KR20100109723A - Imaging apparatus and controlling method of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An imaging apparatus and a controlling method of the same are provided to reduce the deviation of image captures depending on a person by recognizing and displaying the image capture number of a person. CONSTITUTION: A memory(162) stores the captured images, and a face recognition unit(122) extracts a face of a person included in a live-view image and captured images. A calculation unit(123) calculates the captured image frequency of a person. A GUI(Graphic User Interface) generator(124) generates a GUI which indicates the image capture number of a person recognized in the live-view image. A database stores the captured person and the image capture number of the person.

Description

Imaging apparatus and controlling method of the same

The present invention relates to an imaging device and a control method thereof.

In general, when several people meet or travel together, they have an imaging device, such as a digital camera, to record a lot of images and record them. Moreover, with the development of technology related to storage media, the storage capacity of memory and the like has increased dramatically, so that users can shoot images freely without worrying about the capacity.

However, when shooting, a lot of images of personally pleasing people are photographed, otherwise the number of recorded images is small. In addition, even if you want to capture the image as fairly as possible, the more the number of shots increases, the more difficult it is to remember the number of shots taken by each person. There was a problem that could be damaged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in an effort to provide an image capturing apparatus and a method of controlling the same, capable of reducing a variation in the number of photographings according to a person.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an aspect of the present invention is to extract a memory for storing the photographed image, the face of the person included in the photographed image and the live view image, and recognize the person from the extracted face An image pickup device including a face recognition unit, a calculator configured to calculate the number of times the recognized person is photographed, and a display unit configured to display a number of times a person recognized by the live view image and the live view image is captured by the face recognition unit. To provide.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the imaging device is a GUI for receiving the number of times the recognized person is photographed from the calculator, and generates a GUI for displaying the number of times the person is recognized in the live view image It may further include a generator.

According to another feature of the present invention, the imaging device may further include a database storing a person recognized in the captured images and the number of times the person has been photographed.

In addition, according to another feature of the present invention, the calculation unit sets a condition of the image to be the object of the person from among the images stored in the memory, the recognition of the person with respect to the image corresponding to the set condition It may be characterized by performing.

In order to solve the above technical problem, another aspect of the present invention is a) extracting the face of the person included in the captured images and the live view image, and recognizing the person from the extracted face, b) the recognition And counting the number of times a person is photographed, and c) displaying the number of times the person is photographed by the person recognized in the live view image.

According to another aspect of the present invention, in step a), a condition for performing recognition of a person from among the photographed images is set, and the recognition of the person is performed for the image corresponding to the set condition. It may be characterized by.

According to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the phenomenon that the variation in the number of shooting occurs depending on the person.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

1 is a block diagram 100 illustrating an internal configuration of an imaging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the imaging apparatus 100 includes an imaging optical system 101, an imaging device 107, an image input controller 110, a DSP / CPU 120, an operation unit 130, a driver 140, and a motor ( 141, an image signal processor 150, a compression processor 151, a display driver 152, a display 153, a RAM 160, a memory controller 161, a memory 162, and the like. .

The imaging optical system 101 includes, for example, a zoom lens 102, an aperture 103, a focus lens 104, and the like. The imaging optical system 101 is an optical system that forms external optical information onto the imaging device 107 and transmits light from a subject to the imaging device 107. The zoom lens 102 is a lens for changing the angle of view by changing the focal length. The stop 103 is driven by the motor 141 as a mechanism for adjusting the amount of transmitted light. The focus lens 104 focuses on the subject on the imaging surface of the imaging device 107 by moving in the optical axis direction. The aperture 103 and the focus lens 104 are driven by the motor 141. Although only one driver 140 and one motor 141 are illustrated in FIG. 1, the aperture 103 and the focus lens 104 may each include a pair of drivers and a motor. The motor 141 receives the driving signal from the driver 140 and drives the motor.

