JP2001268560A - Video intercom device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video intercom device capable of reliably identifying a visitor at the peripheral part of a photographing range and saving power consumption. SOLUTION: A state that an electronic iris control circuit 7 becomes an iris opened state means brightness around a slave set 1 on an entrance is darkened to a photographing limit. Under this circumstance, a switching transistor 16 is turned on, and only when the brightness is darkened to below the photographing limit, a driving current is allowed to flow into an infrared irradiation part 53.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television door phone apparatus having an entrance unit having illumination means and photographing means, and an indoor master unit having display means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a television intercom apparatus of this kind shown in FIG. This television door phone device includes an entrance slave unit 50 and an indoor master unit 51 connected to each other. The entrance device 50 includes a television camera 52, an infrared illuminator 53, a speaker 54, a microphone 55, and a call button 56. The indoor parent device 51 includes a monitor TV 57, a telephone handset 58, and a monitor button 59.

[0003] The television doorphone device 50 thus configured displays the visitor's image captured by the television camera 52 on the monitor television 57, while the user uses the telephone handset 58, and the visitor uses the microphone 55 and the microphone 55. Speakers 54 communicate with each other. The periphery of the entrance device 50 is constantly illuminated by the infrared illuminator 53, while the television camera 52 is a camera having infrared sensitivity.
Even if the surroundings become dark, it is possible to shoot with the television camera 52.

[0004]

By the way, in the TV door phone apparatus thus configured, when the visitor is located around the shooting range of the TV camera 52, the display becomes unclear and the visitor is identified. There was a problem that it was not possible.

[0005] That is, although the infrared illuminating unit 53 includes a plurality of light emitting units 53a, these light emitting units 53a are parallel to each other in a direction perpendicular to the entrance device 50,
That is, infrared rays are emitted in the horizontal direction. Therefore, at the center of the shooting range of the television camera 52, a clear image can be obtained because sufficient illumination can be obtained. However, at the periphery of the shooting range, the illumination does not sufficiently reach and the obtained image is unclear. It was difficult to identify visitors.

[0006] In addition, in recent TV intercom systems, the horizontal angle of view is set at 90 in order to make it easier for the visitors to take pictures.
A wide-angle lens having an angle of not less than ° has been used as a lens of the television camera 52. However, the lens has a characteristic that the peripheral light quantity decreases as the angle of view becomes wider. Therefore, the peripheral light quantity decreases remarkably in a wide-angle lens having an angle of view of 90 ° or more. This has made the video of the video unclear, making it more difficult to identify visitors.

In order to compensate for such unclear image in the periphery of the photographing range, it is conceivable to increase the number of light-emitting units 53a to increase the illumination intensity and brighten the periphery of the photographing range. However, this contradicts the recent demand for a small and thin unit as much as possible, as well as increasing the size of the entrance slave unit. In the department,
There is a concern that the illumination intensity is too high, the image is overexposed, the image is overexposed, and the visitor cannot be identified. As described above, the solution for increasing the number of the light emitting units 53a is inappropriate.

Further, it is conceivable that the irradiation directions of the respective light emitting portions 53a are made different from each other to broaden the irradiation range as a whole, thereby illuminating every corner of the photographing range. However, it is not easy to set the irradiation angle of each light emitting unit 53a so as to uniformly illuminate the photographing range, and furthermore, the lighting design is examined according to the change of the lens angle of view of the TV camera 52. In this case, there is a fear that the production of the TV door phone apparatus becomes difficult, and this solution is also inappropriate.

[0009] Further, in this television intercom apparatus, there is a problem that the infrared illuminating section constantly illuminates both day and night, which requires a large amount of power consumption.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a television door phone apparatus which can identify a visitor in a peripheral portion of a photographing area at a high level and can save power consumption.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has an entrance slave unit provided with lighting means and photographing means, and an indoor master unit provided with display means, In a TV door phone device that performs a voice response between the entrance slave unit and the indoor master unit while displaying the image of the visitor taken by the imaging unit with the display unit while illuminating with the illumination unit, Light quantity measuring means for measuring the amount of outdoor light; and second switching means for judging that the light quantity is insufficient when the measurement result of the light quantity measuring means falls below a predetermined light quantity and starting to supply drive current to the lighting means. It has features. The photographing means includes electronic iris control means for controlling a charge accumulation time in accordance with the amount of transmitted light, and the electronic iris control means also serves as the light quantity measuring means, and the second switching means It is preferable that when the aperture control by the electronic iris control unit is opened from a predetermined aperture state, it is determined that the light amount is insufficient and the drive current supply to the illumination unit is started.

