JP2001078138A - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the degree of freedom of photographing and to simplify the operation of an electronic camera by recording a video signal and an audio signal while properly relating both signals with each other without the need for a troublesome operation by a photographer. SOLUTION: The electronic camera that can record both a video signal and an audio signal, is provided with an image pickup section 10 that picks up an image of an object in response to a release signal and converts the image into a video signal, a buffer memory 23 that stores a picked-up video signal, a buffer memory 34 that stores an audio signal in response to a control signal, and a PC card 41 that records the video signal and the audio signal stored in the memories 23, 34 while relating both signals with each other. The PC card 41 records the video signal and the audio signal obtained by the image pickup whose image pickup timing is temporally closer to a timing of audio recording in two image pickup operations in the case that audio recording is conducted between the two consecutive image pickup operations while the video signal and the audio signal are regarded to belong to the same group.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic camera capable of recording an audio signal together with a video signal (still image).
In particular, the present invention relates to an electronic camera that records a video signal and an audio signal in association with each other.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been developed an electronic camera capable of recording a sound signal together with a still image in an electronic camera for obtaining a still image by capturing an image of a subject by a CCD image pickup device or the like.

For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-18819, an audio signal fetched from an audio recording means and a video signal photographed immediately before the operation of the audio release means are recorded in the recording means in association with each other. I have to. This makes it possible to easily extract not only the video signal but also the related audio signal during reproduction.

[0004]

However, in actual photographing, sound is not always recorded first, and sound may be recorded after photographing. Fixing the order of sound recording and photographing deprives the photographer of the freedom of photographing, and forcing such use imposes a burden on the photographer. Further, it is troublesome for the user to set whether to associate the recorded voice with the shooting immediately before the recording operation or with the shooting immediately after the recording operation.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to record a video signal and an audio signal in an accurate manner without requiring a troublesome operation of a photographer. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic camera capable of simplifying the operation while improving the degree of freedom of photographing.

[0006]

(Structure) In order to solve the above problem, the present invention employs the following structure.

That is, according to the present invention, in an electronic camera capable of recording both a video signal and an audio signal, an image pickup means for picking up an object in response to a release signal and converting the image into a video signal, and an image picked up by the image pickup means A first storage unit for storing a signal; a voice recording unit for performing a recording operation of a voice signal in response to an operation signal; a second storage unit for storing the voice signal below the voice recording unit; Group information generating means for generating group information indicating that a video signal and the audio signal belong to a common group; a video signal stored in the first storage means; an audio signal stored in the second storage means; A recording medium for storing group information generated by the group information generating means, and recording of sound by the sound recording means during two consecutive imagings by the imaging means In this case, the video signal and the audio signal obtained by the imaging of which the imaging timing is temporally closer to the audio recording timing among the two imagings are assumed to belong to the same group, and the recording medium And control means for recording the information in

Here, preferred embodiments of the present invention include the following. (1) The audio recording means starts recording the audio signal in response to the first operation signal and ends recording the audio signal in response to the second operation signal. (2) Even if a predetermined time has passed since the generation of the first operation signal, the second
When no operation signal is generated, the recording of the audio signal is terminated after a predetermined time has elapsed. (3) When no image is taken within a predetermined time before and after the generation of the first operation signal, the audio signal stored in the second storage means is deleted. That is, audio signal recording should be treated as if it had not occurred from the beginning.

(Operation) According to the present invention, the audio signal stored in response to the operation signal is automatically assigned to one of the video signals before and after the recording of the audio signal. The video signal and the audio signal can be recorded in association with each other without requiring a cumbersome operation. In this case, when the sound is recorded by the sound recording unit between two consecutive imagings, the imaging timing of the two imagings is closer to the audio recording timing in time. By recording the obtained video signal and the audio signal on the recording medium as belonging to the same group, it is possible to accurately associate the video signal with the audio signal.

Therefore, the user can record the video signal and the audio signal in an accurate relationship without being conscious of the order of the photographing and the sound recording, thereby improving the degree of freedom of the photographing and simplifying the operation. It becomes possible.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

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

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a camera image pickup unit. The image pickup unit 10 includes a projection lens 11, a diaphragm 12, and a CCD image pickup device 1.
3, and a correlated double sampling circuit (CDS) 14. 21 is an A / D conversion circuit, 22 is a digital signal processing circuit for performing various image processing, 23 is a buffer memory for temporarily taking in image data, 24
Are image data encoding / decoding means for encoding / decoding image data and image data compression /
Decompression circuit, 25 is a FIFO circuit, 26 is a card I / F circuit that takes an interface (I / F) with various cards,
27 is a card connector to which various cards are connected, 28
Is a liquid crystal display (LCD) for displaying the contents of the buffer memory 23, and 29 is an LC for driving the LCD 28.
D driver.

