JP2002152602A - Digital still camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital still camera with which multiple exposure photographing can be performed by changing the image quality of each picture by a simple method without requiring addition and extension of a special circuit for multiple exposure. SOLUTION: Emphasis optionally applied to the trace of a moving object in such a manner that a controlling means 103 uses an operation that optionally varies the occurrence timing of a charge pulse 113 from a driving means 102 and an operation that optionally varies the occurrence timing of a subpulse 112 at the same time, and a signal processing means 108 can perform edge enhancement corresponding to multiple exposure in regard to an imaged picture, and thus image quality is improved and the trace is represented in a more easily understandable way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital still camera using a solid-state image pickup device of an all-pixel readout system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a digital still camera mainly for photographing a still image uses a solid-state image pickup device of an all-pixel readout method as an image pickup device for picking up an object and outputting a video signal corresponding to the object. There are many that are available in the market.

[0003] An imaging method using such a conventional digital still camera will be described below. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional digital still camera. 4, reference numeral 401 denotes a solid-state imaging device; 402, a driving unit;
Reference numeral 3 denotes a control unit.
04 is a photoelectric conversion unit, 405 is a vertical charge transfer unit, 406 is a horizontal charge transfer unit, and 407 is an imaging signal output unit.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the relationship among the vertical synchronizing signal 411, sub-pulse 412 and charge pulse 413 in FIG. First, the control unit 403 controls the driving unit 402, and the driving unit 402 synchronizes with the vertical synchronizing signal (VD) 411 from the control unit 403 and, at fixed timing, the sub-pulse 412 and the charge pulse 41.
3, a vertical transfer pulse 414 and a horizontal transfer pulse 415 are generated.

[0005] The driving means 402 drives the solid-state imaging device 401 by means of a sub-pulse 412, a charge pulse 413, a vertical transfer pulse 414, and a horizontal transfer pulse 415. After the charge is removed, exposure is performed for a certain period to accumulate the charge in the photoelectric conversion unit 404, and thereafter, the charge in the photoelectric conversion unit 404 is transferred to the vertical charge transfer unit 405 by the charge pulse 413.

The charges transferred to the vertical charge transfer unit 405 are transferred to the horizontal charge transfer unit 406 in units of one horizontal line by a vertical transfer pulse 414, and are sequentially sent to the image signal output unit 407 by a horizontal transfer pulse 415. The image signal is transferred and one frame of captured image signal is obtained in one frame.

In the above-mentioned imaging method, there is a method of arranging small images such as thumbnails in one frame and reproducing the trajectory of a moving subject as one screen. In this case, each image is small and separated. Because
Not only is the image content difficult to understand, but also regarding the trajectory of the subject, the user must image the trajectory based on each small image, so that the trajectory of the subject is difficult to understand.

In order to express the trajectory more easily, an image is required which is obtained by superimposing each image on one frame at the same angle of view and performing multiple exposure. An imaging technique has been disclosed in which exposure is performed a plurality of times at a fixed interval within one frame period, and the exposure time of each imaging is the same.

[0009]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional digital still camera, when performing multiple exposure, an image memory for the multiple exposure is increased, and a special circuit such as an adder is added. In addition to the necessity of the addition, the imaging interval and the exposure are constant, so that when the speed of the subject greatly changes during the multiple exposure period, for example, when imaging a golf swing or the like, an accurate image corresponding to the movement of the frame image is taken. The trajectory cannot be imaged, so that it is difficult to capture an appropriate trajectory according to the movement of the subject, and the image quality of each image cannot be adjusted.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and does not require an increase in an image memory for multiple exposure or an additional circuit such as an adder. To provide a digital still camera capable of performing multiple exposure shooting while changing the image quality of the digital still camera.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a digital still camera according to the present invention comprises: a photoelectric conversion unit for converting a light image of a subject into charge information; A digital still camera using an all-pixel readout type solid-state imaging device, comprising: a charge transfer unit configured to transfer image data for one frame, and a charge removal unit configured to remove unnecessary charge of the photoelectric conversion unit. Controlling the image sensor, arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the charge pulse for accumulating charge from the photoelectric conversion unit to the charge transfer unit, and the sub-pulse for removing unnecessary charge of the photoelectric conversion unit, A driving unit having a control function of driving and stopping a charge transfer pulse for transferring the one frame of imaging data by the charge transfer unit; And a control means for manually setting the generation timing of the charge pulse and the sub-pulse generated by the driving means manually, and a signal processing for enhancing the contour according to the multiple exposure image. It is characterized by having a configuration provided with means.

