JP2000295510A - Disk mechanism controller applied to electronic image pickup device and data recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance a protective function for a recording disk medium by preventing dust or the like from being deposited onto the recording disk medium in a disk cartridge to the utmost while the disk cartridge is loaded onto a drive of a camera main body with respect to an electronic camera employing the disk cartridge for the recording medium. SOLUTION: Relating to the electronic camera with a disk drive 30, a CPU 20 controls a shutter opening/closing mechanism 30F to bring a shutter 30C of a disk cartridge 30A into a closed state when the camera is not operated at application of power thereto. When any camera operation is executed, the CPU 20 controls the shutter opening/closing mechanism 30F to bring the shutter 30C into an open state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic image pickup apparatus using a removable disk cartridge as a recording medium, and more particularly to a shutter opening / closing control function of the disk cartridge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electronic cameras that convert a subject into image data by an electronic imaging function and record the image data on a recording medium have become widespread. Electronic cameras include digital video cameras in addition to electronic still cameras, also called digital cameras. However, an electronic still camera is assumed as a specific example.

Meanwhile, in an electronic camera, a hard disk drive (HDD), a magneto-optical disk drive (MO disk drive), and a digital video disk drive (DVD) have been used as recording media as the recording capacity has increased.
-A product that can use a large-capacity disk recording medium such as a RAM is planned and developed.

In such an electronic camera, a drive (a mechanism and a circuit for recording / reproducing) of a disk recording medium is built in the main body. In the HDD, usually, a disk recording medium is fixed in a drive. In contrast, an MO disk drive, DVD-RAM, or floppy disk drive (FDD) uses a disk cartridge containing a disk recording medium,
The disk cartridge is detachable from the drive.

[0005] The disk cartridge is provided with an opening / closing member called a shutter. When the disk cartridge is mounted in the drive, the shutter opens and the disk recording medium is exposed from the opening of the disk cartridge. In the drive, a head (such as a magnetic head or an optical pickup) performs recording and reproduction of data (image data) on a disk recording medium through an opening of a disk cartridge.

[0006]

In an electronic camera using a disk cartridge as described above, a large amount of image data can be recorded, and the user handles the disk cartridge independently of the camera body. It is possible. For this reason, the user has usefulness such as easy storage and management of a large amount of image data obtained by photographing with the electronic camera.

By the way, the electronic camera is frequently used not only indoors but also outdoors, and is often used in an environment where dust and the like easily enter. In a disk drive (MO disk drive, DVD-RAM, FDD, etc.) using a conventional disk cartridge, when the disk cartridge is mounted in the drive, the shutter is opened, and the head moves the disk recording medium. It becomes accessible.

When the user handles the disk cartridge by itself, the opening is closed by the shutter, so that dust or the like may enter through the opening and adhere to the surface of the disk recording medium. Can be prevented. However, when the disk cartridge is mounted in the drive as described above, the shutter is opened. Therefore, when the electronic camera is operated with the disk cartridge attached to the electronic camera, there is a high possibility that dust or the like may enter through the opening where the shutter is open and adhere to the surface of the disk recording medium. Become. If dust or the like adheres to the surface of the disk recording medium, the recording / reproducing characteristics deteriorate, and in the worst case, the recording / reproducing operation cannot be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic camera using a disk cartridge as a recording medium, particularly when an electronic camera is mounted on a drive in the camera body and dust or the like on the disk recording medium stored in the disk cartridge. An object of the present invention is to improve the protection function of a disk recording medium by preventing adhesion as much as possible.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A first aspect of the present invention is as follows.
The present invention relates to an electronic camera using a detachable disk cartridge as a recording medium. The disk cartridge contains, for example, a small magneto-optical (MO) disk as a disk recording medium. In the main body of the electronic camera, a drive for mounting the disk cartridge and recording and reproducing image data on an MO disk or the like is incorporated. further,
An electronic camera according to the present invention includes a shutter opening / closing mechanism for opening and closing a shutter member of a disk cartridge, determining means for determining a state of access to a disk recording medium such as an MO disk, and a shutter opening / closing mechanism based on the determination result of the determining means. Control means for controlling.

The control means closes the shutter member when there is no access to the disk recording medium, and opens the shutter member in response to occurrence of an event related to execution of the access, based on the result of the determination by the determination means. Let it. Here, events related to execution of access are
This means an event in which an operation input such as turning on the power of the electronic camera or a release is enabled.