Reference numeral 31 denotes a microphone as a sound-electric signal conversion element, 32 denotes an amplifier having a filter function, and 33 denotes an A / A
D conversion circuit; 34, buffer memory; 35, audio data compression / decompression circuit for encoding / decoding audio data;
Reference numeral 6 denotes a D / A converter, and 37 denotes an amplifier having a filter function.

The card connector 27 is compatible with a PC card 41, which is a kind of storage medium readable and writable by a personal computer (PC), and a specific type of data communication / processing device (LAN, modem, SCSI, ISDN, etc.). An I / O card 42 or the like, which is a data / input / output control unit, is connected thereto.

Reference numeral 50 denotes a CPU for controlling each unit in an integrated manner;
1 is a mechanical drive unit (driver) of the camera imaging unit 10;
52 is an electrical timing signal generating circuit (SG) of the camera imaging unit 10, 53 is a strobe as illumination means, 54 is an operation unit for setting various modes, and 55 is a mode display unit for displaying the set mode. , 56 are a clock circuit for measuring time, 57 is a release switch, and 58 is a voice input / end switch.

The basic operation of the present apparatus is as follows. That is, the subject image is transferred from the projection lens 11 to the image sensor 1.
3 and converted into an electric signal. The image sensor output signal is converted into a digital signal at the optimum sampling frequency (for example, an integer multiple of the subcarrier frequency of the NTSC signal) by the A / D conversion circuit 21 through the CDS circuit 14.

The CDS output signal converted to a digital signal is subjected to normal camera signal processing such as gamma correction and color separation in a digital signal processing circuit 22, and Y (luminance), C
A b, Cr (color difference) signal is created. These signals are
After being temporarily stored in the buffer memory 23, it is encoded by the image compression unit of the image data compression / expansion circuit 24 and stored in the FIFO (or DRAM) circuit 25 as a storage element. The compressed image data stored in the FIFO circuit 25 is read out through the card I / F circuit 26, output to the PC card 41, and recorded.

The video signal temporarily stored in the buffer memory 23 is displayed on the LCD 28 by the LCD driver 29. Further, the video signal recorded on the PC card 31 is supplied to the image data compression / expansion circuit 24 via the card I / F circuit 26 and the FIFO circuit 25, and is decoded by the circuit 24 and displayed on the LCD 28. Can be.

On the other hand, the sound is converted into an electric signal by the microphone 31, further amplified by the amplifier 32, and cut into a necessary band. Thereafter, the A / D conversion circuit 33 sets the required band to 2
The digital signal is converted into a digital signal at twice or more the sampling frequency, and is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 34. The audio data stored in the buffer memory 34 is compressed /
The data is encoded by the audio compression unit of the expansion circuit 35 and stored in the FIFO circuit 25. The compressed audio data stored in the FIFO circuit 25 is read out through the card I / F circuit 26, output to the PC card 41, and recorded.

The audio signal recorded on the PC card 41 is supplied to an audio data compression / expansion circuit 35 via a card I / F 26 and a FIFO circuit 25.
Is decrypted. Then, the signal is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 36, amplified by the amplifier 37, cut into a necessary band, and output as an audio signal.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining the association of audio recording with shooting in one embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that there is audio recording (time t1) between the first imaging 1 at time t2 'and the second imaging 2 at time t2. Times from the time t1 of the audio recording to each shooting are T1 and T2, respectively.

In this embodiment, the audio signal is attributed to the image signal obtained by projecting the shorter one of T1 and T2. That is, the image data of either the photographing 1 or the photographing 2 is recorded as the same group information. Specifically, the file name of the audio data is xxx yyy. zzz where xxx: user information, yyy: group information, z
zz: An extension, and the group information is the same as the corresponding image data.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the basic operation of the electronic camera according to this embodiment. First, when the battery is inserted and the power is turned on, the CPU 50, each IC,
The date and the like are initialized (S301). Then, the key interrupt setting and the timer interrupt setting are performed, and the interruption is permitted (S
302). Subsequently, SW and display are initialized (S3).
03), and display on the LCD 28 (S304).
The time from the display of the CD 28 is counted (S30).
5).

