JP2003298904A - Pen input apparatus and digital camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pen input apparatus improving the input operability of an information processing apparatus provided with at least a touch panel input section and the main body of which can be prevented from missing and to provide a digital camera capable of adopting the pen input apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: In a strap input pen 10 used for input operations of a touch panel 52 provided on the surface of a display 50 of a digital camera 30, the main body 12 of the pen 10 is connected to an annular metallic fixture 26 locked to a lock section 44 arranged at the main body 32 of the digital camera 30 by a strap part 20. A hook 16 provided to the main body 12 of the strap input pen 10 is fitted to the annular metallic fixture 26 to catch, thereby forming a so-called 'strap' in a state of being engaged with the annular metallic fixture 26 by the main body 12 and the strap part 20, and a user grips the 'strap' to be able to hold the main body 32 of the digital camera 30. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applied to an information processing apparatus having at least a touch panel input section, a pen type input apparatus used for input operation in the touch panel input section, and a digital type to which the pen type input apparatus is applicable. Regarding the camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional digital camera has various photographing modes such as a manual photographing mode and an automatic photographing mode as a photographing operation mode of a subject image, and the photographed image is a still image or a moving image. An image recording operation for recording on a predetermined recording medium as
It has various functions such as an image reproduction operation for displaying a captured image on a liquid crystal display (LCD), an image transfer operation for transferring captured image data to an external information processing device, and various parameter setting operations for various parts of the digital camera. Also,
As an operation system for executing these functions, a mode selection switch, a cross key, a power switch, a menu selection switch, a menu decision switch, a cancel switch,
Various operation switches such as a macro photography mode changeover switch and a flash setting switch are provided. For this reason, the number of parts related to the operation system is large, which causes an increase in manufacturing cost.

In order to solve this problem, a touch panel input section is provided in place of various operation switches, and the input operation by the operation switch is replaced by the input operation by the touch panel to reduce the number of parts related to the operation system. Things are known.

However, in the touch panel input section,
Due to the size of the digital camera itself, the area of its input area is small and the displayed selection items are also small.
Therefore, in the operation in which the user selects a selection item with his / her finger, there is a high probability that an erroneous operation occurs, which may hinder the input operation.

As a solution to this problem, there has been proposed a device provided with a pen type input device which is constructed separately from the main body. By performing a touch panel input operation using this pen-type input device, input operability can be improved.

However, the pen type input device constructed separately from the main body is likely to be lost in daily use. In addition, it is effective to provide the main body with an accommodating portion for accommodating the pen-type input device. In this case,
There will be restrictions on the shape of the body.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and improves the input operability in an information processing apparatus having at least a touch panel input section, and can prevent the main body from being lost. An object is to provide a pen-type input device and a digital camera to which the pen-type input device can be applied.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pen type input device which is applied to an information processing apparatus having at least a touch panel input section and is used for input operation in the touch panel input section. The information processing apparatus main body is provided with a connecting means for connecting the main body of the pen-type input apparatus, and a gripping portion that a user holds to hold the main body of the information-processing apparatus is at least the main body of the pen-type input apparatus and the connection. It is characterized by being formed by either one of the means.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the connecting means connects the main body of the information processing apparatus having at least the touch panel input section and the main body of the pen type input apparatus. Here, at least one of the pen-type input device main body and the connecting means forms a grip portion for a user to hold the information processing device main body. Therefore, according to this pen-type input device, it is possible to improve the input operability in the touch panel input unit of the information processing device and prevent the pen-type input device body from being lost.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital camera including at least touch panel input means and control means for performing predetermined operation control based on input information from the touch panel input means. The pen type input device according to item 1 and a locking unit that locks the connecting unit of the pen type input device.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the locking means locks the connecting means of the pen type input device. Thus, the pen-type input device body can be locked to the digital camera body. As a result, the input operability of the touch panel input means can be improved, and the pen type input device body can be prevented from being lost.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a front side of a digital camera 30 to which a strap type input pen 10 (details will be described later) according to the present embodiment can be applied. In this digital camera 30, a main body 32 has a substantially box shape, and a grip portion for facilitating the grip of the main body 32 is formed on the left side when viewed from the front.

On the front side of the main body 32, as shown in FIG. 1, a lens 34 for forming a subject image, a finder 36 for visually confirming the photographing range, and a case of photographing in low illuminance A strobe 38 for emitting auxiliary light is attached to.

