JP2006238082A - Digital camera and method of monitoring photographing position of camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable to reduce time and effort for photographing by a photographer in observing the compositions of an object while actually moving by displaying images of the object in a once-photographed image when the object is viewed of different directions. <P>SOLUTION: The digital camera 100 enables monitoring in such a way that an angle of field of view of the object is calculated based on the distance between the object photographed with the digital camera 100 and the camera 100, partial images of the object for which a plurality of angles of field of views are calculated based on the image data of images photographed with the digital camera 100 are segmented, a plane positional view of the photographing positions of the object and the camera 100 is displayed on a monitor screen 130, the arrangement relation of the partial images of the object is also displayed in a semitransparent image on the monitor screen 130 when the position of the camera 100 is moved, and the composition of the object is overlapped on the photographed image and displayed when the photographing position is changed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly to a camera that displays a composition change and a shooting position guide when a subject once shot is shot again at a different angle.

  Today, cameras using an image sensor such as a two-dimensional CCD called a digital camera have come to be used frequently.

  With this digital camera, it is possible to form a high-quality image by increasing the number of pixels, such as 2 million pixels, 3 million pixels, 5 million pixels, etc. Recording is also possible, and not only the distance to the subject in the center of the field of view, but also the distance to the subject at multiple locations in the field of view, and the focus adjustment is made so that the focus does not deviate significantly from the subject in the entire field of view. As described above, various functions are added and the functions are enhanced.

In addition, a digital camera that can be operated by the camera body is used for an operation of combining a plurality of images recorded in a memory by shooting by a shutter operation to form a single image. It was.
Note that in an electronic camera system using an image sensor such as a two-dimensional CCD, a position of a person who is a subject is indicated in an apparatus that forms a single photograph by combining images from a plurality of shots. Such a device has also been proposed (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2004-349959 A

  Today, digital cameras have become more sophisticated with higher image quality, making it possible to perform simple processing on the recorded image data and to combine multiple images. I came.

  However, there is no suggestion of how much the composition of the subject will change when the direction and distance of the subject are changed when re-taking the image of the same subject. Since it often depends on imagination, it is necessary for the photographer to observe the composition of the subject while actually moving, so it often takes time and effort to shoot.

  The present invention provides a camera capable of displaying such an image when the subject of an image taken once is viewed from different directions with less labor.

  The present invention relates to a change in composition of a subject when the position of the camera (100) is moved according to a distance between the subject photographed by the digital camera (100) and the camera (100). The digital camera (100) can be displayed on the monitor screen (130).

  The subject with a new composition when the digital camera (100) is moved is preferably displayed as a semi-transparent image, and images of the subject sequentially captured through the lenses (151, 155) are displayed on the monitor screen (130). It is assumed that the through image of the captured image and the image of the subject with a new composition are superimposed and displayed while sequentially updating.

  The display of the translucent image is preferably performed by cutting out two partial images from the first photographed image, and the digital camera (100) is displayed based on the distance between each subject portion and the digital camera (100). An image showing a change in the mutual position of each subject or a change in the composition of the subject when moved is displayed.

  Furthermore, the present invention cuts out partial images of a plurality of subjects based on image data of images taken by the digital camera (100), and shows a position diagram (136) showing a plane position of the subject and the photographing position of the camera (100). Is displayed on the monitor screen (130), and the layout of the partial image of the subject when the position of the camera (100) is moved is also displayed on the monitor screen (130), and the composition of the subject is changed. Is a method for monitoring the shooting position of the camera (100).

  Since the present invention is a camera capable of performing a display for changing the composition of a photographed subject, it is possible to easily determine the composition of the subject when photographing the same subject again by changing the photographing angle.

