JP3278015B2 - Panoramic print system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing an image of a video camera, and more particularly to a panoramic print which is long in a horizontal direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional video camera printer system generally includes a video decoder 21, an A / D converter 22, a memory 23, a color adjustment switch 24, and a D / A as shown by a solid line in FIG. It comprises a converter 25, a line memory 26, a head controller 27, a thermal head 28, a system controller 29, and a memory controller 30.

[0003] A video decoder 21 receives a video signal, separates the video signal into three colors of R, G, and B, and outputs it to an A / D converter 22.

[0004] The A / D converter 22 converts each of the color signals R,
A / D conversion is performed on each of G and B, and the converted data is output to the memory 23 and the color adjustment switch 24.

The memory 23 stores digital data for one frame of a TV screen having a horizontal width H and a vertical width V.

The color adjustment switch 24 converts color signals R, G, and B input in parallel into serial color signals under the control of the system controller 29 and outputs the serial color signals to the head controller 27.

The D / A converter 25 converts the color signals R, G, B converted into serial signals into the color adjustment switch 2 as appropriate.
4 is a converter for extracting the analog signal from the P.4 and converting it into an analog signal for monitoring.

The line memory 26 is a memory for taking in one line of data without using the image memory 23 (33) for a still image, and is connected to the head controller 27.

The head controller 27 converts the color signals R, G, B converted into serial data into print data, and is connected to the thermal head 28.

The thermal head 28 has electric heating elements corresponding to each pixel of the print data. These electric heating elements are in contact with the photographic paper 31 and generate heat when the pixel data is "1", and "0". "" Does not generate heat. Therefore, the thermal head 28 prints one vertical line based on the print data.

The system controller 29 includes color signals R,
A control for converting G and B into serial data and a control for printing with the thermal head 28 are performed, and are connected to the color adjustment switch 24, the head controller 27, and the memory controller 30.

The memory controller 30 includes a memory 23
The input / output of the color signals R, G, B to (33) is performed based on the control from the system controller 29, and is connected to the memory 23 (33) and the system controller 29.

In the video camera printer system according to the prior art configured as described above, the operation differs depending on whether (1) printing of a normal image is performed or (2) printing of a wide image.

(1) When Printing a Normal Image When printing a normal image, the memory controller 3 is controlled by the system controller 29 as shown in FIG.
0 reads out data D for one line in the vertical direction from the memory 23 and sends it to the head controller 27. The head controller 27 converts the data D into print data. This print data is stored in the thermal head 28
Transferred to

When the thermal head 28 and the printing paper 31 move relatively in the horizontal direction, vertical lines are sequentially printed at intervals according to the moving speed, and as a result, one frame is printed by n vertical lines. Is to be completed.

In the case of a still image, the memory 23 is not used, and one line of data is directly fetched from the A / D converter 22 into the line memory 26. And
The data in the line memory 26 is sent to the thermal head 28 via the head controller 27 so that printing can be performed.

(2) When printing a wide image When printing a wide image, for example, when printing a 16: 9 Hi-Vision image, a high-vision decoder 32 as shown by a dotted line in FIG. A wide memory 33 is required.

First, the Hi-Vision decoder 32 receives the Hi-Vision signal, performs color separation, and performs A / D conversion.
Output to 2. The data converted by the A / D converter 22 is stored in the wide memory 33. The following printing operation is the same as in the case of (1) printing of a normal image.

Also, in the video camera, if the distance to the subject is constant, the shooting range is determined by the lens. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, assuming that the distance between the video camera and the subject A, which is the minimum required to capture the subject A, is L1, the lens must be wide-angled to capture the subject B larger than the subject A. Alternatively, the user must pull the video camera to set the distance between the subject B and the video camera to L2 which is larger than L1.

Comparing the printing results in the above two cases,
As shown in FIG. 12, in the case of the distance L2, the subject A is printed smaller than the size of the subject A in the printing result in the case of the distance L1 by an amount corresponding to the enlargement of the shooting range.

[0021]

However, the conventional video camera printer of the prior art described above can print only one frame of image information of, for example, an NTSC TV screen. It is not possible to print a subject that is oversized. Also, as described above, if a large subject is photographed so as to enter the TV screen,
There is a problem that the subject is printed small.

On the other hand, when a wide screen, for example, a 16: 9 screen is to be printed, the entire printer must be wide compatible. For example, the input signal must be the HDTV signal and the memory must be a wide memory. Therefore, there is a problem that the cost increases.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and can print an image of any length in the horizontal direction with high image quality without using a high definition signal or a wide memory. There is a problem to be solved in realizing a high-performance and low-cost panoramic print system.