[0012]

According to the present invention, when the aperture control of the electronic iris control means is smaller than a predetermined aperture state in the daytime or the like, it is determined that the area around the entrance unit is bright, and the second switching means is provided. Cuts off the current supply to the lighting means. On the other hand, at night or the like, when the aperture control of the electronic iris control unit is opened from a predetermined aperture state, it is determined that the periphery of the entrance unit is dark, and the second switching unit supplies current to the illumination unit. To start.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a main part of an entrance slave unit 1 constituting the TV intercom apparatus. Also,
The basic configuration of this TV door phone device is
Since it is the same as the conventional example shown in FIG.
In the following text, the same or similar parts are denoted by the same reference characters, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The entrance device 1 of the TV intercom apparatus has an imaging section 1A and an illumination drive current control section 1B. The imaging unit 1A includes a CCD 2 that converts light incident from a lens (not shown) into a video electric signal, a sampling / amplifying circuit 3 that samples and amplifies the video electric signal converted by the CCD 2, and an amplified video electric signal. A setup circuit for setting up a signal; a synchronizing signal adding circuit for adding a synchronizing signal to the video electric signal subjected to the setup adjustment; and a video output circuit for outputting a video electric signal to which the synchronizing signal is added. I have.

Further, the imaging section 1A includes an electronic iris control circuit 7, a synchronization signal generation circuit 8, and a timing signal generation circuit 9. The electronic iris control circuit 7 receives the sampled / amplified video electric signal in the sampling / amplification circuit 3 and controls the aperture of the CCD 2 based on this signal. The synchronizing signal generating circuit 8 generates a synchronizing signal, and supplies the synchronizing signal to the synchronizing signal addition / addition circuit 5 and the timing signal generating circuit 9. The timing signal generation circuit 9 generates a vertical blanking signal H (see FIG. 4B), a horizontal blanking signal I (see FIG. 4C), and a composite blanking signal J based on the applied synchronization signal.
(See FIG. 4 (a)) and the like to generate a scanning timing signal G and supply it to the CCD 2. Further, the timing signal generation circuit 9 supplies a vertical blanking signal H, a horizontal blanking signal I, and a composite blanking signal J to the illumination drive current control unit 1B.

The electronic iris control circuit 7 supplies a detector signal K to the illumination drive current control unit 1B.
The detector signal K is generated when the amount of light incident on the CCD 2 decreases.
This signal is at the “H” level when the aperture is opened.

The illumination drive current control unit 1B includes a first switching transistor 10, a current control means 11, and a second switching transistor 12, and these first switching transistor 10, current control means 11,
The second switching transistor 12 is connected in series to the infrared illumination unit 53. Further, the illumination drive current control unit 1B includes a vertical control signal generation circuit 13 and a horizontal control signal generation circuit 14. Vertical control signal generation circuit 1
Reference numeral 3 denotes a circuit for generating a vertical control signal L based on the vertical blanking signal H input from the timing signal generating circuit 9 and supplying it to the current control means 11. The horizontal control signal generation circuit 14 generates a horizontal control signal M based on the horizontal blanking signal I input from the timing signal generation circuit 9 and supplies it to the current control means 11.

The current control means 11 includes a NAND gate 15
And a third switching transistor 16 and a bypass path 17. The NAND gate 15 forms a gate output signal N from the vertical control signal L and the horizontal control signal M, and supplies the gate output signal N to the third switching transistor 16. The third switching transistor 16 responds to the gate output signal N. The drive current of the infrared illuminator 53 is turned on and off. The bypass path 17 is connected to the infrared illuminator 53 when the third switching transistor 16 is off.
The bypass path 17 is connected in series with a current regulating resistor R1 that defines the pole value of the bypass current. The bypass current value is set to a value smaller than the current value flowing through the third switching transistor 16.

The vertical control signal generator 13 generates a vertical control signal L (FIG. 4D) based on the vertical blanking signal H.
) Is generated. The vertical control signal L is generated during a period X obtained by removing the vertical blanking period B from the vertical scanning period.
This signal is a signal synchronized with the vertical scanning period obtained by subtracting both periods of t1 and t2 at both ends from time (see FIG. 4B), that is, the central period X1 of the period X.

