JP2670131B2 - Image data playback device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an image data reproducing apparatus, for example, a reproducing apparatus for interfacing image data recorded in a modular memory such as a memory card to a general-purpose processing system such as a personal computer.

BACKGROUND ART There has been proposed a digital electronic still camera that stores an image captured by an imaging device in the form of digital data in a semiconductor storage device such as a RAM memory card. For example, the applicant's pending patent application,
See 62-270387. An image taken by a digital electronic still camera can be reproduced by a video monitor or a printer by removing the memory card storing the image data from the camera, loading it in the reproducing device. Such a reproducing apparatus is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-124364 and Japanese Patent Application No. 62-213058, which is a patent application pending by the present applicant.

In addition, in the Japanese Patent Application No. 63-232511 by the applicant,
A digital electronic still camera is connected to a memory card that records image data with the digital electronic still camera. The digital electronic still camera reads image data from this, digitally processes the signal, obtains standard format image data, and displays the image on the monitor. A regenerator has been proposed. This reproducing apparatus reproduces a high-quality still image from digital image data by a single system and visually displays it.

By the way, the digital electronic still camera system is also required to have compatibility with various types of processing systems, like other systems. For example, if you have an interface with a general-purpose processing system such as a personal computer,
Image data can be freely processed by those processing systems, and those resources can be used effectively. The above-mentioned conventional player emphasizes the function of reproducing an image on a monitor, and thus naturally emphasizes the function of how to reproduce a high quality image on a monitor in real time. For this purpose, hardware and software for performing very high-level image processing were provided as internal functions of the playback device, and an interface as a personal computer was merely provided as an auxiliary function. Therefore, the configuration of the entire apparatus is complicated and expensive.

Such an internal function of the player is a function that is effectively realized even in a processing system such as a personal computer or an office computer.
At present, these processing systems have become remarkably widespread, and it is wasteful to use these resources effectively even in a digital electronic still camera system. Therefore, there is a demand for an image data reproducing apparatus which has a simple and inexpensive structure of the reproducing apparatus itself and which can effectively use functions such as image processing included in the processing system.

Objectives In view of such a demand, an object of the present invention is to provide an image data reproducing apparatus that can be effectively used in a general-purpose processing system.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION An image data reproducing apparatus according to the present invention corresponds to a temporary storage unit that stores image data, an input unit that receives image data and stores the image data in the temporary storage unit, and an image data stored in the temporary storage unit. Signal converting means for converting into an analog signal, a video monitor means for visually displaying an image represented by the analog signal, and a video monitor for subjecting the analog signal resulting from the signal converting means to video processing suitable for the video monitor means. The image processing means outputs to the processing means and the interface means having an interface connectable to a general-purpose processing system and transferring the image data accumulated in the temporary storage means to the processing system.

The present invention also includes such an image data reproducing device and a general-purpose processing system, and the processing system receives image data accumulated in the temporary storage means and performs image processing. An image data reproducing system having means is provided.

According to the present invention, in the image data reproducing system, the processing system further includes a conversion circuit for converting the image data received from the interface means into a data form suitable for image processing.

In this specification, the term “memory card” includes a semiconductor memory device in which a semiconductor memory device is mounted on a flat rectangular card-like support as a whole, and the term “module memory” means not only a memory card. , A storage device detachably connected to another device.

Description of Embodiments A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, the image data reproducing apparatus 10 of the embodiment is, for example, a digital electronic still camera.
Image data is stored in a predetermined format, for example, a standard format of a digital electronic still camera system, by an image data source such as 80 (FIG. 2), and is read out from a storage device such as a memory card 12, for example, a personal computer 50. An image reproducing device for transferring to a commonly available general-purpose processing system such as, and reproducing on a simple color monitor 14 together. The memory card 12 applied to the image data reproducing device 10 is a storage device in which a semiconductor memory device such as a RAM is carried on a card-shaped base, and is detachably loaded into the memory card interface 16.

