JP2017120942A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging apparatus capable of optimally performing catch light photographing by superimposing and displaying magnified images of eye regions on a through image and thereby making it easy for a user to visually recognize how a catch light is included his or her own irises.SOLUTION: The imaging apparatus comprising an imaging part and a display part to display a through image obtained by the imaging part comprises a control device, an operation part, and an eye detection part which detects the eye regions of a main subject. When detecting a first operation performed on the operation part, the control device displays on the display part an image obtained by superimposing, on the through image, first images obtained by magnifying the images of the eye regions detected by the eye detection part to a predetermined size.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, and more particularly to a display when taking a selfie.

  In recent years, an increasing number of users take so-called self-photographing where a photographer photographs themselves with an imaging device such as a digital camera. In addition, there is known a photography technique that brings a person's facial expression to life by putting light called catch light into the subject's eyes.

  However, catchlight photography is generally performed using a reflex board, and requires large-scale equipment, so it could not be performed easily when taking a selfie.

  Therefore, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is possible to easily perform catchlight photographing by including an imaging unit and a light emitting unit, and setting the imaging direction of the imaging unit and the light projection direction by the light emission of the light emitting unit to be different. An imaging device that can be used has been proposed.

  On the other hand, when taking a self-portrait, the user can view the through-image displayed on the display unit of the imaging device to see whether the catchlight is in his / her eyes, The imaging device is operated so as to be in the shooting direction and shooting is performed.

JP 2014-153669 A

  However, in the case of a small-sized imaging device as disclosed in Patent Document 1, there is a problem that the display unit is small and it is difficult to visually recognize how the catchlight is placed in its own pupil.

In order to solve the above problems, an imaging apparatus according to the present invention provides:
An imaging apparatus having an imaging unit and a display unit that displays a through image obtained by the imaging unit, and includes a control device, an operation unit, and an eye detection unit that detects an eye area of a main subject, and is controlled When the apparatus detects that the first operation has been performed on the operation unit, the first image obtained by enlarging the eye region image detected by the eye detection unit to a predetermined size is superimposed on the through image. An image is displayed on a display unit.

  According to the present invention, an image in which the eye area is enlarged is superimposed and displayed on the through image, so that it is possible to easily see how the catchlight is placed in its own pupil, and optimal catchlight photography can be performed. It becomes possible to provide an imaging device that can be used.

Front perspective view and rear perspective view of digital camera of embodiment 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a digital camera according to an embodiment The figure which shows the example of a display of the eye area | region display mode of the digital camera of embodiment The figure which shows the example of a display of the eye area | region display mode of the digital camera of embodiment The figure which shows the example of a display of the eye area | region display mode of the digital camera of embodiment The figure which shows the example of a display of the catchlight presence / absence display mode of the digital camera of the embodiment The figure which shows the example of a display of the eye area division | segmentation display mode of the digital camera of embodiment 6 is a flowchart showing display mode transition processing of the digital camera of the embodiment.

  Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A digital camera will be described as an example of the imaging apparatus of the present invention.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the digital camera of this embodiment.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a digital camera. The imaging lens 103 is a lens group including a zoom lens and a focus lens. The display unit 28 is a display unit that displays images and various types of information. A touch panel 70 is provided on the display area of the display unit 28 and functions as a touch panel display.

  The monitor 128 is configured to be rotatable about the rotation axis of the hinge portion 129. For example, when the user takes a self-portrait, the display on the display unit 28 is displayed with the monitor 128 placed at a position where the imaging direction of the imaging lens 103 and the display direction of the display unit 28 are substantially the same as shown in FIG. Take a picture while checking.

  Note that the monitor 128 does not have to be rotatable as long as the imaging direction of the imaging lens 103 and the display direction of the display unit 28 are substantially the same.

  The shutter button 61 is an operation unit for issuing a shooting instruction. The power switch 72 is a push button for switching between power on and power off.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the digital camera 100 according to the present embodiment.

  In FIG. 2, a shutter 101 is a shutter having an aperture function. The imaging unit 22 is an imaging device configured with a CCD, a CMOS device, or the like that converts an optical image into an electrical signal. The A / D converter 23 is used to convert an analog signal output from the imaging unit 22 into a digital signal. The barrier 102 covers the imaging system including the imaging lens 103 of the digital camera 100, thereby preventing the imaging system including the imaging lens 103, the shutter 101, and the imaging unit 22 from becoming dirty or damaged.

  The image processing unit 24 performs resizing processing such as predetermined pixel interpolation and reduction and color conversion processing on the data from the A / D converter 23 or the data from the memory control unit 15. The image processing unit 24 performs predetermined calculation processing using the captured image data, and the system control unit 50 performs exposure control and distance measurement control based on the obtained calculation result. Thereby, AF (autofocus) processing, AE (automatic exposure) processing, and EF (flash pre-emission) processing of the TTL (through-the-lens) method are performed. The image processing unit 24 further performs predetermined calculation processing using the captured image data, and also performs TTL AWB (auto white balance) processing based on the obtained calculation result.

