JP2003230040A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging apparatus capable of obtaining an excellent moving picture and still picture with excellent user-friendliness. <P>SOLUTION: The imaging apparatus is provided with: a first video conversion means for generating two fields of an interlace video signal from two frames of a progressive system video signal; and a second video conversion means for generating two fields of the interlace video signal from one frame of the progressive system video signal; a selection means for selecting an output signal of the first or second video conversion means; and a control means (m, n are integers) for controlling the selection means to alternately select m-frames of output signals from the first video conversion means and n-frames of output signals from the second video conversion means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus using a progressive type image pickup element.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional video camera, an interlace type image pickup device based on a television signal standard is used for shooting a moving image, and an image of one frame is divided into a first field and an exposure timing different from each other. It is composed of the second field. For example, in the case of NSTC,
There are about 30 frames per second, that is, 60 fields (hereinafter, this method is abbreviated as I60).

[0003]

In recent years, video cameras are required to capture moving images and obtain high-definition still images. However, when trying to obtain a still image using a video camera using the interlaced image pickup device, if one frame is taken as one still image, when a moving subject is photographed, two fields are displayed. There is a problem that the image is blurred because the exposure timing is different. Also, if one field contains one still image, the vertical resolution will be halved,
There is a problem that a high-definition still image cannot be obtained. In order to solve this problem, a video camera using an image sensor of the progressive scan type is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-41193.
No. In this video camera, a moving image is converted from a progressive system to an interlace system and recorded, and a still image is recorded as it is.

However, in this video camera, it is necessary to record a still image on a recording medium different from that for the moving image, or to stop recording the moving image and record it on the same recording medium as the moving image.

Also, one of the new television standards is a progressive system of about 60 frames / sec. Less than,
This method is abbreviated as P60. In this P60 movie recording,
If the image compression processing is not performed, the recording rate will be doubled compared to I60. In the case of performing image compression processing, for example, the widespread use of MPEG2 is 30 frames of main profile and main level (MP @ ML).
Since it is second, there is a problem that when a moving image is recorded at P60, the MP @ ML reproducing device is not compatible. In order to solve this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-134573 discloses a camera in which a moving image is temporarily recorded in a memory, time-axis expanded and then recorded on a recording medium such as a tape.

However, this camera has the problem that the recording time is limited by the memory capacity because the recording is performed once in the memory, the time axis is expanded and then recorded in the recording medium as described above. In addition, there is a problem that when a moving image is played back by a conventional playback device, it becomes a 1/2 slow image. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-341578 describes a camera that records in a progressive system of about 30 frames / second (hereinafter, this system is abbreviated as P30). P
In the case of 30, since the recording capacity and the recording rate are the same as those of I60, there is compatibility with conventional devices, and the vertical resolution of a still image can be doubled of I60.

However, since the number of frames per unit time is halved, there is a problem that the dynamic resolution of moving images is poor.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image pickup apparatus which is easy to use and is capable of obtaining good moving images and still images.

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, an image pickup apparatus according to the present invention comprises a first video conversion means for generating an interlaced video signal 2 field from a progressive video signal 2 frame, and a progressive video signal. Second video conversion means for generating an interlaced video signal 2 field from one frame of the video signal of the method is provided. Then, the first video conversion means or the second video conversion means.
Selecting means for selecting the output signal of the video converting means, and the selecting means for alternately selecting the output signal m frames of the first video converting means and the output signal n frames of the second video converting means. Control means for controlling (m and n are integers)
And a configuration including.

[0010]

1 is a block diagram of an image pickup apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1
01 is an image sensor, 102 is an image sensor driver, 103 is A
/ D converter, 104 is a signal processing unit, 105 is a first conversion unit for converting a progressive system to an interlace system (hereinafter, abbreviated as a first P → I conversion unit), and 106 is a first conversion unit for converting the progressive system to the interlace system. Two conversion units (hereinafter abbreviated as second P → I conversion units), 107 is a synchronization pulse generation unit, 108 is a selection unit, 109 is a selection control unit, 110 is a D / A converter, 111 is an analog output unit,
112 is a digital output unit.