A frame memory 20 is connected to the output 18 of the memory / memory card interface 16. Frame memory 20
Is a temporary storage device including a RAM having a storage capacity capable of storing image data for one frame. The data read output 22 is connected to the personal computer interface 24. The PC interface 24 is a detachable connector 26
And has an interface connectable to a general-purpose processing system such as a personal computer. This allows the playback device 10
Is connected to the bus interface 52 of the PC 50,
Digital data can be transferred between the two.

The frame memory 20 also has another read output 28,
In parallel with this, the standard TV signal speed is 14.3 Ms in this embodiment.
The image data is output to the digital-analog (DA) converter 30 at ps. The read video timing signal is supplied from a synchronizing signal generation circuit (not shown) of the digital / analog converter 30 to the frame memory 20 to read out image data in real time.

The digital-analog converter 30 is a signal conversion circuit that converts the image data input from the input 28 into a corresponding analog signal and outputs the analog signal to the output 32. For this conversion, the converter 48 has the above-mentioned synchronization signal generation circuit.

The output 32 of the DA converter 30 is connected to the analog video processing circuit 34. In the present embodiment, the image processing circuit 34 performs image signal processing such as white balance adjustment and gradation (γ) correction on the image data read out from the memory card 12 and outputs it to its output 36. Is. Output 36 is connected to color monitor 14.

Image data is stored in the memory card 12 by the digital electronic still camera 80, for example. This image data is generally in the form of a color separation signal unique to the segment arrangement of the color filter used in the image pickup device of the camera that has taken the image, for example, in the form of the three primary color signals RGB, or in the digital form of the luminance / color difference signal. The signal format is common to electronic still camera systems. These image data generally exhibit, for example, gradation characteristics according to the sensitivity characteristics of the imaging device, and color temperatures according to the illumination light with respect to the object scene. The video processing circuit 34 adjusts these gradation characteristics and color temperature to a gradation and white balance suitable for display on the color monitor 14. Therefore, it is sufficient that the adjustment is rough enough to withstand the display image on the monitor 14. That is, since the color monitor 14 may have a simple function that allows the user to visually recognize the scene of the image to be reproduced, display of a high-quality image is not required. Therefore, in this embodiment, the video processing circuit 34 is the same as the conventional simple CC.
The analog processing is performed sufficiently with simple tone correction and white balance adjustment that were performed with D-video cameras. This simplifies the circuit configuration.

The signal from the output 36 of the analog video processing circuit 34 is supplied to the video monitor 16. The video monitor 16 visualizes the video signal of the input 36 and displays it as a color image.
A color video monitor such as T is advantageously applied.

Memory card interface 16 and frame memory
20 is controlled by the system control circuit 38. The system control circuit 38 constitutes a main control unit that controls writing and reading of the frame memory 20, and is preferably realized by a microprocessor. The control circuit 38 has an operating section 40.
Also, the operation unit 40 has an interface function of inputting an operator's instruction and displaying the state of the apparatus 10 to the operator. The instruction input from the operation unit 40 includes, for example, information designating a frame of an image to be reproduced.

As the personal computer 50, a general-purpose processing system such as a commonly available personal computer is advantageously applied. The connector of the playback device 10 to the bus interface 52 of the
26 is connected. The personal computer 50 is advantageously provided with in its memory 58 a program for performing a high degree of image signal processing as is done in the electronic still camera reproducing device described in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-232511. The memory 58 includes a storage area when executing such a program and a RAM also used as a work area for processing image data.

CPU 54 of personal computer 50 by the program of memory 58
Performs high-precision image processing such as gradation correction and white balance adjustment, and converts it into a predetermined data format, for example, a standard data format for a digital electronic still camera system, for example, a floppy disk, a fixed disk and ( Or) having a function of processing image data such as storing it in a file storage device 56 such as an optical disk and reading it out. The personal computer 50 further has a function of displaying these images on a display 60 (FIG. 2) of the personal computer 50 and outputting the images to an input / output device 62 such as a printer or a communication line. I / O device 62
Includes a keyboard for inputting instructions and data to the personal computer 50. Such a data processing function is realized by a program stored in the memory 58 under the control of the CPU 54. Therefore, it takes some time to process,
High-level processing can be performed, and high-quality images can be obtained.

