JP2013128258A - Imaging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable transmission of photographed image data by an appropriate wireless communication method with an imaging device capable of using a plurality of wireless communication methods.SOLUTION: When a wireless communication unit is enabled, a recording medium with a wireless communication function is mounted, and the same transmission destination is set, image data is transmitted using any one of the communication methods.

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, and relates to a technique in a system capable of transmitting image data through a plurality of paths.

  With the widespread use of imaging devices, there are a plurality of methods for transmitting captured image data to an external device. One of them is a method of externally attaching a wireless unit to the imaging apparatus. For example, a wireless unit can be connected to the image pickup apparatus with a dedicated connector to enable wireless image transmission. There is also a method of incorporating a wireless function in the imaging apparatus.

  In recent years, there are recording media having a wireless communication function. This is a memory card that has a wireless communication function inside a memory card that can be attached to a so-called imaging device. By mounting this recording medium, the imaging device can realize transmission of image data by wireless communication. .

  As described above, a plurality of methods by which the imaging apparatus transmits image data wirelessly are known. On the other hand, since there are a plurality of communication methods, it is necessary to consider control in consideration of the relationship between the communication methods.

  For example, in a communication terminal device capable of electronic mail and facsimile communication, when the transmission destination is an electronic mail, it may be possible not to accept a transmission with a designated time (Patent Document 1).

JP 2003-163784 A

  As described above, when there are a plurality of communication methods, it is necessary to perform control in consideration of the relationship between them. For example, when an imaging apparatus can use a plurality of communication methods, for example, when a recording medium having a wireless communication function is inserted into an imaging apparatus having a built-in wireless communication function, two types of wireless communication methods are used. Some control is desirable because it will be available.

  An imaging apparatus according to the present invention includes an imaging unit that captures an image of a subject and obtains image data, a transmission unit that wirelessly transmits image data captured by the imaging unit via a communication unit, and a recording having a wireless communication function A connection means for connecting to a wireless recording medium as a medium, a transmission destination for transmission by the communication unit, a holding means for holding a transmission destination for transmission by the wireless recording medium, a transmission destination for transmission by the communication unit, and the When it is determined that the transmission destination of the transmission by the wireless recording medium is the same, either the communication unit or the wireless recording medium is set as the transmission destination of the image data obtained by the imaging unit, and the transmission by the communication unit Image data obtained by the imaging means using each of the communication unit and the wireless recording medium when it is determined that the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium is different from the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium And a control means for controlling to transmit.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately control a wireless communication function in an imaging apparatus that can use a plurality of wireless communication methods including a recording medium having a wireless communication function.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of a digital camera. It is a flowchart which shows the process of a digital camera.

<First Embodiment>
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a digital camera which is an example of an imaging apparatus. In addition, as an imaging device, you may use the mobile phone with a camera, what is called a smart phone, a tablet terminal, etc., for example.

  Reference numeral 10 denotes a photographing lens, 12 denotes a shutter having a diaphragm function, 14 denotes an image sensor that converts an optical image of a subject into an electric signal, and 16 denotes an A / D converter that converts an analog signal output of the image sensor 14 into a digital signal. .

  A timing generation circuit 18 supplies a clock signal and a control signal to the image sensor 14, the A / D converter 16, and the D / A converter 26, and is controlled by the memory control circuit 22 and the system control circuit 50.

  An image processing circuit 20 performs predetermined pixel interpolation processing and color conversion processing on the data from the A / D converter 16 or the data from the memory control circuit 22.

  Further, the image processing circuit 20 performs predetermined arithmetic processing using the captured image data. The system control circuit 50 controls the exposure control unit 40 and the distance measurement control unit 42 based on the obtained calculation result. TTL (through the lens) AF (autofocus) processing, AE (automatic) Exposure) processing and EF (flash pre-emission) processing are performed.

  Further, the image processing circuit 20 performs predetermined arithmetic processing using captured image data, and also performs TTL AWB (auto white balance) processing based on the obtained arithmetic result.

  A memory control circuit 22 controls the A / D converter 16, the timing generation circuit 18, the image processing circuit 20, the image display memory 24, the D / A converter 26, the memory 30, and the compression / decompression circuit 32.

  The data of the A / D converter 16 is written into the image display memory 24 or the memory 30 via the image processing circuit 20 and the memory control circuit 22 or the data of the A / D converter 16 is directly passed through the memory control circuit 22. It is.

