JP2003158675A - Image pickup device and mobile electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image pickup device that can reduce noises caused by a light emission section emitting light to illuminate an object more than that of a conventional image pickup device and to enhance the latitude of design. SOLUTION: The image pickup device employs a white LED 9 as a light emission section for emitting the light to illuminate an object so as to use the white LED 9 in place of a xenon tube as a strobe light emission section and can reduce noises caused by the light emission section for emitting light to illuminate the object more than that of a conventional image pickup device so as to be downsized and enhance the degree of design freedom.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable electronic device such as an image pickup device and a mobile phone, and more particularly to an image pickup device provided with a white LED for illuminating an object and a portable electronic device such as a mobile phone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital still cameras using image sensors such as CCDs have become widespread. In many of such digital still cameras, an image captured by an image sensor is displayed on a display unit such as an LCD when the camera operation is turned on. After confirming the image displayed on the display unit, the user presses the release switch to take a picture, thereby taking a picture of the composition intended by the user. This kind of usage is unique to digital still cameras, which silver salt cameras do not have. However, such usage is only required if the surroundings are bright, but if the surroundings are dark, the display on the display unit also becomes dark and cannot be realized.

A strobe device using a xenon tube, which is also used in a silver salt camera, has been conventionally adopted as a countermeasure for photographing in dark surroundings.

Further, in recent years, a white LED which emits a high-intensity white light with a driving voltage of about several V to 10 V has been commercialized, and it has been developed into a product which has been illuminated by a light bulb or the like, and is put into practical use. Has been planned. For example, as a light emitting unit of a pen-type light or a lighting device that is attached to the head by an operator, LE
D is adopted and put to practical use.

[0005]

The drive voltage of a xenon tube is several tenths, which is much higher than the drive voltage of the LED.
A high voltage of 0V is required, and noise is generated due to this high voltage. In the conventional digital still camera, in order to prevent the control circuit such as the CPU from being affected by this noise, the distance between the strobe part and the CPU is increased, a separate structure is used, or an electromagnetic shield member is used. However, this measure is becoming difficult to implement as the device becomes smaller. In particular, when a digital still camera is built in a mobile electronic device such as a mobile phone or a notebook personal computer, there are large space restrictions, and it has been difficult to increase the distance between the flash unit and the CPU. From a different point of view, the strobe portion and the control circuit such as the CPU must be separated from each other to some extent, which causes a problem that the degree of freedom in design is reduced. In addition, light emitted by a xenon tube discharges the electric charge accumulated in a large-capacity capacitor instantaneously, but the large-capacity capacitor becomes large, so there is a restriction on the layout position, and the degree of freedom in design is low. There was a problem of becoming.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image pickup apparatus in which noise caused by a light emitting section for illuminating a light for illuminating a subject is reduced as compared with the conventional case and the degree of freedom in design is improved.

[0007]

A first aspect of the present invention is an image pickup apparatus including an image pickup section for picking up a subject image and outputting image information, and a white LED for illuminating the subject. With such a configuration, it is possible to use a white LED as a light emitting unit instead of the xenon tube, reduce noise caused by the light emitting unit that irradiates the light for illuminating the subject, and reduce the size. , The degree of freedom in design is improved. Further, since the white LED is used, the configuration can be simplified and the number of components can be reduced as compared with, for example, a device that emits white light using a red LED, a green LED, and a blue LED.

A second aspect of the invention is an image pickup device according to the first aspect of the invention, further including a light amount control section for controlling the amount of light emitted from the white LED based on the image information. According to such a configuration, in addition to the above effects, when the brightness obtained from the image information output by the image capturing unit is low, the amount of light emitted from the white LED is increased to increase the brightness of the image information, When the brightness obtained from the image information output by is too high, the amount of light emitted from the white LED can be reduced to control the brightness of the image information. Therefore, the brightness of the image information can be corrected. Further, since the amount of light emitted from the white LED is controlled based on the image information output by the image pickup unit, for example, the red LED, the green LED, and the blue L
Compared with the case where the light amount of the light emitting section that emits white light is controlled using the ED, the light amount control becomes easier. That is, red LED
When controlling the light quantity of the light emitting portion that emits white light by using the green LED and the blue LED, the light quantity of the red LED, the green LED, and the blue LED must be adjusted in consideration of the white balance, whereas the white LED is white. When controlling the amount of light emitted from the LED, control considering white balance is not necessary.