On the upper surface of the main body 32, on the left side when viewed from the front, there is provided a mode dial 42 used for selecting one of the operation modes (details will be described later) of the digital camera 30, and the center of the mode dial 42. The portion is a shutter button 46. The shutter button 46 is configured so that the autofocus lock is performed when the shutter button 46 is half pressed, and the image capturing process is performed when the shutter button 46 is fully pressed.

On the right side surface of the main body 32 when viewed from the front,
A slot 40 into which a memory card 90 for recording photographed image data can be loaded is provided, and inside this slot 40, a connector unit (not shown) included in a media control unit 80 described later is arranged. The memory card 90 loaded in the slot 40 is physically connected to the media control unit 80 via the connector section, so that various data can be transferred between the media control unit 80 and the memory card 90. It is possible.

A locking portion 44 having a hole portion for mounting the strap type input pen 10 is provided on the upper side surface on the left side of the main body 32 when viewed from the front. An annular metal fitting 26 for locking the strap-type input pen 10 is inserted into the portion to be attached.

FIG. 2 shows the strap type input pen 10 described above.
Is shown. A main body 12 of the strap type input pen 10 has a substantially cylindrical shape, and an opening 12A at one end thereof is formed smaller than an opening at the other end.
A pen shaft 14 is loosely inserted in a hollow portion inside the main body 12, and the touch panel 5 is formed at one end of the pen shaft 14.
2 The pen tip 14A, which is the contact portion with the surface, has the opening 12A.
And the other end of the pen shaft 14 projects from the main body 12. Further, by pressing the other end of the pen shaft 14 in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3 by a lock mechanism (not shown), the state in which the pen tip 14A protrudes from the opening 12A is maintained, and the pen tip 14A is restored from that state. By pressing the other end of the shaft 14 in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3,
The pen tip 14A is kept stored in the main body 12. As a result, by storing the pen tip 14A inside the main body 12 when the strap type input pen 10 is not used, damage to the pen tip 14A can be prevented.

A ring locking portion 18 is provided in the main body 12 near the opening from which the pen shaft 14 is projected. A locking ring 22 provided at one end of a string portion 20 for connecting the annular metal fitting 26 and the main body 12 is attached to the ring locking portion 18. Also, the string part 2
A locking ring 24 is provided at the other end of 0 and is attached to the annular metal fitting 26.

A hook 16 is provided near the opening 12A of the main body 12, and the hook 16 is provided.
Is attached to the annular metal fitting 26 so that the annular metal fitting 26 is attached by the main body 12 and the string portion 20.
It is possible to form a so-called strap which is attached to the digital camera 30 by holding it by the user.
It can hold the body.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of the back side of the digital camera 30.

As shown in FIG. 3, a color display 50 composed of a reflective LCD or a transmissive LCD is provided on the lower side of the back surface of the main body 32, and on the upper right of the display 50 is a display. Various setting items displayed in 50 (for example, operation mode selection, image quality adjustment,
A cross button 48 is provided which is used for displaying the amount of battery, setting flash emission / non-emission of flash, display of the number of recordable shots, etc., cursor movement, and zoom state designation.

The display 50 is composed of a liquid crystal display panel in which the display screen size is set to a predetermined number of pixels (for example, 640 × 480 pixels), and when there is an image display instruction, the image to be photographed at the time of photographing. And an image based on an image file read from an SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic RAM) 92 and a memory card 90, which will be described later, are displayed on the entire screen, thumbnails in which a plurality of reduced images are arranged, and various function selection screens are displayed. .

A touch panel 52 is provided on the surface of the display 50. As shown in FIG. 4A, the touch panel 52 is configured by a so-called resistive film type touch panel, and the electrodes X1 and X2 are arranged along the X direction.
The first sheet 52A including the electrodes Y along the Y direction.
The second sheet 52B including No. 1 and Y2 is superposed on each other and has a predetermined resistance value in a matrix along each of the X direction and the Y direction. On the surface of the touch panel 52, the pen tip 14 of the strap type input pen 10 is attached.
When A touches, the resistance value changes, and by detecting the change in the current value at this time, the contact position of the pen tip 14A of the strap-type input pen 10 can be detected (see FIG. )reference).

FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration of the control system of the digital camera 30 described above. The digital camera 30 includes an optical unit 60 including the lens 34, and a CC disposed behind the optical axis of the lens 34.
D62 and the image signal (C
An image signal processing unit 68 for generating predetermined digital image data representing a subject image based on a signal indicating the amount of light received by each of a plurality of photoelectric conversion cells arranged in a matrix on the light receiving surface of the CD 62, and an optical unit. A timing generator 70 for generating timing signals for driving each part of the camera 60 and the CCD 62, a vertical / horizontal driver 64 for driving the CCD 62, and a shutter / iris motor for driving a shutter and diaphragm mechanism included in the optical unit 60. , A drive system driver 66 for each unit of the unit that drives a focus adjustment motor, a zoom motor,
And a main control unit 80 that controls the overall operation of the digital camera 30.

A vertical / horizontal driver 64 and a drive system driver 66 for each unit are connected to the timing generator 70.
0 outputs a timing signal for driving the CCD 62 to the vertical / horizontal driver 64, and outputs a timing signal for driving the mechanical shutter and the diaphragm mechanism provided in the optical unit 60 to each unit drive system driver 66. .

The lens 34 included in the optical unit 60 has a plurality of lenses, and the focal length is changed (variable magnification).
The zoom lens is configured as a zoom lens, and includes a lens driving mechanism (not shown). The zoom motor and the focus adjustment motor are included in this lens drive mechanism, and the zoom motor and the focus adjustment motor are controlled by the main controller 72, and each unit drive system driver 66.
It is driven by the drive signal supplied from. When changing the optical zoom magnification, the main controller 72 controls the drive of the zoom motor to change the focal length of the lens 34 included in the optical unit 60, and the contrast of the image obtained by the CCD 62. The focus control is performed by driving and controlling the focus adjustment motor so that the maximum value is obtained.

The image signal processing unit 68 has a correlation 2 (not shown).
The CCD 6 includes a correlated double sampling circuit (CDS), a gain control amplifier (GCA), and an A / D converter.
The image signal input from the 2 is subjected to correlated double sampling processing by the CDS and R by GCA.
After the sensitivity of each color of GB is adjusted, the digital image data is converted by the A / D converter.

The main control unit 72 has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 74 for controlling the overall operation of the main control unit 72, a line buffer of a predetermined capacity, and a white balance adjustment circuit (for adjusting white balance fluctuations). WB) and RGB data as YC signals (luminance signal Y, chroma signal C
r, Cb) and an image pickup control unit 76 configured to include a Y / C conversion circuit (Y / C), and digital image data in a predetermined compression format (for example, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format) And a compression / expansion unit 78 that performs expansion processing on the compressed digital image data, and the memory card 90.
The media control unit 80 that controls writing of various information to and from the memory card 90 and the LCD control unit 82 that controls display driving of the display 50 are connected via a bus 86. Are connected to each other. The above mode dial 4
2. Various operation button systems 88 including a shutter button 46, a cross button 48, and the like are connected to the CPU 74 and are configured to be able to transmit respective control signals to the CPU 74.

The bus 86 of the main controller 72 is connected to the SDRAM 92 which mainly stores digital image data obtained by the CCD 62 and a flash ROM 94 which stores various parameters and programs. The CPU 74 can freely access various data stored in the SDRAM 92 and the flash ROM 94.

In the image pickup control section 76, the digital image data sequentially input from the image signal processing section 68 is accumulated in a built-in line buffer and temporarily stored in the SDRAM 92. The digital image data stored in the SDRAM 92 is read out to the WB under the control of the CPU 74 to be subjected to white balance adjustment, gamma processing and sharpness processing, and Y / Y.
At C, YC signal conversion processing is performed and converted into YC signal data, which is stored again in the SDRAM 92.

When the shutter button 46 is pressed by the photographer, the YC signal data stored in the SDRAM 92 is compressed by the compression / expansion unit 78, for example, in the JPEG compression format, and then the media control unit. It records on the memory card 90 via 80.

The pixel signal processing unit 68, the timing generator 70, and the main control unit 80 are a one-chip LSI.
(Large Scale Integrated circuit), the size, the reliability, and the cost of the digital camera 30 are reduced.

In the digital camera 30, the CPU 74
Under the control of 1., various shooting modes in which the settings of each unit are optimized corresponding to various shooting objects, an image reproduction display mode in which a shot image is displayed on the display 50, and a comment is inserted into image data. A data input mode for inputting handwritten text with the strap-type input pen 10 and a setup item setting mode for setting various parameters can be executed. Further, by displaying image data showing various menu screens such as an operation mode selection screen for selecting these operation modes on the display 50, the user can select the operation mode by the selection operation with the strap type input pen 10. You can do it.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

In the digital camera 30 to which the strap-type input pen 10 according to this embodiment is applied, when the user turns on the power of the digital camera 30, C
Under the control of the PU 74, a predetermined power-on initialization process is executed, and each part of the digital camera 30 is initialized. Here, when the user issues an operation mode setting instruction, the CPU 74 executes the processing routine shown in FIG.

