JP2007096984A - Digital camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital camera capable of switching a power source control function in response to user setting in a digital camera wherein a display unit can be opened/closed. <P>SOLUTION: When a liquid crystal display unit is closed, ON/OFF of a power source is checked (step S401). In the case of power-off ((n) in step S401), processing is finished. In the case of power-on ((y) in step S401), on the other hand, a flag 0 indicating validity/invalidity of a liquid crystal display unit cooperative power-off function is checked. If the flag 0 is 1 ((y) in step S402), power-off processing is performed and processing 403 is finished. If the flag 0 is 0 ((n) in step S402), on the other hand, only a display power source of the liquid crystal display unit is turned off and processing is finished (step S404). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly to a power management function of a digital camera having a display unit that can be opened and closed.

  Some digital cameras and video cameras are configured such that an image being captured and a display unit for displaying the captured image are movable.

Then, by opening and closing the display unit, it is possible to switch between a use state and a non-use state. For example, see Patent Document 1.
JP-A-9-224176

  However, in the above-described prior art, the user cannot select the power control function linked to the open / close state of the display unit, and the degree of freedom of the user is low. In addition, during long-time movie shooting, it is desired to use the display unit with the display unit closed, but the power is turned off when the display unit is closed, and thus such a usage method cannot be selected.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a digital camera in which a power supply control function can be switched in accordance with a user setting in a digital camera whose display unit can be opened and closed.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a photographing means for picking up an optical image, a compressing means for compressing image data obtained by the photographing means, and a recording means for recording image data compressed by the compressing means. A display unit arranged to be housed in the main body and configured to be openable and closable; detection means for detecting an open / closed state of the display unit; Power control means for performing control, and setting means for enabling the power supply control means to select whether to enable or disable the operation of turning off the power by detecting that the display unit is closed. It is a thing.

    In addition, when the operation of turning off the power supply is disabled by detecting that the display unit is closed by the setting unit, when the display unit is closed, only the power supply related to the display of the display unit is turned off. Is.

  Further, when the operation of turning off the power by enabling the setting unit to detect that the display unit is closed is enabled, the power of the entire system is turned on when the display unit is opened.

  According to the present invention, since the setting of the power control function linked to the display unit can be selectively executed, the degree of freedom of the user's usage mode is increased. Further, the battery consumption can be suppressed by closing the liquid crystal display unit during long-time moving image shooting and the like to eliminate excessive power consumption.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of a digital camera showing an embodiment of the present invention. In this digital camera, the CCD output digital signal 101 after A / D conversion of the photographed image is subjected to various signal processing by the camera signal processing circuit 102 and compressed through the JPEG MPEG processing circuit 103 and the memory circuit 104. It is recorded on the hard disk 105 or the memory card 106 of a non-volatile memory as an image or moving image signal with sound. The captured image is displayed on the LCD 109 via the Video Decoder 107 and the LCD Driver 108.

At the time of reproduction, an image read from the hard disk 105 or the memory card 106 is displayed on the LCD 109 via the JPEG / MPEG processing circuit 103, the memory circuit 104, and the video decoder 107 via the LCD driver 108.

When a still image or a moving image recorded on the hard disk 105 or the memory card 106 is transferred to an external device or received from an external device, it is transmitted / received from the USB terminal 113 via the USB controller 111. This assumes that the external device is a PC. Further, it is possible to directly transmit / receive MPEG-compressed moving images to / from an image recording / reproducing apparatus such as a DVD recorder without using a PC. In general, when transferring these images to a DVD recorder, the MPEG-compressed moving image is decoded on the camera side, analog output from the video terminal or S terminal, and the analog signal is recompressed on the image recording / playback device side. save.

In this method, for example, it takes one hour to record a moving image recorded for one hour on a DVD. However, here, MPEG-compressed video data can be transferred as it is to a DVD as a streaming stream, and the transfer time depends on the compression rate, but it can achieve several tens of times the real time, and the image quality is Because it is not re-encoded, it remains high quality.

For example, it takes 6 minutes for 1/10 to record a moving image recorded for one hour on a DVD recorder. When a LAN is considered as a network, data is transmitted and received from the LAN terminal 15 via the LAN controller 110. Note that the transfer to the DVD recorder is not limited to moving images, and may be still images or audio.

The power button 115 or the liquid crystal display unit open / close detection switch 116 gives pressing information to the CPU 114 that controls the entire system. The CPU 114 executes processing from the information.