According to a third aspect of the invention, the light quantity control section controls the light quantity by changing the drive current supplied to the white LED. According to such a configuration, in addition to the above effects, it is possible to control the light amount with the same white LED.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is a plurality of the white LEDs, and the light quantity control unit controls the light quantity by changing the number of driving the white LEDs. With such a configuration, in addition to the above effects, it is possible to control the light amount according to at least the number of white LEDs, and the light amount can be made larger than that in the case of a single white LED.

A fifth aspect of the present invention is an image pickup apparatus further including a display section for displaying according to the image information output by the image pickup section. With such a configuration, in addition to the above effects, the illumination light can be emitted to the subject while the user is deciding the composition while looking at the display unit, and the user can display the display unit even when the surroundings are dark. It is possible to decide the composition while watching.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is a portable electronic device integrally provided with the above-mentioned image pickup device. According to such a configuration,
White LED as a light emitting unit that emits light to illuminate the subject
Since it uses, the noise can be reduced, the size can be reduced, and the degree of freedom in design can be improved as compared with the case where the xenon tube is used as in the past.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. In this example, an example in which an imaging device is provided in a mobile phone as a mobile electronic device will be described.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an electrical configuration of a mobile phone as a functional block diagram. In the figure, a control unit 1 as a light amount control unit is mainly composed of a microcomputer including a CPU, a wireless communication unit 2, an audio input / output unit 3, a CCD camera 4 as an image pickup unit,
A keypad 5, a color LCD 6 as a display unit, an external device connection interface 7, a memory 8, a drive circuit 10 for driving a white LED 9 as a light emitting unit that emits light for illuminating a subject, and an emission mode of the LED 9 are set. A light emission mode setting unit 11 for setting, a release switch 1 for outputting a release signal for instructing the start of still image shooting
2 and an operation mode setting unit 13 that also serves as a power switch are connected. An antenna 14 is connected to the wireless communication unit 2, and a microphone 15 and a receiver 16 are connected to the voice input / output unit 3.

Upon reception of the transmitted voice, the microphone 15 converts the input transmitted voice from an audio signal into an electric signal to generate a transmitted signal, and outputs the transmitted signal to the voice input / output unit 3. When the voice transmission signal is given from the microphone 15, the voice input / output unit 3 performs amplification processing and A / D on the transmission signal.
The conversion process is executed, and the wireless communication unit 2 is operated through the control unit 1.
Output the transmission signal to. When a voice transmission signal is given from the voice input / output unit 3 through the control unit 1, the wireless communication unit 2 executes baseband processing and wireless processing on the transmission signal, and the antenna 14 transmits a wideband communication frequency band. It is radiated as a transmission radio wave of (for example, a communication frequency band assigned to wireless communication using a code division multiple access (CDMA) system).

When the antenna 14 captures a radio wave in the above-mentioned wide band communication frequency band as a received radio wave, the radio communication unit 2 executes radio processing and baseband processing on the supplemented radio wave to generate a reception signal. Then, the received signal is output to the voice input / output unit 3 through the control unit 1. The voice input / output unit 3 receives a received signal from the wireless communication unit 2 through the control unit 1, executes D / A conversion processing and amplification processing on the received received signal, and outputs the received received signal to the receiver 16. . Upon receiving the reception signal from the voice input / output unit 3, the receiver 16 converts the reception signal from an electric signal into a voice signal to generate a reception voice, and outputs the generated reception voice.

The CCD camera 4 captures a subject image, generates electrical image information (so-called photoelectric conversion) according to the captured image, and outputs it to the control unit 1.

The keypad 5 includes a call start key, a redial key, a call end key, numeric keys "0" to "9", *
(Asterisk) key, # (pound) key and F
Various keys such as a (function) key are arranged and configured. When any key is operated, a key operation signal corresponding to the key operation is output to the control unit 1.
When a key operation signal is given from the keypad 5, the control unit 1 decodes the key operation signal and executes a process according to the decoded result.

When the display signal is given from the control section 1, the LCD 6 displays the display information according to the given display signal. The external device 17, like the CCD camera 4,
The external device connection interface 7 is a digital still camera or the like having a function of capturing image information, and the external device connection interface 7 inputs the image information captured by the external device 17 on condition that the mobile phone 1 and the external device 17 are connected. Then, the input image information is output to the control unit 1. The display unit is not limited to the color LCD, and an organic EL display or the like can be appropriately changed.