  In addition, since the photographing position monitoring method enables the composition of the subject to be monitored when the photographing position is changed, time and labor when photographing the same subject from different angles can be reduced.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention is based on the image data of an image captured by the digital camera 100 based on the distance between the camera 100 and a single or a plurality of subjects captured by the digital camera 100. Is calculated, and a partial image of the subject is cut out, and a position map 136 showing the planar position of the subject and the shooting position of the camera 100 is displayed on the monitor screen 130, and the partial image of the subject when the position of the camera 100 is moved is displayed. An image in which the mutual position is changed is also displayed as a semi-transparent image on the monitor screen 130, and the composition of the subject when the shooting position is changed is overlaid on the shot image to display the digital camera 100.

  This makes it possible to monitor the composition of the subject when the shooting position is changed, as well as the composition of the subject when the viewing direction of the subject is changed, the mutual position of multiple subjects when the shooting position is changed, etc. The digital camera 100 is capable of displaying an image determined as described above and displaying an image of a subject sequentially captured by the image sensor 170 through the lenses 151 and 155 on the monitor screen 130 while sequentially updating the image.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the digital camera according to the present invention is a digital camera 100 having an appearance similar to that of a conventional digital camera 100. A collapsible lens barrel 102, a strobe light emitting window 106, and In addition to the finder front window 104, the power switch 108 and the shutter button 110 are provided on the upper surface of the body.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a finder rear window 112, a shooting button 116, a playback button 118, a zoom button 114, a menu button 120, a direction moving button 122, a set button 124, a display button 126, and a display on the back of the body A monitor screen 130 of a liquid crystal monitor as a screen is provided, and a USB terminal 225 and a storage medium housing cover 132 are provided on the bottom surface of the body, as shown in FIG. And a large-capacity storage medium 220 (for example, a card-type flash memory or a card-type hard disk) can be attached and detached.

  The set button 124 is used to select a menu displayed on the menu screen by operating the direction moving button 122 to move the cursor when the cursor is displayed on the menu screen or the like.

  The menu button 120 is used to display various menus.When operated in the shooting mode, the number of shooting pixels is set, the shooting mode is set to fine mode, normal mode, economy mode with different compression ratios, Various shooting conditions such as switching of video and audio recording, self-timer, strobe, white balance, etc. can be set. When operated in playback mode, automatic screen advance, protect setting, number of prints, image rotation In addition, settings such as trimming and resizing can be performed, and a shooting position guiding mode, which will be described later, can also be selected by the menu button 120 and the set button 124.

  The display button 126 is a button for displaying various types of information on the monitor screen 130, and includes information such as the number of pixels, image quality, distinction between still images, moving images, or audio, date, time, remaining battery capacity, remaining memory capacity, and the like. The display is switched or the display is erased and only the image is displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the internal structure of the digital camera 100 is such that an imaging system and image display are controlled by a main control circuit 180 incorporating a microcomputer.

  The focus lens 151, zoom lens 155, aperture stop 168, and mechanical shutter 167 incorporated in the lens barrel 102 of the digital camera 100 are controlled by the imaging system control circuit 160, and a distance / speed detector 165 using infrared rays or the like. Based on the signal input from the focus detection sensor 161 to the distance / velocity detection unit 165 via the interface, the imaging system control circuit 160 drives the focus motor 152 via the driver by detecting the distance to the object at the center of the visual field. Then, the object is clearly imaged on the image sensor 170 by the autofocus function, and the zoom motor 156 is driven via the driver in accordance with the operation of the zoom button 114 to change the magnification of the image.

  The image data signal output from the image sensor 170 driven by the drive control unit 171 is level-adjusted by the sample hold circuit 173 and the auto gain control circuit 175, and is changed to digital image data by the analog / digital conversion circuit 177. .

  Then, the luminance signal and the color difference signal are converted into a luminance signal and a color difference signal by the image processing unit 182 and stored in the storage medium 220 and the internal memory 210, and are also converted into RGB signals to the frame memory 187 of the display control unit 185 and the internal memory 210 or the storage medium. When it is written in the memory 220 and written in the frame memory 187 of the display control unit 185, it is displayed on the monitor screen 130 which is the display unit 189.