The image pickup device driving section 102 uses the synchronizing pulse output from the synchronizing pulse generating section 107 as a reference, and the image pickup element 1
Drive 01. The output signal of the image sensor 101 is supplied to the A / D converter 103, and the output signal of the A / D converter 103 is supplied to the signal processing unit 104. Then, the signal processing unit 10
4 is supplied to the first P → I conversion unit 105 and the second P → I conversion unit 106, the output signal of the first P → I conversion unit 105 is supplied to the input of the selection unit 108, and the second P → I conversion unit is supplied. 1
The output signal of 06 is supplied to the other input of the selection unit 108. The sync pulse generation unit 107 generates a sync pulse necessary for displaying or recording a video signal and supplies the sync pulse to the image sensor 102 and the selection control unit 109. Also, D /
The sync pulse and the output signal of the selection unit 108 are supplied to the A converter 110 and the digital output unit 112. The selection control unit 109 supplies the selection pulse to the selection unit 108 based on the synchronization pulse output from the synchronization pulse generation unit 107. The output signal of the D / A converter 110 is supplied to the analog output unit 111.

Next, the conversion operation for converting the progressive method to the interlaced method will be described. The output signal of the progressive-type image sensor 101 is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 103, and then the signal processing unit 1
In 04, camera signal processing such as luminance signal processing and color signal processing is performed, and a progressive video signal is output.
The progressive video signal output from the signal processing unit 104 includes a first P → I conversion unit 105 and a second P → I conversion unit 1.
At 06, the progressive method is converted to the interlaced method.

FIG. 3 shows a method of converting from the progressive system to the interlaced system by the two P → I conversion units in a scale within one frame. In the figure, the first P → I conversion unit 105 in the first embodiment
2 illustrates one mode of operation of the second P → I conversion unit 106. In FIG. 3, 301 is a synchronization pulse generator 1
07 is a V blanking pulse, 302 is a field pulse output from the synchronization pulse generation unit 107, 3
03 is the output signal of the signal processing unit 104, 304 is the first P →
The output signal of the I conversion unit 105, and 305 is the output signal of the second P → I conversion unit 106.

Further, the output signal 303 of the signal processing unit 104
The numbers in the figure indicate the progressive type 1H, 2H, ... The first P → I converter 105 extracts every 1H from each frame of the progressive video signal in accordance with the field pulse 302 and converts it into the interlaced system. On the other hand, the second P → I conversion unit 106
Then, in this case, only the frame in which the field pulse 302 is High is extracted every 1H and converted to the interlace system.

FIG. 2 shows the above-described two conversion methods in a reduced scale of several frames. In the figure, 2
01 is the output signal of the signal processing unit 104, and 202 is the first P →
An output signal of the I conversion unit 105, 203 is an output signal of the second P → I conversion unit 106, 204 is a V blanking pulse output from the synchronization pulse generation unit 107, 205 is a field pulse output from the synchronization pulse generation unit 107, and 206 Is a selection pulse output from the selection control unit 109, and 207 is an output signal of the selection unit 108. In addition, the signal processing unit 104
The number of the output signal 201 of 1 represents the 1st frame to the 10th frame. The o and e of the output signals of the first and second P → I converters represent the odd field and even field of the interlace system, and the numbers represent which frame of the progressive system is the basis.

Next, the operation after conversion to the interlace system will be described. The selection control unit 109 counts the number of frames by the field pulse 205,
The → I conversion unit 105 controls the selection unit 108 so that the second P → I conversion unit 106 outputs n (n is an integer) frames for m (m is an integer) frames. In FIG. 2, m = 3, n
= 1 is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this combination. The output signal of the selection unit 108 is the analog output unit 1
11 or via a digital output unit 112 to a recording device or a display device (not shown). The sync pulse required for recording and display is the NT pulse generated by the sync pulse generator 107.
SC television signal and digital interface standard
It may be superimposed on the video signal as in ITU-R BT.656, or may be supplied separately from the video signal. Further, the superimposition of the synchronization pulse on the analog output unit 111 may be performed on the digital signal before the D / A converter 110 as shown in FIG. 1, or on the analog signal after the D / A converter 110. You may also do it.

In the present embodiment, by alternately outputting the interlace type video signal m frame having a good dynamic resolution and the video signal n frame having a good vertical resolution, the same recording rate as that of the conventional moving image recording can be obtained, and the reproducing apparatus can be used. While maintaining compatibility with, it is possible to record a moving image with good dynamic resolution and a still image with good vertical resolution on the same recording medium.

