JPH11313252A - Digital camera system, image processing method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a function equivalent to that of a silver salt camera to produce photographing with a special effect with addition of an aperture adjustment function or the like by synthesizing a plurality of digital images in a way that a locus of movement of a high luminance spot in a plurality of the digital images is known. SOLUTION: A CCD 112 applies photoelectric conversion to an object image from a lens group 111 in an image input section 110, and a converted signal is digitized and is given to a digital image processing section 114, where the digital signal is processed and the result is stored in a reception image buffer 151, and its contents are copied to an image synthesis buffer 152 as they are. Similarly an image received by the image input section 110 is stored in the reception image buffer 151. An image wherein images stored in the reception image buffer 151 and in the image synthesis buffer 152 are synthesized is stored in the image synthesis buffer 152. In the case that a luminance of pixels in the reception image buffer 151 is brighter than that of corresponding pixels in the image synthesis buffer 152 by a specified value or over, the pixel values of the image synthesis buffer 152 are replaced with the pixel values in the reception image buffer 151.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a digital camera, such as a digital camera or a digital video camera, for photographing digital images, an image processing method, and a storage medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional digital camera or the like, since a shutter speed can be relatively easily controlled by a timing generator, an aperture adjustment function is omitted for cost reduction or a simple one having a narrow adjustment width. Is usually used.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the special effect when taking a night view or a starry sky with a silver lead camera, that is, the aperture is squeezed to release the shutter, the trajectory of the stars and the head of the car. There is a problem that a function equivalent to an image capturing function that produces an effect such as drawing a trajectory of a lamp or a tail lamp cannot be realized.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to the above-mentioned points, and solves the above-mentioned problems and provides a special effect photographing which can be produced by a silver lead camera by adding an aperture adjustment function which does not require a cost increase. It is an object of the present invention to provide a digital camera device, an image processing method, and a storage medium having the same functions as the above.

[0005]

The present invention can solve the above-mentioned problems by providing the following constitution.

(1) means for capturing a digital image;
A repetitive input unit that repeats image capture from the image capture unit a plurality of times at a predetermined time interval; and A digital camera device comprising: an image synthesizing unit for synthesizing; and an image storing unit for storing an image obtained by the image synthesizing unit.

(2) The digital camera device according to the above (1), wherein the repetition input means repeatedly executes the number of times specified by the user in advance.

(3) The digital camera device according to the above (1), wherein the repetition input means controls the start and end timing of repetition by a key input by a user.

(4) The image synthesizing means compares the luminance of the image being synthesized with the captured image for each pixel, and when the luminance of the captured image is higher than a certain value, the pixel of the synthesized image is The digital camera device according to the above (1), wherein the synthesis is performed by replacing the image data with a pixel value of the captured image.

(5) The image synthesizing means performs synthesis by adding, to the synthesized image, a value obtained by multiplying the difference between the pixel value of the image being synthesized and the pixel value of the captured image by a predetermined coefficient for each pixel. The digital camera device according to the above (1), wherein

(6) An image processing method in a digital camera device, wherein a step of capturing a digital image, a step of repeatedly inputting the capture of the image a plurality of times at a predetermined time interval according to a user's instruction, and a step of repeatedly inputting the image An image processing method, comprising: synthesizing images so that a locus of movement of a high-luminance point in a plurality of digital images obtained in the steps can be understood; and storing the images.

(7) A storage medium storing a program for realizing the image processing method according to (6).

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail. Note that the present invention is not limited to the form of the digital camera device, but can be similarly implemented in the form of an image processing method in the digital camera device, and in the form of a storage medium storing a program for realizing the method.

(First Embodiment) FIGS. 1 to 3 show a first embodiment of a digital camera device according to the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a first embodiment of a digital camera device according to the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, reference numeral 100 denotes a CPU.
The operation of the digital camera device is controlled by the CPU 100. CPU1
00, an image input unit 110, an operation unit 120, a display drive unit 130, and a ROM 140, a RAM 150, and a data storage unit 160 storing control programs are connected via the CPU bus 101, respectively. Is connected to a display unit 131 composed of an LCD.