  When the power switch 108 is operated, power is supplied to each unit from the battery 201 stored in the camera 100 via the power control unit 203. When the field of view is dark, the flash drive unit 205 is charged. Prepare to turn on the strobe lamp 207, and when a button or switch on the operation unit 190 such as the zoom button 114, direction movement button 122, set button 124, etc. is operated, the operation signal is controlled by the input circuit 192. A zoom process and an image process are performed in accordance with a button input to the circuit 180 and operated.

  In this image processing, when the power switch 108 is turned on and the shooting button 116 is operated to set the shooting mode, the image shot by the image sensor 170 is displayed as a through image on the monitor screen 130 as it is. When the zoom button 114 is operated, the zoom motor 156 is driven to change the magnification.When the optical zoom is maximized, the through image is displayed on the monitor screen 130 while changing the magnification by electronic zoom processing by image processing. The image data when the shutter button 110 is operated is recorded in the memory.

  In addition, when the playback button 118 is operated, playback mode image processing is performed, and RGB signals are written to the frame memory 187 of the display control unit 185 using the image data recorded in the memory, and an image based on this image data is displayed on the monitor screen. Display on 130.

  When performing image display based on image data, in addition to normal display for controlling all pixels, image display is performed using pixel data for every several pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions, thereby displaying an image as a translucent image. It is also possible to display special images.

  As a method for displaying a translucent image, a method of thinning out image data every several pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions and writing it into the frame memory 187 is used, and the color of the pixel in the background image and the color of the same pixel in the translucent image It is also possible to use a method of rewriting pixel data on the frame memory 187 by performing pixel calculation such as averaging.

Further, in this camera 100, when a guidance mode for guiding the shooting position is selected, a semi-transparent image obtained by moving the subject of the image shot once is displayed.
In this guidance mode, the shutter button 110 is operated when a field of view including a subject X and a subject Y having different distances from the camera as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed as a through image on the monitor screen 130 as shown in FIG. When shooting is performed, a monitor image figure 137 and a position figure 136 obtained by reducing this image including the images X ′ and Y ′ of the subject X and the subject Y are displayed on the monitor screen 130 as shown in FIG. To do.

Note that this position diagram 136 is a diagram showing the positional relationship between the subject X and the subject Y to be cut out as partial images among the subjects whose distance from the camera 100 is measured.
The subject X and the subject Y are not limited to subjects as independent objects, but may be different parts of a single object.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the cursor K is displayed in the position diagram 136. When the cursor K is moved by operating the direction moving button 122, the image X of the subject X and the subject Y is displayed. The monitor image shown in FIG. 137 is displayed together with the semi-transparent images S of the subject X and the subject Y together with “, Y”, and the display positions of the semi-transparent images S of the subject X and the subject Y in this monitor image FIG. Is to move.

  The translucent image S of the subject X and the subject Y resulting from this movement is obtained by changing the position of the cursor K in the position diagram 136 displayed on the monitor screen 130 with respect to the shooting position A of the first camera 100 as shown in FIG. The composition of the cut out subject X and subject Y when the position B of the camera 100 is set is displayed.

  When moving the images X ′ and Y ′ of the subject X and the subject Y by the semi-transmissive image S, when the shutter button 110 is operated to photograph the field of view including the subject X and the subject Y, a plurality of images in the field of view are displayed. The distance to the subject is measured by a point, and the distances L1 and L2 to the subject X and the subject Y are measured by the distance speed detection unit 165, thereby including the subject X and the subject Y having different distances from the camera 100. The distance data to a plurality of subjects is recorded in the memory 210 together with the image data, and the zoom rate at the time of shooting is also recorded in the memory 210.

  Then, the main control circuit 180 determines the field of view of the subject X and the subject Y from the front of the camera 100 based on the recorded distance data and the amount of deviation N between the subject X and the subject Y from the center of the screen and the distances L1 and L2 from the subject X and the subject Y. The angles θ1 and θ2 are calculated by the equations (2) and (3) based on the equation (1).