  Reference numeral 24 denotes an image display memory, 26 denotes a D / A converter, 28 denotes an image display unit including a TFT LCD, and the image data for display written in the image display memory 24 passes through the D / A converter 26. Displayed by the image display unit 28. If the image data captured using the image display unit 28 is sequentially displayed, the electronic viewfinder function can be realized.

  Reference numeral 30 denotes a memory for storing captured still images and moving images, and has a sufficient storage capacity to store a predetermined number of still images and a predetermined time of moving images. The memory 30 can also be used as a work area for the system control circuit 50.

  A compression / decompression circuit 32 compresses and decompresses image data by adaptive discrete cosine transform (ADCT) or the like.

  Reference numeral 40 denotes an exposure control unit that controls the shutter 12 having an aperture function, and has a flash light control function in cooperation with the flash 48.

  Reference numeral 42 denotes a distance measurement control unit that controls focusing of the photographing lens 10, reference numeral 44 denotes a zoom control unit that controls zooming of the photographing lens 10, and reference numeral 46 denotes a barrier control unit that controls the operation of the protection unit 102 serving as a barrier.

A flash 48 has an AF auxiliary light projecting function and a flash light control function.
The exposure control unit 40 and the distance measurement control unit 42 are controlled using the TTL method. Based on the calculation result obtained by calculating the captured image data by the image processing circuit 20, the system control circuit 50 performs the exposure control unit 40 and the distance measurement. The controller 42 is controlled.

  A system control circuit 50 controls the entire digital camera 100 in accordance with input signals and programs from each unit. A memory 52 stores constants, variables, programs, and the like for operating the system control circuit 50.

  Reference numeral 54 denotes a display unit such as a liquid crystal display device or a speaker that displays an operation state, a message, and the like using characters, images, sounds, and the like in accordance with execution of a program in the system control circuit 50. This is composed of, for example, a combination of an LCD, an LED, a sound generating element and the like.

  Reference numeral 56 denotes an electrically erasable / recordable nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM.

  Reference numerals 62, 64, 66, and 70 are operation units for inputting various operation instructions of the system control circuit 50, and may be a single or a combination of switches, dials, touch panels, pointing by line-of-sight detection, voice recognition devices, and the like. Composed.

  Here, a specific description of these operation units will be given.

  Reference numeral 62 denotes a shutter switch SW1 and 64 denotes a shutter switch SW2. The shutter switch SW2 is used for half-pressing or fully-pressing a so-called shutter switch.

  Reference numeral 66 denotes an image display ON / OFF switch that can set ON / OFF of the image display unit 28.

  An operation unit 70 includes various buttons and a touch panel, and includes a menu button, a set button, a menu movement button, and the like.

  A power control unit 80 includes a battery detection circuit, a DC-DC converter, a switch circuit that switches a block to be energized, and the like. Reference numerals 82 and 84 denote connectors, 86 denotes a primary battery such as an alkaline battery or a lithium battery, a secondary battery such as a NiCd battery, NiMH battery, or Li battery, an AC adapter, or the like.

  90 is an interface with a recording medium such as a memory card or hard disk, 92 is a connector for connecting to a recording medium such as a memory card or hard disk, and 98 is a recording medium for detecting whether or not the recording medium 200 is attached to the connector 92. It is an attachment / detachment detection unit.

  Note that the interface for attaching the recording medium may have a single or a plurality of systems, any number of systems. Moreover, it is good also as a structure provided with combining an interface of a different standard.

  The interface and the connector may be configured using a PCMCIA card, a CF (Compact Flash (registered trademark)) card, an SD card, or the like based on a standard.

  A protection unit 102 is a barrier that prevents the imaging unit from being soiled or damaged by covering the imaging unit including the lens 10 of the digital camera 100. Reference numeral 104 denotes an optical viewfinder, which can take an image using only the optical viewfinder without using the electronic viewfinder function of the image display unit 28.

  A communication unit 110 has various communication functions such as RS232C, USB, IEEE1394, P1284, SCSI, modem, LAN, and wireless communication. The communication unit 110 in the present embodiment has a wireless LAN communication function and includes an antenna 112. When shooting is performed, the communication unit 110 can automatically wirelessly transmit image data obtained by shooting. The automatic transmission by the communication unit 110 can be switched between valid and invalid by the user. The transmission destination of data transmitted using the communication unit 110 can be set in advance by the user. As will be described later, the set transmission destination is held in the nonvolatile memory 56. Here, in the present embodiment, the communication unit 110 is built in, but may be an external wireless unit, for example. In other words, the digital camera 100 only needs to be connected to the communication unit 110 and have means for controlling the communication unit 110 by some method.