The imaging device 107 is an example of a photoelectric conversion device, and is composed of a plurality of devices capable of photoelectric conversion for converting optical information incident through the imaging optical system 101 into an electrical signal. Each device generates an electrical signal according to the received light. The imaging device 107 may be a CCD (choarge coupled device) sensor, a COMS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensor, or the like.

Furthermore, in order to control the exposure time of the imaging device 107, a mechanical shutter (not shown) may be applied to block light at the time of non-photography and to reach light only at the time of photography. In addition, the present invention is not limited thereto, and an electronic shutter (not shown) may be applied. The operation of the mechanical shutter or the electronic shutter may be performed by a switch of the shutter button (operation unit 130) connected to the DSP / CPU 120.

The imaging device 107 may also include a CDS / AMP unit 108 and an A / D converter (ADC) 109. The CDS / AMP unit (correlated double sampling circuit / amplifier) 108 removes the low frequency noise included in the electrical signal output from the image pickup device 107 and at the same time removes the electrical signal at an arbitrary level. Amplify until. The A / D converter 109 digitally converts the electrical signal output from the CDS / AMP unit 108 to generate a digital signal. The A / D converter 109 outputs the generated digital signal to the video input controller 110.

The image input controller 110 processes the digital signal output from the A / D converter 109 to generate an image signal that enables image processing. The video input controller 110 outputs the generated video signal to the video signal processor 150, for example. The video input controller 110 also controls reading and writing of video data to the RAM 160.

The DSP / CPU 120 functions as a calculation processing device and a control device by a program, and controls the processing of each component provided in the imaging device 100. The DSP / CPU 120 drives the imaging optical system 101 by outputting a signal to the driver 140 based on focus control or exposure control, for example. The DSP / CPU 120 also controls each component of the imaging device 100 based on the signal from the operation unit 130. In this embodiment, the DSP / CPU 120 is composed of only one, but may be composed of several CPUs, such as executing a signal system instruction and an operation system instruction in separate CPUs.

As shown in FIG. 1, the DSP / CPU 120 includes, for example, a timing generator (TG) 121, a face recognition unit 122, a calculation unit 123, and a GUI generation unit. 124, and the like.

The timing generator 121 outputs a timing signal to the imaging device 107 or the CDS / AMP unit 108 to control the exposure period and the reading of the charge of each pixel constituting the imaging device 107.

The face recognizing unit 122 extracts a face of the person included in the captured images and the live view image, and recognizes the person of the face from the extracted face. Face recognition of the person may be performed by applying a conventionally known face recognition algorithm, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The calculator 123 calculates the number of times a person recognized by the face recognition unit 122 is photographed. The calculator 123 may perform face recognition on all images stored in the memory 162. Alternatively, it may be possible to set a condition of an image, which is a target to perform face recognition of a person, from among images stored in the memory 162, and perform face recognition of a person only on an image corresponding to the set condition. For example, in the case of a date, a face recognition of a person and a count of the number of shots may be performed only on an image photographed between March 1, 2009 and March 5, 2009. Alternatively, the condition setting of the image to be subjected to face recognition may be possible in various ways, such as 100 recently photographed images or images stored in a specific folder. The above conditions are exemplary and the present invention is not limited thereto, and various conditions may be set.

The GUI generator 124 receives the number of times the recognized person is photographed from the calculator and generates a graphical user interface (GUI) displaying the number of times the person is recognized in the live view image. That is, for example, when the calculation unit 123 determines that the number of times the person a has been photographed is 5, the GUI generator 124 generates the number 5 as a GUI, and sends it to the display unit 153 for display.

Although not shown, the DSP / CPU 120 may further include an AF controller for auto focus adjustment, an AE controller for controlling auto exposure, and an aperture controller for adjusting the aperture amount.