First, in step 100, image data showing an operation mode selection screen for selecting an operation mode is output to the LCD control section 82, and the operation mode selection screen is displayed on the display 50.

At the next step 102, the user waits for item selection on the touch panel 52 using the strap type input pen 10.

When the item selection is completed, an affirmative decision is made in step 102, and the routine proceeds to step 104, where control processing according to the selected operation mode is executed.

Next, the data input mode, which is one of the operation modes selected as described above, will be described.
Note that an example in which comment text is inserted in a captured image will be described here.

When the data input mode is selected by the above operation mode setting, the processing routine shown in FIG. 7 is executed.

First, in step 200, the photographed image data is read from the SDRAM 92 or the memory card 90 and displayed on the display 50 (eg, FIG. 8).
(See (A)).

In the next step 202, the user waits for a comment text to be input to the touch panel 52 using the strap-type input pen 10.

When the user inputs and confirms "memories (Mt. Fuji)" and the comment text 96 to the image data displayed on the display 50, as shown in FIG. 8A, for example, in step 202. When the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step 204, and the image data is reconstructed by merging the text data of the comment text 96 input to the photographed image data. Here, in the CPU 74, character recognition processing of the input comment text 96 is performed, converted into text data, and position coordinate information of the comment text 96 in the image area of the photographed image data is generated. Further, the converted text data is merged with the photographed image data based on the position coordinate information.

In the next step 206, the above step 2
The image data reconstructed in 04 is recorded in the SDRAM 92 or the memory card 90, and this processing routine ends. This makes it possible to obtain image data in which the comment text 96 is inserted in the photographed image data described above. For example, by printing this image data, a print image as shown in FIG. 8B can be obtained. Obtainable.

As described above, according to the strap type input pen according to the present embodiment, in the digital camera to which the strap type input pen is applied, the operability of touch panel input is improved and the strap is always used as a digital camera body. An input pen can be attached to the strap, and the strap type input pen can be prevented from being lost.

In the strap type input pen 10 according to the present embodiment, the strap type input pen 10 attached to the annular metal fitting 26 is interlocked with the state in which the operation mode of the digital camera 30 shifts to the data input mode. The hook portion 16 may be automatically released. As a result, a manual operation for making the strap-type input pen usable can be omitted, and the operability can be further improved.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The information processing device main body including at least the touch panel input unit and the pen-type input device main body are connected by the connecting means, and at least a gripping part that the user holds to hold the information processing device main body is provided. Since it is formed by either one of the main body of the pen-type input device and the connecting means, it is possible to improve the input operability of the information processing device and prevent the main body from being lost, and By locking the connecting means of the pen type input device, there is an excellent effect that it is possible to provide a digital camera to which the pen type input device can be applied.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an appearance of a front side of a digital camera to which a strap type input pen according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a schematic configuration of a strap type input pen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing an outer appearance of the back side of a digital camera to which the strap type input pen according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4A is a diagram for explaining a configuration of a resistive film type touch panel, and FIG. 4B is a diagram for explaining position detection by a resistance value in a resistive film of the touch panel.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a control system of the digital camera according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of operation mode setting processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of data input mode processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8A is a diagram illustrating an example of data input on the touch panel, and FIG. 8B is a diagram illustrating an example of a print image including the data input in FIG. is there.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Strap type input pen 14 Pen axis 14A pen tip 16 Hook part 18 Ring locking part 20 String section 22 Locking ring 24 Locking ring 26 annular metal fittings 30 digital camera 44 Locking part 50 Display (LCD) 52 touch panel 74 CPU 88 Operation button system 90 memory card 92 SDRAM

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A pen type input device which is applied to an information processing apparatus having at least a touch panel input section and is used for an input operation in the touch panel input section, wherein the information processing apparatus main body and the pen type input device main body are provided. A gripping part that is provided by a user for holding the information processing apparatus main body, and is formed by at least one of the pen-type input device main body and the connecting means. Pen type input device. 2. At least a touch panel input means,
It is a digital camera provided with the control means which performs a predetermined operation control based on the input information from the said touch panel input means, Comprising: The pen type input device of Claim 1, and the connection means of the said pen type input device. A digital camera having: locking means for locking the.