Next, it is determined whether or not each SW has been operated (S306). If the SW has been operated, an operation corresponding to the SW is performed (S307). Then, it is determined whether or not a certain time has elapsed from the LCD display (S308). After the certain time has elapsed, the mode shifts to the low power consumption mode in order to suppress the power consumption of the battery, and the CPU 50 and the peripheral IC are set to the low power consumption mode. (S309). If the fixed time has not elapsed, the process returns to S304.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing operation when the voice interrupt processing occurs.

When a voice interrupt process is generated by the operation of the voice input / end switch 58 (input of the first operation signal) (S40)
0), the sound recording start time t1 is stored (S401), and the storage of the sound data in the buffer memory 34 is started (S402). Then, it is determined whether or not the voice input / end switch 58 has been operated again (second operation signal input) (S40).
3) When the second operation signal is input, the voice storage ends (S405). When the second operation signal is not input,
It is determined whether the first operation signal has passed a predetermined time (S
404) If the predetermined time has not elapsed, the process returns to S403, and if the predetermined time has elapsed, the process proceeds to S405. That is,
If the sound recording does not end within a predetermined time from the start of the sound, the sound recording is forcibly ended.

After the voice recording is completed, the timer interrupt prohibition is released (S406), and the timer counter is set (S40).
7). Then, when the count value becomes α, the voice interrupt processing is canceled (408). This is because, in order to compare T1 and T2 and record the group information, it is necessary to measure the time in order to determine which photographing the audio information belongs to after elapse of T2. However, since it does not make sense to wait for an excessively long time, the maximum time T2 = α is to be waited.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing operation when the release interrupt processing occurs.

When detecting the release signal by operating the release SW 57, the CPU 50 temporarily saves the program which has been executed immediately before the release signal and executes a release interrupt process (S501). Then, the release time t2 is stored (S502). Here, it is determined whether the audio recording of FIG. 2 belongs to the photographing 1 or to the photographing 2 according to the difference (T1 and T2) from the time t1 of the audio recording.
The release time t2 does not update the time t2 recorded in each shooting, but leaves at least the previous release time (t2 ').

Next, the operation proceeds to the image pickup operation (S503), and the image is stored in the buffer memory 23 (S504). Then, it is determined whether or not T2 <α (S505).
In the case of <α, after prohibiting the timer interrupt (S506),
As will be described later, audio data file name generation processing is performed (S507), and further compression processing is performed (S508). That is, in S505, a difference T2 between the audio recording time and the subsequent shooting time t2 is calculated, and the difference T2 is calculated at a predetermined time α (for example, 5).
If not more than (minutes), the timer interrupt processing is prohibited (S50).
6).

In FIG. 2, when the photographing 2 is not executed even if a predetermined time α or more has elapsed from the start of the sound recording, the time t
The voice recorded in 1 is considered to be irrelevant to shooting 2. Until time α elapses from t1 to perform this execution, CP
If U waits for photographing 2 to be executed after interrupting other operations, there is a large adverse effect. Therefore, α is set in the timer counter in S407 of FIG. 4, and when the timer counter becomes 0, a timer interrupt is performed to execute a voice file name generation process described later. Here, in FIG. 5, when T2 <α in S505, the timer interrupt is prohibited in S506 because at this time, it is no longer necessary to execute the interrupt processing.

When it is determined in S505 that T2 <α is not satisfied, a timer interrupt process is executed as shown in FIG. 6 (S601), and a voice data file name generation process is executed (S602). Then, the interrupt processing is canceled (S603). Therefore, the execution of S507 in FIG. 5 is unnecessary.

In the compression processing of S508, the image data and the audio data are respectively compressed. Then, each of the compressed data is recorded on the PC card 41 as a recording medium (S509). As a result, the release interrupt processing is canceled (S510). FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the audio data file name generation processing.

When the process proceeds to the audio data file name generation processing (S701), first, T1 is calculated (S702). Here, when t2 ′ (time of photographing 1) is an initial setting (for example, 0) at the time of turning on the power, it is assumed that photographing 1 does not exist and T1 = α. Subsequently, T2 is calculated (S70).
3). Here, when T2 ≧ α, T2 = α.