The memory 8 forming a control means in cooperation with the control unit 1 is a flash memory, a ROM, a RAM and a V memory.
A storage element such as a RAM (video RAM) is provided, and an execution program is stored in the ROM. The control unit 1 reads out the execution program and executes processing to execute various operations described later. The flash memory in the memory 8 stores the image information input from the CCD camera 4 and the image information input from the external device connection interface 7 when the release switch 12 operates. V in memory 8
The RAM stores image information input from the CCD camera 4 displayed on the LCD 6 and image information input from the external device connection interface 7. The RAM in the memory 8 is used for various processes.

The LED 9 as a light emitting portion is an LED for illuminating a subject, and in this example, a white LED that emits white light is used. As the white LED, for example, a high brightness white LED (model number: NSPW51 manufactured by Nichia Corporation)
0BS) or the like is used. Although FIG. 1 shows an example in which two LEDs 9 are adopted, the number of LEDs can be changed appropriately. For example, the amount of light required for illumination differs depending on the detection characteristics of the CCD (image sensor) used in the CCD camera 4. Therefore, when a large amount of light is required for illumination, the number of LEDs 9 is increased to increase the amount of light. When a large amount of light is not needed for illumination, it is possible to change it to a single LED.

The drive circuit 10 outputs L output from the control unit 1.
LE based on the light amount control signal that indicates the amount of light emitted from the ED 9.
Drive D9. Note that the light amount control signal output from the control unit 1 may be information designating the light emission amount of the white LED 9. Therefore, when controlling the light amount of the light emitting unit that emits white light using the red LED, the green LED, and the blue LED. As described above, the control considering the white balance becomes unnecessary, and the light amount control signal can be simplified.

The light emission mode setting section 11 is for setting the light emission mode of the LED 9. In this example, the light emission mode of the LED 9 and the automatic light emission mode for automatically controlling the light emission and the light emission amount of the LED 9 according to the brightness of the subject are set. A prohibited light emission mode can be set, and for example, the automatic light emission mode and the light emission prohibited mode are switched each time the operation is performed once. The control unit 1 controls the light emission of the LED 9 according to the mode set by the light emission mode setting unit 11 and the like, and causes the LCD 6 to display the set mode.

The operation mode setting unit 13 is in a state in which the power is turned off (OFF mode), a state in which the telephone can be transmitted and received (telephone mode), a state in which the image information stored in the memory 8 is displayed (view mode), and a camera photographing. Possible state (shooting mode) and LED (light emitting unit) 9 with a predetermined light amount (brightness)
It is possible to set the state of continuously emitting light (light mode) selectively. For example, the mode switches between off mode, telephone mode, view mode, shooting mode, and light mode each time it is operated. There is. The control unit 1 controls various operations according to the mode set by the operation mode setting unit 13 and causes the LCD 6 to display the set mode. It is possible to receive an incoming call in a mode other than the off mode.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the CCD camera 4, the control unit 1 and the like. In the figure, the taking lens 40
The CCD 402, which is an image pickup device in which an optical image of an object is formed on the light receiving surface by 1, is a solid-state image pickup device that performs photoelectric conversion to output an analog signal corresponding to the optical image and transfers charges in an array. Then, it is used as a so-called solid-state image sensor that converts two-dimensional optical information into a time series (serial string) electric signal.

To supplement the CCD, the CCD has a photoelectric conversion section in which a large number of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged in an array, a charge accumulation section for accumulating output charges of the photoelectric conversion elements, and a predetermined amount of charges accumulated in the charge accumulation section. The photoelectric reading device is provided with a charge reading unit, and each photoelectric conversion element serves as a pixel. The CCD 402 in this example is a color CCD. In general, the pixel information of the CCD does not have color information. Therefore, the color CCD is equipped with a color filter (a primary color filter using the three primary colors of light or a complementary color filter using the three primary colors of light) on the front surface.

A horizontal / vertical driver 403 and a timing generator (TG) 404 generate driving signals necessary for reading the CCD 402. Specifically, drive signals for transferring (reading) pixel information in units of rows while sequentially designating each column of the CCD 402, that is, horizontal and vertical drive signals for serially reading pixel information are generated.

The sample hold circuit 405 is a CCD 40.
The time-series signal (analog signal at this stage) read out from No. 2 is sampled at a frequency suitable for the resolution of the CCD 402. Note that automatic gain adjustment (AGC) may be performed after sampling.

