JPH07131684A - Image pickup device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the shift of an OSD cursor for an image pickup device such as a camcorder. CONSTITUTION:A title selection screen is displayed in an EVF 3 with the push of a title selection key 51. The title selection screen includes four title screens reduced in a matrix shape, and a cursor is put on one of these title screens, i.e., the upper left screen, for example. Then a housing of a camcorder is panned or titled in the desired direction where a cursor is shifted and locking through the EVF 3. Thus the shift direction of the cursor is detected by a shift direction detecting circuit 53 and a microcomputer 54, and the cursor is shifted in the housing shift direction within the title selection screen.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a television camera,
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as a camera-integrated VTR, and particularly to an image pickup apparatus characterized by a control means of an on-screen display (hereinafter referred to as OSD).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, setting of various operation modes in a VTR with a built-in camera is performed by operating a menu key.
This is done by displaying the setting screen on the SD and operating the setting key while watching the setting screen. Hereinafter, description will be given with reference to FIG.

A menu key, an item key, and a setting key as shown in FIG. 5A are provided on the upper surface of, for example, the housing of the camera-integrated VTR. First, when the menu key is pressed, a menu setting screen as shown in FIG. 5B is displayed on the OSD, for example, an electronic viewfinder (hereinafter referred to as EVF). Every time you press the item key in this state, the cursor moves downward, and you can select "Daylight saving time", "Hi8", "Remote control", "Edit",
Instruct setting items such as "Bilingual". Then, when it moves to the lower end, it returns to the upper end again. Also, each time you press the setting key while the cursor is pointing to the setting item,
The cursor moves to the right of the setting item, and when it reaches the right end, it returns to the left end.

In this case, the procedure for setting the operation mode is as follows, for example. First, press the menu key and press O
Display the menu setting screen on SD. At this time, the cursor is pointing to "summer time" which is the item at the top.
By pressing the setting key while the cursor indicates "summer time", the cursor is set to "ON" or "OFF" which is the setting content of "summer time". And
When the desired setting contents are met, the item key is pressed to move the cursor to "Hi8" of the next setting item, and the setting key is pressed to move the cursor to "auto" or "off". Then, when the desired setting contents are met, the item key is pressed to move the cursor to the "remote control" of the next setting item, and the same operation is repeated. In this way, when the necessary settings are completed, the menu key is pressed to turn off the menu screen, thereby completing the operation mode setting.

Further, instead of moving the cursor downward and to the right with the item keys and the setting keys, as shown in FIG.
There is also known a camera-integrated VTR provided with a cursor movement key for moving the cursor downward, leftward, or rightward as in (c).

[0006]

However, in the operation mode setting procedure, since the key is operated while observing the menu setting screen displayed on the EVF, the key cannot be seen during the setting operation. Therefore, there is a problem in that three or four keys have to be manually operated.

Further, when the setting is performed by using the keys shown in FIG. 5A, the cursor can be moved only downward and rightward. Therefore, when the setting contents are changed, it is necessary to move the cursor once. There was a problem that it took time and effort.

Further, when the setting is performed by using the keys of FIG. 5C, the cursor can be moved to the left, so that the operation is less than that of the case of FIG. When looking at the EVF, since the cursor movement key is not arranged in front of the user, there is a problem that it is difficult to associate the direction in which the cursor is desired to move with the cursor movement key. In addition, FIG.
Since the number of operation keys is larger than that, a space for arranging the keys was required accordingly.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem and does not require a key for moving the cursor, and the cursor can be moved in any direction, and the cursor can be moved. It is an object of the present invention to provide an imaging device in which it is easy to take a correspondence between the direction in which it is operated and the operation required therefor.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is a means for detecting a moving direction of a casing in an image pickup device, and a cursor corresponding to the moving direction detected by this means. And a display means for moving.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the display means is configured to display the content selected by the cursor in a plurality of areas divided in a matrix.