  Output data from the A / D converter 23 is directly written into the memory 32 via the image processing unit 24 and the memory control unit 15 or via the memory control unit 15.

  The memory 32 stores image data obtained by the imaging unit 22 and converted into digital data by the A / D converter 23 and image data to be displayed on the display unit 28. The memory 32 has a storage capacity sufficient to store a predetermined number of still images, a moving image and sound for a predetermined time. The memory 32 also serves as an image display memory (video memory).

  The D / A converter 13 converts the image display data stored in the memory 32 into an analog signal and supplies the analog signal to the display unit 28. Thus, the display image data written in the memory 32 is displayed on the display unit 28 via the D / A converter 13.

  The display unit 28 performs display according to the analog signal from the D / A converter 13 on a display such as an LCD.

  A digital signal once A / D converted by the A / D converter 23 and stored in the memory 32 is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 13 and sequentially transferred to the display unit 28 for display as an electronic viewfinder. It functions and can perform live view display (live view display).

  The nonvolatile memory 56 is a memory as an electrically erasable / recordable recording medium, and for example, an EEPROM or the like is used. The nonvolatile memory 56 stores constants, programs, and the like for operating the system control unit 50. The program referred to here is a computer program for executing various flowcharts described later in the present embodiment. In this embodiment, a plurality of display position candidates for the eye area display to be displayed on the display unit 28 in the eye area display process described later is stored in the nonvolatile memory 56 as an eye area display position management table.

  The system control unit 50 controls the entire digital camera 100. By executing the program recorded in the non-volatile memory 56 described above, each process of the present embodiment to be described later is realized.

  A RAM is used as the system memory 52. In the system memory 52, constants and variables for operation of the system control unit 50, programs read from the nonvolatile memory 56, and the like are expanded. The system control unit 50 also performs display control by controlling the memory 32, the D / A converter 13, the display unit 28, and the like.

  The system timer 53 is a time measuring unit that measures the time used for various controls and the time of a built-in clock.

  The first shutter switch 62 is turned on when the shutter button 61 provided in the digital camera 100 is being operated, so-called half-press (shooting preparation instruction), and generates a first shutter switch signal SW1. In response to the first shutter switch signal SW1, operations such as AF (autofocus) processing, AE (automatic exposure) processing, AWB (auto white balance) processing, and EF (flash pre-emission) processing are started.

  The second shutter switch 64 is turned ON when the operation of the shutter button 61 is completed, that is, when it is fully pressed (shooting instruction), and generates a second shutter switch signal SW2. In response to the second shutter switch signal SW2, the system control unit 50 starts a series of shooting processing operations from reading a signal from the imaging unit 22 to writing image data on the recording medium 200.

  The 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, and detects whether or not a battery is installed, the type of battery, and the remaining battery level. Further, the power control unit 80 controls the DC-DC converter based on the detection result and an instruction from the system control unit 50, and supplies a necessary voltage to each unit including the recording medium 200 for a necessary period.

  The power supply unit 30 includes a primary battery such as an alkaline battery or a lithium battery, a secondary battery such as a NiCd battery, a NiMH battery, or a Li battery, an AC adapter, or the like.

  The recording medium I / F 18 is an interface with the recording medium 200 such as a memory card or a hard disk. The recording medium 200 is a recording medium such as a memory card for recording a captured image, and includes a semiconductor memory, an optical disk, a magnetic disk, or the like.

The digital camera 100 of this embodiment includes a touch panel 70 that can detect contact with the display unit 28. The touch panel and the display unit 28 can be configured integrally. For example, the touch panel is configured such that the light transmittance does not hinder the display of the display unit 28, and is attached to the upper layer of the display surface of the display unit 28. Then, the input coordinates on the touch panel are associated with the display coordinates on the display unit 28. Thereby, it is possible to configure a GUI as if the user can directly operate the screen displayed on the display unit 28. The system control unit 50 can detect the following operations or states on the touch panel.
-Touching the touch panel with a finger or a pen (hereinafter referred to as touchdown).
-The touch panel is touched with a finger or a pen (hereinafter referred to as touch-on).
-The touch panel is moved while being touched with a finger or a pen (hereinafter referred to as a move).
-The finger or pen that was touching the touch panel is released (hereinafter referred to as touch-up).
A state where nothing touches the touch panel (hereinafter referred to as touch-off).

  These operations / states and the position coordinates of the finger or pen touching the touch panel are notified to the system control unit 50 through the internal bus, and the system control unit 50 performs any operation on the touch panel based on the notified information. It is determined whether or not.