The CPU 100 performs various controls based on a control program in the ROM 140. These controls include the following processes, that is, the image input unit 1
10, a process of reading captured image data output from the image input unit 110 and transferring the data to the RAM 150, a process of transferring display data from the RAM 150 to the display driving unit 130, and a process of compressing image data. The processing includes storing the data in the data storage unit 160 in a file format, and instructing to execute an operation such as photographing in accordance with an instruction from the operation unit 120.

The image input unit 110 includes the following elements. That is, the subject image is optically transferred to the CCD 11.
A CCD 111 (photoelectric conversion element), which is an element for converting a captured image projected by the lens 111 into an analog electric signal;
An A / D conversion circuit 113 for converting an analog signal from the A / D converter 12 into a digital signal. The digital image data sent from the A / D conversion circuit 113 is subjected to processes such as white balance adjustment and backlight correction, and then to the CPU 100. It is composed of a digital image processing unit 114 for transmitting data.

The operation unit 120 includes a shutter switch 121 for instructing image capturing, and a mode switch 122 for switching between an image reproducing mode, a normal capturing mode, and a night scene capturing mode.

The RAM 150 includes a captured image buffer 15 for storing data captured by the image input unit 110.
1. Synthetic image buffer 152 for storing the result of performing the synthesizing process on a plurality of images captured by the captured image buffer 151, work area 1 used by various programs
53.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the image photographing process after the shutter switch 121 is operated when the night scene photographing mode is selected by the mode switch 122.

In step S201, the image input unit 110
The subject image input from the lens group 111 in the
D112 performs optoelectronic conversion, digitizes with the A / D conversion circuit 113, performs digital processing with the digital image processing unit 114, stores the digital data in the captured image buffer 151, and then synthesizes the content of the captured image buffer 151 as it is in image synthesis. It is also copied to the buffer 152.

In step S202, the shutter SW1
It waits for a certain period of time according to the set value set by the user before the operation 21.

In step S203, step S201
The image captured by the image input unit 100 is stored in the captured image buffer 151 in the same procedure as described above. In step S204, an image obtained by synthesizing the image in the captured image buffer 151 and the image in the synthesized image buffer 152 is stored in the synthesized image buffer 152. A detailed flowchart of the image combining process will be described later.

In step S205, step S202
Similarly, before the operation of the shutter SW 121, it is checked whether or not the image has been captured the same number of times as the set value of the number of image capturing set in advance by the user.
Return to step 2 and repeat the process.

In step S206, the data in the combined image buffer 152, which is the combined image data, is subjected to compression processing, and then stored in the data storage unit 160 in a file format.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the captured images are synthesized and stored based on the shooting interval and the number of times of shooting specified by the user.

In step S 207, the image data in the image synthesizing buffer 152, which is the synthesized image, is subjected to processing such as color reduction so as to meet the specifications of the display unit 131, and then sent to the display drive unit 130. Display is performed on the display unit 131.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the contents of the image synthesizing process in step S204 in FIG.

After step S301, an image combining process is performed for each pixel in the screen.

In step S302, the luminance values of the pixels in the captured image buffer 151 and the corresponding pixels in the composite image buffer 152 are compared.
If the brightness value of the pixel in 1 is brighter than the pixel in the image synthesis buffer 152 by a predetermined value or more, the pixel of the image synthesis buffer 152 is set to the pixel value of the capture image buffer 151 in step S303. replace.

In step S304, it is checked whether the processing has been completed for all the pixels. If the processing has not been performed yet, the flow returns to step S302 to repeat the processing.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of the digital camera device according to the present invention. The block diagram showing the schematic configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG.

In the first embodiment, the user sets the parameter of the number of times of photographing before photographing. However, in this embodiment, the process of synthesizing images at regular intervals after starting photographing is confirmed by display. At the same time, the shooting end
The user designates with W121.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart in which a part of the image photographing process of FIG. 2 of the first embodiment is modified. Hereinafter, the changes will be described.

In step S402 added before step S403 (S202 in FIG. 2), the image in the composite image buffer 152 is displayed on the display unit 131, similarly to step S207 in FIG. In this process, images taken by multiple parties during image synthesis and the progress of the synthesis are
This is a process for displaying.

