JP2004312632A - Video apparatus with recording medium externally mounted thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video apparatus with a recording medium externally mounted thereon which is easy to handle by saving a labor for charging a battery. <P>SOLUTION: A hard disk unit 2 in which a hard disk drive 21 and a battery 22 are incorporated and which is mounted on a video camera for use, is mounted in a video recorder 1 by a freely removable attach connector 15, image data are transferred from the hard disk drive 21 on the side of the unit 2 to a hard disk drive 11 on the side of the video recorder 1, and images are then projected on a TV monitor 3. At the same time, the video recorder 1 is equipped with a charging control circuit 14 and when the unit 2 is mounted via the attach connector 15, charging power is supplied to the battery 22 within the unit 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic device using a hard disk unit that is detachably mounted, and more particularly to an external video device using a hard disk unit having a built-in secondary battery.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, with the miniaturization of various electronic devices, various battery-driven electronic devices such as portable notebook computers, digital cameras, and video cameras have appeared. For these, various types of secondary battery units having a structure that can be freely attached and detached are adopted, and these are mounted on the apparatus body and used.
[0003]
On the other hand, with the increase in speed and capacity of digital image processing, it has become possible to process image data as digital data even in digital cameras and video cameras.
[0004]
Here, the advantage of treating image data as digital data is that there is no image quality deterioration due to copying, and that image data can be centrally managed and processed by a computer together with other character data, graphic data, etc. The image quality does not depend on the recording medium.
[0005]
Further, at this time, if a medium that can be randomly accessed is used as a recording medium for the digital data, the editing work efficiency of the image data is dramatically improved. Therefore, the superiority of digital recording on a randomly accessible medium has been emphasized even for home video cameras.
[0006]
In recent years, video cameras equipped with recording media such as hard disks, optical disks, and IC cards have been widely put into practical use. In the future, large-capacity, small-sized, and high-speed video cameras will be utilized. It is conceivable to record video and audio on the hard disk.
[0007]
As a result, the recorded video must be stored in a video recording device data server installed in the home, such as a hard disk recorder or DVD recorder. At this time, the hard disk unit is configured to be removable from the camera body. It is also indispensable to remove the hard disk unit and attach it to a video recording device at home so that the file can be transferred at high speed.
[0008]
On the other hand, in a battery-driven electronic device, a video camera in which a recording medium unit and a secondary battery are unitized and made detachable from a video camera body has been conventionally proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1). .).
[0009]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-1-18667 [0010]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The prior art described above does not take into account the fact that there are two types of external parts, a recording medium part and a secondary battery unit, and there is a problem in ease of handling.
[0011]
That is, in the prior art, for the transfer of video data, the recording medium unit such as a hard disk is removed and attached to a home video recording device, while the secondary battery is removed from the camera body and then separately Since the battery must be mounted on the charger and charged, it is troublesome, and therefore, there is a problem in ease of handling.
[0012]
Further, even with the conventional technique proposed in Patent Document 1, there is no change in that it takes time and effort to charge the secondary battery separately, and therefore, there is still a problem in ease of handling.
[0013]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording-medium external video device that does not require much time for charging a battery and is easy to handle.
[0014]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
An object of the present invention is to provide an image recording apparatus having a hard disk drive and a built-in hard disk unit having a built-in rechargeable battery, which is attached and detached by detachable connection means, wherein the hard disk unit is mounted via the connection means. This is achieved by providing a means for supplying charging power to the secondary battery.
[0015]
At this time, when the hard disk unit is attached to the battery-driven electronic device by a detachable connection means, the secondary battery supplies power to the battery-driven electronic device, and the hard disk unit also has the above-described configuration. The goal can be achieved.
[0016]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a recording medium external type video device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the illustrated embodiments.
[0017]
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a video recorder. A video recorder 1 according to this embodiment includes a hard disk drive 11, a video signal circuit 12, a power supply control circuit 13, a charge control circuit 14 and a connector 15.
[0018]
On the other hand, FIG. 1 shows a hard disk unit 2 with a built-in battery (hereinafter simply referred to as a unit 2) including a hard disk drive 21 and a battery 22, and this is connected to a video recorder 1 via a detachable connection connector 15. It can be attached to.
[0019]
Here, first, the hard disk drive 11 includes a large-capacity hard disk required as a server, and captures image data recorded therein from the externally mounted hard disk drive 21 via the connector 15 and records the image data. Work.
[0020]
Therefore, if image data is read from the hard disk drive 11 as needed, the image data is processed by the video signal circuit 12, and as a result, the video recorded on the hard disk drive 11 can be arbitrarily changed by a television receiver or the like. The image can be displayed on the TV monitor 4.