  The touch panel may be any of various types of touch panels such as a resistive film method, a capacitance method, a surface acoustic wave method, an infrared method, an electromagnetic induction method, an image recognition method, and an optical sensor method. .

  The pressure sensor 170 is a sensor that can detect the contact pressure of the touch panel 70. The system control unit 50 determines that a push operation has been performed when there is a contact input on the touch panel 70 and a pressure sensor detects a contact pressure of a predetermined value or more.

  The face detection function of the digital camera 100 described above will be described.

  The system control unit 50 sends the face detection target image data to the image processing unit 24. Under the control of the system control unit 50, the image processing unit 24 applies a horizontal bandpass filter to the image data. In addition, under the control of the system control unit 50, the image processing unit 24 applies a vertical bandpass filter to the processed image data. By these horizontal and vertical band pass filters, edge components are detected from the image data.

  Thereafter, the system control unit 50 performs pattern matching on the detected edge components, and extracts a candidate group of eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Then, the system control unit 50 determines an eye pair that satisfies a preset condition (for example, distance between two eyes, inclination, etc.) from the extracted eye candidate group. Narrow down the candidate group of only those with. Then, the system control unit 50 associates the narrowed-down eye candidate group with other parts (nose, mouth, ears) that form the corresponding face, and passes a preset non-face condition filter. , Detect the face. At this time, the system control unit 50 detects the pupil and determines whether or not there is a catch light in the pupil region. The system control unit 50 outputs the face information according to the face detection result, and ends the process.

  Next, display in the eye area display mode of the digital camera 100 will be described.

  3 and 4 are diagrams showing examples of display on the display unit 28 in the digital camera of the present embodiment.

  In the present embodiment, when a self-portrait is performed with the digital camera 100, an image of the photographer 301 captured by the imaging lens 103 is displayed on the display unit 28 as shown in FIG. At this time, the system control unit 50 performs face detection processing on the image data to determine eyes, pupils, and faces, and further determines the presence or absence of catchlight in the pupil region. In this state, when the user touches at least one of the eye areas 310a and 310b to check whether or not the catchlight is in the pupil, as shown in FIG. 3B, the eye areas 310a and 310b are touched. The eye area displays 311a and 311b and the catchlight presence / absence displays 312a and 312b, which are enlarged to a width W1 and a height H1, are superimposed and displayed. At this time, the eye area displays 311 a and 311 b and the catchlight presence / absence displays 312 a and 312 b are displayed at positions outside the range of the face area 330. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when shooting is performed at a position where the face of the photographer 301 is displayed at the upper left of the display unit 28, it is displayed in the lower area of the display unit 28 that is outside the range of the face area 330. .

  The display when the eye area display and the catchlight presence / absence display cannot be displayed outside the face area will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, when it is desired to shoot a large face, the eye area display and the catchlight presence / absence display cannot be displayed outside the face area as described with reference to FIGS. . In this case, the system control unit 50 determines whether or not the width W2 of the eye areas 310a and 310b is equal to or greater than a predetermined value W3 and whether or not the height H2 of the eye areas 310a and 310b is equal to or greater than the predetermined value H3. The predetermined value W3 is equal to or smaller than the width W1 of the eye area display, and the predetermined value H3 is equal to or smaller than the height H1 of the eye display area.

  When it is determined that the width W2 of the eye areas 310a and 310b is less than the predetermined value W3 and the height H2 of the eye areas 310a and 310b is less than the predetermined value H3, as shown in FIG. 311b and catchlight presence / absence displays 312a and 312b are displayed at positions outside the range of the eye areas 310a and 310b.

  When it is determined that the width W2 of the eye areas 310a and 310b is equal to or greater than the predetermined value W3, or the height H2 of the eye areas 310a and 310b is equal to or greater than the predetermined value H3, a catchlight presence / absence display mode is set, as shown in FIG. Only the catchlight presence / absence display is displayed.

  Next, an eye area division display mode in which the image captured by the imaging lens 103 and the eye area display are divided will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the eye area display mode and the catchlight presence / absence display mode described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6, when the eye area display and the catchlight presence / absence display are superimposed and displayed, a part of the through image becomes invisible. Therefore, when the user pushes at least one of the eye areas 310a and 310b, the eye area division display mode is set, and as shown in FIG. The catchlight presence / absence displays 312a and 312b are displayed in a divided manner on the display unit 28. At this time, the width W4 of the eye area display is larger than W1, and the height H4 is displayed in a size larger than H1.

  The display mode transition processing of the digital camera 100 of the present embodiment having such a configuration will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S801, the system control unit 50 determines whether the self-portrait is performed. As a method for determining the self-portrait, the digital camera has a plurality of shooting modes such as a portrait mode and a self-portrait mode in advance, and depending on whether the shooting mode set on the touch panel 70 is the self-portrait mode or not. There is a method of judging. Further, in the digital camera of the present embodiment, it may be determined that self-portrait is considered when the rotation operation angle of the monitor 128 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and normal shooting is taken otherwise. If it is determined in step S801 that self-portrait has been taken, the process proceeds to step S802.