The operation unit 130 is, for example, a direction key, a power switch, a mode dial, a shutter button, or the like provided in the imaging device 100. The operation unit 130 transmits an operation signal to the DSP / CPU 120 or the like based on the operation by the user. For example, the shutter button may be pressed halfway, fully pressed, or released by the user. When the shutter button is pressed halfway (S1 operation), it outputs a focus control start operation signal for AF, and the focus control ends when the shutter button is released halfway. The shutter button outputs a shooting start operation signal when the shutter button is pressed completely (S2 operation).

The image signal processor 150 receives the image signal from the image input controller 110 and generates an image processed image signal based on a WB control value, a γ value, an outline enhancement control value, and the like.

The compression processing unit 151 receives the video signal before the compression processing, and compresses the video signal in a compression format such as a JPEG compression format or an LZW compression format to generate an image file. The compression processor 151 transmits, for example, the video file including the video data generated by the compression process to the memory controller 161.

The display driver 152 receives image data from the RAM 160 and displays an image on the display unit 153. The image displayed by the display unit 153 is, for example, an image before shooting (live view image) read out from the RAM 160, various setting screens of the image capturing apparatus 100, an image captured and recorded, and the like. In addition, the GUI generated by the GUI generator 124 may be displayed. The GUI includes a GUI indicating a number of times a face recognized by the face recognition unit 122 is photographed in the live view image. The display unit 153 and the display driver 152 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an LCD driver. However, the present invention is not limited to the above examples, and may be, for example, an organic EL display and a display driver thereof.

The RAM 160 is a part for temporarily storing various data. The RAM 160 may include a video RAM (VRAM) and an synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) although not shown.

The VRAM has several channels as a memory for displaying images. The VRAM can simultaneously execute input of image data for image display from the SDRAM and output of image data to the display driver 152. The resolution or maximum number of colors of the display unit 153 may depend on the capacity of the VRAM.

The SDRAM temporarily stores image data of a captured image. The SDRAM has a storage capacity for storing image data of various images. The SDRAM also stores an operation program of the DSP / CPU 120. Read and write operations of the image into the SDRAM may be controlled by the image input controller 110.

The memory controller 161 controls the writing of the image data into the memory 162 or the reading of the image data or setting information stored in the memory 162. The memory 162 stores, for example, photographed image data as an optical disc (CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, etc.), magneto-optical disc, magnetic disc, semiconductor storage medium, or the like. The image data may be an image file generated by the compression processor 151. The memory controller 161 and the memory 162 may be detachably configured from the imaging apparatus 100.

The memory 161 may be an example of a database. The database summarizes the person recognized in the captured images and the number of times the person has been photographed. Data about the recognized person and the number of times of photographing may be received from the face recognition unit 122 and the calculation unit 123.

A series of processes in the imaging apparatus 100 may be processed by hardware, or may be realized by software processing by a computer program.

Meanwhile, FIG. 1 illustrates a compact digital camera, that is, a digital camera in which a lens is integrally formed with the main body as the imaging device 100 according to the present embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be a single-lens reflex camera capable of attaching and detaching a lens. In addition, the imaging device 100 may be, for example, a video camera capable of shooting still images.

Hereinafter, an operation of the imaging apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. 2 and 3 are flowcharts 200 and 300 illustrating a method of controlling an image capturing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The imaging apparatus 100 controls the imaging device 107 in the photographing mode to expose the image data at predetermined intervals. This constant interval is a unit such as 1/30 second and 1/60 second, and the image read out at a constant interval is called one frame. The image for each frame is displayed in real time on the display unit 153 provided on the rear surface of the imaging apparatus 100, for example (live view image).

When the image capturing apparatus 100 enters the playback mode (S210), a condition that is a target of recognition of a person from among the captured images is set. In other words, the condition of the image to be counted is set (S220). For example, it may be possible to set conditions of an image to be counted as the number of photographing shots of the person by various methods such as date, file number, and folder.

When the condition setting is completed, a face is extracted from an image corresponding to the set condition (S230), a person corresponding to the face is recognized from the extracted faces (S240), and the number of times the recognized person is photographed is calculated. (S250).

