JP3066677U - Photo print vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a photo print vending machine capable of shortening the time required for setting photographing conditions and reducing costs by reducing the number of print sheets. When a test print switch is pressed in an adjustment mode (S7), photographing is repeated a predetermined number of times by changing the brightness stepwise (S7, S8), and a plurality of photographed images are printed on one sheet. Print and output (S10). The optimal brightness is set with the adjustment switch while viewing the printed image (S11, S12).

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

 The present invention relates to a photo print vending machine, and more particularly, to a photo print vending machine that can efficiently set photographing conditions such as brightness.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 A photo print vending machine inserts money, takes a picture of one's face or figure with a camera, prints and outputs the captured image, and can easily take a picture that suits one's preference. Recently, it has been widely spread.

Meanwhile, in such a photo print vending machine, it is necessary to set photographing conditions to an optimum one in order to provide a high-quality print that meets the needs of the user. For example, regarding the brightness of lighting, the surrounding brightness differs depending on the location where the vending machine is installed, and the preference of brightness differs depending on the customer demographic, etc., so that the lighting should be suitable for these conditions. Required to be set. For this purpose, it is necessary to shoot and print at the actual installation location and confirm the results.

Therefore, in a conventional photo print vending machine, an image photographed by a camera is displayed on a monitor television in the adjustment mode, and the brightness is adjusted while watching the image. However, since the image projected on the monitor television and the image printed on the printed matter are not always the same, it is not possible to determine whether or not the brightness is optimal unless the printed matter is finally viewed. For this reason, printing is performed for the time being when it is deemed good to see the image on the monitor TV, and after confirming the result, if it is inappropriate, the brightness is adjusted again and printing is repeated several times. I was doing it.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

 As described above, in setting the shooting conditions such as brightness in the adjustment mode, it is necessary to repeat the setting and printing in the conventional mode, so the adjustment takes time and the printing is performed many times. Therefore, there is a problem that a large amount of printing paper is required, and the cost is accordingly high.

[0006] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-191246 discloses a digital camera image reproduction that can easily obtain an optimal print without repeating test prints by adding photographing information to photographed image data. Although a method is described, there is no disclosure of simplification of setting of photographing conditions or saving of printing paper, and does not provide a technique for solving the above problem.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and shortens the time required for setting photographing conditions in the adjustment mode and reduces the number of printing paper sheets to reduce costs. It is an object to provide a photo print vending machine that can be reduced.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to solve the above problems, the photo print vending machine according to the present invention repeatedly shoots a subject a predetermined number of times by changing shooting conditions step by step when a test print is commanded in the adjustment mode, It prints a plurality of captured images on one sheet and outputs them.

In this way, when test printing is started, shooting conditions such as brightness are sequentially switched and automatically set, and shooting is performed for each shooting condition. Since the images are printed together, the optimum shooting conditions can be easily set by looking at the printed images, and it is not necessary to set the shooting conditions many times each time while watching the monitor. Also, since a plurality of captured images are printed on one sheet of paper, the paper can be saved.

Here, if a mark indicating a shooting condition is added to each of the plurality of images, it is possible to understand at a glance how the image is printed under each shooting condition.

[0011] Furthermore, if a predetermined number of repetitively photographed images and an image photographed under the currently set photographing conditions are printed out on one sheet and output, the currently set photographing conditions can be set to any value. It can be easily determined whether or not the change should be made, which is practically convenient.

[0012] Furthermore, if an image indicating that the image is the current setting is added to the image photographed under the currently set photographing condition, the current photographing condition can be immediately determined. be able to.

To set the photographing conditions, a switch for setting may be provided. After the test printing is completed, the user operates the switches according to the print result to set the optimal photographing conditions. Can be.

[0014]

[Embodiment of the invention]

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a photo print vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is an operation unit including various switches, 2 is a coin selector that accepts only regular coins among inserted coins, and returns a coin selector otherwise, 3 is a camera for photographing a subject (person), 4 is a photographing condition. A monitor television for displaying a screen for setting the image and the like, a photographed image, and the like, a printer 5 for printing the photographed image, and a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as PC) 6 for controlling the above-described units. The PC 6 includes a control unit 7 including a CPU, and a memory 8 storing various data and programs.