[0024]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a panoramic print system according to the present invention comprises a video camera, means for changing a shooting direction or position of the video camera, and a video signal of the video camera. A video printer that prints the image one line at a time in the vertical direction,
The means for changing the shooting direction or position is such that the video printer changes the shooting direction or position in synchronization with a printing cycle for printing one line in the vertical direction.

Further, the means for changing the photographing direction or position is a panning device; the means for changing the photographing direction or position is a slide moving device; Set, Y / M / C
The recording and reproducing device for recording and reproducing the video signal photographed by the video camera is provided; and the video signal recorded in the recording and reproducing device is To reproduce and print by a control signal from the video printer side; in the case of color printing, a reproduction start position is set, and the video signal of the same image is reproduced and printed three times in the order of Y / M / C. This is a panoramic print system as described above.

[0026]

The panoramic print system according to the present invention having the above-described structure has the following operations.

(1) Recording by a video camera is synchronized with a printing cycle in which a video printer prints one line in the vertical direction, and the photographing direction or position is changed by a panning device or a slide moving device, so that the photographing direction or position is changed. The required number of vertical line images can be repeatedly obtained at the printing speed synchronized with the position change speed, and a wide image of any size in the horizontal direction can be obtained without using a wide signal or wide memory. be able to.

Further, it is possible to obtain an image quality which is not different from that of a normal pixel even if the image signal is widened, without extending the video signal in the horizontal direction to make the pixels coarse.

(2) In the case of color printing, a panning start position is set, and printing is performed by changing the shooting direction or position three times in the order of Y / M / C. With this configuration, a wide print can be easily obtained.

(3) A recording / reproducing device is provided, and a video signal recorded in the recording / reproducing device is reproduced and printed.
If the print is a color print, a reproduction start position is set, and the same image is reproduced and printed three times in the order of Y / M / C so that the recorded video signal can be reproduced under the same conditions. Can be used for color printing.

[0031]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a panoramic print system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The panoramic print system according to the present invention, as shown in FIG.
It comprises a video camera 1, a panning device 2, a recording / reproducing device 3, and a printer 4.

The video camera 1 is an ordinary video camera, and its video signal output terminal is connected to the input terminal of the recording / reproducing device 3 and the input terminal of the printer 4.

The panning device 2 is mechanically connected to the video camera 1 so as to pan the video camera 1 in the horizontal direction. Note that a slide mechanism that slides the video camera 1 in the horizontal direction may be used instead of the panning device 2.

The panning device 2 is connected to a control signal output terminal of the printer 4, and is controlled by a panning control signal from the printer 4 to perform a panning operation.

The output terminal of the recording / reproducing apparatus 3 is connected to a printer 4
Terminals. That is, either the video signal from the video camera 1 or the reproduction signal from the recording / reproduction device 3 is input to the input terminal of the printer 4. Note that the recording / reproducing device 3 may not be provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the printer 4 includes a video decoder 5, an A / D converter 6, a color adjustment switch 7, a line memory 8, a head controller 9, a thermal head 10, and a storage unit 11. , A system controller 12 and a D / A converter 13.

The storage unit 11 includes a memory 14 and a memory controller 15 for controlling the memory 14.

The input terminal of the printer 4 is connected to the input terminal of the video decoder 5. Video decoder 5
Represents a video signal output from the video camera 1 as R,
After color separation into G and B, each color signal is converted to an A / D converter 6.
Output to

The A / D converter 6 converts each of the color signals R, G,
B is A / D converted, and the converted data is output to the color adjustment switch 7.

The output of the A / D converter 6 is sent to the storage unit 11 and stored in the memory 14 as shown by a dotted line in the case of normal printing. The data stored in the memory 14 is read out to the line memory 8 and used for printing as described in the related art.

The color adjustment switch 7 converts color signals R, G, and B extracted by the A / D converter 6 into serial video data under the control of the system controller 12. And the head controller 9.

The line memory 8 is a memory for taking in one line of data without using the storage unit 11 in the case of a still image, and is connected to the head controller 9.

The head controller 9 has a function of converting data output from the color adjustment switch 7 or data from the line memory 8 into print data.

The thermal head 10 is a head for printing based on the head controller 9 and has electric heating elements corresponding to each pixel of the print data. These electric heating elements are used when the pixel data is "1". By generating heat and not generating heat when it is "0", an image of one line in the vertical direction of the print data is printed on photographic paper.

When the thermal head 10 and the printing paper relatively move in the horizontal direction, the vertical lines move, and as a result, printing of one frame is completed.