Next, T1 and T2 are compared (S70).
4). Then, it is determined whether or not T1 ≧ α and T2 ≧ α (S705). If it is determined that T1 ≧ α and T2 ≧ α are not satisfied, it is determined whether T1 <T2 (S70).
6) If T1 <T2, information of the same group as that of shooting 1 is added to the audio data file name (S707). T
If 1 ≧ T2, information of the same group as that of shooting 2 is added to the audio data file name (S708). T1 ≧ α,
If T2 ≧ α, the sound is regarded as not belonging to any shooting, and the buffer sound data is deleted (S70).
9).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the time T1 from the time t1 of the sound recording to the first photographing (time t2 ') before that, and the second photographing from the time t1 of the sound recording after that. A time T2 up to (time t2) is calculated, T1 is compared with T2, and an audio signal is attributed to an image signal obtained by capturing the shorter one of T1 and T2. Therefore, the video signal and the audio signal can be recorded in association with each other without making the user aware of the order of the photographing and the audio recording.

Here, in the association between the photographing and the recording, the closer in time, the higher the association. Therefore, it is expected that, in most cases, accurate association will be achieved if the association is made in a temporally shorter manner as in the present embodiment.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. In the embodiment, the time t1 of the audio recording
As a method for detecting whether or not a predetermined time α has elapsed, the method using the interrupt processing of the timer counter has been described. Alternatively, by detecting the time at predetermined time intervals,
It can also be executed without burdening other processes. In the embodiment, the first operation signal and the second operation signal are generated by repeating the same SW, but different SWs may be used to obtain each scanning signal. In addition, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[0040]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, in an electronic camera capable of recording both a video signal and an audio signal, the sound recording by the audio recording means is performed between two consecutive imagings by the imaging means. When the recording is performed, the video signal and the audio signal obtained by the imaging of which the timing of the imaging is temporally closer to the timing of the audio recording among the two imagings are regarded as belonging to the same group, and In this way, the video signal and the audio signal can be accurately associated with each other and recorded without the need for a troublesome operation of the photographer, so that the degree of freedom of photographing can be improved and the operation can be simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram for explaining association of audio recording with shooting in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a basic operation of the electronic camera according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation when a voice interruption process occurs.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing operation when a release interrupt processing occurs.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process of generating an audio data file name by a timer interrupt;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process of generating an audio data file name.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Camera imaging part 11 ... Photographing lens 12 ... Aperture 13 ... CCD imaging element 14 ... CDS 21,33 ... A / D conversion circuit 22 ... Digital signal processing circuit 23,34 ... Buffer memory 24 ... Image data compression / cautious circuit 25 ... FIFO circuit 26 ... Card I / F circuit 27 ... Card connector 28 ... LCD 29 ... LCD driver 31 ... Microphone 32,37 ... Amplifier with filter function 35 ... Speech data compression / expansion circuit 36 ... D / A converter 41 PC card 42 I / O card 50 CPU 51 Driver 52 Timing signal generation circuit (SG) 53 Strobe 54 Operation unit 55 Mode display unit 56 Clock circuit 57 Release SW 58 Voice input / End SW

Claims (4)

[Claims] An image pickup means for picking up an image of a subject in response to a release signal and converting the image into a video signal, and a first means for storing a video signal picked up by the image pickup means.
Storage means for performing an operation of recording an audio signal in response to an operation signal; second storage means for storing the audio signal below the audio recording means; the video signal and the audio signal Group information generating means for generating group information indicating that the group belongs to a common group, a video signal stored in a first storage means, an audio signal stored in a second storage means, and the group information generating means. A recording medium for storing the generated group information; and a timing of the imaging in the two imagings when the audio recording by the audio recording means is performed between two consecutive imagings by the imaging means. Is a system for recording the video signal and the audio signal obtained by the imaging closer in time to the audio recording timing on the recording medium as belonging to the same group. Electronic camera characterized by being equipped with means. 2. The audio recording means according to claim 1, wherein recording of the audio signal is started in response to a first operation signal, and recording of the audio signal is terminated in response to a second operation signal. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein 3. The recording of an audio signal is terminated after the lapse of the predetermined time if the second operation signal is not generated within a predetermined time after the generation of the first operation signal. Electronic camera as described. 4. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein when no image is taken within a predetermined time before and after the generation of the first operation signal, the audio signal stored in the second storage means is deleted. camera.