As shown in FIG. 2, the vertical control signal generating circuit 13 includes first and second NOT circuits 19 and 20 arranged in parallel with each other, and first and second NOT circuits 19 and 20 respectively. First and second delay circuits 19 and 20 connected
And a third NOT circuit 23 connected in series to the second delay circuit 22 and a first AND circuit 24. The first delay circuit 21 includes a resistor R2, a capacitor C1, and a diode D1. The second delay circuit 22 has a resistor R
3. It is composed of a capacitor C2 and a diode D2.

In the vertical control signal generating circuit 13 configured as described above, the above-described vertical control signal L is formed as follows. That is, the vertical blanking signal H input from the timing signal generation circuit 9 is inverted by the first NOT circuit 19 and the second NOT circuit 20, respectively (FIG. 5).
(A)), a first delay circuit 21 and a second delay circuit 22
And to supply to. The first delay circuit 21 delays the inverted output of the first NOT circuit 19 by the time t1 (refer to FIG. 5B), and then delays the delayed output by the first delay circuit 21.
The data is supplied to the AND circuit 24. The second delay circuit 22 delays the inverted output of the second NOT circuit 20 by X-t2 (see FIG. 5C), and then supplies the delayed output to the third NOT circuit 23. 3N
The OT circuit 23 inverts the delayed output of the second delay circuit 22 (see FIG. 5D), and outputs the inverted output to the first AND.
The circuit 24 is supplied. The first AND circuit 24 is a signal in which both the delay output of the first delay circuit 21 and the inverted output of the third NOT circuit 23 are synchronized only during the period of “H”, that is, the vertical control signal L (see FIG. 5E). ) Is generated and supplied to the current control means 11.

The horizontal control signal generating circuit 14 generates a horizontal control signal M (FIG. 4 (e)) based on the horizontal blanking signal I.
) Is generated. The horizontal control signal M corresponds to a period Y obtained by removing the horizontal blanking period C from the horizontal scanning period.
This signal is a signal synchronized with the horizontal scanning period obtained by subtracting both periods t3 and t4 at both ends from time (see FIG. 4C), that is, the central period Y1 of the period Y.

As shown in FIG. 3, the horizontal control signal generating circuit 14 is connected to the fourth and fifth NOT circuits 30, 31 and the fourth and fifth NOT circuits 30, 31 arranged in parallel with each other. Connected third and fourth delay circuits 32 and 33
A sixth NOT circuit 34 connected in series to the fourth delay circuit 33; and a second AND circuit 35. The third delay circuit 32 includes a resistor R4, a capacitor C3, and a diode D3. The fourth delay circuit 33 has a resistor R
5, a capacitor C4 and a diode D4.

In the horizontal control signal generating circuit 14 configured as described above, the above-described horizontal control signal M is formed as follows. That is, the horizontal blanking signal I input from the timing signal generation circuit 9 is inverted by the fourth NOT circuit 30 and the fifth NOT circuit 31, respectively (FIG. 6).
(Refer to (a)), the third delay circuit 32 and the fourth delay circuit 33
And supply. The third delay circuit 32 includes a fourth NOT circuit 3
The inverted output of 0 is delayed by the time t3 (FIG. 6B).
After that, the delay output is supplied to the second AND circuit 35. The fourth delay circuit 33 has a fifth NOT
The inverted output of the circuit 31 is delayed by Yt4 (FIG. 6).
(See (c)) and outputs the delayed output to the sixth NOT circuit 34.
To be supplied. The sixth NOT circuit 34
After inverting the delay output of the fourth delay circuit 33 (see FIG. 6D), the inverted output is supplied to the second AND circuit 35. The second AND circuit 35 outputs a signal in which both the delayed output of the third delay circuit 32 and the inverted output of the sixth NOT circuit 34 are synchronized only during the “H” period, that is,
A horizontal control signal M (see FIG. 6E) is formed. The horizontal control signal M thus formed
Are supplied to the current control means 11.

In the current control circuit 11, the NAND gate 15, to which the vertical control signal L and the horizontal control signal M have been input,
A gate output signal N (see FIG. 4 (f)) which becomes "L" only when both control signals L and M are both "H" is generated.
The voltage is supplied to the third switching transistor 16. This gate output signal N becomes "L" only during the period of X1 and Y1, and is "H" in other periods.
This is the signal.

The third switching transistor 16 is turned on to supply a current only when the gate output signal N is "H", and otherwise turned off. When the third switching transistor 16 is off, a current flows through the bypass path 17.

