JP2002077690A - Electronic camera and computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic camera wherein the electronic camera and an externally connected computer thereto achieve exclusively managing allocation information on a removable recording media mounted thereon. SOLUTION: When power-on is instructed by depressing a power switch 6, a system controller 27 detects whether a USB cable A is connected by a connection detection unit 30 and decides whether OK/menu button is depressed as well. If the USB cable is not connected, or if the USB cable is connected but the OK/menu button 8 is depressed, the system controller executes to access the recording medium 22 referring to and updating allocation information stored in the recording medium 22 using the file management unit 29. On the other hand, if the USB cable A is connected but OK/menu button 8 is not depressed, the system controller executes to access the recording medium 22 while receiving an address information from a device connected to the USB.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic camera that captures a subject image using a semiconductor imaging device such as a two-dimensional image sensor, and a computer system in which the electronic camera and a computer are connected via a data communication path. The present invention relates to an electronic camera and a computer system in which both an electronic camera and a computer exclusively manage allocation information of a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a subject image is formed on a solid-state image sensor, for example, a CCD two-dimensional image sensor by an image pickup optical system and converted into an electric signal. A so-called electronic camera that records data on a recording medium such as a disk has been widely used.

[0003] In this electronic camera, a photographed image is usually recorded on a recording medium such as a removable card memory. When this image is taken into a personal computer,
Images are sent by directly attaching a removable card memory to a personal computer, or by connecting a cable between an external input / output terminal of an electronic camera and an external input / output terminal of a personal computer.

Some recent electronic cameras have a function of receiving a remote instruction from a personal computer connected by a cable via an external input / output terminal for image transfer. For example, a command for instructing photographing is provided. Is received, an image is taken and recorded on a recording medium such as a removable card memory.

[0005]

The transfer of an image from the electronic camera to the personal computer is realized by transmitting and receiving a command. Therefore, the transfer of the command to both the electronic camera and the personal computer is performed. We had to have our own mechanism. This was completely useless for a personal computer having a standard mechanism for accessing peripheral devices such as a CD-ROM drive device and an MO drive device.

In this standard mechanism, the personal computer manages the allocation information held by each recording medium in order to record the data arrangement.
-The actual access is performed by transferring address information indicating the physical position in the data area to the ROM drive device or MO drive device.

In view of the above, it is desired that the recording medium mounted on the electronic camera can be accessed from a personal computer by a standard mechanism. In other words, the electronic camera can be accessed in the same manner as a CD-ROM drive or MO drive. There have been many requests to be able to be handled as one peripheral device.

However, not only when the electronic camera is used alone, but also when a remote instruction is given from a personal computer, the above-mentioned allocation information is managed by the electronic camera itself, and the personal computer can be used without taking any measures. If you support the standard access from, both the electronic camera and the personal computer will manage this allocation information independently,
In the worst case, the recording medium may be destroyed.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and both the electronic camera and a computer externally connected to the electronic camera store allocation information of a recording medium detachably mounted on the electronic camera. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic camera and a computer system that realize exclusive management.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic camera according to the present invention has a first access for executing access to a recording medium while managing allocation information held by each recording medium by itself. A second means for performing access to the recording medium based on address information indicating a physical position in a data area transferred from the external device, while leaving management of the allocation information to an externally connected device. A first operation mode in which access to the recording medium is performed using the first access means, and a second operation mode in which access to the recording medium is performed using the second access means. Is provided. Then, the switching means includes the first
During operation in one of the first and second operation modes, the operation mode is not switched to the other operation mode.

Thus, in the electronic camera of the present invention, when the electronic camera is used alone or remotely operated from an externally connected computer, the allocation information is managed by the electronic camera itself. When handling the allocation information as one peripheral device like a CD-ROM drive device or an MO drive device, the allocation information is managed by an externally connected computer. It realizes that both computers exclusively manage.

[0012]

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

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a connection mode of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.
00 is connected as necessary via the USB cable A. The personal computer 100 is a computer of a desktop type, a notebook type, or the like, which remotely controls the electronic camera 200,
Alternatively, when it is desired to read image data from a recording medium mounted on the electronic camera 200, the electronic camera 200
The connection with is executed.

FIG. 2 is a view showing the appearance of the electronic camera 200. As shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, this electronic camera mainly comprises a camera body 1 and a lens barrel 2.
The camera body 1 has an electronic viewfinder (EVF) 3
In addition to and flash 4, release button 5 as an operation unit,
A power switch 6, a four-way button 7, and an OK / menu button 8 are provided, and a color liquid crystal display (LCD) 9 is provided as a display unit. Although not shown, a terminal for inserting a USB cable A and a slot for mounting a recording medium are provided on a side surface of the camera body 1.

Next, referring to FIG.
A detailed configuration of the inside will be described.