The storage section 11 is composed of a memory 14 and a memory controller 15 and stores the color signals R, G, B as appropriate. The memory controller 15 operates the memory 14 under the control of the system controller 12. Let it.

The system controller 12 controls the head controller 9, the color adjustment switch 7, and the memory controller 15, outputs a control signal to the recording / reproducing device 3 through a terminal, and pans through the terminal. The control signal is output to the device 2.

There are two methods for performing panoramic printing with the panoramic printing system configured as described above. One of them is (1) an indirect printing method, in which a video signal is recorded in the recording / reproducing device 3 while the video camera 1 is panned, and then the image recorded in the recording / reproducing device 3 is reproduced and reproduced. In this method, a signal is sent to the printer 4 for printing.

The other is (2) a direct printing method,
In this method, an output signal of the video camera 1 panned by the panning device 2 is directly sent to the printer 4 for printing.

(1) In the case of printing after recording on the recording / reproducing apparatus 3 (indirect printing method) The video camera 1 is photographed while being panned by the panning apparatus 2, and the output signal of the video camera 1 is transmitted to the recording / reproducing apparatus 3. When recording and reproducing the recorded data and supplying the data to the printer 4 for printing, the following operation is performed.

That is, FIG. 3 shows that while the video camera 1 is panned by the panning device 2, the horizontal length H
Shows a case where the subject 16 having the vertical length V is photographed. However, in FIG. 3, the subject 16 is shown as being tilted rearward at right angles to the video camera 1.

A vertical plane passing through the center of the lens of the video camera 1 is represented by a dotted line. Lines at which this vertical plane intersects the leftmost end and the rightmost end of the subject 16 are a start line S and an end line E, respectively.

When the panning angle from the start line S to the end line E is represented by W1, it is the so-called video camera that shoots the video camera 1 in the horizontal direction at the speed T1 by the angle W1 from S to E. Panning.

Also, instead of the panning device 2, FIG.
As shown in (5), the video camera 1 may be moved in the horizontal direction at the speed T2 during the movement distance W2 using the slide movement device 17.

As described above, the output signal of the video camera 1 is recorded in the recording / reproducing device 3 while the video camera 1 is being panned or slid and the recorded image is reproduced on the monitor. As shown in FIG. 5, the subject appears to move from right to left on the monitor screen.

The panning speed T1 of the panning device 2 may be set arbitrarily. However, in order for the aspect ratio of the printed subject 16 to be normal, the panning speed T1 or the slide speed T2 must be equal to the H cycle of the video signal. , For example, N
In the case of the TSC system, it is necessary to synchronize with 1/30 seconds.

For example, assuming that the number of vertical lines in the horizontal direction of the object to be printed is N, the panning speed T1 is T1 = 30W1 / N (deg / sec).

When the slide moving device 17 is used as shown in FIG. 4, the relationship between the moving distance W2 and the speed T2 is T2 = 30W2 / N (mm / sec).

When the image signal recorded in the recording / reproducing apparatus 3 is reproduced on a monitor as described above, it is displayed by, for example, 525 horizontal scanning lines as shown in FIG.

This reproduced signal is supplied to a terminal of the printer 4. In the printer 4, the A / D converter 6 performs fixed position fixed sampling at a specific position A in the horizontal direction on the monitor screen, and stores 525 sampling data in the line memory 8.

The sampling data stored in the line memory 8 is sent to the thermal head 10 by the head controller 9 and printed on photographic paper. Thus, one vertical line is printed.

As described above, since the image on the monitor screen moves leftward at the panning speed T1 opposite to the panning direction, by printing while sampling at the fixed position A, the printing cycle becomes It will be synchronized with the moving speed of the image. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, an image in a range captured by panning is printed with a correct aspect ratio by n vertical lines N1 to Nn.

When performing color printing, especially in a thermal transfer printer, three colors of Y, M, and C are sequentially printed in accordance with the above printing procedure. That is, the printer 4
Stores the panning start position, and controls the panning device 2 and the recording / reproducing device 3 to repeat reproduction of one frame of image data three times from the same position.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show the operation flow of the panoramic print system in the case of three-color printing. That is, in the first step ST1, the image data recorded in the recording / reproducing apparatus 3 is reproduced, and simultaneously, the Y color printing is performed.

Next, in step ST2, the recording / reproducing device 3
Is rewound to the first reproduction start position, reproduction is started again, and M color printing is performed.

Further, in step ST3, the recording / reproducing device 3
After rewinding to the second reproduction start position, reproduction is started again, C-color printing is performed, and the three-color printing ends.

