JP2001008081A - Digital camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a digital camera that can make split photographing in spite of a simple and compact configuration. SOLUTION: An image displayed on an electronic viewfinder 117 is scrolled and an image displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 is displayed overlappingly after the scrolling, a newly photographed image is displayed together with the overlappingly displayed image and a plurality of images obtained by a plurality of number of times of photographing are synthesized to produce one image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly, to a digital camera capable of performing divided photographing.

[0002] Conventionally, as an electronic still camera, for example, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-18750. Such an electronic still camera includes a lens barrel including an imaging optical system and an imaging element, a lens barrel rotating unit that rotates the lens barrel about an object-side principal point of the imaging optical system, and a lens barrel rotating device. A lens barrel rotating means for rotating means, and the lens barrel is rotated using the lens barrel rotating means, and a subject image is divided by sequentially changing a shooting range and performing shooting a plurality of times. Division photographing means for photographing, recording means for recording together with rotation angle information of the lens barrel for each photographing by the division photographing means, and a plurality of image data obtained by the image sensor for each photographing by the dividing means. Image synthesizing means for synthesizing one image data based on the rotation angle information of the lens barrel, camera shake detecting means for detecting camera shake at the time of split shooting by the splitting means, shutter speed information at the time of split shooting and hand A determination unit that determines whether the overlap amount of each of the divided images is appropriate from the camera shake information obtained by the shake detection unit, and when the determination unit determines that the overlap amount is not appropriate. Warning means for giving a warning.

That is, this electronic still camera captures a plurality of images while changing the imaging region in a time series, and reconstructs these images into one image by image processing or the like, so that Even if the number of pixels is small, a more detailed image can be obtained.

[0004]

However, since the above-mentioned electronic still camera has a configuration in which the lens unit (lens barrel) is movable without moving the camera to perform divided photographing, mechanical mechanisms and control are not performed. There is a problem that it becomes complicated and cannot be reduced in size and cost.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a digital camera capable of performing divided photographing with a simple and compact configuration.

[0006]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital camera capable of synthesizing image data obtained by photographing a plurality of times into one image data. Imaging means for capturing an image of a subject to obtain image data; display means for displaying an image based on the image data captured by the imaging means; and an image displayed on the display means in an arbitrary direction. A scrolling means for scrolling, a first display control means for overlappingly displaying part or all of the image displayed on the display means after the scrolling, and an image overlappingly displayed on the display means. A second display control means for displaying an image based on the image data captured at a second time, and a plurality of images obtained by a plurality of photographings displayed on the display means. An image synthesizing means for generating image data of one sheet by combining the image data, and having a.

[0007] The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the invention described in the above, the scroll means includes a touch panel provided on a display screen of the display means, and operates the touch panel to change an image displayed on the display screen of the display means to an arbitrary one. It scrolls in the direction.

[0008] The invention described in claim 3 is the first invention.
In the invention described in (1), the scroll means includes a scroll key, and scrolls an image displayed on the display means in an arbitrary direction by operating the scroll key.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a digital camera capable of synthesizing image data obtained by photographing a plurality of times into one image data, an image pickup means for picking up a subject image and obtaining image data. A first display area for displaying an image based on the image data corresponding to the current subject, and a plurality of blocks, and an image based on the image data corresponding to the photographed subject is taken in block units for each photographing. A display unit having a second display area for sequentially displaying the image data, and a plurality of image data obtained by a plurality of photographing operations displayed in the second display area and synthesized to form one piece of image data. And an image synthesizing means for generating.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in a digital camera capable of synthesizing image data obtained by photographing a plurality of times into one image data, an image pickup means for picking up a subject image and obtaining image data. And display means for sequentially displaying an image based on image data corresponding to the photographed subject in block units for each photographing, and a plurality of photographing displayed on the display means. Image combining means for combining a plurality of obtained image data to generate one image data.

[0011]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a digital camera according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a digital camera. The digital camera 100 has a mechanical mechanism 1 including a lens 101, an autofocus mechanism, and the like.
02, CCD103, CDS (Correlated)
Double Sampling; correlated double sampling) circuit 104, A / D converter 105, digital signal processing unit 106, image compression / decompression processing unit 107, card interface 108, card adapter 109, CPU1
10, main memory 111, ROM (Read Onl)
y Memory) 112, finder display controller 1
13, LCD display control unit 114, image memory 115, operation unit 116, electronic viewfinder 117, LCD1
18, a motor driver 119, a control signal generator 120,
It comprises a DC-DC converter 121, a battery 122, a system bus 124 and the like.

The mechanical mechanism 102 includes a mechanical shutter, an auto focus mechanism, an aperture mechanism, and a filter. The CCD 103 converts a subject image input via the lens 1011 and the mechanical mechanism 102 into an electric signal (analog image data). CDS circuit 104
Is a circuit for reducing noise in the CCD type image pickup device. The A / D converter 105 converts analog image data from the CCD 103 input via the CDS circuit 104 into digital image data.