In FIG. 3, the subject light is transmitted through a lens barrel 2.
After passing through the lens 11 provided in the lens, the light amount is controlled by the aperture 12. The lens 11 is driven by an AF mechanism 13, and subject light having passed through the lens 11 and the aperture 12 is guided into the camera body 1, and when a shutter 14 is opened, a CCD two-dimensional color image sensor (hereinafter referred to as a color solid-state image sensor). , Simply referred to as CCD) 15. As a result, a subject image is formed on the imaging surface of the CCD 15.

The CCD 15 constitutes an imaging surface by arranging a plurality of pixels for performing photoelectric conversion in a two-dimensional matrix.
Furthermore, a color filter is arranged on the imaging surface,
The signal charges corresponding to the subject image formed on the imaging surface are accumulated. The CCD 15 is provided with an imaging circuit 16 which controls exposure, reading, element shutter, gain adjustment (ISO setting), power supply, and the like. The output from the CCD 15 is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 17, and then guided to the image processing unit 18, where the image signal is subjected to auto white balance, luminance / color signal generation, gamma processing, and the like. , A color image signal of a predetermined format is generated.

The color image signal generated by the image processing section 18 is temporarily stored in a buffer memory 19 composed of, for example, a DRAM. This buffer memory 1
9 is connected to a liquid crystal controller 20, and a color image signal is
Here, after being converted into a form suitable for display output, it is supplied to a color liquid crystal display (LCD) 9 such as a TFT system and displayed as an image.

Further, a compression / decompression unit 21 is connected to the buffer memory 19. The compression / decompression unit 21 reads out the image signal stored in the buffer memory 19 and performs a compression (encoding) process, thereby forming a form suitable for recording on the recording medium 22. An expansion processing unit for reading out image data recorded on the medium 22 and performing expansion (decoding) processing. As a method of this compression processing, for example, a JPEG method is used, but it is not limited to this. At the time of reproduction, the expanded image signal is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 19,
A color liquid crystal display (LC)
D) Displayed as appropriate at 9. As the recording medium 22, for example, a memory card composed of a semiconductor memory such as a card type flash memory is generally used.
The present invention is not limited to this, and various forms such as a magnetic recording medium such as a hard disk or a floppy (registered trademark) disk can be used.

This electronic camera is provided with a peeping type electronic viewfinder (EVF) 3 separately from a color liquid crystal display (LCD) 9, and is provided with respect to an output from an A / D converter 17. , Finder image generator 2
3, a moving image process of n frames / second is performed and displayed as a through image from the electronic viewfinder (EVF) 3 via the liquid crystal control unit 24 or from the color liquid crystal display (LCD) 9 via the liquid crystal control unit 20. Is done.

The communication control unit 25 controls communication with the personal computer 100 via the USB cable A. When the communication control unit 25 performs remote operation from the personal computer 100, The computer 100 sends and receives commands, address information, image data, and the like when reading image data from the recording medium 22 in the same manner as other peripheral devices. The command at the time of the remote operation is transferred to the system controller 27 and a predetermined operation is performed. On the other hand, the command and the address information at the time of reading the image data are:
The data is transferred to the interface unit of the recording medium 22, and the access processing is executed.

The strobe 4 is a light source for illuminating a subject, and the amount of light emitted from the strobe 4 is controlled by a strobe control circuit 26. The strobe control circuit 26
A strobe capacitor capable of storing a predetermined amount of charge is provided, and the strobe 4 is driven by charging and discharging the strobe capacitor.

The above operations are all controlled by a system controller 27. The system controller 27 notifies the release button 5, the power switch 6, the four-way button 7, and the OK / menu button 8 notified from the operation unit 28. The above-described operation control is executed in accordance with the operation content of. The system controller 27 controls each section of the camera based on the set photographing conditions, and provides necessary image processing parameters and the like. Note that the shooting conditions here include so-called exposure and shutter speed,
This includes not only the shooting conditions in a narrow sense common to the silver halide cameras, such as the presence or absence of strobe light emission and light emission amount correction, but also image processing conditions such as white balance, color processing (color table), and gamma.

The system controller 27 includes a file management unit 29 and a connection detection unit 30. The file management unit 29 executes shooting and reproduction, that is, storage of image data in the recording medium 22 and reading of image data from the recording medium 22 in response to a notification from the operation unit 28 or a remote instruction from the personal computer 100. This is for referencing / updating the allocation information held by the recording medium 22 when performing the operation. On the other hand, the connection detection unit 30 detects whether the USB cable A is connected.

Here, the control unique to the present invention, such as the allocation information being managed by the electronic camera 200 at the time of single use or remote operation, and by the personal computer 100 at the time of handling as one peripheral device, will be described in detail. explain.