  The hardware configuration of the digital camera 100 is not limited to that shown in FIG. For example, all the control of the digital camera 100 may be performed by one piece of hardware, or each unit of the digital camera 100 may be realized by a plurality of pieces of hardware sharing the processing.

  Reference numeral 200 denotes a recording medium, and a recording medium of a format suitable for the interface 90 can be mounted. The interface 90 of the present embodiment can be loaded with a recording medium with a wireless communication function of a predetermined format (hereinafter referred to as a wireless recording medium).

  Here, the wireless recording medium 200 will be described. The wireless recording medium 200 is a so-called memory card provided with a wireless LAN function. The wireless recording medium 200 includes a microcomputer, a flash memory, a wireless communication unit, and a card interface 204 in its own device. The flash memory holds a transmission destination of data written from an external device. When the microcomputer detects writing of data to a predetermined folder in the flash memory, the microcomputer transmits the data written in the held transmission destination wirelessly. In this way, for example, image data written by photographing can be transmitted wirelessly to a predetermined transmission destination. The above is the description of the wireless recording medium.

  The digital camera 100 according to the present embodiment stores a table in which the transmission destination and a communication method (communication by the communication unit 110 and communication by the wireless recording medium 200) are associated with each other in the nonvolatile memory 56. The destination can be defined by, for example, an IP address, a MAC address, or a server name. In the above example, the communication unit 110 and the transmission destination of the data transmitted by the communication unit 110 are stored in the table in association with each other. Further, the wireless recording medium 200 and the transmission destination of data transmitted by the wireless recording medium 200 are stored in the table in association with each other. Note that the transmission destination of data transmitted by the wireless recording medium 200 can be acquired by the digital camera 100 reading out from the wireless recording medium 200 at a predetermined timing, for example, when the wireless recording medium 200 is connected.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing of the digital camera in the present embodiment. Note that the processing of each flowchart of the present embodiment is realized in principle by the system control circuit 50 controlling each part of the digital camera 100. This flow may be performed, for example, when the power is turned on, or may be performed at the timing when the insertion / extraction of the recording medium 200 is detected. Further, for example, it may be performed at the timing when the setting for transmitting the image data is validated, or may be performed at the timing when the image is actually captured and the image data is automatically transmitted.

  First, in S201, the system control circuit 50 determines whether automatic transmission by the communication unit 110 is enabled. If it is determined to be valid, the process proceeds to S202. If it is determined not to be valid, the process proceeds to S208.

  In step S <b> 202, the system control circuit 50 determines whether the wireless recording medium 200 is connected to the interface 90. Specifically, the system control circuit 50 can determine whether or not the wireless recording medium 200 is connected by reading attribute information such as a manufacturer name of the wireless recording medium 200, for example. If it is determined that the wireless recording medium 200 is connected, the process proceeds to S203. If it is determined that the wireless recording medium 200 is not connected, the process proceeds to S210. If the validity / invalidity of the wireless communication function of the wireless recording medium 200 can be set by control from the digital camera 100, it is determined in this step whether the setting is valid, not whether it is connected.

  In S203, the system control circuit 50 refers to the table described above, and determines whether the transmission destination by the communication unit 110 and the transmission destination by the wireless recording medium 200 are the same. If it is determined that the transmission destination is the same, the process proceeds to S205. If it is determined that the transmission destination is different, the process proceeds to S207.

  Here, a case where the transmission destinations of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 are the same will be described. In this case, the same image data is transmitted from the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 to the same transmission destination. Accordingly, the same image data is received twice at the transmission destination. This is not preferable because the recording capacity of the transmission destination is wasted and the power for transmission is also wasted. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the processing from S204 is performed.

  In S204, the system control circuit 50 notifies the user of a warning that the transmission destinations of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 are the same using the display unit 54 or the like.

  In S205, the system control circuit 50 displays a selection screen for selecting which of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 is used to transmit image data on the display unit 54 and the like, and accepts the user's selection.

  When the user's selection is accepted, the system control circuit 50 transmits image data using the selected one of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 in S206. When this flow is executed before shooting, it is not necessary to transmit at this timing, and it is only necessary to set a transmission destination here. The above is a case where it is determined that the transmission destinations of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 are the same.

  Next, the case where it progresses to S207 is demonstrated. Proceeding to this step means that it is determined that the transmission destinations of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 are different. In this case, since the user may intentionally want to assign the transmission destination, the image data is transmitted by both the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200. That is, the same image data is transmitted to two transmission destinations by two communication methods.