The digital signal processing unit 106 separates the digital image data input from the A / D converter 105 into color difference (Cb, Cr) and luminance (Y) for various processing, correction, and image compression / decompression. Perform data processing. The image compression / decompression processing unit 107 performs, for example, compression (encoding) and decompression (decoding) processing conforming to JPEG. The card interface 108 is a PCMICA (Person
al Computer Memory Card I
international Association)
The interface operation with the PC card conforming to the standard is executed.

The CPU 110 controls the entire digital camera 100 according to a control program stored in the ROM 112. The main memory 111 is a DRAM (D
dynamic Random Access Memo
ry), and is used as a work area of the CPU 110. The ROM 112 stores the digital camera 10
A control program for controlling the operation of “0” is stored.

The finder display control section 113 performs control for displaying subject image data input from the digital signal processing section 106 on the electronic viewfinder 117. The LCD display control unit 114 performs control for displaying image data, operation menus, and the like on the LCD 118.
The image memory 115 is, for example, a flash memory, and stores image data obtained by compressing an input image at the time of shooting. The processing unit 116 performs operations such as function selection and shooting instructions,
And various keys for scrolling an image displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117.

The control signal generator 120 includes a CCD 103,
A signal for controlling the operation timing of the CDS circuit 104 and the A / D converter 105 is generated. The battery 122 is, for example, a nickel-metal hydride battery, a lithium battery, or the like.
Digital camera 10 via C-DC converter 121
0 is supplied inside. The PC card 123 is a data communication card for performing wireless data communication by connecting to a mobile phone or a memory card for storing image data.
The card adapter 109 conforms to the MICA standard.
Connected to.

FIG. 2 is a schematic rear view of the digital camera 100. The digital camera 100 is provided with an electronic viewfinder 117 for checking an image on the back side.

[Example 1 of photographing operation of digital camera] An example 1 of photographing operation of the digital camera 100 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 shows a photographing operation example 1 of the digital camera 100.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an image to be divided and taken, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are diagrams showing examples of display of an image displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 when performing divided photography.

In the following description, a case where an image as shown in FIG. 4 is divided and photographed will be described as an example. First, in the digital camera 100, when the power is turned on, the CCD 103
The subject image converted into an electric signal by the CDS circuit 10
4, A / D converter 105, digital signal processing unit 106,
The image is displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 via the finder display control unit 113 (step S101). FIG. 5 shows an example of an image a displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117.

Next, it is determined whether or not the divided photographing mode is selected by the operation unit 116 (step S102).
If the divided shooting mode has not been selected, the process proceeds to step S103. In step S103, the operation unit 1
When the release key 16 is pressed, A / D conversion is performed,
The subject image data output from the digital signal processing unit 106 is transferred to the image compression / decompression processing unit 107, and after being subjected to compression processing, the compressed image data is stored in the image memory 115 as an image data file (step S10).
4).

On the other hand, in step S102, the operation unit 116
If the divided photographing mode is selected in step S105, the process proceeds to step S105. When the release key of the operation unit 116 is pressed (step S104), the A / D conversion is performed and the digital signal is output from the digital signal processing unit 106. The subject image data is temporarily stored in the main memory 111 (step S1).
05). For example, assume that an image a shown in FIG. 5 is captured and stored in the main memory 111.

The finder display control unit 1 is operated according to the operation of the scroll key of the operation unit 116 by the user.
Reference numeral 13 scrolls the image displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 (step S106). After scrolling, an area displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 is overlap-displayed with the captured image (step S107). Note that a new subject image is displayed in an area where the captured image of the electronic viewfinder 117 is not overlapped and displayed. For example, when the photographed image a shown in FIG. 5 is scrolled to the left, as shown in FIG. 6, the area a1 displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 of the photographed image a is overlapped and displayed.
Then, the current subject image b is displayed in an area where the captured image of the electronic viewfinder 117 is not overlapped and displayed.

When the release key of the operation unit 116 is pressed (step S108), the current subject image data A / D converted and output from the digital signal processing unit 106 is temporarily stored in the main memory 111 (step S10).
9). For example, assume that an image b shown in FIG. 6 is photographed and stored in the main memory 111.

Then, it is determined whether or not image synthesis has been selected by operating the operation unit 116 (step S110).
If image synthesis has not been selected, step S106
And the same processing is performed. On the other hand, when image synthesis is selected in step S110, the subject image data previously stored in the main memory 11 and the current subject image data are synthesized, and one piece of image data is processed by the image compression / decompression processing unit 107. The compressed image data is stored in the image memory 115 as an image data file (step S111). Thereby, for example, the image shown in FIG. 4 is synthesized and stored in the image memory 115. Note that the designation of an effective area (image data of one image size) when the subject image data previously stored (previously photographed) in the main memory 111 and the current subject image data are combined is, for example, Alternatively, the image captured earlier and the image captured this time may be connected to the electronic viewfinder 117 and scrolled, and the effective area for combining the images may be designated by the user's selection.

