step T3; Y), the flash light of the strobe 20a is emitted from the control unit 11. An instruction control signal is generated and output to the flash unit 20 (step T4). Next, when the exposure start timing changed according to the exposure pattern set in step T2 is reached, the shutter of the digital camera 30 is opened, and exposure is started (step T5).

  For example, in the case of exposure pattern A, the shutter is opened at a timing 3 ms after the light emission instruction is given, that is, when light emission is actually started, and in the case of exposure pattern B, the light emission instruction is given at the same time. The shutter is opened. In the case of the exposure pattern C, the shutter is opened at the timing 5 ms after the light emission instruction is given, that is, after the peak light quantity is exceeded. When the strobe light has the light emission distribution characteristics shown in FIG. 4, the exposure amount at the time of photographing is about 100% strobe light in the case of exposure pattern A, and about 80% strobe light in the case of exposure pattern B. In the case of C, about 30% of strobe light can be taken.

  After the shutter is opened, when a predetermined exposure time has elapsed, the shutter is automatically closed on the digital camera 30 side (step T6), and image signal transfer from the image sensor is started. In this way, when shooting is completed, the process proceeds to step S5 shown in FIG.

  In step S5, image data of a captured image is generated in the digital camera 30 by shooting, and after the predetermined image processing such as size adjustment and trimming is performed on the captured image for pre-display, the processed image is displayed on the display unit. 40 is pre-displayed (step S5). It is assumed that a re-shoot button for instructing re-shooting and a print button for instructing printing of the shot image are displayed together with the processed image. The customer confirms the pre-displayed photographed image, and if the user wants to retake the photograph, presses the retake button displayed together with the photographed image, and presses the print button to print the photographed image.

  In the photographic device 100, the button pressing operation is waited, and it is determined whether the re-shoot button or the print button is pressed (step S6). When the re-shoot button is pressed (step S6; re-shoot), the process returns to step S4 and the shooting process is performed again. On the other hand, when the print button is pressed (step S6; N), color conversion processing, gradation conversion processing, trimming processing, and size adjustment are performed on the captured image in accordance with the print conditions set in step S. Various image processing such as processing is performed. Then, print data of the processed image is generated according to a predetermined print format. The generated print data is output to the printer unit 70, and the printer unit 70 performs print output based on the print data (step S8). Then, when the printed photograph that has been printed out is discharged to the take-out port 71, this processing is terminated.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a plurality of exposure patterns having different exposure start timings set in advance according to the detected light amount in the shooting room are prepared, and the exposure pattern corresponding to the detected light amount in the shooting room is set during shooting. Since the exposure is performed at the exposure start timing of the changed exposure pattern, the exposure amount can be easily adjusted according to the amount of light in the shooting room even under conditions where the exposure time, aperture, etc. are fixed. be able to. Therefore, the exposure amount can be adjusted accurately at low cost without depending on the performance of the digital camera 30.

In addition, embodiment mentioned above is an example of this invention and is not limited to this.
For example, in the above description, the exposure pattern is set so that the exposure is started at the same time or later with reference to the time of the light emission instruction. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the exposure is started before the light emission instruction. Then, the exposure start timing and the light emission instruction time may be adjusted so that the light emission is instructed after a predetermined time. Thereby, the exposure time can be adjusted with higher accuracy.

It is a figure which shows the photography apparatus 100 in this Embodiment. 1 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a photographic device 100. FIG. It is a figure which shows the data structural example of the exposure pattern table 131. FIG. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the light quantity distribution of strobe light, and each exposure pattern AC. 4 is a flowchart for explaining print processing executed by the photographic apparatus 100. 4 is a flowchart for describing a photographing process executed by the photographing apparatus 100.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Photography apparatus 10 Main-body part 11 Control part 12 I / O control 13 ROM
14 RAM
15 DVD
16 I / F
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 Strobe unit 20a Strobe 30 Digital camera 40 Display part 50 Coin mech 55 Speaker 60 Operation part 70 Printer part 80 Communication part S1 Entrance sensor S2 Light quantity sensor

Claims (1)

In a photography apparatus comprising: a photographing unit that exposes a subject image under a predetermined exposure condition and generates a subject image according to the exposure amount; and a light emitting unit that emits auxiliary light during photographing.
A light amount storage means for storing the amount of auxiliary light measured in advance by the light emitting means;
A light amount detecting means for detecting a light amount in the photographing area before photographing;
Control means for adjusting the exposure amount by changing the exposure start timing by the photographing means based on the stored light amount of the auxiliary light and the detected detected light amount;
A photographic apparatus comprising:

Images