  However, N is the number of shifts of the number of pixels on the monitor screen 130 at the distance measurement points of the subject X and the subject Y from the center of the monitor screen 130, and T is 10 centimeters ahead of 1 meter when the zoom rate is 1. Z is a constant determined based on how many pixels on the monitor screen 130 are displayed with an object having a reference length of Z, and is a zoom magnification.

  In this way, the position map 136 is displayed on the monitor screen 130 based on the viewing angle from the center of the screen and the distance from the camera 100, and the position of the cursor K displayed on the position map 136 is detected to detect the subject X and the subject Y. Distances L3 and L4 are calculated from the number of pixels on the monitor screen 130, and the viewing angle when the subject X or subject Y is viewed from the position of the cursor K is calculated. The images of the subject X and subject Y in this state are half The transmission image S is displayed on the monitor image in FIG.

  Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 7, when the position of the cursor K displayed on the monitor screen 130 is moved on the position map 136 by the direction moving button 122, the translucent image S is displayed in accordance with the movement of the cursor K. The composition of the subject X and subject Y moved in the horizontal direction and the positional relationship between the subject X and subject Y when the shooting position is changed can be monitored by displaying it as a monitor image diagram 137. .

  In the guidance mode in which the monitor image diagram 137 is displayed on the monitor screen 130 together with the position diagram 136, when the set button 124 is further operated so as to confirm the position of the cursor K at a predetermined position, as shown in FIG. In the position diagram 136 displayed on the monitor screen 130, the display of the original photographing position P1 and the set position of the cursor K are displayed, and a guide image 138 is displayed instead of the monitor image diagram 137.

The guide image 138 is a display in which the through image based on the image data captured by the image sensor 170 and the determined translucent image S are displayed in an overlapping manner.
That is, the guide image 138 displays the semi-transparent images S of the subject X and the subject Y in a state when the set button 124 is operated, and sequentially displays the images of the subject that are sequentially captured by the image sensor 170 on the monitor screen 130. The through image including the subject facing the camera 100 is displayed by displaying while updating. When the camera 100 is directed in the direction of the subject X and the subject Y, the distance to the subject including the subject X and the subject Y is displayed. The current position P0 is displayed on the position map 136 based on the viewing angle.

  The operation of the main control circuit 180 in this guidance mode is, as shown in FIG. 10, when the guidance mode is selected, the shutter operation judgment (S101), which is judgment as to whether or not the shutter button 110 has been operated, The mode switching determination (S103), which is a determination as to whether or not a mode switching operation has been performed, is repeated, and when the shutter button 110 is operated, image data storage (S105) for storing image data in the memory is performed.

When the mode is switched, the guidance mode is terminated and the selected mode is processed.
When the shutter button 110 is operated, the image data is stored (S105), and the focal length reading (S107) for reading the distances to a plurality of subjects is performed. Based on the above-described equation (1). The angle of view is calculated (S110) to calculate the viewing angles θ1 and θ2 of two subjects having different distances.

  Where L is the distance to the subject, N is the number of shifts in the number of pixels on the monitor screen 130 from the center of the monitor screen 130 to the subject, Z is the zoom magnification, and T is the zoom factor is 1. This is a constant determined based on how many pixels on the monitor screen 130 an object having a reference length of 1 meter ahead is displayed.

  Further, the image data reading (S112) for reading the image data stored in the memory in the above-described image data storage (S105) is performed, and the position diagram 136 and the photographed image shown in FIG. 7 are displayed on the monitor screen 130 as the monitor image diagram 137. A moving diagram display (S114) is performed.

  In the movement diagram display (S114), the cursor K is displayed in the position diagram 136. When the position of the cursor K is moved in the position diagram 136 by the operation of the direction movement button 122, the position K is displayed. Then, the cursor position is read by reading the position of the cursor K moved by the direction movement button 122 (S116), and the viewing angle when viewing the subject for which the distance measurement is performed is calculated from the read position of the cursor K. The movement amount of the subject is calculated, and the specific subject movement display (S118) for displaying the translucent image in the moving state on the monitor image in FIG. 137 is performed.

