JP2003078792A - Eye-catch device and imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an eye-catch device that can easily and surely obtain a photographing image of a state when an object person views a photographing lens, a photographing image with so-called camera sight line and to provide an imaging apparatus. SOLUTION: A speaker 4 of the eye catch device mounted on a video camera 7 sounds a voice pattern such as 'Look at here!' to call the attention of the object person resulting in viewing a direction of the video camera 7. Since a flash 1 lights up in the vicinity of an imaging lens 8 by a prescribed method, the sight line of the object person is attracted in the vicinity of the imaging lens 8 so that a user of the eye catch device can obtain a photographing image with so-called camera sight line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an eye catching device and an image pickup device, and more particularly to an eye catching device and an image pickup device capable of picking up a so-called camera line of sight when a subject person is looking at the photographing lens side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, consumer image pickup devices such as video cameras and digital still cameras have become widespread, and have been widely used for such purposes as photographing the daily life of a family or photographing travel records. There is.

By the way, when taking a picture using this type of video camera or the like, a person, especially a family member,
A person close to the photographer is often the subject. When shooting a person who is close to the above-mentioned photographer, the above-mentioned person should be clearly aware of the video camera, rather than the shooting method in which the person who is the subject does not have to be aware of the video camera. There is a tendency to prefer a method in which the face is turned to the camera to express an expression, or the person talks with the photographer to record while recording the voice of the dialogue.

The above-mentioned reason can be sought in that the person himself / herself who is the subject and the photographer interact with each other and communicate with each other to take a picture, and the person who is the subject is a video player. If you play back the tape shot while looking at the camera side at a later date, it seems that the above person looks at the viewer or talks to the viewer through the playback screen,
It is also thought that this is because the sense of presence and impact increase.

[0005]

As described above, there are many cases in which a person as a subject desires to shoot while looking at the video camera side for shooting himself (so-called camera line of sight). On the other hand, the person who is the subject often does not look toward the video camera side, contrary to the intention of the photographer. This is because when you do not pay attention to the video camera because you cannot understand the intention of the photographer and are absorbed in your own play, such as an infant, and people who are subjects including adults, For example, if you are unaware that you are being filmed.

Therefore, in the configuration of the conventional video camera, when the person who is the subject does not intend to direct his or her line of sight to the video camera for photographing himself, the line of sight is drawn to the side of the video camera, which is a so-called camera line of sight photographing. The following methods have been proposed for obtaining an image.

(1) A method using a face-to-face monitor. A configuration of a so-called video camera with a liquid crystal monitor is known in which a relatively large liquid crystal panel display is provided in a video camera so that a photographer or the like can confirm an image being taken or a reproduced image. Further, this liquid crystal panel display is configured to be tiltable with respect to the video camera main body via the hinge means so that the display screen faces the front side of the video camera, that is, the subject side when raised from the video camera main body. There is also known a video camera configured so that the person being photographed can directly see the image of himself. Here, the liquid crystal panel display body is also referred to as a "face-to-face monitor" because it is arranged so as to face a person as a subject.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional video camera having the above-mentioned face-to-face monitor. The liquid crystal monitor 18 in FIG. 6 corresponds to this face-to-face monitor, and a liquid crystal panel 24 displays a photographed image of a person as a subject. Is displayed. In addition, FIG.
FIG. 7 is a front view of a conventional video camera having a configuration different from that of FIG. 6 as seen from the direction of a person who is a subject, and the point that a photographed image of the person who is a subject is displayed on a liquid crystal panel 71 of a face-to-face monitor 70. It is similar to 6.

Since the image of the person who is the subject is displayed on the above-mentioned face-to-face monitor, when the infant is the subject, for example, the infant's figure is reflected on the face-to-face monitor. It has been proposed to use the face-to-face monitor, in which the person who is the subject can obtain an image in which the person who is the subject faces the video camera side because the attention is drawn and the face-to-face monitor is watched.