As described above, by combining the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the charge pulse of the drive means and the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the sub-pulse, the locus of the moving subject can be arbitrarily adjusted. In addition, it is possible to enhance the contour of the captured image according to the multiple exposure, thereby improving the image quality and expressing the trajectory more easily.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A digital still camera according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a photoelectric conversion unit for converting a light image of a subject into charge information, and a photoelectric conversion unit for extracting and storing photoelectrically converted charge information for one frame. Controlling the solid-state imaging device in a digital still camera using an all-pixel readout type solid-state imaging device including a charge transfer unit that transfers image data of the same and a charge removal unit that removes unnecessary charge of the photoelectric conversion unit. A charge pulse for accumulating charge from the photoelectric conversion unit to the charge transfer unit, and a generation timing of a sub-pulse for removing unnecessary charge of the photoelectric conversion unit are arbitrarily varied, and the charge transfer unit Said 1
A driving unit having a control function of driving and stopping a charge transfer pulse for transferring imaging data for a frame is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital still camera having a control unit for manually setting the timing of generating a charge pulse generated by the driving unit according to the first aspect.

According to these configurations, it is possible to drive and stop the generation of the charge transfer pulse of the driving means by manual setting from the control means, and to arbitrarily change the generation timing of the charge pulses of the driving means, thereby enabling the subject to be charged. It is possible to take an image at an arbitrary time interval according to the movement of.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital still camera having a control means for manually setting the generation timing of the sub-pulse generated by the driving means according to the first aspect.

According to this configuration, the image quality can be arbitrarily adjusted for each image of the subject by arbitrarily changing the generation timing of the sub-pulse of the driving means.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital still camera having a control unit that enables manual setting of the generation timing of the charge pulse and the sub-pulse generated by the driving unit according to the first aspect.

According to this configuration, the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the charge pulse of the driving means and the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the sub-pulse are used arbitrarily in the trajectory of the moving subject. It is possible to add strength.

A digital still camera according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is the digital still camera according to the first aspect, wherein the digital still camera is provided with a signal processing means for performing edge enhancement according to a multiple exposure image.

According to this configuration, it is possible to enhance the outline of the captured image according to the multiple exposure, to improve the image quality, and to express the trajectory more easily. Hereinafter, a digital still camera according to an embodiment of the present invention,
This will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the digital still camera according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, 10
Reference numeral 1 denotes a solid-state imaging device; 102, a driving unit; 103, a control unit; 108, a signal processing unit;
, 104 is a photoelectric conversion unit, 105 is a vertical charge transfer unit, 106 is a horizontal charge transfer unit, and 107 is an imaging signal output unit.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing the relationship between the vertical synchronizing signal 111, sub-pulse 112 and charge pulse 113 in FIG. First, the control means 103 controls the driving means 102 based on the manual setting, and
02 denotes a vertical transfer pulse 114 and a horizontal transfer pulse 11
5 is stopped, and at any timing (B1, B2,..., Bn in FIG. 2) divided into a plurality of times within one frame period according to the manual setting through the control unit 103.
The sub-pulse 112 is generated, and the charge pulse 113 is generated at an arbitrary timing (A1, A2,..., An in FIG. 2).

The driving means 102 drives the solid-state image pickup device 101 with the sub-pulse 112 and the charge pulse 113, and the solid-state image pickup device 101
After the unnecessary charge of the photoelectric conversion unit 104 is removed, exposure is performed to accumulate the charge in the photoelectric conversion unit 104, and the charge of the photoelectric conversion unit 104 is transferred to the vertical charge transfer unit 105 by the charge pulse 113. .

As described above, a series of operations of removing unnecessary charges of the photoelectric conversion unit 104 and transferring charges to the vertical charge transfer unit 105 are performed a plurality of times within one frame period, thereby performing vertical charge transfer. A plurality of electric charges are accumulated in the unit 105 within one frame period, and multiple exposure imaging information based on such a plurality of electric charges is obtained.

By arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the charge pulse 113 during the multiple imaging period,
The image quality of each captured image is adjusted by adjusting the imaging interval of each image and arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the sub-pulse 112.

As described above, while the multiple exposure image pickup information is obtained, the exposure period in one frame is divided into a plurality of times, so that the image quality of each image is deteriorated as compared with the case of the normal image display. In this case, however, since the purpose is to obtain the multiple exposure imaging information, there is no particular problem.

FIG. 3 is a simplified image showing the multiple exposure imaging state of the solid-state imaging device 101. In FIG. 3, for example, the subject image 3
As shown in FIG. 01, consider a case where a golf rod swing is imaged within one frame period.