Step S205 in FIG. 2 is replaced with step S406 in FIG. 4. In the first embodiment, the repetition process is performed according to the preset number of times of acquisition. This step S40
If the input from the user is checked in step 6 and the shutter switch 121 has not been operated, step S402
Image capture (S404) and synthesis (S40)
The process of 5) is repeated, and if the shutter SW 121 has been operated, the flow proceeds to image storage in step S407.

In this embodiment, the process can be terminated when the user has created a desired image while checking the progress of the combining process on the display, so that the user can take a long time to capture the trajectory of a star in the starry sky. There are advantages to taking time.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a third embodiment of the digital camera device according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, the processing of FIG. 3 which is the image synthesizing part of the first and second embodiments is changed to the processing shown in FIG. It should be noted that a block diagram showing the schematic configuration and a flowchart showing the flow of the entire photographing process are shown in the first and second drawings.
The description is omitted because it is common to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 of the embodiment. FIG.
In step S303 of FIG. 5 of the present embodiment, the processing of step S303 is replaced with the processing of step S503 to step S505.

After step S503, each parameter value of the corresponding pixel (three types of Y, Cb, and Cr in this embodiment)
The processing is performed every time.

In step S504, the value in the image synthesizing buffer 152 is subtracted from the value of the parameter value in the fetched image buffer 151, and a predetermined coefficient value (here, 1 /
8) is added to the composite image buffer 152.

In step S505, it is checked whether or not processing has been completed for all parameters. If there is a parameter that has not been processed, the processing in step S504 is repeated.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the pixel in which the high-luminance signal has entered is controlled not so as to be suddenly replaced but to approach the value little by little within a few times. Therefore, there is an advantage that the influence of noise such as suddenly entering light is small.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In digital image capturing equipment, it is possible to realize an image capturing function that combines the movement of light within a certain time range without increasing the cost such as adding an aperture function, so special effects when shooting night scenes and starry sky As a result, it is possible to perform shooting in which the trajectories of stars and the headlights and taillights of a car flow.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a first embodiment of a digital camera device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing of an image combining unit according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing of an image combining unit according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 CPU 101 CPU bus 110 Image input unit 111 Lens 112 CCD 113 A / D conversion circuit 114 Digital image processing unit 120 Operation unit 121 Shutter SW 122 Mode SW 130 Display drive unit 131 Display unit 140 ROM (control program memory) 150 RAM 151 Captured image buffer 152 Synthetic image buffer 153 Work area 160 Data storage means

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A means for capturing a digital image, a repetitive input means for repeating image capture from the image capturing means a plurality of times at a predetermined time interval, and a high luminance in the plurality of digital images obtained by the repetitive input means A digital camera device comprising: an image synthesizing unit that synthesizes an image so that a locus of movement of the point can be understood; and an image storage unit that stores an image obtained by the image synthesizing unit. 2. The digital camera device according to claim 1, wherein said repetition input means repeatedly executes the number of times specified by a user in advance. 3. The digital camera device according to claim 1, wherein the repetition input means controls the start and end timings of the repetition by a user's key input. 4. The image synthesizing means compares the luminance of the image being synthesized and the captured image for each pixel, and if the luminance of the captured image is higher than a certain value, the pixel of the synthesized image is determined. 2. The digital camera device according to claim 1, wherein the synthesis is performed by substituting a value of a pixel of the captured image. 5. The image combining means according to claim 1, wherein the combining is performed by adding, to the combined image, a value obtained by multiplying a difference between the pixel value of the image being combined and the pixel value of the captured image by a predetermined coefficient for each pixel. The digital camera device according to claim 1, wherein: 6. An image processing method in a digital camera device, wherein a step of capturing a digital image, a step of repeatedly inputting the capture of the image a plurality of times at a predetermined time interval according to an instruction of a user, and a step of repeatedly inputting the image. An image processing method comprising the steps of: synthesizing images so that the locus of movement of a high-luminance point in a plurality of digital images obtained in step (b) can be understood; and storing the images. 7. A storage medium storing a program for realizing the image processing method according to claim 6.