The times t1 to t4 set as described above have the following meaning in the photographing range A, as shown in FIG. FIG. 7 shows a relative relationship between the imaging range A and the period X of the imaging unit 1A and between the imaging range A and the period Y.

That is, in the period X, the scanning period corresponding to the upper end of the photographing range A is t1, and the scanning period corresponding to the lower end is t2. In the period Y, a scanning period corresponding to the left end portion of the photographing range is t3, and a scanning period corresponding to the right end portion is t4. Therefore,
By the scanning periods t1 to t4, the central part A1 and the peripheral part A2 of the photographing range A can be defined.

Next, the operation of the television intercom apparatus having the above configuration, particularly, the image pickup operation will be described. When the visitor presses the call button 56 of the entrance cordless handset 1, the imaging unit 1A starts the imaging operation accordingly. That is, after the CCD 2 converts the optical signal into a video electric signal, the video electric signal is sampled and amplified by the sampling amplifier circuit 3, and further, after the synchronizing signal is added by the synchronizing signal adding circuit 5,
The video is output from the video output circuit 6 to the indoor master unit 51. The indoor master unit 51 that has received the image electric signal converts the signal into an image by the monitor camera 57 and displays the image, and responds to the visitor while watching the display.

In this television doorphone device, the infrared illumination operation performed in parallel with the photographing / display operation performed as described above is controlled as follows. That is, the electronic iris control circuit 7 sets the aperture control value to the open state (CC
If the charge accumulation time of D2 is 1/60 second), the detector signal K is output to the second switching transistor 16. Then, the second receiving the detector signal K
The switching transistor 16 is turned on.

The fact that the electronic iris control circuit 7 is in the aperture open state indicates that the brightness around the entrance device 1 has been reduced to the photographing limit. Then, since the second switching transistor 16 is turned on in response to such a state, the driving current is supplied to the infrared illuminating unit 53 only when it becomes darker than the photographing limit. In this example, the output of the detector signal K is controlled depending on whether or not the electronic iris circuit 7 is in the aperture open state, but this is an example of the control. In short, when the electronic iris circuit 7 is opened from a predetermined aperture state, control may be performed so as to output the detector signal K.

During photographing, the timing signal generation circuit 9
The vertical control signal generation circuit 13 and the horizontal control signal generation circuit 14 are supplied with a vertical blanking signal H or a horizontal blanking signal I. The vertical control signal generating circuit 13 to which the vertical blanking signal H has been supplied is in a period t1,
A vertical control signal L corresponding to t2 is output. On the other hand, the horizontal control signal generation circuit 14 supplied with the horizontal blanking signal I outputs a horizontal control signal M corresponding to the periods t3 and t4. Then, these control signals L and M are supplied to the NAND gate 16. The NAND gate 16 outputs the gate output signal N to the third switching transistor 16 based on the control signals L and M. As described above, the gate output signal N becomes “L” only during the X1 period and the Y1 period.
H ".

The output period of the gate output signal N described above is applied to the photographing range A and considered. The gate output signal N becomes "H" in the peripheral portion A2 and the blanking periods B and C, and becomes "L" in the central portion A1. Therefore, the third switching transistor 16 that is on / off controlled on the basis of the gate output signal N is turned off in the central portion A1 of the photographing range A and turned on in the peripheral portion A2. Therefore, a small current passing through the bypass 17 is supplied to the infrared illuminating unit 53 in the central part A1 of the photographing range A, while in the peripheral part A2 and the blanking periods B and C, the third switching transistor 16 is supplied. Is supplied, and the illumination intensity of the infrared illuminator 53 is controlled as follows.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the peak values P1 and P2 of the illumination intensity at the center in both the vertical and horizontal directions can be suppressed as compared with the conventional case. On the other hand, the illumination intensity at both ends in both the vertical and horizontal directions and in the blanking periods B and C is raised as compared with the conventional case. That is, shooting range A
In the central portion A1, the illumination intensity is suppressed, and in the peripheral portion A2 and the blanking periods B and C, the illumination intensity is increased. Note that the central portion A1 becomes sufficiently bright even if the illumination intensity is slightly reduced as compared with the related art, so that the display intensity is not adversely affected even if the illumination intensity is slightly reduced.