[0021]
Here, the video recorder 1 is installed in a general home and operates with a commercial power supply. For this reason, the power supply control circuit 13 supplies power from a home AC power supply through a power supply line (not shown). And supply necessary power to each circuit.
[0022]
At this time, the charging control circuit 14 adjusts the power supplied from the power supply control circuit 13 to generate power of a voltage necessary for charging the battery 22. When the unit 2 is mounted on the video recorder 1, the connection connector The power for charging is supplied to the battery 22 via the power supply 15.
[0023]
Next, FIG. 2 shows an example in which the unit 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention is mounted on a video camera 4. In FIG. 2, a photographing lens 41 functions to form an image of a subject, and an image pickup circuit 42 , And functions to convert an optical image formed by the photographing lens 41 into an electric signal by the image pickup device.
[0024]
Next, the A / D conversion circuit 43 converts the output of the imaging circuit 42 into a digital signal, and the arithmetic circuit 44 performs arithmetic processing such as image processing and compression on the digital signal output from the A / D conversion 43, It functions to convert the image data into image data to be recorded on the hard disk drive 21.
[0025]
The power supply control circuit 45 functions to supply the electric power supplied from the battery 22 to each circuit. The connection connector 46 detachably connects the video camera 4 and the unit 2, and outputs the output of the arithmetic circuit 44 to a hard disk. It connects to the drive 21 and serves to connect the battery 22 to the power supply control circuit 45.
[0026]
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, by attaching the unit 2, the video camera 4 is supplied with power required for operation from the battery 22, and can be used as a mobile device.
[0027]
Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 2, when the unit 2 is mounted on the video camera 4 and imaging is performed by battery driving, the captured image is stored in the hard disk drive 21 as digital data. Be recorded.
[0028]
After the necessary images have been captured, the unit 2 is detached from the video camera 4 and attached to the video recorder 1 shown in FIG. 1, and the detailed description is omitted. From 21, the image data recorded there is read and transferred to the hard disk drive 11 of the video recorder 1 and recorded.
[0029]
Therefore, after that, the user operates the video recorder 1 as necessary, and regardless of whether or not the unit 2 is detached from the video camera 4, the video recorded on the hard disk drive 11 as described above. Can be arbitrarily displayed on the TV monitor 4.
[0030]
At this time, the video recorder 1 is provided with a charge control circuit 14. If the unit 2 is mounted on the video recorder 1, the output of the charge control circuit 14 is output to the battery 22 in the unit 2 via the connection connector 15. Connected to.
[0031]
As a result, when the unit 2 is mounted on the video recorder 1, the battery 22 is automatically charged. Therefore, according to this embodiment, a separate operation for charging the battery 22 becomes unnecessary. It can be handled easily without trouble.
[0032]
At this time, as described above, instead of automatically charging the battery 22 just by attaching the unit 2 to the video recorder 1, the charging of the battery 22 is started under a predetermined operation. You may make it so.
[0033]
Here, the battery 22 is not particularly limited as long as it is a secondary battery, but practically, nickel cadmium battery, nickel hydride battery, lithium ion battery, lithium metal secondary battery, lead storage battery and the like are generally used. In view of the fact that the charge capacity is reduced when charging is started in the middle of discharging, that is, the so-called memory effect does not occur, it can be said that lithium ion batteries, lithium metal secondary batteries, and lead storage batteries are suitable.
[0034]
Next, recording of image data on the hard disk according to this embodiment will be described. Now, assuming that the hard disk drive 21 has a capacity of, for example, 10 gigabytes and records image data of 25 Mbits / sec compressed by the discrete cosine transform in a frame, it is possible to record for about one hour in this case. Become.
[0035]
Here, in the case of image data of 6 to 15 Mbit / s compressed by applying inter-frame coding and motion compensation according to the compression method of MPEG2, recording for 4 to 1.5 hours is possible. With 1.5 Mbit / s compressed according to the compression algorithm, recording for about 8 hours is possible.
[0036]
By the way, a hard disk is quite expensive, unlike a recording medium of a tape medium. However, since it is not necessary to record the data of the recorded image in the video camera forever, it is sufficient to transfer the image data to the video recorder 1 serving to store the image data, as in this embodiment. Even hard disks can be used effectively, so it doesn't cost much.
[0037]
At this time, for example, when a hard disk having a transfer speed of 100 megabits / second is used, the time required for transferring 10 gigabytes of data is 15 minutes, and the data transfer does not take much trouble.
[0038]
As described above, although it depends on the compression method, the reason why image data of 1 hour to 8 hours can be transferred in only 15 minutes without deteriorating the image quality is that the digital recording method is adopted. It can be seen that the features are well utilized in the form.