The analog-digital converter 406 converts the sampled signal into a digital signal.

The color process circuit 407 uses the output of the analog-to-digital converter 406 to output luminance / image as image information.
A color difference multiplex signal (hereinafter referred to as "YUV signal") is generated. The signal format of the YUV signal is
It is composed of three fixed-length blocks called "components" that include a luminance signal and two color-difference signals independently, and the ratio of the length (the number of bits) of each component is called the component ratio.

The DMA controller 408 performs data transfer between the color process circuit 407 and the DRAM 410 (more precisely, the DRAM interface 409) without the intervention of the control unit 1, and so-called direct memory transfer (DMA: DIRECT MEMORY). ACC
ESS).

The DRAM interface 409 is a DR
It serves as a signal interface between the AM 410 and the DMA controller 408 and a signal interface between the DRAM 410 and the control unit 1.

FIG. 3 is a view showing the outer appearance of the portable telephone of this example, in which the same components as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. The taking lens 401, the CCD 402, and the LED 9 are integrally formed and are rotatable about the shaft 500. Therefore, it becomes possible to photograph the user himself / herself by using the CCD camera 4. in this way,
Since the mobile phone is equipped with an image pickup device that uses an LED as the light emitting unit, noise can be reduced compared to when a xenon tube is used as the light emitting unit as in the past, and the size can be reduced. Is improved. Further, since the white LED is used as the light emitting portion, the configuration can be simplified and the number of parts can be reduced as compared with, for example, a device that emits white light using a red LED, a green LED, and a blue LED.

Next, the operation will be described.

When the telephone mode is set by the operation mode setting unit 13, the control unit 1 controls the wireless communication unit 2, the voice input / output unit 3,
The mobile phone function using the antenna 14, the microphone 15, the receiver 16 and the like is made operable, and the user can use it as a normal mobile phone.

When the view mode is set by the operation mode setting unit 13, the control unit 1 gives a display signal according to the image information stored in the memory 8 to the LCD 6 and displays an image according to the image information on the LCD 6. Let

When the light mode is set by the operation mode setting unit 13, the control unit 1 causes the LED 9 to emit a predetermined amount of light (brightness). Therefore, when the light mode is set, the mobile phone can be used as a lighting device.
Also, as will be described later, an LED (light emitting unit) used for shooting
Since 9 is also used for illumination, the structure can be simplified, and since the LED is used as the light emitting portion, further downsizing of the structure can be realized. In the light mode, the light amount of the LED 9 may be adjustable by operating the keypad 5.

When the photographing mode is set by the operation mode setting unit, the control unit 1 operates the CCD camera 4 to take in image information corresponding to a subject image photographed and output by the CCD camera 4 in real time, and the memory 8 It is sent to the LCD 6 via the VRAM or the like and displayed on the LCD 6. The user
In this state, the work for determining the composition is performed while looking at the LCD 6. At this time, the control unit 1 confirms the setting in the light emission mode setting unit 11.

When the automatic light emission mode is set by the light emission mode setting unit 11, the control unit 1 controls the amount of light emitted from the LED 9 based on the image information input from the CCD camera 4. Specifically, the control unit 1 controls the drive circuit 1 based on the luminance signal included in the image information input from the CCD camera 4.
LED by changing the light intensity control signal output to 0
The amount of light emitted from 9 is controlled. Further speaking, as the brightness signal indicates a darker state, the light emission amount of the LED 9 is increased and the intense light is irradiated. As an example, when the control unit 1 determines that the image displayed on the LCD 6 is brighter than the predetermined value 1 based on the luminance signal, LE is used.
The lighting of D9 is suppressed, and the control unit 1 controls the LC based on the luminance signal.
The image displayed at D6 is darker than the predetermined value 1 and brighter than the predetermined value 2 (provided that the predetermined value 1 has a higher brightness than the predetermined value 2 and these values are stored in the memory 8 in advance. ), The LED 9 is turned on with the first light amount, and when the control unit 1 determines that the image displayed on the LCD 6 is darker than the predetermined value 2 based on the brightness signal, the LED 9 is turned on.
9 is turned on with a second light amount having a light amount larger than the first light amount.

