JP2012090106A - Imaging device and control method of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique which enables easy imaging using a photographic composition and a setting parameter of a photograph that is an example.SOLUTION: An object guiding the photographic composition is displayed on a display and it is determined whether a display area of the display and the object match. When it is determined that the display area of the display and the object match, a set parameter to be used in photographing is set on the basis of information associated with the object.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for guiding a shooting composition.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an imaging apparatus that can acquire position information, a system that presents information related to an imaging target to a user is known.

  For example, the imaging device communicates with the server and acquires information about the imaging target captured by the plurality of imaging devices and the point at which the imaging target is captured. On top of that, a technology that can easily present to a user a shooting target that can be shot from the vicinity of the current location and a suitable shooting point for shooting the shot using characters, a map, voice, and the like. (For example, Patent Document 1).

  In another example, the image processing system compares the timing data obtained from the current position data with the photographing date / time data obtained from the accompanying data of the photographed image, and automatically associates the approximate data with each other. . Then, every time the system reaches a photographing point, there is a technique for displaying photographed image data associated with the point together with map data in a display display area (for example, Patent Document 2).

  Further, there is a technique for acquiring GPS information including the latitude and longitude of a shooting target and displaying an arrow line indicating a shooting direction of the shooting target on an electronic map including the shooting point and the shooting target (for example, Patent Documents). 3).

JP-A-2005-45398 JP 2006-178856 A JP 2005-352659 A

  According to the technique disclosed in the above-described conventional technique, it is possible to display on the electronic map the shooting point of the sample and the direction in which the imaging apparatus should be held. However, in order to actually take a picture with the same composition as the example, after setting the imaging device from a shooting point in a certain direction, the height and elevation angle for holding the imaging device are determined, and setting parameters such as zoom magnification are set. It is necessary to decide. In the prior art, since such information is not presented at all, it is necessary for the user himself / herself to make an appropriate adjustment after examining the composition and setting parameters of the sample in advance.

  Further, in the prior art, information related to the shooting point of the sample is mapped and presented on a two-dimensional electronic map. For this reason, it is necessary for the user to move to a position for capturing a suitable shooting composition while comparing the real field of view with the electronic map. Such work may be difficult for users who are not accustomed to reading maps on a daily basis, and there is room for improvement in labor and accuracy required for searching.

  The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of easily capturing an image with a shooting composition and setting parameters as an example.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a display control means for displaying an object for guiding a shooting composition on a display, a determination means for determining whether the display area of the display matches the object, When it is determined by the determination means that the display area and the object match, the setting means has a setting means for setting a setting parameter used at the time of photographing based on information associated with the object.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily capture an image with a shooting composition and setting parameters of an example photograph.

FIG. 2A is a hardware configuration diagram of an imaging apparatus, and FIG. 2B is a functional block diagram of the imaging apparatus. The figure which shows an example of the screen display shown on the display 0200. FIG. The figure which shows an example of a screen display when a display area and the rectangle 0201 correspond. The figure which shows the data structure of example information. 6 is a flowchart in the imaging apparatus. The flowchart which shows the detail of a range determination process (step S0504). The flowchart which shows the detail of an example search process (step S0505). The flowchart which shows the detail of a rectangle display process (step S0506).

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1A shows an example of the hardware configuration of the present invention. The CPU 0100 performs processing based on the imaging program according to the present embodiment, and performs control to store information necessary for executing the program in the RAM 0102 or the like. The ROM 0101 stores programs such as a basic I / O program and various data. The RAM 0102 functions as a main memory and work area of the CPU 0100. The storage device 0103 stores an imaging program, a sample, information associated with the sample, and the like. Information associated with the sample will be described later with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, the storage device 0103 is described as being in the imaging device, but may be an external device. When the storage device 0103 is an external device, the imaging device may acquire necessary information from the storage device 0103 via a communication unit. The GPS 0104 is used to acquire current position information of the imaging device. The display 0105 displays a three-dimensional rectangular object output from the CPU 0100 based on the imaging program. The geomagnetic sensor 0106 is used to calculate the azimuth angle of the imaging device from the output value. The acceleration sensor 0107 is used to calculate the tilt of the imaging device from the output value. The imaging unit 0108 is a unit that captures an image displayed on the display 0105. A system bus 0109 manages the flow of data in the imaging apparatus.