With such a configuration of the present invention, there is no access to the disk recording medium with the disk cartridge mounted in the electronic camera, that is, there is no photographing operation, and there is no need to record image data. In such a case, a control operation for closing the shutter member is performed. Therefore, even when the user mounts the disc cartridge on the electronic camera, it is possible to minimize the situation in which dust or the like adheres to the surface of the disc recording medium from the opening. On the other hand, since the electronic camera is in a state where the disk cartridge is mounted, when it is necessary to operate the electronic camera to record image data, a control operation for opening the shutter member is performed. In other words, when the electronic camera is not operated, there is no need to remove the disk cartridge from the electronic camera to protect the disk recording medium, so that it is only necessary to open the shutter when necessary. Therefore, when it is necessary to record image data,
It is possible to reduce the time required for shifting to access to a disk recording medium.

A second aspect of the present invention relates to a disk mechanism control device applied to a data recording device using a disk cartridge in addition to an electronic camera. Specifically, the disk mechanism control device of the present invention is provided inside the data recording device, and when performing data recording / reproduction, opens the shutter member of the disk cartridge to perform the data recording / reproduction operation at a predetermined time. A control unit is provided for closing the shutter member when the shutter member is continued for a time.

Therefore, assuming, for example, a notebook personal computer as the data recording device, when a disk cartridge containing an MO disk or the like is mounted, and when there is no access to the MO disk, the shutter member is closed and The MO disk can be protected from adhesion of dust and the like.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Configuration of Electronic Camera) As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic camera of the present embodiment is roughly composed of an imaging system 1, a control system 2, a recording system 3, and an output system 4. First, the imaging system 1 includes a photographing lens 10 and a CCD (Charg).
e Coupled Device) 11, an A / D converter 12, and an image processing circuit 13. Although not shown, an actuator for the lens 10 and an actuator drive circuit are also provided.

The CCD 11 photoelectrically converts a subject image incident through the photographing lens 10. The taking lens 10 is attached to the actuator, and is configured to be driven to zoom or focus in accordance with the driving of the actuator driving circuit. The A / D converter 12 has a C
An image analog signal for each pixel obtained by the CD 11 is converted into a digital signal. The image processing circuit 13 performs various kinds of signal processing (image correction processing) such as gamma correction and white balance adjustment.

The control system 2 includes a microprocessor (CP
U) as a main element, and includes a key input unit 21, a buffer memory 22, an image compression processing unit 23, and an image decompression processing unit 24.

The CPU 20 has a counter function unit (hereinafter simply referred to as a counter) related to the control operation of the embodiment.
20A, and has a function (including power control) for controlling the entire electronic camera together with shutter opening / closing control of the embodiment described later. The CPU 20 is connected to the key input unit 21 and controls various input operations (release operation by the release switch 21A, image reproduction operation, and the like).

The buffer memory 22 is image data obtained by photographing by the photographing system 1, and normally stores image data for a plurality of screens (a plurality of frames). The image compression processing unit 23 performs an image compression process on the image data stored in the buffer memory 22 during an image recording operation. Further, the image decompression processing unit 24 executes an image decompression process on image data read from a disk recording medium (described later) as a recording medium during an image reproducing operation. Note that the image compression processing unit 23 and the image decompression processing unit 24
Alternatively, it corresponds to a functional unit realized by software executed by another CPU.

The recording system 3 of the embodiment has a small disk drive 30 as a main element, and has a data recording section 31 and a data reproducing section 32. The disk drive 30
A magneto-optical (MO) disk drive using a detachable disk cartridge 30A and having a data recording head (magnetic head) 30D and an optical pickup 30E for data reproduction is assumed. Disc cartridge 30A
Has a structure in which an MO disk 30B, which is a disk recording medium, is housed, and an opening can be opened and closed by a shutter 30C. The disk drive 30 has a shutter opening / closing mechanism 3 for executing the opening / closing operation of the shutter 30C.
0F. The shutter opening / closing mechanism 30 </ b> F
To perform the opening and closing operation of the shutter 30C.

The output system 4 includes a TFT panel 41 and a TF
It has a display control unit 40 including a T liquid crystal drive circuit. The display control unit 40 converts the image data for one screen output from the buffer memory 22 into a TFT under the control of the CPU 20.
It is displayed on the panel 41. Although not shown, the output system converts image data output from the buffer memory 22 into a video signal via an output terminal connectable to an external device such as a television receiver, and outputs the video signal. There is also provided a video output unit for this.

(Image Recording / Reproducing Operation) First, an image recording / reproducing operation by the electronic camera of the present embodiment will be described.

In the image recording operation (photographing operation), the subject is photographed by the photographing system 1 in accordance with the operation of the release switch 21A of the key input section 21, and the CPU 2
By the control of 0, image data for a plurality of screens is stored in the buffer memory 22. The CPU 20 reads out image data for one screen from the buffer memory 22, compresses the image data by the image compression processing unit 23, and sends it to the data recording unit 31. The data recording unit 31 performs a recording process such as conversion into a recording signal to be supplied to the recording head 30D of the disk drive 30. By such an operation, image data for one screen is recorded on the MO disk 30B of the disk cartridge 30A mounted on the disk drive 30.