The same effect can be obtained not only by the configuration shown in FIG. 1 but also by the second embodiment shown in FIG. 4 or the third embodiment shown in FIG. In the second embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the image sensor drive unit 102 supplies a reference pulse to the synchronization pulse generation unit 107. In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the output signal of the first P → I conversion unit 105 is supplied to the analog output unit 111.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an image pickup apparatus showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 6, 601 is an image compression unit and 602 is a recording unit. Portions corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and duplicate description will be omitted. In this embodiment, the output signal of the digital output unit 112 is supplied to the image compression unit 601, and the output signal of the image compression unit 601 is supplied to the recording unit 602. In addition, the information regarding the encoding output from the image compression unit 601 is supplied to the selection control unit 109. FIG. 7 shows one mode of operation in the fourth embodiment. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 701 is the image compression unit 6.
It is a coded image of 01. The parts corresponding to those in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and duplicate description will be omitted.

The image compression unit 601 has a digital output unit 1
Image compression is performed on the interlaced signal, which is the output signal of 12. There are various methods for compressing a moving image, but in the present embodiment, a main profile and a main level (MP @) that are particularly popular among MPEG2 known as a motion prediction coding method that also supports interlaced signals are used. M
L) is used.

In MPEG2, an image is handled in units of a picture (one screen), and there are a frame structure for allocating a frame to this picture and a field structure for allocating a field. Here, the frame structure is used. 1 to handle the interlaced image as a frame structure
The first field and the second field in the frame are regarded as one picture, and the motion prediction coding is also performed for each picture. Further, in order to perform motion prediction coding, three types of images are defined, I picture (intra-frame coded image), P picture (inter-frame forward prediction coded image), and B picture (bidirectional). Predictive coded image). Reference numeral 701 in FIG. 7 represents these I picture, P picture, and B picture. In this figure, I,
Although P, B, and P are repeated in this order, the order and the cycle of repetition are not particularly limited to this.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, information regarding encoding is sent from the image compression unit 601 to the selection control unit 10.
9 and the image compression unit 601 encodes an I picture in a frame as an output signal of the second P → I conversion unit 106, and P and B pictures as a frame in a first P → I.
The selection control unit 109 outputs the output signal of the conversion unit 105.
Controls the selection unit 108. By controlling in this way, when obtaining a still image from a recorded moving image, an image with good image quality can be easily obtained from the I picture. The data compressed by the image compression unit 601 is recorded by the recording unit 602. The recording medium may be a magnetic tape, an optical disc, a semiconductor memory, or the like.

This embodiment is for recording image-compressed data, and in particular, the main profile and main level (MP @
Since data can be recorded by ML), compatibility with conventional playback equipment can be maintained.

As described above, according to this embodiment, a moving image with good dynamic resolution and a still image with good vertical resolution can be simultaneously recorded on the same recording medium with the same recording capacity and recording rate as conventional moving image recording. It is possible to realize various image pickup devices.

[0025]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image pickup apparatus which is easy to use and is capable of obtaining excellent moving images and still images.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an imaging device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a mode of operation according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing one mode of operation according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an image pickup apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an image pickup apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an image pickup apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing one mode of operation according to the fourth embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Image sensor 102 ... Image sensor driver 103 ... A / D converter 104 ... Signal processor 105 ... First progressive-interlace converter 106 ... Second progressive-interlace Converter 107 ... Sync pulse generator 108 ... Selection unit 109 ... Selection control unit 111 ... Analog output unit 112 ... Digital output unit 201 ... Output signal 202 of signal processing unit 104 .. Output signal 203 of first progressive-> interlace conversion unit 105 ... Output signal 204 of second progressive-> interlace conversion unit 204 ... V blanking pulse 205 output from synchronization pulse generation unit 107 ... Synchronization pulse Field pulse 206 output from generation unit 107 ... Selection pulse output from selection control unit 109 Scan 207 ... encoded image output signal 501 ... image compression unit 502 ... recording unit 601 ... image compression unit 401 of the selection unit 108

Continued front page    (72) Inventor Ryushi Nishimura             292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa             Ceremony Hitachi Digital Media Development Book             Department F-term (reference) 5C022 AB51 AB55