  FIG. 1A shows an example of a functional block diagram of the present invention. The acquisition unit 0110 acquires the current position of the imaging apparatus from the output of the GPS 0104, the azimuth angle toward which the imaging apparatus is directed from the output of the geomagnetic sensor 0106, and the elevation angle of the imaging apparatus from the output of the acceleration sensor 0107. The range determination unit 0111 determines the range (coordinate range) of the sample to be displayed as a rectangle. The search unit 0112 searches for examples that exist within the range determined by the range determination unit 0111. The display control unit 0113 performs display control for displaying an image or a rectangle captured by the imaging unit 0108 on the display 0105. The determination unit 0114 determines whether the display area matches the rectangle. The setting unit 0115 sets imaging parameters such as display magnification.

Next, the operation of the imaging apparatus configured as described above will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which when a user takes a picture with a general still camera or a digital camera, guide information for taking a picture with the same composition as that of a photograph as an example is presented. Further, when detecting that the user has set the camera at a position where the same composition as the sample can be captured, the imaging apparatus sets appropriate parameters for the camera based on the shooting information of the sample.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display presented on the display 0200 of the imaging apparatus. The display 0200 displays an image that can be taken by the camera at present, and serves as a finder. At this time, a three-dimensional rectangular object (hereinafter referred to as “rectangular”) 0201 showing a photographing composition of a sample photograph is superimposed on the image displayed on the display and presented as a guide. This rectangle 0201 represents the shooting position, altitude, and direction of the sample, and the user holds the camera so that the display area of the display 0200 and the rectangle 0201 coincide with each other, so that the camera is positioned at the same position as when the sample was shot. Can be moved. In addition, with only a three-dimensional rectangular object, it may be difficult for the user to understand whether to shoot from the front side or the back side of the rectangle. Therefore, a direction line 0202 is displayed as auxiliary information at the time of photographing together with the rectangle 0201.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display when the display area and the rectangle 0201 coincide with each other. The imaging apparatus detects that the camera has been moved to the same position as when the sample was photographed, displays a rectangle 0300 in which the intermediate coating color has been changed, and notifies the user of that fact. Thereafter, the rectangle 0300 is erased from the screen, and accordingly, the same shooting parameters (for example, zoom magnification) as when shooting the sample are set for the camera. As a result, the user is in a state where the same image as the sample is displayed on the display, and the user can take a picture similar to the sample by releasing the shutter.

  In addition, although the figure showing a general still camera is drawn in the figure shown so far, this imaging device is not necessarily limited to this shape. In this embodiment, a three-dimensional rectangular object is presented to the user in order to show a sample shooting composition. However, the present invention is not limited to this shape, and any object that allows the user to recognize the spatial position. For example, it may be a two-dimensional rectangular object. Similarly, the shape of the direction line is not limited to that shown in the drawing. If there are a plurality of sample shooting points at the position where the user holds the camera, a plurality of rectangles may be displayed on the display 0200 correspondingly. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the display 0200 plays the role of the finder, but the rectangle 0201 may be superimposed and displayed on a normal optical finder. These matters are the same in the following description.

Next, an example of processing for realizing the operation of the imaging apparatus described here will be described in detail using a data structure diagram and a flowchart.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of sample information stored in the storage device 0103. The index 0400 is mainly used when searching for sample information, and is data that is stacked on the index stack in order to store sample candidates to be displayed on the display 0200. Next, there is an area for storing information related to the point where the sample is taken. Here, the X coordinate 0401 and the Y coordinate 0402 are values based on the longitude and latitude of the imaging point, respectively, and the north latitude / east longitude direction is positive and the south latitude / west longitude direction is a negative number. The Z coordinate 0403 is a value based on the altitude from the average sea level, and the high direction is represented by a positive number. The azimuth angle 0404 is information on the direction in which the imaging device was facing when the sample was taken, and is a value based on an angle with the clockwise direction being positive with respect to the north. The elevation angle 0405 is a value based on the inclination of the imaging device when the sample is photographed, and the upward angle is expressed as a positive number and the downward angle is expressed as a negative number with respect to the horizontal. A magnification 0406 is a zoom magnification when the sample is taken. In the present embodiment, zoom magnification is used as a shooting parameter, but parameters used during shooting, such as white balance, aperture, and shutter speed, may be used.