In the present embodiment, the user can select whether to use the liquid crystal display unit interlocking power-off function for operating the power on / off in conjunction with the liquid crystal display unit opening / closing detection switch 116 whose opening / closing of the liquid crystal display unit changes. Is.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a flow when the function of the liquid crystal display unit interlocking power-off is set to be valid / invalid. The liquid crystal display unit interlocking power-off setting menu is presented to the user (step S201). When the user instructs to enable the liquid crystal display unit interlocking power-off function (y in step S202), the flag 0 is set to 1 (step S203). On the other hand, when instructed to invalidate, the flag 0 is set to 0 (step S204).

FIG. 3 is a flow when the liquid crystal display unit opening / closing switch is switched. When the liquid crystal display unit opening / closing switch is switched, the open / close state of the liquid crystal display unit is checked. When the liquid crystal display unit is closed (y in step S301), a task (described later in FIG. 4) when the liquid crystal display unit is closed is started, and the processing is ended when the task is completed. (Step S303). On the other hand, when the liquid crystal display unit is open (step S301: n), a task (described later in FIG. 5) when the liquid crystal display unit described later is opened is started, and processing is performed when the task ends. The process ends (step S304).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation when the liquid crystal display unit is closed. When the liquid crystal display unit is closed, it is checked whether the power is on or off (step S401). If the power is off (step S401: n), the process ends. On the other hand, if the power is on (y in step S401), the flag 0 indicating whether the liquid crystal display unit interlocking power off function is valid or invalid is checked. If the flag 0 is 1 (y in step S402), the power-off process is performed and the 403 process is terminated. On the other hand, when the flag 0 is 0 (step S402: n), only the display power supply of the liquid crystal display unit is turned off and the process is terminated (step S404).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation when the liquid crystal display unit is opened. When the liquid crystal display unit is opened, the power on / off is checked 501 (step S501). If the power is off (n in step S501), the flag 0 is checked 503. If the flag 0 is 1, power-on processing is performed (step S506). If it is 0, the process is terminated. On the other hand, when the power is on (y in step S501), the flag 0 is checked (step S502). If the flag 0 is 1, the power-on process is performed and the process is terminated (step S504). On the other hand, if the flag 0 is 0, the power of the liquid crystal display unit is turned on and the process ends (step S505).

  Finally, an external view of a digital camera that performs the operation of the above-described embodiment will be described.

FIG. 6 is an external view of a digital camera showing an embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating a state in which the display unit is stored in the storage unit provided in the main body constituting the digital camera. FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating a state in which an image displayed on the liquid crystal display unit is visible.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the digital camera includes a main body 1. The main body 1 includes a lens 2, a flash 3, a still image record button 4, a liquid crystal display unit 5, a moving image record button 6, a jog dial 7, and a cross key. 8, a type selection key 9, a zoom bar 10, a mode lever 11, a power button 12, and the like.

  Further, the main body 1 includes a storage unit 21, and the liquid crystal display unit 5 can be stored in the storage unit 21. The display unit 5 is configured to be movable, and can be taken out of the storage unit 21 to adjust the display surface to an arbitrary angle. The liquid crystal display unit 5 includes an LCD (liquid crystal display) 51 and a speaker 52.

  In such a configuration, in this embodiment, since the user can selectively execute the setting of the interlocking power-off function with the liquid crystal display unit, the degree of freedom of the user's usage mode is increased. Further, the battery consumption can be suppressed by closing the liquid crystal display unit during long-time moving image shooting, etc., and eliminating unnecessary power consumption.

It is a system block diagram which shows one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement at the time of the menu setting of the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement at the time of liquid crystal display unit switch switching of the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment is closed. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the liquid crystal display unit of the embodiment is opened. It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the digital camera camera of the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

102 signal processing circuit, 103 JPEG / MPEG processing circuit, 104 memory, 105 HDD, 106 memory card, 107 video decoder, 108 LCD driver 109 LCD, 110 LAN controller, 112 LAN terminal, 111 USB driver, 113 USB terminal 15 power button 114 CPU, 116 Display unit open / close detection switch.

Claims (3)

Photographing means for capturing an optical image;
Compression means for compressing image data obtained by the imaging means;
Recording means for recording image data compressed by the compression means;
A display unit arranged to be housed in the main body and configured to be openable and closable;
Detecting means for detecting an open / closed state of the display unit;
Power control means for performing power control based on the open / closed state of the liquid crystal display unit detected by the detection means;
Setting means for setting the power supply control means so as to enable or disable the operation of turning off the power by detecting that the display unit is closed;
A digital camera comprising:   When the setting means disables the operation of turning off the power by detecting that the display unit is closed, when the display unit is closed, only the power related to the display of the display unit is turned off. The digital camera according to claim 1.   The power supply for the entire system is turned on when the display unit is opened when the operation of turning off the power by enabling the setting unit to detect that the display unit is closed is enabled. 1. The digital camera according to 1.

Images