  Further, a destination determination determination (S120), which is a determination as to whether or not a destination has been determined by the operation of the set button 124, a termination of the guidance mode or a change to another mode by a menu button operation or the like is performed. Mode switching determination (S122), which is a determination of whether or not, and if the movement destination is not determined or the mode switching is not performed by operating the set button 124, the cursor position reading (S116) and the specific subject movement display (S118) are repeated. It is.

  When the movement destination is determined by operating the set button 124, cursor position storage (S124) for reading the position of the cursor K when the set button 124 is operated is performed, and at this time, the monitor image diagram is displayed. The semi-transparent image storage (S126) for storing the display position of the semi-transparent image S of the specific subject displayed on 137 is performed.

  When the movement destination is determined by operating the set button 124 and the semi-transparent image is stored (S126), the semi-transparent image S is displayed as a fixed display on the monitor screen 130 and the image data formed by the image sensor 170 is displayed. The image data is read (S130) for displaying the through image to be read and displayed on the monitor screen 130, the guidance image 138 is displayed on the monitor screen 130, and the focal point for reading the distance to the specific subject using this image data Distance reading (S132) is also performed.

  Then, according to the distance from the specific subject at this time, as shown in FIG. 9, the current position display (S134) for displaying the current position is performed on the position map 136, and the guide image 138 is displayed on the screen. A standard display mode determination (S136), which is a determination as to whether or not to switch whether to display an image or to perform normal through image display using the entire monitor screen 130, is performed, and the shutter button 110 Shutter operation determination (S150), which is determination of whether or not is operated.

  Then, when the switching to the standard display mode or the operation of the shutter button 110 is not performed, it is determined whether or not the mode switching operation for ending the guidance mode has been performed (S152), and the operation for ending the guidance mode is performed. If not, the process returns to reading image data (S130) in which image data from the image sensor 170 is read and through image display is performed.

  By returning to this image data reading (S130), the determined translucent image S and the through image of the scene that is currently in the field of view of the camera 100 are superimposed on the translucent image S and displayed on the monitor screen 130 as the guide image 138. At the same time, the display of the position map 136 is continued, and when the change to the standard display mode is operated, the display is switched to the normal display of only the through image display (S138).

  When this display switching (S138) is performed, normal image display for displaying on the monitor screen 130 as a through image is performed by reading image data (S140) for reading image data of the image captured by the image sensor 170. Then, a guidance mode judgment (S142) that is a judgment as to whether or not to return to the guidance mode for displaying the guidance image 138 and the position map 136 is performed to judge whether or not the shutter button 110 is operated (S144). When returning to the display of the guide image 138 in which the translucent image is superimposed on the through image together with the display of the position diagram 136, the process returns to the shutter operation determination (S150).

  When the shutter button 110 is operated by the operation determination (S144) of the shutter button 110 after the display switching (S138) or the operation determination of the shutter button 110 (S150) in the guidance display, the image data is stored in the memory. Image data storage (S154) to be performed and focal length reading (S156) for reading the focal length of a plurality of subjects are performed, and mode switching determination (S160) is performed to determine whether or not the mode switching is to be ended and the guidance mode is to be terminated. Is.

  When the mode is switched, the guidance mode is terminated and the mode is changed to the selected new mode. If the mode is not switched, the process returns to the calculation of the angle of view (S110), and the composition of the subject when the shooting location is changed by the cursor is changed. Is displayed.

  As described above, the embodiment of the present invention measures the distance to a plurality of subjects in the field of view or the distance to a plurality of locations of the subject, and the subject from the front of the camera 100 according to the number of pixels of the image displayed on the monitor screen 130. Since the direction of the subject is obtained and the direction and distance of the subject are displayed on the monitor screen 130 and the position change of the subject when the camera position is moved is displayed, the composition of the composition when the shooting direction of the same subject is changed is displayed. Prediction can be facilitated.