  Information regarding these examples is not particularly limited as long as the information is stored before the user displays the example information on the display 0200. For example, the imaging apparatus itself may extract from metadata (Exif or the like) attached to the image file of the sample, or the information may be downloaded from a server on the network.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the imaging apparatus. First, the setting unit 0115 resets shooting parameters (setting parameters used during shooting) (step S0500). In this embodiment, the display magnification of the display is reset. Next, the acquisition unit 0110 calculates the current position of the imaging apparatus from the output of the GPS 0104 (step S0501). There are several types of GPS output formats, but it is sufficient that information on latitude and longitude and altitude from the average sea level is included. In order to match the sample information data described with reference to FIG. 4, the north latitude / east longitude direction is converted into a positive number and the south latitude / west longitude direction is converted into a negative number, and if necessary, preprocessing such as normalization is performed, and then the RAM 0102 Store on top. Subsequently, the acquisition unit 0110 calculates the azimuth angle that the imaging apparatus is facing from the output of the geomagnetic sensor 0106 (step S0502). The specific calculation formula varies depending on the sensor used, but in general, in the case of a biaxial geomagnetic sensor,

  Can be obtained. Further, the acquisition unit 0110 calculates the elevation angle of the imaging apparatus from the output of the acceleration sensor 0107 (step S0503). Although the specific calculation formula varies depending on the sensor used, in the case of a general three-axis acceleration sensor, the elevation angle can be obtained by applying an arc sine function to the output value (acceleration) in the Z-axis direction. it can. Each orientation and elevation angle obtained here may be stored on the RAM 0102 after preprocessing such as normalization if necessary.

  The range determining unit 0111 determines the range of the sample to be displayed based on the current position, azimuth angle, and elevation angle of the imaging apparatus (step S0504). Next, the search unit 0112 searches for examples included in the obtained range (step S0505). Subsequently, the display control unit 0113 displays a three-dimensional rectangular object representing the shooting composition on the display for the sample existing within the range (step S0506). Here, the processing from step S0504 to step S0506 will be described in detail later. If any of the rectangles displayed on the display by the determination unit 0114 does not match the display area of the display (NO in step S0507), the program returns to the current position acquisition process (step S0501) again. In the case of a finder, the range that can be seen through the finder is the display area. In addition, the match between the rectangle and the display area may be determined as a match if the rectangle and the display area are mostly overlapped even if they do not completely match.

  If one of the rectangles matches the display area (YES in step S0507), the display control unit 0113 notifies the user by changing the color of the rectangle (step S0508), and then all the rectangles are displayed. Not displayed (step S0509). At this time, both direction lines are not displayed. Note that the step S0508 only needs to notify the user that the rectangle and the display area match, and changing the color of the rectangle is one way. Besides, the screen blinks or “matches”. It may be displayed in characters.

  Then, the setting unit 0115 sets the same shooting parameters (magnification in this embodiment) as the sample corresponding to the matched rectangle (step S0510), and the imaging unit 0108 uses the set shooting parameters to capture images. (Step S0511), and the process ends.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing details of the range determination process (step S0504) in FIG. Here, based on the current position, azimuth angle, and elevation angle of the imaging apparatus, an example range (coordinate range) to be displayed is determined as a rectangle. For example, even if there is a shooting point of the sample in the direction that the camera is facing, if it is at a certain distance or more, the user cannot easily reach that point, so a rectangle should be presented to the user Absent. Further, by limiting the rectangles to be displayed, resource saving (reduction of ROM / RAM usage, etc.) and processing speed (performance) in the imaging apparatus can be expected.