[0039]
In a system including a video camera and a video recorder, which is a target of this embodiment, data transfer between hard disks is required. For this reason, a hard disk unit must be attached or detached. Charging is also needed.
[0040]
At this time, according to the above embodiment, the hard disk and the battery are integrated, so that the battery can be charged at the same time when data is transferred between the hard disks, so that the labor is reduced by half.
[0041]
Next, the handling of image data in this embodiment will be described. First, when image data is transferred from the hard disk drive 21, the image data is generally discharged from the hard disk along with the transfer. .
[0042]
However, even when the transfer is completed, the image data may not be substantially ejected from the hard disk drive 21 and may remain recorded. Can be used as a standard for disposal.
[0043]
The actual discarding of the image data may differ depending on the user (user) and the use situation. For example, the image data to be actually discarded from the image data with the transferred code is used by the user. May be determined.
[0044]
Also, as another example, a method in which image data with a transferred code is sequentially overwritten by newly recorded image data can be used. The management efficiency of image data can be remarkably improved, and a video camera using an expensive recording medium such as the hard disk drive 21 can be made a practical product.
[0045]
By the way, in the case of the above-described embodiment, the above-mentioned video recorder is not limited to a large-capacity hard disk as a recording medium, and may use an optical disk or a magnetic tape having an automatic exchange function, and may use a computer as a data server. It is valid.
[0046]
In this case, all the image data shot by the video camera 4 is stored in the data server. As a result, it is possible to search and edit the image data online. The features of the digital recording method and the random access can be fully utilized, for example, necessary image data can be searched by utilizing the method.
[0047]
Next, the search at this time will be described. In general, the user can recall even a very long time ago with an error of several years. Therefore, there is a method of performing a search by designating a range of a photographing date and time on a data server.
[0048]
In addition, the user can often remember or infer the season of the image data to be searched, irrespective of the date and time. This is because memories as skin sensations provide clues to remember the season in which the image was taken, and events specific to the season and annual events are often taken.
[0049]
Therefore, it is possible to narrow down the search to a certain number of candidates by specifying the shooting date range according to the season, and then playing back those candidates at the same time, that is, dividing the display into several parts By simultaneously reproducing the respective candidate image data for each of the divided sections, it is possible to reach the target image data.
[0050]
Here, in the conventional video camera, since the image data is divided into different recording medium cartridges, neither retrieval by the photographing time nor simultaneous reproduction can be performed over a plurality of recording medium cartridges.
[0051]
However, in the above embodiment, the image data is not divided into separate recording medium cartridges, and the image data can be centrally managed by the video server or the computer, so that the search efficiency of the image data is significantly improved. .
[0052]
This improvement in search efficiency further facilitates the editing work, and facilitates creation of an electronic video album, an e-mail with a video, an instruction manual with a video, a report with a video, and the like.
[0053]
Further, since the hard disk has a transfer speed of 100 Mbit / s or more, according to the above embodiment, it is possible to record image data with various degrees of compression. For example, uncompressed data requires a transfer rate of 100 to 300 Mbit / sec depending on the image quality, but according to the hard disk drive 11, image data of 200 Mbit / sec or less can be recorded without compression. it can.
[0054]
At this time, in the above embodiment, if the discrete cosine transform in the frame is performed by the arithmetic circuit 44 of the video camera 4, the data amount can be compressed to about one-fifth without substantially deteriorating the image quality. Then, the transfer speed of the image data becomes 20 to 60 megabits / second, and the image data corresponding to all image qualities can be recorded.
[0055]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, since the battery can be charged only by installing the hard disk unit, it is possible to easily provide a recording medium external type video device which is easy to handle and requires no trouble in charging the battery.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a video device with an external recording medium according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a video camera using a hard disk unit with a built-in battery according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 video recorder 2 battery built-in hard disk unit (unit)
3 TV monitor 4 Video camera 11 Hard disk drive 12 Video signal circuit 13 Power supply control circuit 14 Charge control circuit 15 Connector 21 Hard disk drive 22 Battery (secondary battery)
41 imaging lens 42 imaging circuit 43 A / D conversion 44 arithmetic circuit 45 power supply control circuit 46 connector

Claims (2)

In a video device external to a recording medium, a hard disk drive and a hard disk unit containing a secondary battery are mounted and used by a detachable connection means.
An external recording medium type video device, further comprising means for supplying power for charging to the secondary battery when the hard disk unit is mounted via the connection means. In the invention according to claim 1,
The hard disk unit is configured to supply power from the secondary battery to the battery-driven electronic device when the hard disk unit is mounted on the battery-driven electronic device by a detachable connection unit. Mounted video equipment.

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