The operation unit 1 sends a switch signal to the control unit 7 when a switch is operated, and the control unit 7 supplies a camera control signal to the camera 3 based on the signal, and performs operations such as photographing and zoom adjustment. Let

The coin selector 2 is provided with an authenticity discriminating device for discriminating the inserted coin from the authenticity, and coins determined to be true by this discriminating device are accepted and stored in the coin storage unit. At this time, a coin insertion signal is output from the coin selector 2 to the control unit 7. On the other hand, an ON / OFF control signal is provided from the control unit 7 to the coin selector 2, and control of permission / inhibition of coin acceptance of the coin selector 2 is performed by this signal.

The camera 3 captures an image of the face, upper body, or whole body of the subject, and transfers the captured image to the PC 6. The shooting timing and zoom operation of the camera 3 are controlled by the camera control signal from the control unit 7 of the PC 6 as described above.

The monitor television 4 displays image data sent from the PC 6. Further, a setting screen described later is also displayed on the monitor television 4, and shooting conditions such as brightness are set on this screen.

The printer 5 receives the image data captured by the camera 3 from the PC 6, prints the data on a sheet of a predetermined size, and outputs it. Test printing is also performed in the adjustment mode.

The PC 6 includes an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse in addition to the control unit 7 and the memory 8 and a display device such as a CRT and a liquid crystal display, but is not shown.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure when test printing is performed in the photo print vending machine having the above configuration. 3 to 5 show examples of screens displayed on the monitor television 4. Hereinafter, the test printing procedure of the photo print vending machine according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 2, first, the maintenance switch is operated to switch the mode to the maintenance mode (step S1). This maintenance switch is provided, for example, inside the front door of a vending machine. When the maintenance switch is operated, a maintenance selection screen is displayed on the monitor TV 4 (step S2). FIG. 3 shows an example of the maintenance selection screen.

On the maintenance selection screen 9, various switches having a triangular or square shape as shown in the figure are displayed together with function guides. By pressing these switches with a finger, the switches are turned on. Has become. Here, when the image adjustment mode switch 10 is pressed (step S3), the screen of the monitor television 4 switches to the image adjustment mode screen 11 shown in FIG. 4 (step S4).

On the image adjustment mode screen 11, triangular or square switches similar to those shown in FIG. 3 are displayed, but the functions of the switches are partially changed. That is, each switch acts as a function switch. Here, when the brightness adjustment switch 12 is pressed (step S5), the screen is switched to the brightness adjustment screen 13 shown in FIG. 5 (step S6).

The light-dark adjustment screen 13 displays the same triangular switches 14 to 17 and square switches 20 and 21 as described above, but the functions of the switches are also changed here. In addition to the above switches, light / dark set value display sections 18 and 19 are displayed. The current set values are displayed on the light / dark set value display sections 18 and 19.

The switch 14 is operated when shooting with a spotlight, and the set value of the brightness at this time is displayed on the light / dark set value display section 18. The switch 15 is operated when performing photographing other than spot photographing, and the set value of the brightness at this time is displayed on the light / dark set value display section 19. Here, the brightness can be set in eight levels.

The switch 16 is an UP switch operated when increasing the brightness, the switch 17 is a DOWN switch operated when decreasing the brightness, the switch 20 is a test print switch operated when starting the test printing, The switch 21 is an end switch that is operated to end the adjustment.

Here, when the test print switch 20 is pressed (step S 7), the control unit 7 detects that the test print has been instructed, and changes the brightness of the illumination stepwise so that the camera 3 The photographing is repeated a predetermined number of times (steps S8 and S9). Here, since the brightness can be adjusted in eight levels, the brightness is changed stepwise from level 1 to level 8, the subject is photographed at each level, and the photographing is repeated eight times. The photographed image data is stored in the memory 8 of the PC 6.

When the eight shootings are completed (YES in step S9), the control unit 7 sends the image data stored in the memory 8 to the printer 5, and the printer 5 prints and outputs the shot image (step S9). S10).

FIG. 6 is an example of a test photograph taken by the printer 5. The photographed images 32 are printed side by side on one sheet of paper 30 in this manner. Then, a mark 33 indicating a brightness level is added to the image 31. The mark 33 corresponds to the display of the light / dark setting value display sections 18 and 19 in FIG. 5, and represents the brightness by the number of squares. One image (upper right) of the square is the darkest at level 1; Eight square images (middle left) are the brightest at level 8. Thus, by adding the mark 33 representing the brightness, it is possible to understand at a glance how the image is printed in accordance with the brightness level. Note that the mark 33 is not limited to the above, and may be, for example, a numeral.