(2) Method Using Tally Lamp A video camera having a conventional structure is known to have a tally lamp for notifying the surroundings of a photographing state. The tally lamp is a small-area light-emitting body that uses a light-emitting diode or the like as a light source and is arranged at a position visible from the front of the video camera housing. For example, it blinks at predetermined intervals. , Is configured to notify a person who can visually recognize the front side of the video camera that the video camera is currently in a shooting state. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an example of a video camera having a conventional configuration.
Is a tally lamp.

As described above, the tally lamp is arranged on the front side of the video camera so as to flicker and emit light, and the line of sight of the above-mentioned subject person is attracted to the blinking tally lamp, and as a result, As such, a method of using a so-called camera to obtain a photographed image has been proposed.

[0012] However, the above-mentioned "(1) Method of using face-to-face monitor" and "(2) Method of using tally lamp" have the following problems which are difficult to overcome. However, it was not an essential solution to the above-mentioned problem of attracting the line of sight of the person who is the subject to the video camera side so as to obtain a photographed image from the viewpoint of the camera. This will be described below.

First, in the above-described method of using a face-to-face monitor, even if a person such as an infant notices the image of himself or herself reflected on the face-to-face monitor and shows interest, the above-mentioned method is used. As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, particularly in FIG. 7, which is a front view seen from the subject side, the display screens 24 and 71 of the face-to-face monitor having a predetermined display area are arranged at positions apart from the taking lens of the video camera. Therefore, the infant or the like only looks at the in-person monitor at a position distant from the taking lens and does not look at the taking lens, so that the taken image as seen from the camera is never obtained. Therefore, if the display areas of the display screens 24 and 71 are made smaller in order to bring the display screens 24 and 71 closer to the taking lens, the size of the image of the person who is the subject is displayed too small, and You may not notice that the image is reflected.

In the method using the tally lamp, a person who already knows the function of the tally lamp (notification of the shooting state) is currently shooting by the video camera or is shooting. The blinking operation of the tally lamp does not make any sense to those who do not know the function of the tally lamp because it is for determining whether or not it is stopped. There is a problem that it cannot be attracted to. Further, when the person as the subject is looking in a direction other than the video camera side, the blinking operation of the tally lamp does not enter the field of view of the person as the subject, and therefore the tally lamp is naturally not visible. As a result, the line of sight of the person who is the subject is not attracted to the video camera side to obtain a photographed image from the viewpoint of the camera.

[0015]

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and in particular, in order to obtain a picked-up image in a state in which the line of sight of a person to be picked up is drawn to the side of the image pickup lens. In the eye-catching device attached to the image pickup device, a sounding means for generating a caution sound to draw the attention of a person to be imaged and draw a line of sight to the image pickup device side, and looking at the image pickup device side In order to further attract the line of sight of a person being imaged to the side of the image pickup lens, a light emitting means for emitting light in the vicinity of the image pickup lens is provided to provide an eye-catching device. To provide an eye-catching device and an imaging device for easily and surely obtaining a so-called captured image of a person looking at the imaging device side by attracting a line of sight to the imaging device side. For the purpose.

[0016]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an eye catching device and an image pickup device having the following configurations. (1) An eye-catching device attached to an imaging device (video camera 7, still camera 9) to obtain a captured image in which the line of sight of a person to be imaged is drawn to the imaging lens 8 side, A sounding means (speaker) 4 for generating a caution sound for attracting the attention of the person to be attracted to the image pickup device side, and the line of sight of the imaged person looking at the image pickup device side, The eye catching device further comprises a light emitting means (light emitting device) 1 that emits light in the vicinity of the imaging lens 8 in order to attract it toward the imaging lens 8 side. (2) An image pickup apparatus having an eye catching function for obtaining a picked-up image in which a line of sight of a person to be picked up is drawn to the image pickup lens 8 side. Sounding means 4 for generating a caution sound for drawing a line of sight to the side, and the image pickup lens 8 in order to further draw the line of sight of the imaged person looking at the image pickup device side to the image pickup lens 8 side. And a light emitting means (1) for emitting light in the vicinity of the image pickup device.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
1 is a schematic diagram of a light emitting unit that constitutes the eye catching device of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a light emitting example of the light emitting unit of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sounding unit that constitutes the eye catching device of this embodiment. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example in which the eye catch device of the present embodiment is attached to a video camera, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example in which the eye catch device of the present embodiment is attached to a still camera.

