JP2007235270A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging apparatus for notifying a user of a display size of a photographed image when the photographed image is reproduced on a PC. <P>SOLUTION: The imaging apparatus is provided with a control means 129 that displays on a display means 123, an external display means menu OSD 402 representing a resolution of an external display means and a photographed image OSD 403 representing a photographed image resolution displayed on the external display means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging device such as a digital camera having image resolution display means for displaying the resolution of a captured image.

In recent years, imaging apparatuses represented by digital cameras have been widely used. The reason why digital cameras have become so popular is thought to be due to the significant price reduction due to the increase in shipments, but the biggest difference from film cameras is that no film is required. Is mentioned.
Once you purchase a memory card with a certain amount of capacity, you can copy the image to a PC (Personal Computer), format the card, and use the memory card over and over again, and your favorite subject without worrying about running costs Can be taken one after another, and it is considered that the number of shots per use is also increasing compared to film cameras.
Because of this background, many images are taken by the imaging device, but it is costly to put the taken image into development or to print it out. Are stored on a hard disk of a PC and often viewed on application software of the PC.

On the other hand, most imaging devices can adjust the size of an image to be captured in several steps. For example, when the number of pixels of a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) is 3 million pixels, photographic image sizes such as 2048 × 1536 (3.14 million pixels), 1280 × 960 (1.22 million pixels), and 640 × 480 (300,000 pixels) are prepared. Has been.
This is because the capacity of the memory card used for the imaging device is limited, and if the image size is maximized, the amount of image data increases, and only a few images may be captured. This is because the number of shots can be increased.
In this way, the number of pixels of the photographed image can be changed by the imaging device, but only the display of the number of pixels such as “2048 × 1536” is displayed on the display means of the imaging device such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). It is difficult to grasp the size of the image intuitively.
For this reason, for example, Patent Document 1 proposes a technique for displaying a print range when an image is printed on a display unit of an imaging apparatus.
JP 2002-94901 A

As described above, not only the display of the number of pixels of the captured image, but also the technology that saves labor such as printing mistakes and re-shooting is already possible by checking the size of the printed image when it is printed out. Proposed. However, the user is considered to have a higher frequency of browsing images on the PC than printing, and effective notification technology for the user in this case is required.
An object of the present invention is to provide an imaging apparatus capable of notifying a user of how large a captured image can be displayed when a captured image is reproduced on a PC.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, the external display means screen OSD representing the resolution of the external display means and the photographed image OSD representing the photographed image resolution displayed on the external display means are displayed. An image pickup apparatus having a control means for displaying the image is the main feature.
The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the imaging apparatus according to claim 1 selects the resolution of the external display means used by the photographer as the external display means screen OSD.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, the size of the external display means screen OSD does not change even if the resolution of the external display means is changed, and the size of the captured image OSD is determined by the resolution of the external display means and the external display means screen OSD. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup apparatus displays the image with the same size as the resolution ratio.

In the invention described in claim 4, when the resolution setting of the captured image is changed, the ratio of the size of the captured image OSD is changed by the same ratio as the ratio of the size before and after the resolution setting. An imaging device is a main feature.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the external display means screen OSD and the photographed image OSD are mainly characterized by the image pickup apparatus according to the first aspect in which display or non-display can be selected.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the imaging apparatus according to the first aspect is characterized in that when the resolution of the photographed image is larger than the resolution of the external display means, the display means notifies.

  The image pickup apparatus of the present invention includes a control means for displaying on the display means an external display means screen OSD representing the resolution of the external display means and a photographed image OSD representing the photographed image resolution displayed on the external display means. Therefore, when the captured image is reproduced on the PC, it can be notified to the user how large the image can be displayed.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 is a block diagram of an imaging device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the imaging device according to the embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 3 is a rear view of the imaging device according to the embodiment of the invention. .
The image pickup apparatus of the present invention includes an optical lens 101, a shutter 102, an optical low-pass filter 103, a CCD 104, a CCD drive driver 105, a timing generator 106, a CDS: A / D (chip in which CDS and A / D are integrated) 107, Lens motor 108, shutter motor 109, motor driver 110, DC jack 111, battery 112, DC / DC converter 113, operation button 114, nonvolatile memory 115, SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) 116, flash memory 117, USB ( Universal Serial Bus) driver 118, USB connector 119, video amplifier 120, AV (Audio Visual) jack 121, LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) driver 122, LCD 123, speaker 124, microphone 125, audio CODR C (COder DECorder) 126, strobe circuit 127, strobe 128, imaging device ASSP (Application Specific Standard Products) 129, image processor 130, A / D, D / A converter 131, video encoder 132, microcomputer 133, various interfaces 134 , Card connector 135, memory card 136, strobe light control sensor 201, release 202, viewfinder 203, mode dial 204, lens barrel 205, battery & memory card insertion slot 301, operation button A (up) 302, operation button B (left) ) 303, an operation button C (right) 304, an operation button D (down) 305, an operation button E306, an operation button F307, and an operation button G308.