The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the moving direction of the housing is detected by using the output of the angular velocity sensor. In the invention according to claim 4, in the invention according to claim 3, the angular velocity sensor is also used as an angular velocity sensor for camera shake correction.

The invention according to claim 5 relates to claims 1, 2, and 3.
Alternatively, in the invention according to the fourth aspect, there is provided means for notifying by voice or the like that the cursor has moved.

[0014]

According to the first aspect of the invention, by moving the housing, the cursor of the display means moves in correspondence with the moving direction. According to the invention of claim 2, the contents to be selected by the cursor are displayed in a plurality of areas divided in a matrix on the display means, and the desired contents are selected by moving the housing in the direction in which the cursor is desired to be moved. To be done.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the moving direction of the housing is detected using the output of the angular velocity sensor. According to the invention of claim 4, the angular velocity sensor can be commonly used for detection of the moving direction of the housing and detection of camera shake.

According to the invention of claim 5, movement of the cursor on the display means is notified by voice or the like.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a camera-integrated VTR to which the present invention is applied, and FIG.
It is a figure which shows an example of the image displayed on SD.

In FIG. 1, a video signal obtained by picking up an image of a subject by the camera unit 1 passes through a synthesizing circuit 2 and EV.
It is supplied to F3 and recorded on a video tape in the VTR section 4. The synthesizing circuit 2 inserts the pattern signal corresponding to the menu created by the OSD control unit 5 into the video signal from the camera unit 1 at the time of setting the menu, and the EVF 3
Supply to.

The OSD control section 5 includes a title selection key 51,
Superimpose key 52, moving direction detection circuit 53,
The microcomputer 54 and the character generator 55 are provided.

The title selection key 51 is a key for displaying a title selection screen and selecting a title as shown in FIG. Superimpose key 52
Is a key to be pressed when the selected title is enlarged and displayed on the EVF 3. On the title selection screen, since the titles for selection are displayed in the four-divided areas in a matrix, all titles can be displayed with a smaller number of screens than when displaying one title at a time.

The moving direction detection circuit 53 is a camera-integrated VT.
This is a circuit that detects the moving direction (pan, tilt, and a combination thereof) of the R casing. Specifically, it can be realized by integrating the outputs of the angular velocity sensors in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction or detecting the motion vector of the image from the camera unit 1. However, when detecting the motion vector of the image, there is a possibility that it may be erroneously detected as a pan when the image is moving in the horizontal direction even if the housing is stationary, so it is more reliable to use the angular velocity sensor. is there. These means are used as a camera shake detecting means of a camera-integrated VTR (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 4-88761 and 3-28).
(See Japanese Patent No. 5468), it is possible to detect the moving direction of the housing for a camera-integrated VTR having a camera shake correction function only by adding software.

The microcomputer 54 controls the entire OSD control unit 5 and sends a control signal to the notification unit 6 when the cursor in the title selection screen moves. The character generator 55 converts the menu selection screen read from the ROM (not shown) of the microcomputer 54 into a pattern signal and outputs it to the synthesizing circuit 2.

The notification unit 6 notifies the user that the cursor has moved by, for example, producing a sound or vibrating the housing. As a result, the user is EVF3
It is possible to confirm that the cursor has moved from both the title selection screen and the notification unit 6.

3 and 4 are flow charts showing the operation of this embodiment. In addition, in these figures, for convenience, the determination step is described as a hexagon rather than a rhombus. The operation of the present embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS.

First, the user presses the title selection key 51. When the title selection key 51 is pressed, the microcomputer 54 reads out the data indicating the title selection screen from the ROM and supplies it to the garage generator 55. The character generator 55 converts the data from the microcomputer 54 into a pattern and outputs it to the synthesizing circuit 2. The synthesizing circuit 2 synthesizes the pattern signal with the video signal from the camera unit 1,
Output to VF3 (S1 and S2 in FIG. 3). At this time still V
The TR section 4 is not operating.