The eye-catching device of this embodiment is mounted on a video camera or a still camera and used to draw the line of sight of a person who is a subject toward the video camera side or the still camera side, so-called the camera line of sight. This is a configuration for obtaining a captured image of, and has a light emitting unit and a sounding unit as described below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the above-described light emitting unit. As shown in the figure, a plurality of light emitting units are provided on the front side of an annular base, and a plurality of light emitting devices are arranged in a circumferential shape. It has a control device 2 for controlling the light emission of the light emitting device, and a mounting device 3 for mounting the above-mentioned base on the front side of a casing structure such as a video camera to be mounted. The light emitting device 1 is a light emitting body including an incandescent light bulb, a light emitting diode, and other light emitting elements, and is arranged on a base having a through hole of a size facing the photographing lens.

Further, the control device 2 turns on the plurality of light emitting devices 1 by a predetermined lighting method in response to pressing of an operation switch (not shown). The lighting method can be various modes such as sequentially flashing the light emitting devices 1 one by one at predetermined time intervals, or turning off the light for a predetermined time. FIG. 2 is an example of a lighting method of the light emitting device 1 performed by the control device 2, and shows a method of sequentially turning on and off the light emitting devices 1 one by one in a clockwise order. Further, the power source for lighting the light emitting device 1 may be housed inside the control device 2, or may be configured such that power is supplied from a video camera or the like mounted thereto through a conductive wire (not shown).

Furthermore, the mounting device 3 has a fitting structure for mounting the base on the surface of the video camera housing, and the base is video-mounted by mutually fitting with the housing of the video camera. Fix it to the camera.

Next, the sounding unit will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, the sounding unit includes a speaker 4 arranged on the front surface of the housing box, a control device 5 for controlling the sounding of the speaker 4, and the housing box on the surface of a housing such as a video camera to be mounted. And a mounting device 6 to be mounted.

The control device 5 outputs a predetermined electric signal to the speaker 4 in response to pressing of an operation button (not shown),
As a result, a voice corresponding to this electric signal is produced. The sound to be generated may be a monotonous alarm sound, or a storage means such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) may be provided inside the control device 5 and a human voice (voice) according to the electric signal pattern read from the storage means. ), For example, it is also possible to adopt a mode in which a voice pattern such as "Turn up here!"

The control device 5 may also have a structure in which a power source for sound generation is housed therein similarly to the light emitting unit.
The mounting device 6 has a structure for fixing the housing box to the surface of the housing of the video camera or the like by fitting the housing box to the housing of the video camera or the like.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an example in which the eye catching device including the above-described light emitting unit and sounding unit is mounted on the video camera 7, and a plurality of light emitting devices 1 surround the photographing lens 8. The speaker 4 is mounted so as to surround it, and the speaker 4 is attached so as to face the front surface (front surface) of the video camera 7.

Further, FIG. 5 shows the above eye catching device,
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of mounting on a digital still camera (electronic still camera) 9 or a silver salt film still camera, in which a plurality of light emitting devices 1 are arranged so as to surround the periphery of a taking lens 8, and a front surface ( As in FIG. 4, the speaker 4 is disposed at a position facing the front.

Next, the operation of the eye catching device mounted on the video camera 7 as shown in FIG. 4 will be described. When the photographer is using the video camera 7 to photograph a person and wants to draw the person's line of sight to the video camera 7 side to obtain a photographed image of the person looking at the camera, the photographer does not show it. The light emitting device 1 is turned on by a predetermined method by pressing the evil operating button, and a predetermined voicing pattern is emitted from the speaker 4.