Here, a case has been described in which one image is generated by two shots, but one image may be generated by three or more shots.

The scroll key 20 of the operation unit 116
0 to the electronic viewfinder 11 as shown in FIG.
7 may be provided. Further, in this operation example, the image displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 is scrolled with the scroll key. However, for example, the electronic viewfinder 117 may be provided with a touch panel, and the screen may be scrolled by operating the touch panel. . Although the image displayed on the electronic viewfinder is scrolled, the image may be displayed on an LCD and scrolled instead of the electronic viewfinder.

As described above, according to the photographing operation example 1, the image displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 is scrolled, and after scrolling, the image displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 is overlapped and displayed. A newly captured image is displayed together with the lap-displayed image, and a plurality of image data obtained by a plurality of image capturing operations is combined to generate one image data. Instead, it is possible to capture a divided image with little parallax only by operating image data.

[Example 2 of Divisional Shooting Operation of Digital Camera] An example 2 of divisional photographing operation of the digital camera 100 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a display example of an image displayed on the electronic viewfinder when performing divided shooting.

In the following description, a case where an image as shown in FIG. 4 is divided and photographed will be described as an example. Operation unit 116
When the divided shooting is selected by the operation of, the finder display control unit 113 sets the electronic viewfinder 11
7, a divided sub-display area S including a plurality of blocks is displayed. In the example shown in FIG. 8, a rectangular divided sub-display area S including six blocks S1 to S6 is displayed. Then, the current subject image is displayed in a display area other than the divided sub-display area S of the electronic viewfinder 117.

In the blocks of the divided sub-display area S of the electronic viewfinder 117, the photographed images are sequentially reduced and displayed, and the electronic viewfinder 1 is displayed.
The image of the current subject displayed at 17 is reduced and identified and displayed. Unphotographed blocks in the divided sub-display area S are displayed in solid black.

In the example shown in FIG. 8, the images shown in blocks S1 to S4 of the divided sub-display area S have been photographed, and the current subject image e currently displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 is reduced to block S5. It is identified (dotted) and displayed. Block S6 is solid black, indicating that no image has been shot.

Each time an image is taken, A
The subject image data subjected to the / D conversion and reduced by the digital signal processing unit 106 is temporarily stored in the main memory 111 sequentially. When the image synthesis is selected by the operation of the operation unit 116, each of the captured images stored in the main memory 11 is converted into one piece of image data by the image compression / decompression processing unit 1.
07, the image data is subjected to compression processing, and the compressed image data is stored in the image memory 115 as an image data file.

As described above, in the electronic viewfinder 117, a divided sub-display area composed of a plurality of blocks for displaying an image based on image data corresponding to a photographed subject in block units for each photographing. S is provided, and a plurality of images obtained by a plurality of shootings displayed in the divided sub-display area are combined to generate one image, so that a predetermined division is performed without using a mechanical mechanism. By performing shooting in accordance with the shooting sub-display, it is possible to easily perform split shooting.

Further, since the unphotographed blocks in the divided sub-display area S are displayed in solid black, it is possible to clarify the non-photographed portions.
In this block, the current subject image currently displayed on the electronic viewfinder 117 is displayed, so that the positioning of the current subject image is facilitated.

Although the number of blocks in the divided sub-display area S is six, it is not limited to this. Further, the position of the divided sub-display area S may be configured to be movable by a scroll key or the like.

In the second example of the divided photographing operation, the divided sub-display area S is displayed in a part of the electronic viewfinder 117. However, as shown in FIG. It may be displayed on the entire viewfinder 117. In this case, the current subject image e is displayed over the divided sub-display area S. The configuration in which the divided sub-display area S is displayed on the entire screen is effective when the display screen is small.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be appropriately modified without changing the gist of the invention.