In FIG. 1, an optical lens 101 can be moved by a lens motor 108 controlled by a motor driver 110, and optical zooming or focusing is performed by driving a plurality of optical lenses (not shown) by a lens motor 108, respectively. Can be matched.
The subject image incident from the optical lens 101 is adjusted in the amount of incident light by the shutter 102 operated by the shutter motor 109 and formed on the CCD 104 controlled by the CCD drive driver 105 through the optical low-pass filter 103.

Here, when the light amount of the photographing subject is insufficient, the strobe 128 under the control of the strobe circuit 127 can be caused to emit light, and an image with an appropriate light amount can be taken.
Charges are accumulated (photoelectric conversion) in the CCD 104 for the amount of time that the shutter 102 is open after the release 202 is pressed. The CCD 104 is composed of an infinite number of cells (pixels), and each pixel is provided with a condensing lens and a color filter. The intensity of light of each color such as red, green, blue, etc., depending on the type of color filter. Is stored in each pixel. For example, a full color image can be created by converting the incident light amounts of the three primary colors of red, green, and blue into charges and reading the charge amounts.

The accumulated charges are sequentially delivered from each pixel of the CCD 104 to the CDS: A / D 107 using the clock of the timing generator 106, the noise component is reduced by the CDS unit (Correlated Double Sampling), and the A / D unit Convert analog charge to digital signal.
The converted digital information of the incident light amount of each pixel is temporarily stored in the SDRAM 16 having a high writing speed, and sequentially transferred to the imaging device ASSP 129, and is subjected to white balance processing and edge processing by the image processor 130 in the imaging device ASSP 129. Processing such as emphasis and image compression by JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is performed.
The imaging device ASSP 129 is a standard IC (Integrated Circuit) for a specific application (imaging device), and controls the entire camera, reads the software written in the flash memory 117, operates according to the instructions of the software, It plays the role of controlling various drivers that control the device, and uses the image processor 130, microcomputer 133, and various interfaces 134 built in itself to perform processing such as image processing, operation button control, and memory interface control. Is going.

Image data subjected to various processes by the image processor 130 is stored in a nonvolatile memory 115 controlled by various interfaces 134. Today's imaging devices are equipped with non-volatile memories such as smart media and SD (Secure Digital) cards.
The image data subjected to the various processes is converted into NTSC, PAL, etc. by the video encoder 132, passed through the video amplifier 120, and output from the AV jack 121 to a TV or the like, or by the LCD driver 122. Signal conversion corresponding to the LCD display specification is performed, and an image is displayed on the LCD 123, or converted into a differential signal by the USB driver 118, and image data can be transferred from the USB connector 119 to a PC or the like via a cable.
The power supply of the imaging apparatus is supplied from an AC adapter inserted into the DC jack 111 or the battery 112, and a DC voltage (for example, 3.3V, 5V, -7.5V, etc.) required for each device by the DC / DC converter 113. ) And supply to each device.

The audio CODEC 126 is controlled by the imaging device ASSP 129, and includes a microphone amplifier, a speaker amplifier, an A / D, a D / A converter, a code, and a decoding processing unit. The audio CODEC 126 amplifies the audio recorded by the microphone 125, D conversion and encoding processing are performed, and the result is accumulated in the SDRAM 116 and sequentially recorded in the nonvolatile memory 115.
When playing back sound, the sound digital data is read from the nonvolatile memory 115 to the SDRAM 116, sequentially decoded by the sound CODEC 126, D / A converted, and amplified, and then output by the speaker 124.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on a flowchart. As an embodiment, an example in which a photographed image taken with a digital camera is displayed on an external monitor connected to a PC will be described.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an external display means screen OSD402 and a captured image OSD404 (in the case of external display means resolution> captured image resolution) displayed on the LCD 123, and FIG. 5 is an external display means screen OSD402 displayed on the LCD 123. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a captured image OSD 404 (external display means resolution <captured image resolution), and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a control procedure for setting the external display means screen OSD 402 and the captured image OSD 404 on the LCD 123.
Here, the external display means screen OSD (On Screen Device) 402 represents the resolution of the external display means, and the photographed image OSD 404 represents the resolution of the photographed image displayed on the external display means.

In FIG. 6, a power button (not shown) is pressed to turn on the power of the imaging apparatus, and it is determined in step S601 whether the camera is in a shooting mode. When the mode dial 204 is rotated and the camera is set to the photographing mode, the process proceeds from step S601 to step S602.
In step S602, display / non-display of the image size OSD display is confirmed. Information on whether or not to display the OSD is written in the flash memory 117 and can be arbitrarily selected by the user. Turn the mode dial 204 to switch the camera to the SETUP mode, select the “Image Size OSD Display” item from the OSD display displayed on the LCD 123 using the operation buttons 114, and display / hide the OSD. And the selected information is written into the flash memory 117. If there is an image size OSD display in step S602, the process proceeds to step S603. If there is no image size OSD display, this flow ends.

