JP2001218096A - Digital camera with attachable and detachable printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital camera with a printer which realizes the miniaturization of a digital camera main body and a printer, also has excellent hold in the case of attaching the printer to the digital camera, can smoothly perform printing operation of a photographed image in this state and can perform printing out while comparing the photographed image with an image to be printed on paper. SOLUTION: The upper surface of the printer 2 is attached to the bottom of the digital camera 1. The printer 2 is provided with a paper holder 18, and printer paper 26 is taken out from a printing paper taking-out outlet 17 and is inserted from the paper insertion inlet 16 on the bottom of the printer 2. Printed paper is ejected from a paper ejection outlet 15 provided in the vicinity of a camera mounting part of the side where a liquid crystal monitor 13 is provided. Printing can be started while confirming an image to be printed in a holding state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital camera with a detachable printer that can carry a printer and a digital camera separately or with the digital camera mounted and can immediately output a photographed image on the spot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The present applicant has proposed a digital camera system in which a digital camera is mounted on a printer, and image signals taken by the camera are transmitted to the printer and printed out (Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 9-168017, Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 9-168017). 9-1
73228). Although the printer in the above proposal can be made small enough to be portable, it has a shape suitable for stationary installation, and does not have a structure suitable for printing out while holding the camera and the printer. As a digital camera with a printer, there is an electronic camera with a printer in which the printer itself is built in the camera (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-26561). However, since a printer mechanism and a camera mechanism are provided in the camera body, miniaturization is required. There is a limit.

[0003]

Accordingly, by making the digital camera and the printer separable, the size of the digital camera body and the printer can be reduced, and the hold when the printer is mounted on the digital camera is good. It is desired that a photographed image can be smoothly printed in this state, and that the printed image can be printed out while comparing the photographed image with an image printed on a sheet. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a detachable digital camera with a printer that can meet the above-mentioned demand.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a digital camera with a printer according to the present invention, wherein the printer is detachable and has a liquid crystal display section, wherein the printer is mounted on the digital camera. In this state, a printer paper discharge port is provided on the same surface as the one surface of the digital camera provided with the liquid crystal display unit. According to the present invention, in the above configuration, the printer has a holder for accommodating printer paper. According to the present invention, the digital camera has a rechargeable battery, and is configured to supply battery energy from the digital camera to the printer during print output. Further, according to the present invention, the printer has an AC adapter jack and a power supply circuit, and the rechargeable battery of the digital camera is configured to be charged by the power supply circuit of the attached printer. Further, in the present invention, the image printed on the printer paper discharged from the printer paper outlet is configured to coincide with the top and bottom of the image displayed on the liquid crystal display unit.

[0005]

According to the above arrangement, an image can be smoothly printed out while being held by the hand.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. 1A and 1B are external views showing an embodiment of a detachable digital camera with a printer according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 1A is a front view, FIG. 1B is a left side view, and FIG. 1C is a plan view. 2A and 2B are external views similar to FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 2A is a rear view, FIG. 2B is a right side view partially cut away, and FIG. 2C is a bottom view. In front of the digital camera 1, a photographing lens 8, a strobe light emitting section 9, a light control window 10, a self-timer L
ED11 is arranged. On the left side, a compact flash card (hereinafter referred to as "CFC") slot 3 and its cover 4 are arranged. On the upper surface, a shutter button 5 and a main switch / mode switching lever 6 are arranged.

A liquid crystal monitor 13 is provided on the left side of the back of the digital camera 1, and selection buttons 19, 20 and
21, 22, menu button 24 and set button 2
3 are arranged. The printer 2 is provided with a printer paper holder 18 at the center on the rear side, and can accommodate a plurality of printer papers 26. The stored printer paper 26 can be pulled out one by one by placing a finger on a portion exposed to the printer paper outlet 17.

The printer paper insertion slot 16 is provided on the bottom surface of the printer 2. In order to temporarily retract printer paper for CMY printing at the time of printing, an insertion-side discharge port 30 is provided adjacent to the printer paper insertion port 16. The print paper discharge port 15 is provided near the mounting portion of the digital camera 1 on the rear side. At the time of printing, the printer paper 26 is inserted into the printer paper insertion port 16 through 26.
a, and fed by the feed roller 28a to 26b
Is printed by the print head 29 as shown in FIG. In the C printing of CMY printing, the vicinity of the rear end of the printer paper 26 is once sent to the position of the print head 29 by the feed roller 28b, but the printer paper 26 returns to the position of 26d, and the same applies to the printing of M and Y. Operation. When printing is completed, the paper is discharged from the print paper discharge port 15 (see FIG. 5).