On the other hand, in the image reproducing operation, when, for example, a reproducing switch (not shown) provided on the key input section 21 is operated, the CPU 20 controls the disk drive 30 to display one screen from the MO disk 30B. The image data is read out, stored in the buffer memory 22 after being subjected to image expansion processing by the image expansion processing unit 24. That is, in the disk drive 30, the designated recording data is read from the MO disk 30B by driving the optical pickup 30E, and is reproduced by the data reproducing unit 32 into image data for one screen. Further, the CPU 20 executes a control of reading image data from the buffer memory 22 and outputting the image data to the TFT panel 41 via the display control unit 40.

(Shutter Opening / Closing Control of the Embodiment) In addition to the image recording / reproducing operation as described above, the electronic camera of the embodiment executes the opening / closing operation of the shutter 30C provided on the disk cartridge 30A. FIG. 2 together with FIG.
This will be specifically described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the power of the electronic camera is turned on,
The CPU 20 executes various initialization processing including resetting of the counter 20A (step S1). Where C
The PU 20 stores the AP count value (M) and the SC count value (N) as the reference count value of the count value of the counter 20A. The AP count value (M) refers to an auto power-off (A
PO) corresponds to a timer value related to the mode. That is,
The APO mode is an operation of automatically turning off the power when the camera is not operated at a predetermined time while the power is on. Further, the SC count value (N) corresponds to a timer value related to the closing control of the shutter 30C (there is a relation of M> N).

The CPU 20 determines whether or not the disk cartridge 30A is mounted on the basis of an interface signal from the disk drive 30. If the disk cartridge 30A is not mounted, the CPU 20 executes a warning process for urging the user to mount the disk cartridge 30A (step). S2, S9). When the disk cartridge 30A is mounted on the disk drive 30 immediately after the power is turned on, the CPU 20 controls the shutter opening / closing mechanism 30F so as to open the shutter 30C (step S3). This is to execute access to the MO disk 30B of the disk cartridge 30A according to a camera operation (imaging operation) immediately after the power is turned on.

Here, when a camera operation such as photographing is executed, the CPU 20 executes a series of image recording operation or image reproducing operation as described above (steps S4 to S4).
7). At this time, the CPU 20 resets the counter 20A (Step S8). On the other hand, if the camera operation such as photographing is not executed even after the predetermined time has elapsed immediately after the power is turned on, the CPU 20 shifts to the shutter closing control operation as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 (step S4). NO).

That is, the CPU 20 compares the count value of the counter 20A with each of the previously stored AP count value (M) and SC count value (N) (steps S10 and S11). First, at the initial stage immediately after the power is turned on, the count value of the counter 20A is equal to the count value (M,
N) are small values for any of
0 determines whether a power switch (not shown) provided on the key input unit 21 is turned off (step S).
12). If the power switch is off, the CPU 20
The shutter opening / closing mechanism 30F is controlled so that the shutter 30C of the disk cartridge 30A is closed, and the power is turned off (steps S13 and S1).
4).

When the power is turned off, the disk cartridge 30A keeps the shutter 30 until the power is turned on.
C is in the closed state and remains mounted on the disk drive 30. In addition, the user sets the disk cartridge 3
0A is taken out of the disk drive 30. In any case, the shutter 30C is in the closed state.

On the other hand, when the count value of the counter 20A is larger than the count value (M), the APO mode is enabled, and the CPU 20
The shutter opening / closing mechanism 30F is controlled so that the shutter 30C of A is closed, and the power is turned off (YES in step S10, S13, S14). Even in this state, the disk cartridge 30A remains mounted on the disk drive 30 with the shutter 30C closed until the power is turned on. Also, by the user,
The disk cartridge 30A is removed from the disk drive 30. In any case, the shutter 30C is in the closed state.

If the count value of the counter 20A is smaller than the count value (M) but larger than the count value (N), the CPU 20 sets the shutter to close the shutter 30C of the disc cartridge 30A. Control the opening / closing mechanism 30F (NO in step S10, S
(11, YES, S15). That is, the CPU 20 does not execute the camera operation until a predetermined time elapses (shorter than the time elapse in the APO mode) (an event does not occur), and accesses (records or reproduces) the MO disk 30B. Is not requested. Therefore, M
Since no data recording or reproducing operation is required for the O disk 30B, the CPU 20 closes the shutter 30C of the disk cartridge 30A to protect the MO disk 30B from adhesion of dust and the like.