Further, the bus interface 52 of the personal computer 50 has a conversion circuit 64 for converting the image data format of the memory card 12 into another data format which can be easily handled by the software of the personal computer 50, for example, RGB type data. This conversion circuit
64 is mounted on a spare board, for example, and is inserted into a spare board slot 66 of the main body of the personal computer 50 as illustrated in FIG. As a result, the load on the image processing software of the personal computer 50 is reduced, and the processing speed is increased.

In the present embodiment, the image data recorded on the memory card 12 is read into the frame memory 20 via the memory card interface 16 under the control of the system control circuit 38. When the memory card 12 is loaded into the playback device 10 (step 100 in FIG. 3), it is mechanically and circuitically connected to the interface 16. When an instruction to read the image data of the operation unit 40 is given, the system control circuit 38 reads the image data of one frame accumulated in the RAM of the memory card 16 and transfers it to the frame memory 20 (10
1). The image data stored in the frame memory 20 is transferred from the memory 20 to a DA converter under the control of the system controller 20.
It is read out to 30 and converted to an analog signal. The analog video signal is input to the analog video processing circuit 34 and subjected to video signal processing such as white balance adjustment and gradation correction, and an image represented by the analog video signal is visually displayed on the color monitor 14 (102).

The operator looks at the image displayed on the monitor 14, and if this is the desired image (103), for example, the personal computer 50
The input / output device 62 is operated to input a data transfer instruction to the personal computer 50. In response to this, the CPU 54 receives the image data read from the frame memory 20 and stores it in the memory 58 (105). The CPU 58 performs the above-described image processing, for example, white balance adjustment and gradation correction, on the image data under the control of the image processing program stored in the memory 58 (106). The image data subjected to these image processes is also read from the memory 58 in accordance with an instruction input from the input / output device 62 and stored as an image file in the file storage device 56 such as a magnetic disk or an optical disk. Or an input / output device 62 such as a communication line or a printer.
Is output to

When the image processing by the personal computer 50 is completed, the reproduction device 10 is notified of that, and if the desired image operation is completed, the operation unit 40 inputs an operation end instruction. In response, the system control circuit 38
16 is controlled to eject the memory card 12 (108). When an instruction for the next frame is input from the operation unit 40, the system control circuit 38 reads out the image data from the memory card 16 and transfers the image data to the frame memory 20 (10
Four). Hereinafter, the operation after step 102 is similarly repeated.

Effects According to the present invention as described above, the main signal path of the image data reproducing device of the digital electronic still camera system is a digital interface compatible with a processing system such as a personal computer. In addition, a simple monitor output is provided for checking the image data obtained from the memory card. As a result, the image processing is performed by effectively utilizing the processing system that is normally available, and the configuration of the reproducing apparatus itself is simplified. If the interface for the processing system is provided with hardware for converting image data, the load on the software of the processing system is reduced, and high-speed image processing is realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of an image data reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory external view showing the appearance of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the operation flow of the image processing in an example. Description of main part code 10 …… Image data playback device 12 …… Memory card 14 …… Color monitor 16 …… Memory card interface 20 …… Frame memory 24 …… PC interface 34 …… Analog video processing circuit 38 …… System Control circuit 40 …… Operation part 50 …… PC 52 …… Bus interface 54 …… CPU 64 …… Conversion circuit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image memory card, a general-purpose processing system, and an image data reproducing device, wherein the image data reproducing device includes temporary storage means for accumulating image data, and an image stored in the image memory card. Input means for reading out data and storing it in the temporary storage means, signal conversion means for converting the image data stored in the temporary storage means into a corresponding analog signal, and a video monitor for visually displaying an image represented by the analog signal Means, video processing means for subjecting the analog signal resulting from the conversion by the signal converting means to video processing suitable for the video monitoring means and outputting the video signal to the video monitoring means, connected to the general-purpose processing system, Interface means for transferring the image data accumulated in the temporary storage means to the processing system, wherein the processing system Image processing means for receiving the image data from the interface means and performing image processing on the image data, and a conversion circuit for converting the image data received from the interface means into a data format suitable for the image processing. Data reproduction system.