The eject lever 31 is operated when the printer 2 is detached from the digital camera 1.
The external power input terminal 27 is connected to an AC adapter 67 described later. Digital camera 1 with rechargeable battery 1
2 is built in, and the battery 12 is charged via a power supply / charging circuit 66 built in the printer 2. Also,
The printer 2 is supplied with power from a battery 12 during printing.

At the time of printing, the back side of the digital camera (FIG. 2A) is gripped toward the user, an image to be printed is reproduced on the LCD monitor 13, the printer paper 26 is taken out of the printer paper holder 18, and the printer paper is taken out. The leading end of the printer paper 26 is inserted through the insertion slot 16. The printed printer paper 26 is output from the printer paper outlet 15, and
Since the printer paper 26 that is operated and discharged from the operation portion while holding the liquid crystal screen can be taken out, the operability is significantly improved as compared with a conventional portable printer. Further, since the image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 13 and the image to be printed are made to coincide with each other and discharged from the printer paper discharge port 15, it is easy to confirm the image being printed.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are views for explaining a digital camera and a printer mounting structure according to the present invention. FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a bottom surface of the digital camera, and FIG. A U-shaped jetty 4 is provided on the upper surface of the printer 2.
0a and 40b are formed. L-shaped locking claws 37 and 38 are implanted in front of and behind the center. Jetty 40a, 4
In front of 0b, camera slide projections 39a and 39b are implanted. An electrical contact portion 41 of a slide connector 44 (see FIG. 4) protrudes from the center of the jetty 40a, 40b. Jetty 40a, 4 on the bottom of digital camera 1
The guide grooves 34a and 34b for guiding the O.sub.b are provided, and the bottom surface of the guide grooves 34a and 34b and the bottom surface of the slide connector connection hole 35 into which the electric contact portion 41 of the slide connector 44 is fitted are for protecting the substrate 45. Barrier 3
6 is covered. Camera slide projections 39a, 39
b strikes against the tip side portions 36a and 36b of the barrier 36 and slides the barrier 36. The locking grooves 32, 33 guide and lock the locking claws 37, 38.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams for explaining a method of mounting the printer, wherein FIG. 4A shows a state before mounting and FIG. 4B shows a state of mounting. The bottom surface of the digital camera 1 is placed on the upper surface of the printer 2 as shown in FIG. At this time, the central portion of the bottom surface of the digital camera 1 sandwiched between the guide grooves 34a and 34b pushes the electric contact portion 41 with a spring 46.
The slide connector 44 is retracted to the upper position of the printer against the urging force of. At the same time, the locking claws 37, 38 are fitted into the locking grooves 32, 33, respectively. When the digital camera 1 is slid in the direction of arrow A in this state, the camera slide projections 39 a and 39 b are
The barrier 36 moves in the direction of arrow B in order to press a and 36b, exposing the substrate 45 having a pattern electrically connected to a number of contacts of the electrical contact portion 41. The barrier 36
Are urged by an urging member (not shown) in a direction opposite to the direction of arrow B.

When the bottom surface of the digital camera 1 reaches the position (b), the locking claws 37 and 38 are locked in the locking grooves 32 and 33, and the barrier 36 is completely removed from the bottom surface of the slide connector connection hole 35. The pattern of the substrate 45 is retracted and the slide connector 44 is fitted into the slide connector connection hole 35 by the urging force of the spring 46. The digital camera 1 is completely fixed to the printer 2 because the movement in the sliding direction is restricted by the portions 44a and 44b of the slide connector 44. The electric contact portion 41 is pressed into contact with the pattern of the substrate 45 by the fitting of the slide connector 44 and is electrically connected. When the printer 2 is detached, the eject lever 31 is pushed down in the direction of the arrow C to release the lock by the slide connector 44, so that the printer 2 can be detached in the direction of the arrow D.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a circuit of a detachable digital camera with a printer according to the present invention. The digital camera 1 includes an image sensor 52 for electrically converting a subject image formed by the lens 8, a gate array 58 for driving the image sensor, a signal processing unit 53 for processing electric signals from the image sensor, and the like, A memory slot unit 3 for storing a memory card to be recorded, a flash ROM 56, a DRA for temporarily storing captured images and the like
M57, a liquid crystal panel 13, a strobe sensor 59 for controlling light control, a strobe light emitting section 9, and a camera CPU 62 for controlling the entire camera. The battery 12 is connected to the slide connector 44 and supplies power to each circuit of the digital camera 1 and the printer 2. The operation signal of the operation unit 61 including a selection button, a menu button, a set button, etc., the main switch / mode switching lever 6 and the shutter button 5 is transmitted to the camera C.
It is sent to PU62. The printer 2 includes a printer mechanism 6
3, a printer driver 64, a printer CPU 65, and a power supply / charging circuit 66.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the recording operation of the detachable digital camera with printer according to the present invention. Hereinafter, description will be made with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 6. The main switch is turned on by the main switch / mode switching lever 6, and the camera mode is set to the recording mode (steps (hereinafter referred to as "S") 701, 70).
2). The camera CPU 62 confirms flash charging as recording preparation processing (S703). That is, when the flash mode is on, it is determined whether the flash is on (S70).
3-1 and S703-2) When the strobe mode is on, the strobe is charged to a predetermined value (S703-3, S703).
-4). Then, the signal processing unit 53 performs the memory preparation processing (S7
In step 04), it is confirmed that the memory card inserted into the memory slot 3 is inserted.