As a method of controlling the amount of light, when a plurality of LEDs are provided, the number of LEDs 9 to be turned on may be changed, or the drive current supplied to the same LED may be changed according to the amount of light. They may be controlled or they may be combined. In the case of the configuration in which the light amount from the LED is controlled by changing the drive current supplied to the LED, the light amount can be controlled by the same LED. In the case of a configuration in which the number of LEDs is plural and the amount of light from the LEDs is controlled by changing the number of driven LEDs, the amount of light can be controlled in accordance with at least the number of LEDs, and the amount of light can be made larger than in the case of a single LED.

Further, in the above, the light quantity of the LED 9 is controlled in three stages, but it is not limited to three stages and may be less than three stages or more than three stages depending on the image information (luminance signal). Good.

It should be noted that the light emission by the LED 9 may be continuously performed when the automatic light emission mode is set under the photographing mode, or as shown in FIG. CC excluding (during transfer)
The operation may be performed only while the charge is being stored in the D402, or may be turned off so that the light is turned off only during a part of the period in which the charge is being read from the CCD 402 (during charge transfer) as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, when the LED (light emitting section) 9 is turned on only during the period in which the CCD 402 is accumulating charges, excluding the period during which charges are being read from the CCD 402, when the CCD 402 is not detecting a subject image. Since it is possible to prevent the LED 9 (light emitting unit) from operating, it is possible to prevent the emission of light that is not necessary for object image detection, and it is possible to save power. In addition, as shown in FIG.
If the light is turned off only for a part of the period during which the electric charge is read from 02, the unnecessary operation of the LED (light emitting unit) 9 can be reduced as compared with the case where the LED 9 is continuously turned on, and power saving can be achieved. Further, as compared with the case where the light emission of the LED 9 is stopped for the entire period of reading the electric charge from the CCD 402, the intermittent light emission of the LED (light emitting unit) 9 occurs when a person receives the light from the LED (light emitting unit) 9 as a subject. It is possible to reduce the flicker that may be uncomfortable. In this example, such an LED 9
When performing the light emission control of 1, the control unit 1 controls the light emission timing of the LED 9 based on the output of the timing generator 404 that defines the read timing of the CCD 402. In this way, since the read timing of the CCD 402 and the light emission control timing of the LED 9 are controlled based on the common output, the timing can be easily synchronized, and the read timing of the CCD 402 and the LED 9 can be based on the common output.
Since the light emission timing is controlled, the output for timing determination can be shared.

The user can use this state, that is, the image captured by the CCD camera 4 in the LCD 6 almost in real time.
The composition of the image displayed on the LCD 6 is changed while changing the direction of the mobile phone in the state of being displayed on the screen (through shooting state), and when the desired composition is obtained, the release switch 12 is operated to shoot. To do.

With the operation of the release switch 12, the control unit 1 immediately after the operation of the release switch 12, the DRAM 41
The YUV signal stored in 0 is fixed, the fixed YUV signal is taken in through the DRAM interface 409, and the display of the LCD 6 is fixed in the YU.
The image is fixed according to the V signal. The control unit 1 stores the captured YUV signal in the flash memory of the memory 8 after, for example, JPEG encoding.

The light emission amount of the LED 9 may be changed before and after the release switch 12 is operated. Specifically, the control unit 1 increases the light emission amount of the LED 9 immediately after the operation of the release switch 12 rather than before the operation of the release switch 12. In this case, the release switch 12 is a two-stage switch, and when the release switch 12 is operated to turn on the first-stage switch, the light emission amount of the LED 9 is increased, and the release switch 12 is operated subsequently to the second-stage switch. Alternatively, the YUV signal stored in the DRAM 410 may be fixed and the above-mentioned processing may be performed when is turned on. In this case, the LED before operating the release switch 12
9 is set to be smaller than the light emission amount based on the image information, and the light emission amount of the LED 9 immediately after the operation of the release switch 12 is set to the light emission amount based on the image information, the image is taken according to the operation of the release switch 12. The image can have an appropriate brightness, and it is possible to avoid unnecessary power consumption by irradiating light from the LED 9 more than necessary when the composition is not intended by the user, and power can be saved. .

As described above, since the white LED is used as the light emitting portion for irradiating the light for illuminating the object, the light emitting portion can be downsized. Therefore, the degree of freedom in design is improved. In addition, unlike the xenon tube, the LED is easy to control lighting, so it can be used for anything other than conventional strobe light for dark photography, such as illuminating a subject so that the user can check the composition when the surroundings are dark. Is also possible, and the usability of the user is expanded. Further, unlike the xenon tube, a driving voltage of several hundreds of volts is not required, so that noise caused by this high voltage can be reduced, and the design constraint due to noise can be reduced as compared with the conventional case.