In step S603, the external display means screen OSD402 is displayed. The size of the external display means screen OSD 402 can be selected by the user, and is selected by operating the OSD displayed on the LCD 123 in the SETUP mode in the same manner as the image size OSD display / non-display selection.
As external display means resolutions that can be selected, for example, 640 (horizontal) × 480 (vertical) dots, 800 (vertical) × 600 (vertical) dots, 1024 (vertical) × 768 (vertical) vertical, and 1152 (horizontal) × vertical, which are widely used as PC desktop display area sizes Resolutions of 864 dots, horizontal 1280 dots × vertical 1024 dots, horizontal 1600 dots × vertical 1200 dots, etc. are prepared. Of course, the above desktop size may have a resolution other than the above according to the needs of the user.
Here, the external display means screen OSD 402 is displayed on the LCD 123. In order to prevent the OSD display from becoming too large and causing an obstacle to shooting, the external display means screen OSD 402 displays an OSD having a certain size regardless of the desktop resolution of the PC set by the photographer in the SETUP mode.

In step 604, the size of the desktop of the PC is compared with the size of the captured image. If either the vertical or horizontal size of the captured image is larger than the size of the PC desktop, the process proceeds to step 605 to display a warning OSD 404 that displays “the image will be larger than the desktop”. Alert the photographer. After the warning OSD 404 is displayed, the process proceeds to step S606.
Next, in step 606, the captured image OSD 404 is displayed. For example, when the CCD 104 has about 3.34 million pixels, the number of photographing pixels of the image pickup apparatus is 2048 × 1536 (3.14 million pixels), 1280 × 960 (1.22 million pixels), 640 × 480 (30) Many cameras are capable of shooting at a resolution such as 10,000 pixels.
Therefore, for example, when the image pickup apparatus is set to have a desktop size of 1024 dots wide x 768 dots high and the image is taken at 640 width x height 480, the image is displayed on the LCD 123 as shown in FIG. Is displayed. Here, the size of the captured image OSD 403 is compared with the size of the external display means screen OSD 402 in the vertical length: the number of vertical dots of the captured image / the number of vertical dots on the PC desktop, and the horizontal length: the horizontal direction of the captured image. It is displayed so as to be the size of the number of dots / the number of horizontal dots on the PC desktop.

The LCD 123 mounted on the imaging device has a limited number of pixels compared to a PC monitor, and there are many dot arrangements and delta arrangements to increase the resolution, and it is accurately large. However, the size ratio between the external display means screen OSD 402 and the captured image OSD 403 is as close as possible to the size ratio when the captured image is actually viewed on the PC desktop.
Further, by not displaying on the LCD 123 a portion where the captured image is larger than the PC desktop, it is possible to prevent the shooting from being disturbed by narrowing the field of view at the time of shooting, and to improve the convenience for the user.

Industrial application fields

  The present invention can be applied to a general apparatus having image display means for displaying the resolution of a captured image.

1 is a block diagram of an imaging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is an external view (front part) of an imaging device concerning an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is an external view (back surface portion) of an imaging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the external display means screen OSD and photographed image OSD (when PC desktop size> photographed image size) displayed on the LCD panel. It is a figure which shows the external display means screen OSD displayed on LCD, and picked-up image OSD (PC desktop size <picked-up image size). It is a flowchart which shows the control procedure which makes external display means screen OSD and picked-up image OSD on LCD.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Optical lens, 102 Shutter, 103 Optical low-pass filter, 104 CCD, 105 CCD drive driver, 106 Timing generator, 107 CDS: A / D, 108 Lens motor, 109 Shutter motor, 110 Motor driver, 111 DC jack, 112 Battery, 113 DC / DC converter, 114 operation buttons, 115 nonvolatile memory, 116 SDRAM, 117 flash memory, 118 USB driver, 119 USB connector, 120 video amplifier, 121 AV Jack, 122 LCD driver, 123 LCD (display means), 124 Speaker, 125 microphone, 126 voice CODERC, 127 strobe circuit, 128 strobe, 129 imaging device ASSP (control means), 1 0 image processor, 131 A / D, D / A converter, 132 video encoder, 133 microcomputer, 134 various interfaces, 135 card connector, 136 memory card, 201 strobe light control sensor, 202 release, 203 finder, 204 mode dial, 205 Lens barrel, 301 Battery & memory card insertion slot, 302 Operation button A (upper), 303 Operation button B (left), 304 Operation button C (right), 305 Operation button D (lower), 306 Operation button E, 307 Operation button F, 308 Operation button G, 402 External display means screen OSD, 403 Captured image OSD, 404 Warning OSD

Claims (6)

  An image pickup comprising an external display screen OSD representing the resolution of the external display means and a control means for displaying a photographed image OSD representing the resolution of the photographed image displayed on the external display means on the display. apparatus.   2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resolution of the external display means used by the photographer is selected as the external display means screen OSD.   The size of the external display means screen OSD does not change even if the resolution of the external display means is changed, and the size of the captured image OSD is set to the resolution of the external display means and the resolution of the external display means screen OSD. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is displayed with a size equal to the ratio.   2. The imaging according to claim 1, wherein when the resolution setting of the captured image is changed, the ratio of the size of the captured image OSD is changed to the same ratio as the size before and after the resolution setting. apparatus.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external display unit screen OSD and the captured image OSD can be selected to be displayed or not displayed.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the resolution of the captured image is larger than the resolution of the external display unit, the display unit notifies.

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