The liquid crystal screen output processing in the next step (S7)
05) is a process for preparing to display an image on the liquid crystal monitor 13. When the liquid crystal output mode is selected by mode switching, the image pickup device 52 captures an image of a subject and performs AD conversion (S705-1, S705-2). To the signal processing unit 5
Then, the object image is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 13 after D / A conversion (S705-3, S705-4).

When the shutter button 5 is turned on and a release is performed (S706), the image sensor 52 starts capturing data of the subject image (S707), and sends the AD-converted image signal to the signal processing unit 53 (S707-). 1, S707-
2). The signal processing unit 53 performs preprocessing such as level conversion of the signal and applying a digital filter, and stores the preprocessed signal in the DRAM 57 (S707-3, S70).
7-4). The camera CPU 62 determines whether or not the capture of all pixels of the image has been completed (S708). When the capture has been completed, the camera CPU 62 instructs the signal processing unit 53 to perform image processing. The signal processing unit 53 extracts the image signal from the DRAM 57 and
Image compression is performed by format conversion to G or the like (S709). Next, a header editing process is performed, and the file information is written in the header (S710). After a file is formed by image compression or the like, a writing process is performed on a memory card such as a CFC in the memory slot unit 3 to increment the number of recordings (S711). When the number of recordable images becomes 0, the recording operation ends (S712).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the reproducing operation of the detachable digital camera with printer according to the present invention. Main switch / mode switching lever 6
To turn on the main switch to set the camera mode to the playback mode (S801, 802). Playback preparation processing (S8
As 03), the signal processing unit 53 confirms that the memory card is inserted (S803-1), and analyzes the memory mode (S803-2). Then, the file data is acquired and transferred to the DRAM 57 (S803-3, S80).
3-4).

Next, the signal processing section 53 performs JPEG decompression processing (S804), and performs processing for converting data compressed at the time of writing to the camera into a display image according to a format (S804). That is, image data interpolation is performed to rearrange the data and thin out unnecessary data. Then, data to be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor is created (S805-1,
S805-2, S805-3). The DA-converted data is sent to the LCD monitor 13 to display an image (S805-
4, S806). By operating the frame advance switch of the operation unit 61 (S807), the signal is transmitted to the camera CPU.
62, and reads the next image data file from the memory card in the memory slot 3 (S808, S8).
09), by repeating the above sequence, images can be reproduced one after another.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the printing operation of the detachable digital camera with printer according to the present invention. The operations from S901 to S906 are shown in FIG.
Are the same as the reproducing operations S801 to S806. First, an image to be printed is displayed on a liquid crystal display. Printer paper insertion slot 1
From 6, when printer paper is inserted into the printer mechanism 63, the flow shifts to print processing (S 907, S 908). The printer CPU 65 detects the printing operation and issues a print instruction to the camera CPU 62 (S909). Camera CP instructed to print
U62 converts the image data stored in the DRAM 57 into print data by the signal processing unit 53 (S910).