The calculated number of shots is stored in the database (S260). The database may include a recognized person and the number of times the person is photographed, and may be stored as shown in Table 1 below.

Character Number of shots One a 5 2 b 4 3 c 2 4 d One

In Table 1, as a result of counting the face recognition and the number of shots, the person a is photographed 5 times, the person b is 4 times, the person c is photographed 2 times, and the person d is photographed 1 times. It doesn't happen.

Meanwhile, when the imaging apparatus 100 enters the photographing mode (S310), the live view image is displayed in real time through the display unit 153 (S320).

The imaging apparatus 100 determines whether a face is included in the live view image (S330), and performs a general photographing operation when the face is not included.

On the other hand, if the face is included in the face recognition operation (S340). That is, a face is extracted from the live view image, the person of the extracted face is recognized, and it is determined whether the recognized person is a person included in the database (S350).

As a result of the determination, when the recognized person is a person who is not included in the database, a new person is registered in the database (S351). At this time, since the new person has not previously recorded an image, the number of photographing will be set to zero.

If the recognized person is included in the database, a GUI indicating the number of times the recognized person is photographed is generated. If the recognized person is not included in the database, the GUI is generated by setting the number of times of photographing to 0 (S360).

The generated GUI is displayed together with the live view image (S370). The GUI may be located above or near the recognized person. In addition, the GUI may be displayed in an OSD form.

4 is a diagram illustrating how a live view image is displayed on the imaging apparatus 100.

Referring to FIG. 4, the person on the left is a person who is not registered in the database, and the photographing frequency is set to zero. On the other hand, the person in the center may correspond to, for example, person a in Table 1, and the person on the left may correspond to person b. As a result of face recognition, if it is determined that the figures a and b are included in the live view image, the number of shots of the figures a and b is extracted from a database, and as shown in FIG. Could be.

In the present embodiment, the above condition setting is performed when the reproduction mode is entered. However, the present invention is not limited thereto and may be set at any time, such as during initial setting of the imaging apparatus 100.

Meanwhile, when the recognition of the person included in the captured image is performed first and stored in the database, and the operation of recognizing the person included in the live view image may be performed, the GUI may be generated using the result stored in the database. .

However, the present invention is not limited to the above example, and it may be possible to simultaneously perform an operation of recognizing a person included in the captured images and an operation of recognizing a person included in the live view image.

As mentioned above, the imaging apparatus according to the present invention calculates the number of shots of a person included in the captured image and displays the number of shots on a live view image, thereby causing a deviation in the number of shots according to the person. It is possible to reduce the phenomenon.

The above detailed description and drawings are merely exemplary of the present invention, but are used only for the purpose of illustrating the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention as defined in the meaning or claims. Therefore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the technical protection scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification but should be defined by the claims.

1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an imaging device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a control method of an image pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling an image pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a live view image is displayed in the imaging apparatus of FIG. 1.

Claims (6)

A memory for storing the captured images; A face recognition unit extracting a face of a person included in the captured images and the live view image and recognizing the person from the extracted faces; A calculator for counting the number of times the recognized person is photographed; And And a display unit configured to display a number of times a person recognized by the live view image and the face recognition unit are photographed. The method of claim 1, And a GUI generating unit configured to receive the number of times the recognized person is photographed from the calculator and generate a GUI that displays the number of times the person is recognized in the live view image. The method of claim 1, And a database storing a person recognized in the photographed images and a number of times the person is photographed. The method of claim 1, And the calculator sets a condition of an image to be recognized as a person from among images stored in the memory, and performs recognition of a person with respect to an image corresponding to the set condition. a) extracting a face of a person included in the captured images and the live view image, and recognizing the person from the extracted face; b) counting the number of times the recognized person is photographed; And and c) displaying the number of times the person is photographed by the person recognized in the live view image. The method of claim 5, In the step a), a condition of performing recognition of a person from among the photographed images is set, and a method of controlling an imager is performed on the image corresponding to the set condition. .

Images