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A progressive type image pickup device, and an A for converting an output signal of the image pickup device into a digital signal.
A / D converter, a signal processing unit that generates a progressive video signal from the output signal of the A / D converter, and a sync pulse that is synchronized with an interlaced video signal in which one frame image is composed of two fields Sync pulse generating means, an image sensor driving means for driving the image sensor according to the sync pulse output from the sync pulse generating means, and a progressive system image output from the signal processing section according to the sync pulse. First video conversion means for generating the interlaced video signal 2 fields from the signal 2 frames; and progressive video signal 1 frame to the interlaced video signal 2 fields output from the signal processing unit in response to the sync pulse. Second video converting means for generating the first video converting means, and the first video converting means or The selecting means for selecting an output signal of the second video converting means, the output signal m frames of the first video converting means and the output signal n frames of the second video converting means are alternately selected. An image pickup apparatus comprising: a control unit (m and n are integers) for controlling the selection unit. 2. An output signal of the selecting means is D / A converted,
The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an analog output unit that outputs an analog television signal; and a digital output unit that outputs the output signal of the selection unit as a digital video signal. 3. The output signal of the first video converting means is D /
The image pickup device according to claim 1, further comprising: an analog output unit that performs A conversion and outputs as an analog television signal; and a digital output unit that outputs the output signal of the selection unit as a digital video signal. apparatus. 4. An image pickup device for reading out electric charges by a progressive method, and A for converting an output signal of the image pickup device into a digital signal.
A / D converter, a signal processing unit that generates a progressive video signal from an output signal of the A / D converter, an image sensor driving unit that drives the image sensor, and an image sensor driving unit that outputs the image signal. 1 according to the pulse
A sync pulse generating means for generating a sync pulse of an interlaced video signal in which a frame image is composed of a first field and a second field; and a timing of the first and second fields of the sync pulse generating means, First video conversion means for generating first and second fields of an interlaced video signal from two progressive video signal frames output from the signal processing section, and timings of the first and second fields of the synchronization pulse generation means In order to meet the above, the first and second fields of the interlaced video signal are generated from one frame of the progressive video signal output from the signal processing unit.
Video conversion means, selection means for selecting output signals of the first video conversion means and the second video conversion means, output signal m frames of the first video conversion means, and the second video Output signal of the conversion means Control means (m, n is an integer) for controlling the selection means so as to alternately select n frames, and D / A conversion of the output signal of the selection means to output as an analog television signal. And an analog output unit for outputting the output signal of the selection unit as a digital video signal. 5. An image pickup device for reading out electric charges by a progressive method, and A for converting an output signal of the image pickup device into a digital signal.
A / D converter, a signal processing unit that generates a progressive video signal from an output signal of the A / D converter, an image sensor driving unit that drives the image sensor, and an image sensor driving unit that outputs the image signal. Sync pulse generation means for generating a sync pulse of an interlaced video signal in which an image of one frame is composed of a first field and a second field on the basis of the pulse, and first and second fields of the sync pulse generation means. A first video conversion unit for generating first and second fields of an interlaced video signal from two progressive video signal frames output from the signal processing unit so as to match the timing of Progressive method for outputting from the signal processing unit so as to match the timing of the first and second fields Second video converting means for generating first and second fields of the interlaced video signal from one frame of the video signal; selecting means for selecting output signals of the first video converting means and the second video converting means , A selection control means (m, which controls the selection means so as to alternately select the output signal m frame of the first video conversion means and the output signal n frame of the second video conversion means.
n is an integer), and analog output means for D / A converting the output signal of the first video converting means and outputting as an analog television signal, digital output means for outputting the output signal of the selecting means as a digital video signal. An imaging device comprising: 6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising image compression means for performing image compression processing on an output signal of the digital output means. 7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image compression means has intraframe coding and interframe predictive coding as coding methods, and the selecting means outputs the second video converting means. An image pickup apparatus, wherein a frame for which a signal is selected is coded by the intraframe coding. 8. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image compression means has intraframe coding and interframe predictive coding as coding methods, and the image compression means codes by intraframe coding. The image pickup device, wherein the frame is one in which the output signal of the second video conversion unit is selected by the selection unit. 9. The image pickup device according to claim 6, wherein the image compression means encodes within one field. 10. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said image compression means encodes in the field when said selecting means selects an output signal of said first video converting means, and said selecting means performs said encoding. An image pickup apparatus, characterized in that, when an output signal of the second video converting means is selected, it is encoded within a frame.