  First, the coordinates of the four vertices of the projection plane are calculated based on the coordinates of the current position, the azimuth angle, and the elevation angle calculated in advance (step S0600). The projection plane is a virtual screen placed at a position away from the current position in the forward direction of the imaging device by a certain distance. In the present embodiment, an image of a rectangle 0201 that is perspective-projected on the projection plane is displayed on the display. In order to calculate the coordinates of the vertex of the projection plane, four points that are separated from each other by a certain distance in the up, down, left, and right oblique directions with the current point as the center are temporarily calculated, The rotation matrix representing the elevation angle (obtained in step S0503) is multiplied. Furthermore, each coordinate may be translated to a position separated by a predetermined distance based on a direction vector determined by the azimuth angle and the elevation angle. Here, since the size of the image of the rectangle 0201 projected on the screen changes according to the distance between the projection plane and the current point, the scale of the image displayed on the display matches the size of the rectangle image. It is determined as such a distance. In the present embodiment, since the magnification of the image displayed on the display is reset, it can be determined as a prescribed value before the execution of the imaging apparatus. When the coordinates of each vertex of the projection plane are obtained, the minimum and maximum values of the X, Y, and Z components are obtained based on those values (step S0601). Next, for each vertex direction, the coordinates of the position separated by the distance Dm are calculated (step S0602). This Dm is an arbitrary constant that determines the size of the display area. However, if the value is too large, the rectangle is not visible when the rectangle 0201 is projected onto the projection plane because the rectangle is too small to be visually recognized by the user. The value of Dm is determined so as to be larger than the possible size. When the coordinates of the position separated by the distance Dm are obtained, the minimum and maximum values of the X, Y, and Z components are updated based on those values (step S0603). The minimum and maximum values of each component obtained after this processing is performed for all four vertices become a coordinate range for limiting an example in which rectangular display is performed.

  The range determination process shown here is an example, and it is not always necessary to determine the range by this method. Further, the example of performing rectangular display need not be limited. In that case, the range proceeds to the subsequent processing as the entire coordinate system.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing details of the sample search process (step S0505) in FIG. Here, an example that exists within the range obtained in the range determination process (step S0504) is searched. Here, the search is sequentially performed in ascending order of the value of the index 0400. The sample information of the index i is referred to (step S0701), and the X coordinate 0401, Y coordinate 0402, and Z coordinate 0403 of the sample are acquired. When all these components are included in the range obtained by the range determination process (YES in step S0702), the index is pushed onto the index stack (that is, the index is stored in the storage unit (not shown)). (Step S0703). It is determined whether all sample information has been examined (step S0704). If YES, the process ends. If NO in step S0704, the index is updated to the next index (i.e., i is set to i + 1) (step S0704), and the process from step S0701 to step S0703 is performed on the next index.

  If there is a lot of sample information, it is not a good idea to check the information of all the samples by sequential processing. For example, it is preferable to sort the sample information in the order from the current location and stop the processing when a certain number of sample indexes are pushed onto the index stack.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing details of the rectangular display process (step S0506) in FIG. Here, a process of actually displaying a rectangle is performed for an example having an index stacked on the index stack in the example search process (step S0505). First, it is determined whether or not the index stack is empty. If the index stack is empty (YES in step S0800), there is no rectangle to be displayed, and thus the process ends. If one or more stacks are stacked on the index stack (NO in step S0800), the top index is extracted (step S0801), and the corresponding sample information is referenced (step S0802). Next, the coordinates of the four vertices of the rectangle to be displayed are calculated (step S0803). The coordinates of the vertex are obtained by temporarily obtaining four points that are separated by a fixed distance in the vertical and horizontal directions around the coordinates of the photographing point in the example, and then multiplying by a rotation matrix representing the azimuth angle 0404 and the elevation angle 0405. It is done. Next, in order to display the direction line 0202 indicating whether the image should be taken from the front side or the back side of the rectangle, the coordinates of the start point of the direction line are obtained (step S0804). The coordinates of the starting point may be calculated as a point separated from the coordinates of the current position by a predetermined distance based on the direction vector determined by the azimuth angle 0404 and the elevation angle 0405. This distance needs to be long enough to confirm that it is a direction line when the user confirms it on the display. The coordinate of the end point of the direction line is the center of the rectangular surface, and here it is equal to the coordinate of the shooting point in the example. Next, the distance from the origin of the coordinate system to the current position is calculated (step S0805). This is used as a parameter for perspective projection of a rectangular vertex in a later step. Subsequently, perspective projection is performed on the coordinates of the four vertices of the rectangle obtained earlier, and coordinate values for actual display on the display are obtained (step S0806). The coordinate transformation formula for perspective projection is generally known, but here it is obtained as follows. The coordinates of the vertex of the rectangle are (x0, y0, z0), the rotation angle of the X axis is Rx, the rotation angle of the Y axis is Ry, and the rotation angle of the Z axis is Rz. The distance from the current point to the projection plane is Ds, and the distance from the current point to the origin is Do. Here, Do is the value obtained in step S0805. At this time, coordinates (x1, y1) after perspective projection are