(2) Direct printing method In the panoramic printing method based on the indirect printing method described above, the video signal of the video camera 1 is temporarily stored in the recording / reproducing device 3, and the stored data is reproduced and sampled. The print data was obtained, but the data from the video camera 1 was directly taken into the line memory 8,
You can also print.

As another embodiment, a panning device 2
And a recording / reproducing device 3 are provided with a common switch.
By performing mode switching between normal printing and panoramic printing by using this switch, a printing system having both functions can be realized.

As described above, in any of the embodiments, if there are no restrictions on the length of the printing paper and the length of the ink ribbon, it is possible to print an image of the entire range panned in the horizontal direction.

[0070]

As described above, the panoramic print system according to the present invention has the following effects.

(1) By synchronizing the change in the shooting direction or position of the video camera with the printing cycle in which the video printer prints one line in the vertical direction, the size of the target object can be changed without changing the size of the target object. The so-called panoramic print, which can be printed including the periphery, can be realized with an extremely excellent effect that the configuration can be realized with a simple structure.

Further, since there is no need for a wide signal or a high-vision signal and a wide memory is not required, there is an extremely excellent effect that it can be realized at low cost.

Further, in the widened information of the normal TV signal, for example, pixels are coarse in the horizontal direction, but the horizontal pixels of the panoramic printed image according to the present invention are not different from the normal pixels. Therefore, a high-quality wide print can be obtained, and the length in the horizontal direction can be set arbitrarily.

Further, since a special configuration is not required for the printer in order to make the panorama configuration, for example, reproduction and printing can be performed in the panorama print mode, and further normal printing can be performed by switching the reproduction apparatus. The above-mentioned printer has an extremely excellent effect that it can be used for panorama and normal use.

If there is no specific limitation on the length of the printing paper and the length of the ink ribbon, there is an extremely excellent effect that the entire image panned in the horizontal direction can be printed.

(2) The video printer prints by the direct printing method. If the print is color printing, the start position is set, and the shooting direction or position is changed three times in the order of Y / M / C. By printing the video signal obtained by performing the operation, it is possible to obtain an extremely excellent effect that a required image print can be easily obtained without being limited to colors in each case.

(3) The video printer prints by the indirect printing method. If the print is color printing, a reproduction start position is set, and the video signal of the same image is reproduced three times in the order of Y / M / C. In this case, it is possible to easily print an image that has been appropriately printed, and it is possible to obtain an extremely excellent effect that accurate color printing can be performed even in the case of color printing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a panoramic print system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the video printer.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a panning transfer of the video camera.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a slide transfer of the video camera.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a change in the reproduction screen.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between the sampling and printing.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing that the image to be printed is formed by n vertical lines.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation of the color printing.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional printer.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing operation of the printer.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of photographing a large subject when the printer is used.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a print result obtained by the photographing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Video camera 2 Panning apparatus 3 Recording / reproducing apparatus 4 Printer 5, 21 Video decoder 6, 22 A / D converter 7, 24 Color adjustment switch 8, 26 Line memory 9, 27 Head controller 10, 28 Thermal head 11 Storage unit 12, 29 System controller 13, 25 D / A converter 14, 23 Memory 15, 30 Memory controller 16 Subject 17 Slide moving device 32 HDTV decoder 33 Wide memory

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5 / 225,5 / 232 H04N 5/76-5/956 B41J 3/00 G03B 37/00

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] (1) A video camera, Means for changing the shooting direction or position of the video camera
When, The video signal from the video camera is applied
And a video printer that prints
And The means for changing the shooting direction or position includes the video player.
In the printing cycle in which the printer prints one line in the vertical direction
Pano characterized by making changes synchronously
Lama print system. (2) The means for changing the photographing direction or position includes:
The panning device according to claim 1, wherein the panning device is a panning device.
Panorama print system. (3) The means for changing the photographing direction or position includes:
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device is a slide moving device.
On-board panorama print system. (4) For color printing, set the start position.
And change the shooting direction or position three times in the order of Y / M / C
And printing is performed.
Is a panoramic print system according to 3. (5) Video signals captured by the above video camera
A contractor comprising a recording / reproducing device for recording / reproducing.
A panoramic print system according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4.
M 6. The video signal recorded on the recording / reproducing device
Is reproduced by a control signal from the video printer.
The pano according to claim 5, wherein the print is performed by printing.
Lama print system. 7. For color printing, the playback start position
Is set, and video signals of the same image are converted into 3 in the order of Y / M / C.
The image is reproduced and printed twice.
7. The panoramic print system according to 6.