As an example, let us consider a case where the person as the subject is an infant and the infant is now facing in a direction different from the direction in which the video camera 7 is present. The infant is alerted by listening to a predetermined voice pattern produced from the speaker 4 as described above, for example, "Look here!", And the face is directed in the direction in which the sound is heard, that is, the direction in which the video camera 7 is present. Turn to. Then, the video camera 7 in the field of view
Since the light emitting device 1 that attracts the line of sight of the viewer with a predetermined light emitting pattern can be seen on the front face of the, the infant naturally gazes at the light emitting device 1, and as a result, the line of sight is located at the center of the plurality of light emitting devices 1. Since it faces the lens 8 side, a photographed image in which a person as a subject is gazing at the photographing lens side of the video camera, that is, a so-called photographed image of the camera is obtained.

Also, when the still camera 9 is equipped with the eye catching device as shown in FIG. 5, the attention of the person who is the subject is first drawn to the still camera 9 side by the utterance pattern produced by the speaker 4. Since the line of sight of the person is attracted to the lighting of the light emitting device 1, the photographer operates the release means (shutter button) attached to the still camera 9 in that state to capture a still image or expose the silver salt film. By doing so, a photographed image in which a person as a subject is gazing at the photographing lens side of the still camera 9, that is, a so-called photographed image from the viewpoint of the camera is obtained.

In the above description, the embodiment in which the present invention is embodied as an eye-catching device mounted on a video camera or a still camera has been mainly described.
Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. That is, the light emitting unit and the sound producing unit having the above-described configuration are integrally provided in an image pickup apparatus such as a video camera or a still camera, and the above-described configuration is achieved by using the video camera or the still camera having such a configuration. By performing the operations described above, it is possible to obtain a so-called photographed image of a so-called camera looking at the subject person looking at the photographing lens side of the image pickup apparatus, and these configurations are also included in the present invention. Furthermore, as described above, the eye catching device and the image pickup device based on the above-described configuration can obtain a so-called captured image of a so-called camera by capturing the line of sight of a person as a subject, that is, a human being. It goes without saying that the configuration can bring about the same effect and action even when an animal other than a human is used as a subject.

[0031]

As described in detail above, the present invention is an eye-catching device mounted on an image pickup device in order to obtain a picked-up image in which the line of sight of a person to be picked up is drawn to the image pickup lens side. A sounding means for generating a caution sound for attracting the attention of the person to be imaged and drawing the line of sight to the image pickup device side, and further drawing the line of sight of the imaged person looking at the image pickup device side to the image pickup lens side. In order to achieve this, an eye-catching device is provided that includes a light-emitting device that emits light in the vicinity of the imaging lens, so that the line of sight of a person who is the subject is drawn to the imaging device side It is possible to provide an eye catching device and an imaging device for easily and surely obtaining a so-called photographed image of a person looking at a camera.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a light emitting unit that constitutes an eye catching device of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a light emitting example of the light emitting unit of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a sounding unit that constitutes the eye catching device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example in which the eye catching device of the present embodiment is attached to a video camera.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example in which the eye-catching device of the present embodiment is attached to a still camera.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional video camera.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a conventional video camera.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a conventional video camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Light emitting device (light emitting means) 4 speakers (pronunciation means) 7 Video camera (imaging device) 8 Shooting lens (imaging lens) 9 Still camera (imaging device)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An eye-catching device attached to an image pickup device for obtaining a picked-up image in which a line of sight of a person to be picked up is drawn to the side of an image pickup lens. Sounding means for generating a caution sound for drawing a line of sight to the image pickup device side, and the image pickup in order to further draw the line of sight of the imaged person looking at the image pickup device side to the image pickup lens side. An eye catching device comprising: a light emitting means for emitting light in the vicinity of a lens. 2. An image pickup apparatus having an eye catching function for obtaining a picked-up image in which a line of sight of a person to be picked up is drawn to the side of an image pickup lens, wherein the image pickup is performed by calling attention of the person to be picked up. A sounding means for generating a caution sound for attracting a line of sight to the device side, and a vicinity of the image pickup lens for further attracting the line of sight of the imaged person looking at the image pickup device side to the image pickup lens side. An image pickup apparatus comprising: a light emitting unit that emits light.