In the conversion process, the DRAM data is developed into each pixel data as a reproduction preparation process (S911) (S911-).
1), the arrangement is converted to pixel data to be printed (S91)
1-2). Then, thinning processing for the image data and data interpolation processing with the signal level are performed (S912), and the data is developed again as print data (S913). The developed image data is sent to the printer CPU 65 via the camera CPU 62 as one.
The data is transferred line by line (S914, S915). The printer CPU 65 having received the line data prints one line on printer paper by the printer head via the printer mechanism 63 (S916). When one-line printing is completed, the line data is incremented by one line and
It is determined whether or not printing has been performed up to 80 lines (S91).
7, S918). If it has reached 480 lines, printing of one image is completed, and if it is less than 480, the process returns to S913 for printing the next line.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the image resolution is 680 × 480 has been described. However, printing can be similarly performed for other resolutions. In addition, the printer paper holder is provided on the print paper exit side of the printer,
It may be provided on the opposite side of the printer.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a digital camera having a liquid crystal display section to which a printer can be attached and detached, the printer is provided with a liquid crystal display section when mounted on the digital camera. A printer paper outlet is provided at a position on the same side as one surface of the camera and adjacent to a mounting portion of the digital camera. Further, the printer is provided with a holder for storing printer paper. Further, the digital camera has a rechargeable battery, and is configured to supply battery energy from the digital camera to the printer during print output. The printer has an AC adapter jack and a power circuit, and the rechargeable battery of the digital camera is
It is charged by the power supply circuit of the attached printer. Therefore, it is possible to realize a digital camera with a printer with good operability that can easily print an image while being held by the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an embodiment of a detachable digital camera with a printer according to the present invention, wherein FIG.
(B) is a left side view, and (c) is a plan view.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are external views showing an embodiment of a detachable digital camera with a printer according to the present invention, wherein FIG.
(B) is a right side view with a part cut away, and (c) is a bottom view.

3A and 3B are views for explaining a digital camera and a printer mounting structure according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a bottom surface of the digital camera, and FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a mounting method to a printer.
(A) shows the state before mounting, and (b) shows the state of mounting.

5A and 5B are diagrams for explaining a printing operation, in which FIG. 5A shows a state in which printing paper is inserted, FIG.
(C) shows the state at the time of discharge.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a circuit of a detachable digital camera with a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a recording operation of the detachable digital camera with a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a reproducing operation of the detachable digital camera with a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining a printing operation of the digital camera with a detachable printer according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Digital camera 2 ... Printer 3 ... Compact flash slot part 4 ... Card cover 5 ... Shutter button 6 ... Main switch / mode switching lever 7 ... Battery cover 8 ... Shooting lens 9 ... Strobe light emitting unit 10 ... Light control window 11 ... Self Timer LED 12 ... Battery (rechargeable battery) 13 ... Liquid crystal monitor (liquid crystal panel) 15 ... Printer paper outlet 16 ... Printer paper inlet 17 ... Print paper outlet 18 ... Printer paper holder 19,20,21,22 ... Selection Button 23 ... Set button 24 ... Menu button 25 ... Red LED shooting / playback disabled display, charging display section 26 ... Printer paper 27 ... External power input terminal 28a, 28b ... Feed roller 29 ... Print head 31 ... Eject lever 32,33 ... Lock groove 34a, 34b Guide groove 35 Slide connector Connection hole 36 ... barrier 37, 38 ... locking claw 39a, 39b ... projection for camera slide 40a, 40b ... jetty 41 ... electrical contact part 44 ... slide connector 45 ... board 46 ... spring 52 ... imaging element 53 ... signal processing part 56 flash ROM 57 DRAM 58 gate array 59 strobe sensor 61 operation unit 62 camera CPU 63 printer mechanism 64 printer driver 65 printer CPU 66 power supply circuit / charging circuit 67 AC adapter

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) // H04N 101: 00 H04N 5/91 H (72) Inventor Kohei Uemura 2800 Nagachi Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture Kyocera Corporation Nagano Okaya Factory F-term (reference) 2C055 CC00 CC01 2C061 AP10 AS02 BB02 BB30 CC03 CD23 5C022 AA13 AB40 AC73 AC78 5C052 FA02 FA03 FA04 FB01 FC06 FD10 FE07 FE09 5C053 FA04 FA08 GB21 KA26 LA01 LA03 LA06

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A digital camera to which a printer is detachable and has a liquid crystal display unit, wherein the printer comprises:
A detachable printer-equipped digital camera, wherein a printer paper discharge port is provided on the same surface as one surface of the digital camera provided with the liquid crystal display unit when the digital camera is mounted on the digital camera. 2. The detachable digital camera with a printer according to claim 1, wherein said printer has a holder for storing printer paper. 3. The detachable digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the digital camera has a rechargeable battery, and a battery energy is supplied from the digital camera to the printer when printing is performed. Digital camera with printer possible. 4. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising an AC adapter jack and a power supply circuit, wherein the rechargeable battery of the digital camera is charged by a power supply circuit of the attached printer. A detachable digital camera with a printer as described in the above. 5. An image printed on printer paper discharged from the printer paper discharge port is aligned with the upper and lower sides of an image displayed on the liquid crystal display unit. 4. A detachable digital camera with a printer according to 4.