  In step S802, the system control unit 50 performs face detection processing on the image data to determine an eye area, a pupil area, and a face area, and further determines whether there is a catch light in the pupil area.

  In step S803, the system control unit 50 determines contact input to the eye area. If the system control unit 50 determines that the eye area has been touched, it moves the process to step S804.

  In step S804, the system control unit 50 determines whether the touch panel 70 has been pushed. Specifically, it is determined whether or not a push operation has been performed between detection of touchdown on the touch panel 70 and detection of touch-off from the touch panel 70. If it is determined that the push operation has been performed, the process proceeds to step S810. If it is determined that the push operation has not been performed, the process proceeds to step S805.

  In step S805, the system control unit 50 determines the size of the eye area. Specifically, the system control unit 50 determines whether the eye area width W2 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value W3 and whether the eye area height H2 is equal to or greater than the predetermined value H3. When the eye area width W2 is less than the predetermined value W3 and the eye area height H2 is less than the predetermined value H3, it is determined that the eye area is less than the predetermined size, and the eye area width W2 is greater than or equal to the predetermined value W3, or the eye area height. When the height H2 is equal to or greater than the predetermined value H3, it is determined that the size is equal to or greater than the predetermined size.

  In step S806, the system control unit 50 determines whether to perform eye area display. If the size of the eye area is less than the predetermined size in step S805, it is determined that the eye area display is to be executed, and the process proceeds to step S807. If the size of the eye area is equal to or larger than the predetermined size, it is determined not to execute the eye area display, and the process proceeds to step S809.

  In step S807, the system control unit 50 determines the eye area display position. The system control unit 50 refers to the eye area display position management table stored in the nonvolatile memory 56, and has an eye area display position that does not include the coordinates of the face area among the plurality of candidates for the eye area display position. It is determined whether or not. When it is determined that there is an eye area display position that does not include the coordinates of the face area, one is determined as the eye area display position. When it is determined that there is no eye area display position that does not include the face area coordinates, one of the eye area display positions that do not include the eye area coordinates is selected from the plurality of eye area display positions. The area display position is determined.

  In step S808, the system control unit 50 sets the digital camera to the eye area display mode. The system control unit 50 transmits the eye area display data to be displayed and the catchlight presence / absence display data to the memory 32, superimposes them on the image data, outputs the image data to the D / A conversion unit 13, and applies the D / A conversion processing. Thereafter, the data is output to the display unit 28.

  In step S809, the system control unit 50 sets the digital camera to the catchlight presence / absence display mode. The system control unit 50 transmits the catchlight presence / absence display data to the memory 32 and superimposes it on the image data, outputs the image data to the D / A conversion unit 13, applies the D / A conversion process, and then outputs it to the display unit 28. Let

  In step S810, the system control unit 50 sets the digital camera to the eye area division display mode. The system control unit 50 transmits the eye area display data and the catchlight presence / absence display data to the memory 32, combines the image data to be displayed, and outputs the image data to the D / A conversion unit 13 to perform the D / A conversion processing. After the application, the data is output to the display unit 28.

  In the present embodiment, it has been described that the eye region is shifted to the eye region split display mode by pushing the eye region. However, the eye region split display mode may be shifted when the touch-on operation is performed for a predetermined time or more.

28 display unit, 50 system control unit, 70 touch panel, 100 digital camera,
310a, 310b eye area, 311a, 311b eye area display,
312a, 312b presence / absence of catchlight display, 328 through image display,
330 face area

Claims (7)

An imaging apparatus having an imaging unit and a display unit that displays a through image obtained by the imaging unit,
A control device;
An operation unit;
The controller is
Detect the eye area of the main subject,
When it is detected that the first operation is performed on the operation unit,
An image pickup apparatus, wherein an image obtained by superimposing a first image obtained by enlarging an image of an eye region detected by the eye detection unit to a predetermined size on a through image is displayed on the display unit. The control device detects the pupil region of the main subject, detects whether or not there is a catch light in the pupil region, and if it detects that the first operation has been performed on the operation unit, The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an image in which the catchlight presence / absence information detected by the catchlight detection unit is superimposed on the display unit is displayed on the display unit. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control device detects a face area of a main subject and superimposes the first image outside the range of the face area. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the control device superimposes the first image outside a range of the eye region. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the control device superimposes the first image when the size of the eye region is less than a predetermined size. When the control device detects that the second operation is performed on the operation unit, the control unit displays the second image obtained by enlarging the eye region image to a predetermined size and the reduced through image. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging apparatus is displayed. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a size of the second image is larger than a size of the first image.