Further, when the brightness obtained from the image information output by the CCD camera 4 is dark, the amount of light emitted from the LED 9 is increased to increase the brightness of the image information, or the brightness obtained from the image information output by the CCD camera 4 is increased. When the brightness is too bright, the brightness of the image information can be corrected by controlling the amount of light emitted from the LED to reduce the brightness of the image information.

Further, since the LCD 6 displays an image corresponding to the image information obtained by picking up the image of the subject illuminated by the LED 9, it is illuminated when the user is deciding the composition while looking at the display section (through shooting). It becomes possible to irradiate light, and the user can determine the composition while looking at the display unit even when the surroundings are dark.

Further, since the light emitting portion serves both as auxiliary light for through shooting and so-called strobe light for shooting when the release switch is operated, the structure can be simplified.

If the light emission mode setting unit 11 sets the light emission prohibition mode when the operation mode setting unit sets the light emission mode, the control unit 1 does not cause the LED 9 to emit light and performs the above-described image capturing operation.

Although a CCD is used as the image pickup unit in the above description, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, an image sensor such as a CMOS sensor may be used.

In the above, the example in which the image pickup device is integrally formed with the mobile phone as the mobile electronic device has been shown, but the mobile electronic device is not limited to the mobile phone. For example,
It may be a so-called notebook computer, a portable information terminal, or the like.
In addition, when the present imaging device is integrally provided in a mobile electronic device such as a mobile phone that performs wireless communication, it is possible to reduce the size and reduce the occurrence of wireless communication failure due to noise.

[0053]

According to the present invention, since the white LED is used as the light emitting portion for illuminating the subject, the white LED can be used as the light emitting portion instead of the xenon tube, and the light for illuminating the subject is irradiated. The noise caused by the light emitting section is reduced as compared with the conventional one, downsizing can be achieved, and the degree of freedom in design is improved. Further, since the white LED is used, the configuration can be simplified as compared with, for example, a red LED, a green LED, and a blue LED that emit white light.

Further, since the amount of light emitted from the white LED is controlled based on the image information, in addition to the above effect, the amount of light emitted from the white LED when the brightness obtained from the image information output by the image pickup unit is low is controlled. It is possible to increase the brightness of the image information or to decrease the brightness of the image information by decreasing the amount of light emitted from the white LED when the brightness obtained from the image information output from the imaging unit is too high. . Therefore, the brightness of the image information can be corrected. Further, since the amount of light emitted from the white LED is controlled based on the image information output by the image pickup unit, for example, the red LED and the green LED are
Compared with the case of controlling the light quantity of the light emitting portion that emits white light using the blue LED and the blue LED, the light quantity control becomes easier. In other words, when controlling the light quantity of the light emitting portion that emits white light using the red LED, the green LED, and the blue LED, the light quantity of the red LED, the green LED, and the blue LED must be adjusted in consideration of the white balance. On the other hand, when controlling the amount of light emitted from the white LED, the control considering the white balance becomes unnecessary.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the CCD camera of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing the outer appearance of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of FIG.

5 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Light intensity controller 4 Imaging unit 6 Display 9 LED

Front page continuation (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04M 1/21 H04M 1/21 M 1/725 1/725 (72) Inventor Yoichi Nakano 1 Akanehama, Narashino, Chiba No. 1 Seiko Precision Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hirofumi Okuyama 1-1-1, Akanehama, Narashino-shi, Chiba Seiko Precision Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5C022 AA12 AB15 AB20 AB40 AB67 AC03 AC12 AC22 AC32 AC42 AC71 AC72 5K023 AA07 BB11 MM00 MM07 MM25 5K027 AA11 BB01 HH26 HH30 MM16

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup section for picking up a subject image and outputting image information; and a white LED for illuminating the subject. 2. The image pickup device according to claim 1, further comprising a light amount control unit that controls a light amount emitted from the white LED based on the image information. 3. The light amount control unit according to claim 2,
An image pickup device, wherein the light amount is controlled by changing a drive current supplied to the white LED. 4. The image pickup device according to claim 2, wherein there are a plurality of the white LEDs, and the light amount control unit controls the light amount by changing a driving number of the white LEDs. 5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit that performs a display according to the image information output by the image pickup unit. 6. A portable electronic device comprising the image pickup device according to claim 1 integrally provided.