  In the above embodiment, the image is changed by cutting out two partial images of the subject. However, the number of partial images to be cut out is not limited to two. If more partial images are cut out, the composition changes. More details can be made. However, when cutting out two partial images, the burden on the main control circuit 180 of the camera 100 can be reduced, and a guide image or the like can be displayed quickly.

  The digital camera 100 according to the present invention can display an outline of changes in the composition of the subject when the photographing position is changed based on the photographed image data on the monitor screen 130, and can be used when photographing the same subject at different angles. It is possible to easily determine the shooting position.

1 is a front perspective view showing an example of the appearance of a digital camera according to the present invention. 1 is a rear perspective view illustrating an example of an appearance of a digital camera according to the present invention. 1 is a bottom perspective view showing an example of the appearance of a digital camera according to the present invention. The figure which shows an example of the internal mechanism of the digital camera which concerns on this invention. The top view which shows the outline of the imaging | photography condition of the to-be-photographed object by the digital camera which concerns on this invention. The figure which shows an example of the image image | photographed with the digital camera which concerns on this invention. The figure which shows the example of a display of a monitor image figure in the case of changing the imaging | photography position in the guidance mode with the digital camera which concerns on this invention, and a position figure. The top view which shows the outline of the positional relationship of a camera position and a to-be-photographed object when a photography position is changed with the digital camera which concerns on this invention The figure which shows the example of a display of a guidance image and a position figure in the case of changing the imaging | photography position in the guidance mode with the digital camera which concerns on this invention. The flowchart figure which shows the process sequence of the guidance mode of the digital camera which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Digital camera 102 Lens barrel 104 Viewfinder front window 106 Strobe light emission window 108 Power switch 110 Shutter button 112 Viewfinder rear window 114 Zoom button 116 Shooting button 118 Play button 120 Menu button 122 Direction move button 124 Set button 126 Display button 130 Monitor screen 132 Cover 136 Position View 137 Monitor Image View 138 Guide Image 151 Focus Lens 152 Focus Motor 153 Driver 155 Zoom Lens 156 Zoom Motor 157 Driver 160 Imaging System Control Circuit 161 Focal Length Sensor 163 Interface 165 Distance Speed Detection Unit 167 Mechanical Shutter 168 Aperture Stop 170 Image sensor 171 Drive controller 173 Sample hold times Road
175 Auto gain control circuit 177 Analog / digital conversion circuit 180 Main control circuit 182 Image processing unit 185 Display control unit 187 Frame memory 189 Display unit 190 Operation unit 192 Input circuit 201 Battery 203 Power supply control unit 205 Flash drive unit 207 Strobe lamp 210 Memory 220 Storage medium 223 interface 225 USB terminal 227 interface

Claims (6)

  A digital camera displaying an image showing a change in composition of a subject when the position of the camera is moved based on a distance between the subject photographed by the camera and the camera.   A digital camera displaying an image showing a change in the mutual position of each subject when the position of the camera is moved based on the distance between each of a plurality of subjects photographed by the camera and the camera .   The image showing the change of the subject when the camera is moved is displayed, and the image of the subject taken sequentially through the lens is displayed on the monitor screen while being sequentially updated, and the image showing the change is sequentially updated. 3. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein an image is displayed on the monitor screen in an overlapping manner.   The digital camera according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an image showing a change in a subject when the camera is moved is displayed as a translucent image.   The digital camera according to claim 4, wherein the display of the semi-transparent image is performed by cutting out two partial images from the first photographed image.   Based on image data of images taken with a digital camera, a partial image of a plurality of subjects is cut out, a plane position diagram of the subjects and the shooting positions of the cameras is displayed on the monitor screen, and the subject when the camera position is moved An image capturing position monitoring method for a camera, characterized in that the composition of a subject can be monitored when the arrangement relation of the partial images is displayed on a monitor screen and the image capturing position is changed.

Images