[0039]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the scroll means scrolls the image displayed on the display means in an arbitrary direction, and the first display control means performs the scroll after scrolling. A part or the whole of the image displayed on the display means is overlap-displayed, and the second display control means displays an image based on the newly captured image data together with the image displayed overlapped on the display means. Since the image synthesizing means synthesizes a plurality of image data obtained by a plurality of photographing operations and displayed on the display means to generate one image data, the image synthesizing means does not require a mechanical mechanism and is simple and compact. With such a configuration, it is possible to capture a divided image with little parallax.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the scroll means includes a touch panel provided on a display screen of the display means, and operates the touch panel. Since the image displayed on the display screen of the display means is scrolled in an arbitrary direction, the screen can be easily scrolled in addition to the effect of the first aspect.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the scroll means includes a scroll key, and operates the scroll key to display an image displayed on the display means. Since scrolling is performed in an arbitrary direction, scrolling of the screen is facilitated in addition to the effect of the present invention.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the display means comprises a first display area for displaying an image based on the image data corresponding to the current subject, and a plurality of blocks, and the display means has already been photographed. Has a second display area for sequentially displaying an image based on image data corresponding to the subject in a block unit for each photographing, and the image synthesizing means is obtained by a plurality of photographings displayed in the second display area. Since a plurality of image data is synthesized to generate one image data,
It is possible to take a divided image with a small parallax with a simple and compact configuration without requiring a mechanical mechanism.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the display means is constituted by a plurality of display blocks, and sequentially displays an image based on image data corresponding to a photographed subject in block units for each photographing. Since the image synthesizing unit synthesizes a plurality of image data obtained by a plurality of photographing operations displayed on the display unit to generate one image data, it does not require a mechanical mechanism and is simple and compact. With the configuration,
It becomes possible to perform divided image shooting with little parallax.
This is particularly effective when the display screen is small.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic rear view of the digital camera of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a photographing operation example 1 of the digital camera in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image to be divided and shot;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display example of an image displayed on an electronic viewfinder when performing divided shooting.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a display example of an image displayed on the electronic viewfinder when performing divided shooting.

FIG. 7 is a schematic rear view of the digital camera in FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a display example of an image displayed on an electronic viewfinder when performing divided shooting.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a display example of an image displayed on the electronic viewfinder when performing divided shooting.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 Digital camera 101 Lens 102 Mechanical mechanism 103 CCD 103 104 CDS circuit 105 A / D converter 106 Digital signal processing unit 107 Image compression / decompression processing unit 108 Card interface 109 Card adapter 110 CPU 111 Main memory 112 ROM 113 Finder display control unit 114 LCD display control unit 115 Image memory 116 Operation unit 117 Electronic viewfinder 118 LCD 119 Motor driver 120 Control signal generation unit 121 DC-DC converter 122 Battery 124 System bus

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 5/265 H04N 5/907 B 5C076 5/907 G06F 15/66 450 5/91 H04N 5/91 N 5 / 92 5/92 HF term (reference) 5B057 AA20 BA02 BA24 CA01 CA12 CA16 CB01 CB08 CB12 CB16 CE08 CH11 DA08 DA16 5C022 AA13 AC01 AC31 AC42 AC69 AC73 5C023 AA11 AA37 AA38 BA11 CA03 DA04 5C052 AA17 GA03 GA03 GA03 GC03 GC04 GC05 GD03 GD10 GE08 5C053 FA09 FA14 FA27 GB21 KA04 KA24 KA25 LA01 LA06 5C076 AA01 AA19 AA36 BA03 BA04 BA06 CA02

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A digital camera capable of synthesizing image data obtained by a plurality of photographing operations into one image data, an image pickup means for picking up a subject image to obtain image data, and an image picked up by the image pickup means Display means for displaying an image based on image data; scroll means for scrolling an image displayed on the display means in an arbitrary direction; and a part or an image displayed on the display means after the scrolling First display control means for displaying all the images in an overlapped manner, second display control means for displaying an image based on newly picked-up image data together with an image displayed in an overlapped manner on the display means, and the display means Image synthesizing means for synthesizing a plurality of image data obtained by a plurality of times of imaging displayed on the screen and generating one image data. A digital camera characterized by: 2. The scrolling means includes a touch panel provided on a display screen of the display means, and operating the touch panel to change an image displayed on the display screen of the display means in an arbitrary direction. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the digital camera is scrolled. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scroll means includes a scroll key, and operates the scroll key to scroll an image displayed on the display means in an arbitrary direction. Digital camera. 4. A digital camera capable of synthesizing image data obtained by a plurality of photographing operations into one image data, an image pickup means for picking up a subject image to obtain image data, and image data corresponding to a current subject. Display area for displaying an image based on the image, and a second display for displaying sequentially an image based on image data corresponding to the photographed subject in block units for each photographing, comprising a plurality of blocks. A display unit having an area; and an image combining unit configured to combine a plurality of image data obtained by a plurality of shootings displayed in the second display area to generate one piece of image data. Digital camera characterized by the following. 5. A digital camera capable of synthesizing image data obtained by a plurality of photographing operations into one image data, comprising: an image pickup means for picking up a subject image to obtain image data; and a plurality of display blocks. A display unit for sequentially displaying an image based on image data corresponding to a photographed subject in a block unit for each photographing; and combining a plurality of image data obtained by a plurality of photographing displayed on the display unit. A digital camera, comprising: image synthesizing means for generating one piece of image data.