Therefore, it is possible to increase the illumination intensity of the peripheral portion A2 while suppressing an increase in the power consumption of the infrared illumination section 53. This not only reduces the running cost of the TV door phone apparatus, but also extends the life of the infrared illumination unit 53. In FIG. 7, the solid line in the figure indicates the illumination intensity of the TV door phone apparatus of the present embodiment, while the dotted line indicates the illumination intensity of the conventional example.

The first switching transistor 10
Is supplied with a composite blanking signal J from the timing signal generation circuit 9. As shown in FIG. 4A, the composite blanking signal J is a signal that becomes “H” in each of the vertical and horizontal blanking periods B and C. On the other hand, the input signal of the first switching transistor 10 is “L”.
In this case, an on operation is performed and a current flows.
Therefore, in the vertical and horizontal blanking periods B and C,
No driving current is supplied to the infrared illumination unit 53,
In the blanking periods B and C, which are not the scanning periods, the illumination stops and the power consumption can be suppressed.

Further, both control signals L and M are supplied to the imaging unit 1
It is formed based on the synchronization signal extracted from the synchronization signal generation circuit 8 of A. Therefore, the timing at which the infrared illuminating unit 53 repeats light and dark is synchronized with the imaging timing of the imaging unit 1A, and the flickering of the display on the monitor television 57 does not occur even though the infrared illuminating unit 53 repeats the light and dark. Absent.

By the way, the following values are appropriate as examples of the above-mentioned period from t1 to t4. That is, NTSC
In the system, one vertical scanning period (at the time of interlacing) including the vertical blanking period B is 16.67 ms, and the vertical blanking period B is about 1.1 ms. Therefore, the period X, that is, the period during which illumination is performed by the infrared irradiation unit 53, is about 15.57 ms, which is the difference between these values.
, Which is about 93% of the entire vertical scanning period. In the vertical blanking period B defined as described above, the period t1 = t2 ≒ 3 ms for increasing the illumination intensity may be set.

Further, 1 including the horizontal blanking period C
The horizontal scanning period is 63.5 μs, and the horizontal blanking period C is about 10.5 μs. Therefore, the period Y, that is, the period of illumination by the infrared irradiation unit 53 is about 50 μs of the difference between these values, and is about 79% of the entire vertical scanning period. In the horizontal blanking period C defined as described above, the period t3 for increasing the illumination intensity
= T4 ≒ 2 μs.

The lengths of the periods t1, t2, t3, and t4 are only a guide, and it goes without saying that these periods are expanded or contracted depending on the angle of view of the lens.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, at night or the like, when the aperture control of the electronic iris control means is opened from a predetermined aperture state, it is determined that the periphery of the entrance unit is dark, Current can be supplied to the lighting means only during such a period, and the running cost can be further reduced accordingly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part configuration diagram of a television door phone apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit configuration diagram of a vertical control signal generation circuit according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a circuit configuration diagram of a horizontal control signal generation circuit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart of the vertical control signal generation circuit.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart of the horizontal control signal generation circuit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a shooting range and illumination intensity in both vertical and horizontal directions.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a TV door phone device common to the embodiment and the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Entrance device 1A Imaging part 1B Illumination drive current control part 7 Electronic iris control device 9 Timing signal generation circuit 10 First switching transistor 11 Current control means 12 Second switching transistor 13 Vertical control signal generation circuit 14 Horizontal control signal generation circuit 51 Indoor master unit 53 Infrared illuminator 57 Monitor TV A Imaging range A1 Central part A2 Peripheral part B Vertical blanking period C Horizontal blanking period H Vertical blanking signal I Horizontal blanking signal J Composite blanking signal K Detector signal L Vertical control Signal M Horizontal control signal

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an entrance slave unit provided with a lighting unit and a photographing unit; and an indoor master unit provided with a display unit. A television intercom apparatus for performing a voice response between an entrance slave unit and an indoor master unit while displaying on a display unit, wherein the light intensity measurement unit measures outdoor light intensity near the entrance slave unit, and the light intensity measurement unit performs measurement. A switching means for determining that the light quantity is insufficient when the result is less than a predetermined light quantity, and for starting a drive current supply to the lighting means. 2. The photographing means includes electronic iris control means for controlling a charge accumulation time in accordance with the amount of transmitted light, the electronic iris control means also serving as the light quantity measuring means, and The switching means is
6. The television doorphone device according to claim 5, wherein when the aperture control by the electronic iris control unit is opened from a predetermined aperture state, it is determined that the light amount is insufficient and the drive current supply to the illumination unit is started. .