In the case of this imaging, since the speed is slow at the start of the swing and the speed gradually increases, for example, if multiple exposure imaging is performed at a constant time interval, the captured image in this case becomes the entire image like a constant multiple exposure image 302. While the trajectory cannot be captured, the variable multi-exposure image 3
The trajectory can be accurately grasped as in 03.

The image quality can be adjusted for each image by changing the exposure period in each image pickup. Next, the charges multiplexed and accumulated in the vertical charge transfer unit 105 are transferred to the horizontal charge transfer unit 106 in units of one horizontal line by a vertical transfer pulse 114.
Are transferred to the imaging signal output unit 107 sequentially by the horizontal transfer pulse 115 to obtain a multiplexed imaging signal output. Further, the signal processing means 108 enhances the contour according to the multiple exposure for the multiple image pickup signal output, improves the image quality, and outputs the image as a multiple exposure image.

As described above, the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the charge pulse of the driving means and the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the sub-pulse are used together, so that the trajectory of the moving subject can be freely varied. In addition, it is possible to enhance the contour of the captured image according to the multiple exposure, thereby improving the image quality and expressing the trajectory more easily.

As a result, the multi-exposure imaging is performed by changing and adjusting the imaging interval and each image quality in a simple and easy manner without increasing the circuit scale without requiring an additional circuit for multi-exposure. And it is possible to easily obtain a plurality of multiplex images at arbitrary time intervals.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, the driving of the charge transfer pulse generation of the driving means can be started and stopped by the manual setting from the control means, and the generation timing of the charge pulse of the driving means can be arbitrarily varied. By doing so, images can be taken at arbitrary time intervals according to the movement of the subject.

The image quality can be arbitrarily adjusted for each image of the subject by arbitrarily changing the generation timing of the sub-pulse of the driving means. In addition, by using both the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the charge pulse of the driving means and the operation of arbitrarily varying the generation timing of the sub-pulse, it is possible to arbitrarily increase or decrease the locus of the moving subject. .

Further, it is possible to enhance the contour of the captured image according to the multiple exposure, thereby improving the image quality and expressing the trajectory more easily. Therefore, the multi-exposure imaging can be performed by changing and adjusting the imaging interval and each image quality by a simple and easy method without increasing the circuit scale without requiring additional additional circuits for the multi-exposure. Thus, it is possible to easily obtain a plurality of multiplex images at arbitrary time intervals.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing an operation of the digital still camera according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a simplified image diagram showing an operation in the digital still camera according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional digital still camera.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation of the conventional digital still camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Solid-state image sensor 102 Driving means 103 Control means 104 Photoelectric conversion part 105 Vertical charge transfer part 106 Horizontal charge transfer part 107 Imaging signal output part 108 Signal processing means 111 Vertical synchronization signal 112 Sub-pulse 113 Charge pulse 114 Vertical transfer pulse 115 Horizontal transfer pulse 301 Subject at the start of imaging 302 Constant multiple exposure image image 303 Variable multiple exposure image image 401 Solid-state image sensor 402 Drive unit 403 Control unit 404 Photoelectric conversion unit 405 Vertical charge transfer unit 406 Horizontal charge transfer unit 407 Image signal output unit 411 Vertical synchronization Signal 412 Sub-pulse 413 Charge pulse 414 Vertical transfer pulse 415 Horizontal transfer pulse

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H054 AA01 5C022 AA13 AB01 AB17 AB68 AC11 AC31 AC42 AC69 5C024 AX01 BX01 CX51 CX69 GX01 GX02 GY01 GY05 GZ01 JX44

Claims (5)

[Claims] A photoelectric conversion unit configured to convert a light image of a subject into charge information; a charge transfer unit configured to extract and store the photoelectrically converted charge information and transfer one frame of imaging data; In a digital still camera using a solid-state imaging device of an all-pixel readout method including a charge removal unit that removes unnecessary charges, the solid-state imaging device is controlled,
The timing of generating a charge pulse for accumulating charge from the photoelectric conversion unit to the charge transfer unit and a sub-pulse for removing unnecessary charge of the photoelectric conversion unit is arbitrarily varied. A digital still camera provided with a driving unit having a control function of driving and stopping a charge transfer pulse for transferring image data for a frame. 2. The digital still camera according to claim 1, further comprising control means for enabling manual setting of the generation timing of the charge pulse generated by the driving means. 3. The digital still camera according to claim 1, further comprising control means for enabling manual setting of the generation timing of the sub-pulse generated by the driving means. 4. A digital still camera according to claim 1, further comprising control means for manually setting the generation timing of the charge pulse and the sub-pulse generated by the driving means manually. 5. The digital still camera according to claim 1, further comprising signal processing means for performing contour enhancement according to the multiple exposure image.