  Is required. This calculation is performed for the four vertices of the rectangle, and when the perspective projection of all the vertices is completed, a path connecting the coordinates of the converted vertices is drawn on the display (step S0807). Similarly, the start point and end point of the direction line obtained in step S0804 are also perspective-transformed (step S0808), and an arrow connecting the converted points is drawn (step S0809), thereby presenting the direction line 0202 to the user. As described above, since the drawing of the rectangle and the direction line indicating the shooting composition is completed for one sample, the process returns to step S0800 again to determine whether the index stack is empty.

  By executing the series of processes described above, the imaging apparatus can display a three-dimensional rectangular object indicating a sample shooting composition on the display. Thus, the user can perform shooting with the same composition as in the example only by moving the imaging device so that any one of the displayed rectangles matches the display area.

  In the above embodiment, an example in which the direction line 0202 indicating the shooting direction is displayed as auxiliary information necessary for shooting together with the rectangle 0201 has been described. However, other information may be presented as auxiliary information. For example, an image thumbnail of the sample may be superimposed and displayed near the rectangle 0201. As a result, the user can know what kind of photograph can be taken when shooting at each rectangular point before moving. In order to implement this, a field for storing information of the corresponding image thumbnail is newly added to the data structure of the sample information shown in FIG. In addition, after the direction line drawing process shown in FIG. 8 (step S0812), a process for drawing the corresponding image thumbnail may be added at a predetermined offset position.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which a three-dimensional rectangular object indicating an example shooting composition is superimposed and displayed on an image on a display is shown. However, an image image of an example may be used instead of the rectangle. Thereby, the user can confirm what kind of photograph was image | photographed at the point by seeing a rectangle. In order to implement this, in the perspective projection process shown in FIG. 8 (steps S0806 to S0809), instead of projecting the coordinates of the vertices, the pixel values of the corresponding sample may be projected.

(Other embodiments)
The component of the present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), or a device (for example, a camera, a copier, The present invention may be applied to a facsimile machine or the like. An object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and the system reads and executes the program codes stored in the storage medium. Is also achieved. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, magnetic tape, nonvolatile data storage unit, ROM, or the like can be used. . Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. Perform some of the actual processing. Furthermore, it is needless to say that the case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is included. Further, the program code read from the storage medium is written to a data storage unit provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. After that, based on the instruction of the program code, the CPU of the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing. Needless to say.

Claims (7)

Display control means for displaying an object for guiding the shooting composition on the display;
Determining means for determining whether the display area of the display matches the object;
An imaging device comprising: setting means for setting a setting parameter used at the time of shooting based on information associated with the object when the determination means determines that the display area and the object match. apparatus.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the object is a three-dimensional rectangular object that is different for each example.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit further displays information indicating a shooting direction of the image. A method for controlling an imaging apparatus,
A display control step for displaying an object for guiding the shooting composition on the display;
A determining step for determining whether the display area of the display and the object match;
A setting unit having a setting step of setting a setting parameter to be used at the time of shooting based on information associated with the object when it is determined in the determination step that the display area and the object match; A control method for an imaging apparatus.   The method according to claim 4, wherein the object is a three-dimensional rectangular object that is different for each example.   6. The method of controlling an imaging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the display control step displays an object for guiding a shooting composition and information indicating a shooting direction of the image on a display.   The program for functioning a computer as an imaging device of any one of Claims 1-3.

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