  Next, the case where it progresses to S210 is demonstrated. Proceeding to this step is considered to be a case where the wireless recording medium 200 is not connected while the communication unit 110 is set to be valid. In this case, image data is transmitted using the communication unit 110.

  Next, the case where it progresses to S208 is demonstrated. In step S <b> 208, the system control circuit 50 determines whether the wireless recording medium 200 is connected to the interface 90. If it is determined that the wireless recording medium 200 is used, the process proceeds to S209. If it is determined that the recording medium is not the wireless recording medium 200, the processing ends because there is no means for performing wireless communication.

  Proceeding to S209 means that the wireless communication by the communication unit 110 is set to be invalid, but the wireless communication by the wireless recording medium 200 is valid. Therefore, in this case, image data is transmitted using the wireless recording medium 200.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the transmission destinations of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 are the same, only one of the transmissions is performed. In addition, when the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 have different transmission destinations, any communication is performed. By doing so, it is possible to prevent unnecessary transmission processing while reflecting the user's intention as much as possible.

  In this embodiment, when the transmission destinations of the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 are the same, the transmission is performed by the communication method selected by the user. However, the method of selecting the communication method is not limited to this. For example, it may be fixed whether to assign priority to advance. In particular, since the built-in wireless is often optimized for the digital camera 100, the built-in wireless may always be prioritized when the transmission destination is the same. Further, the transfer speed between the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium may be compared to use a higher-speed communication method.

  Note that when the digital camera 100 has a plurality of interfaces 90, a plurality of wireless recording media 200 may be mounted. This case is also the same as the above embodiment in the sense that there are a plurality of communication methods. Therefore, it is possible to replace the communication unit 110 in the above example with another wireless recording medium.

<Second Embodiment>
In the present embodiment, transmission of image data in the communication unit 110 and the wireless recording medium 200 can be executed at any timing of the user in addition to automatic transmission after shooting. It is assumed that the user can set for each communication method whether automatic transmission is performed or transmission is performed at an arbitrary timing.

  Here, consider a case where at least one of the transmissions is set to be transmitted at an arbitrary timing. In this case, there is a high possibility that the communication method set to automatically transmit is transmitted first. Even if both are set to transmit at an arbitrary timing, it is unlikely that the other communication method and the transmission timing overlap. Therefore, in this case, the processes like S204 and S205 are not performed.

  However, in this case, it is necessary to prevent a situation in which data is first transmitted by one communication method and then transmitted to the same transmission destination by the other communication method. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when transmission is first performed using one communication method and then transmission is attempted to the same transmission method using the other communication method, the user is notified that transmission has already been performed.

  According to this embodiment, even if it is set to transmit image data at an arbitrary timing, it is possible to prevent unnecessary transmission processing.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

Claims (7)

An imaging means for imaging a subject and obtaining image data;
A transmission unit that wirelessly transmits image data captured by the imaging unit via a communication unit;
Connection means for connecting to a wireless recording medium which is a recording medium having a wireless communication function;
Holding means for holding a transmission destination of transmission by the communication unit and a transmission destination of transmission by the wireless recording medium;
When it is determined that the transmission destination of the communication unit and the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium are the same, the image is obtained by the imaging unit using either the communication unit or the wireless recording medium When the image data is transmitted and it is determined that the transmission destination of the transmission by the communication unit and the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium are different, the image data is obtained by the imaging unit using each of the communication unit and the wireless recording medium. And an imaging device having control means for controlling to transmit the received image data. A plurality of connection means;
The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit is a wireless recording medium that is connected to one of the connection units and is different from the wireless recording medium.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit that notifies a warning when it is determined that a transmission destination of transmission by the communication unit is the same as a transmission destination of transmission by the wireless recording medium.   When it is determined that the transmission destination of the communication unit and the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium are the same, a selection screen for selecting either the communication unit or the wireless recording medium is displayed. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit.   When the control unit determines that the transmission destination of the transmission by the communication unit and the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium are the same, transmission by a predetermined one of the communication unit and the wireless recording medium 4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data obtained by the image pickup unit is controlled to be transmitted to a transmission destination. The communication unit is built in the imaging device,
When the control unit determines that the transmission destination of the transmission by the communication unit and the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium are the same, the image obtained by the imaging unit as the transmission destination of the communication unit The imaging apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the imaging apparatus is controlled to transmit data.   When the control unit determines that the transmission destination of the transmission by the communication unit and the transmission destination of the wireless recording medium are the same, the control unit determines the faster transfer speed of the communication unit and the wireless recording medium. The imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the imaging apparatus is controlled to be a transmission destination of image data obtained by the imaging means.

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