In FIG. 6, in addition to the eight images (levels 1 to 8) repeatedly photographed, an image 34 photographed at the currently set brightness level (level 4) is located at the lower left position of the sheet. , And a total of nine sheets are printed on the paper 30. In this way, by displaying the image 34 photographed with the current setting value, it is easy to determine how to change the brightness to obtain the optimum value.

Further, the image 34 is provided with a character display 35 of “setting value” indicating that the image has been shot with the current setting value, and it is immediately indicated that the currently set value is level 4. Can be determined.

Since the eight pictures that have been repeatedly photographed include the picture 37 of level 4, the picture of “set value” may be added to the picture 37. In this case, the photograph 36 at the lower left can be omitted.

By looking at the photograph of FIG. 6 thus test-printed, the best brightness is determined from the eight images. When the brightness is determined, the UP switch 16 or the DOWN switch 17 on the brightness adjustment screen 13 in FIG. 5 is operated (step S11) to adjust the brightness level (step S12). At this time, the brightness level is displayed on the light / dark set value display sections 18 and 19.

After the brightness level is set to the optimum value, the end switch 21 is pressed next (step S13). When the end switch 21 is pressed, the set value is stored in the memory 8, the current set value is updated, and the adjustment ends (step S14). Thereafter, in the normal mode, shooting is performed with the brightness of the set value.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the brightness level is automatically and sequentially switched just by pressing the test print switch 20 once, and the photographing is performed for each level. Since printing is performed in a batch, there is no need to repeat setting and printing many times, and adjustment work can be performed efficiently in a short time. Further, since a plurality of photographed images are collectively printed on one sheet of paper 30, paper can be saved.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various other embodiments can be adopted. For example, in the above embodiment, the case where the brightness is adjusted has been described as an example. However, in addition to the brightness, a tone, a color tone, or the like may be adopted as the shooting condition.

In the above embodiment, the brightness setting after the test printing is completed by operating the UP switch 16 or the DOWN switch 17. The image shown in FIG. 6 may be displayed, and the image portion may be configured as a switch. By touching a desired image, the brightness of the image may be automatically set.

The various switches are not limited to those displayed on the screen of the monitor television 4, but may be those arranged on the operation panel as mechanical switches.

The present invention is not limited to printing a photograph of a photographed subject as it is, but is also applicable to a photograph in which a subject is arranged in an animation style and printed. It may be.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, a coin is inserted, but a bill processing device capable of handling bills instead of coins or with coins may be provided. Alternatively, a prepaid card, which is a value medium, may be used in place of coins and bills, and money in the present invention is a concept including all of these.

[0042]

[Effect of the invention]

 According to the present invention, photographing is automatically performed under different photographing conditions in test printing, and the photographed image is printed on one sheet of paper. This eliminates the necessity of performing the adjustment, shortening the time required for the adjustment work, and reducing the cost because the number of printing papers is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a photo print vending machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of test printing.

FIG. 3 is an example of a maintenance selection screen.

FIG. 4 is an example of an image adjustment mode screen.

FIG. 5 is an example of a light / dark adjustment screen.

FIG. 6 is an example of a test printed photograph.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Operation part 2 Coin selector 3 Camera 4 Monitor television 5 Printer 6 Personal computer (PC) 7 Control part 8 Memory 12 Brightness adjustment switch 13 Brightness adjustment screen 16 UP switch 17 DOWN switch 20 Test print switch 30 Paper 32 Photograph 33 Mark 35 Character display

Claims (6)

[Utility model registration claims] 1. A vending machine for photographing a subject with a photographing device under the condition that predetermined money is inserted, and printing and outputting the photographed image. A photograph print vending machine characterized in that, when a photographing condition is changed, a photographing condition is changed stepwise and a subject is photographed repeatedly a predetermined number of times, and a plurality of photographed images are printed on one sheet and output. 2. A photo-printed vending machine according to claim 1, wherein a mark indicating a photographing condition is added to each of the plurality of images for printing. 3. A photo-printed vending machine according to claim 1, wherein a predetermined number of repetitively photographed images and an image photographed under currently set photographing conditions are printed on one sheet and output. . 4. The photo print vending machine according to claim 3, wherein an indication that the image is currently set is added to an image shot under the currently set shooting conditions. 5. The photo print vending machine according to claim 1, further comprising a switch for setting photographing conditions. 6. A photo-printed vending machine according to claim 5, wherein an optimum photographing condition is set by operating a switch after the test printing is completed.