Here, it is assumed that the title selection screen shown in FIG. 2A is displayed. Since the cursor is located at the position of "snowman", when the user wants to select the title of "snowman", the title selection key 51 is pressed. As a result, the ROM address of the title of the selected "snowman" is saved in the RAM (not shown) of the microcomputer 54, and the title selection is completed (S3 in FIG. 3 → S1 in FIG. 4).
0 → S12 → S13 → S14 → S15).

When a title other than "snowman", for example, a title of "New Year" is to be selected while the title screen of FIG. 2 (a) is displayed, the EVF3 is used to move the cursor to the title of "New Year". While looking through, pan the case of the VTR with a built-in camera to the right. The microcomputer 54 detects that the housing has moved to the right based on the output of the movement direction detection circuit 53, and gives the character generator 55 data for displaying the cursor at the position of the title of "New Year". , And sends the above-mentioned control signal to the notification unit 6. If the title selection key 51 is pressed in this state, "new year" is selected as the title (S3 → S4 → S5 → S6 → S8 of FIG. 3 → S10 → S12 → S13 → S14 → S15 of FIG. 4).

It should be noted that in S3, it is necessary not to erroneously determine that the case is pan when the housing moves to the right due to camera shake. On the other hand, in the case of camera shake, it moves irregularly in the horizontal and vertical directions, so it is possible to distinguish them.

If the desired title is not displayed on the title selection screen shown in FIG. 2A, the cursor is moved to the "forward screen" as shown in FIG. 2B. At this time, move the housing diagonally downward to move the cursor position to the "snowman".
You can move from the title to the "Send screen" with one action. Two seconds after the cursor moves to the "forward screen", the next title selection screen as shown in FIG. 2C is displayed (S4 → S5 → S6 → S7 in FIG. 3).
→ S10 in FIG. 4 → S11).

If there is a desired title in the title selection screen of FIG. 2C, the title is selected by the above-mentioned operation, and if there is no desired title, the cursor is moved to the "forward screen" again, and the next Display the title selection screen of. Thereafter, a desired title is selected by performing the same operation.

By pressing the superimpose key 52, the selected title can be enlarged and displayed on the full screen of the EVF 3. In this case, S1 of FIG.
After step 4, a step of determining whether or not the superimpose key 52 is pressed, and a step of controlling the enlarged display when the superimpose key 52 is pressed may be provided.

Although the title selection screen is displayed on the EVF 3 in the above embodiment, the title selection screen may be displayed on a display device such as an LCD integrated with the housing of the camera-integrated VTR. You can also

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the title selection screen is displayed on the OSD, but it is also possible to display the setting screen of various operation modes as shown in the prior art. it can.

[0034]

As described above in detail, the first aspect of the present invention is as follows.
According to the invention of (1), (1) the cursor movement key is not required, (2) the cursor can be moved in any direction, (3) the direction in which the cursor is moved and the operation required therefor It has the effect of being easy to take.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the entire display content can be displayed with a smaller number of screens than in the case of displaying one by one. Further, according to the invention of claim 3, it is possible to prevent the motion of the image from being erroneously detected as the motion of the housing.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, a dedicated angular velocity sensor for detecting the moving direction of the housing becomes unnecessary. Further, according to the invention of claim 5, the movement of the cursor can be confirmed with eyes and ears.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera-integrated VTR to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an image displayed on an OSD in a camera-integrated VTR to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a part of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing another part of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a method of setting an operation mode in a conventional camera-integrated VTR.

[Explanation of symbols]

3 ... EVF, 5 ... OSD control unit, 53 ... Moving direction detection circuit, 6 ... Notification unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup apparatus comprising: a means for detecting a moving direction of a housing; and a display means for moving a cursor corresponding to the moving direction of the housing detected by the means. 2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display means displays the content selected by the cursor in a plurality of areas divided in a matrix. 3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the moving direction of the housing is detected by using the output of the angular velocity sensor. 4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the angular velocity sensor is also used as a camera shake correction angular velocity sensor. 5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for notifying the movement of the cursor.