The CPU 20 increments the counter 20A to determine the occurrence of a camera operation (the occurrence of an event necessary for accessing the MO disk 30B), and if not, repeats the series of processes in FIG. 3 (steps S16 to S16).
4). In this state (when the power is on and the shutter 30C is closed), when a camera operation such as shooting is performed, the CPU
20 controls the shutter opening / closing mechanism 30F so as to open the shutter 30C, and shifts to a normal camera operation (YES in step S4, S5, S6, S7).

As described above, according to the shutter opening / closing control of the present embodiment, when the camera operation such as photographing is not performed after the power of the electronic camera is turned on (when there is no access request), the CPU 20 executes the control. The shutter opening / closing mechanism 30F is controlled to close the shutter 30C of the disk cartridge 30A. Therefore, even when the disc cartridge 30A is mounted in the main body of the electronic camera, the MO disc 30B can be protected from dust or the like because the shutter 30C is closed.

On the other hand, when a camera operation such as photographing is started, the CPU 20 controls the shutter opening / closing mechanism 30F so as to open the shutter 30C. Therefore, the captured image data is transferred to the MO disk 3 according to the camera operation.
A normal camera operation such as recording at 0B can be executed without any trouble. In other words, with the disc cartridge 30A mounted in the body of the electronic camera,
Since the opening and closing of the shutter 30C can be controlled, access to the MO disk 30 can be executed in a short time as needed.

(Modification) In this embodiment, the disk drive 30 is assumed to be a drive of a disk cartridge 30A containing an MO disk. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
The present invention is also applicable to the above-described DVD-RAM and FDD.

Further, the present invention can be applied to a disk drive mounted on a data recording device such as a notebook personal computer in addition to an electronic camera, as a disk mechanism control device having the above-mentioned shutter opening / closing control function. . In a notebook personal computer, an event corresponding to a camera operation corresponds to a keyboard or mouse input operation.

[0039]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, particularly in an electronic camera using a disk cartridge as a recording medium, when there is no access request to the disk recording medium in a state of being mounted on a drive in the camera body. Since the shutter member of the disc cartridge can be closed, dust and the like can be prevented from adhering to the disc recording medium. Further, when an access request occurs, the shutter member can be immediately opened, so that access to the disk recording medium can be performed in a short time.

Further, in addition to the electronic camera, the present invention can be applied as a disk mechanism control device having a shutter opening / closing control function in a data recording device using a disk cartridge having a shutter member.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of an electronic camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of shutter opening / closing control of the disk cartridge according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of shutter opening / closing control of the disk cartridge according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 imaging system 2 control system 3 recording system 4 output system 10 photographing lens 11 CCD 12 A / D converter 20 system controller (CPU) 21 key input unit 22 buffer memory 23 image compression processing Unit 24 Image expansion processing unit 30 Disk drive 30A Disk cartridge 30B Disk recording medium (MO disk) 30C Shutter 30D Recording head (magnetic head) 30E Optical pickup 30F Shutter opening / closing mechanism 31 Data recording unit 32 data reproduction unit 40 display control unit 41 TFT panel

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 5/781

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An electronic image pickup apparatus which accommodates a disk recording medium for recording image data obtained by photographing and has a detachable disk cartridge having a shutter member for opening and closing an opening for recording and reproduction. A shutter opening / closing mechanism that opens and closes the shutter member with the disk cartridge mounted; a determination unit configured to determine an access state to the disk recording medium with the disk cartridge mounted; Controlling the shutter opening / closing mechanism based on the determination result of the means, closing the shutter member in the absence of the access, and opening the shutter member in response to occurrence of an event related to execution of the access; An electronic imaging apparatus, comprising: a control unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines the access state based on a power-on state, and determines that there is no access when the power is off. Electronic imaging device. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit measures a time during which a predetermined operation input is not performed in a state where the disk cartridge is mounted, and determines that there is no access after a predetermined time has elapsed. The electronic imaging device according to claim 1. 4. An auto power-off operation for measuring a time during which a predetermined operation input is not executed in a state where the disk cartridge is mounted and automatically turning off a power supply after a predetermined time has elapsed, and opening and closing the shutter. 2. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a unit that controls a mechanism to close the shutter member. 5. The electronic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the event is an event in which power is turned on or a predetermined operation input is made valid. 6. A disk mechanism controller for applying a disk cartridge containing a disk recording medium and having a shutter member for opening and closing an opening for recording and reproduction to a data recording device used as a data storage medium, A shutter opening / closing mechanism for opening / closing the shutter member; a determination unit for determining whether to execute data recording / reproduction on the disk recording medium; and controlling the shutter opening / closing mechanism based on a determination result of the determination unit; Control means for opening said shutter member when performing data recording / reproducing, and for closing said shutter member when data recording / reproducing operation continues for a predetermined time. Mechanism control device.