The electronic camera 200 includes: (1) a normal photographing and reproducing mode for executing photographing and reproducing in response to a notification from the operation unit 28 such as pressing of the release button 5;
A control mode for executing shooting and playback in response to a command transferred from the personal computer 100 via the B cable A, and (3) using a command and address information transferred from the personal computer 100 via the USB cable A. It has three operation modes: a storage mode for executing access to the recording medium 22.

In the photographing / playback mode and the control mode, the file management unit 29 accesses the recording medium 22 while referring to and updating the allocation information held in the recording medium 22, while in the storage mode, the personal computer 100 The personal computer 100 executes access to the recording medium 22 while receiving address information from the personal computer 100, that is, referring to and updating the allocation information.

In the electronic camera 200, switching between these three operation modes is performed in the following procedure, so that the electronic camera 200 and the personal computer 100 exclusively record without destroying the recording medium 22 or the like. Medium 2
Reference / update of the allocation information of No. 2 is realized.

When power-on is instructed by pressing the power switch 6, the system controller 27 first detects whether the USB cable A is connected by the connection detecting unit 30. Here, when it is detected that the USB cable A is not connected, the system controller 27 sets the shooting / playback mode. On the other hand, when the connection detection unit 30 detects that the USB cable A is connected, the system controller 27 further determines whether or not the OK / menu button 8 has been pressed together with the power switch 6, and the OK / menu Button 8
If the key is pressed, the control mode is set. If the key is not pressed, the storage mode is set.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, when the power switch 6 is pressed, the system controller 27 does not connect the USB cable A (NO in step S1), or the USB cable A is connected ( Step S
When the OK / menu button 8 is pressed (YES in step S2), the file management unit 2
9, access to the recording medium 22 is performed while referring to and updating the allocation information held by the recording medium 22 (step S3), while the USB cable A is connected (YES in step S1), but the OK / menu is displayed. If the button 8 has not been pressed (NO in step S2), access to the recording medium 22 is executed while receiving address information from the personal computer 100 (step S4).

By switching between these three operation modes depending on whether the USB cable A is connected when the power switch is pressed and whether the OK / menu button 8 is pressed, the operation is performed in any one of the operation modes. Switching to another operation mode during the operation is substantially prohibited.

Thus, in the electronic camera 200,
It is possible to realize that both the personal computer 100 and the personal computer 100 exclusively refer to and update the allocation information of the recording medium 22 without destruction of the recording medium 22 or the like.

[0034]

As described in detail above, according to the electronic camera of the present invention, the allocation information is provided to the electronic camera itself when the electronic camera is used alone or remotely controlled from an externally connected computer. On the other hand, when the electronic camera is handled as one peripheral device in the same manner as a CD-ROM drive device or an MO drive device, the allocation information is managed by an externally connected computer. This allows both the electronic camera and the computer to exclusively manage this allocation information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exemplary view showing a connection mode of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary view showing the appearance of the electronic camera of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view for explaining a detailed internal configuration of the electronic camera according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining the principle of switching the access mode in the electronic camera of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 camera body 2 lens barrel 3 electronic viewfinder (EVF) 4 strobe 5 release button 6 power switch 7 4-way button 8 OK / menu button 9 color liquid crystal display (LCD) 11 lens DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 ... Aperture 13 ... AF mechanism 14 ... Shutter 15 ... CCD two-dimensional color image sensor (CCD) 16 ... Imaging circuit 17 ... A / D converter 18 ... Image processing unit 19 ... Buffer memory 20 ... Liquid crystal control unit 21 ... Compression / expansion unit DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 22 ... Recording medium 23 ... Finder image generation part 24 ... Liquid crystal control part 25 ... Communication control part 26 ... Strobe control circuit 27 ... System controller 28 ... Operation part 29 ... File management part 30 ... Connection detection part 100 ... Personal computer 200 ... Electronics Camera A: USB cable

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electronic camera to which a recording medium is removably mounted, wherein first access means for executing an access to the recording medium based on allocation information held by the recording medium for recording an arrangement of data; A second access unit that acquires address information indicating a physical position in the data area from the outside and executes access to the recording medium; and executes an access to the recording medium using the first access unit. Switching means for switching between a first operation mode for performing the operation and a second operation mode for executing an access to the recording medium using the second access means. 2. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the switching unit prohibits switching to the other operation mode while operating in one of the first and second operation modes. 3. In a computer system in which an electronic camera on which a recording medium is detachably mounted and a computer are connected via a data communication path, the allocation information held by the recording medium for recording data arrangement is stored in the computer system. A first access unit that manages the electronic camera to execute access to the recording medium; a second access unit that manages the allocation information by the computer to execute access to the recording medium; Switching for performing switching between a first operation mode in which access to the recording medium is performed using an access unit and a second operation mode in which access to the recording medium is performed using the second access unit A computer system, comprising: means. 4. The computer system according to claim 3, wherein said switching means prohibits switching to the other operation mode while operating in one of the first and second operation modes.