JP3299741B2 - Automatic shooting system - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an automatic photographing system, and more particularly, to an automatic photographing system such as standby photographing or interval photographing.

[Prior Art] In a photographing mode in a normal photographing apparatus, a photographing sequence is executed by a manual trigger command (including a self-timer photographing mode) and a photographer simply sets a corresponding mode. Thereafter, the photographing device itself issues a photographing trigger command to execute photographing, so-called standby photographing / photographing.
There are two modes of automatic shooting such as interval shooting.

Regarding the latter automatic shooting of the above two shooting modes, conventionally known ones include an interval for issuing a shooting trigger at a fixed time interval which is a relatively long time or a predetermined time interval predetermined for each frame. Focus trigger shooting (ambush shooting) in which shooting is performed and a shooting trigger is detected by detecting that a subject has reached a predetermined position by a distance measuring sensor, voice trigger shooting in which a shooting trigger is generated in response to voice, and a moving subject There is a moving body trigger photographing that detects a change in the pattern by pattern recognition and issues a photographing trigger. These automatic shootings are properly used depending on the purpose, and are of high use value.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, as described above, the information source for the trigger operation in the conventional automatic photographing is limited to time, distance, sound, movement, and the like. There is no one that supplies information on color and environment (atmospheric pressure, air flow, temperature, humidity, etc.) and transmits a shooting trigger based on the information. Therefore, automatic photographing of a phenomenon that occurs in a dim state such as at sunset has conventionally had to be performed with the time set strictly. Further, in the ambush shooting, it has been impossible to select and shoot only a subject having a specific color. Furthermore, in automatic photographing of natural phenomena, the shutter cannot be released when the environmental state reaches a specific state.

On the other hand, in the conventional automatic photographing apparatus, when the camera is an electronic still camera using a floppy disk, it takes a certain time to start up the spindle motor. Shutter was released, and there was a possibility that a shift in the timing of shooting occurred. Further, in order to prevent the delay, it is necessary to start the driving of the spindle motor from the point of entering the automatic photographing mode. However, according to this method, the power consumption during standby becomes very large. On the other hand, in the case of automatic shooting with strobe lighting using a camera including a silver halide camera, it takes time to charge the strobe,
It has a similar problem.

Also, among the conventional automatic photographing apparatuses, which perform interval photographing (timed photographing) and automatically photograph a subject that repeatedly appears and leaves at predetermined time intervals, the subject is set to the above-described interval. However, even if the timing is just outside the image frame at the time of the photographing trigger, the shutter is unnecessarily released.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method in which, when any one of photometric information, colorimetric information, and environmental information in an automatic photographing system reaches a value within a predetermined range before reaching an amount satisfying a condition for starting photographing. , By performing a preliminary state setting to make the element that requires a relatively long time to start an operating state,
There is no delay when the shutter is released at the time of trigger transmission,
In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic photographing system capable of minimizing power consumption.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] An automatic photographing system according to the present invention includes a detecting unit for detecting any one of photometric information, colorimetric information, and information relating to the environment, and information detected by the detecting unit. A preliminary condition recognizing means for recognizing that the value has reached a value within a predetermined range before reaching an amount satisfying a condition for photographing start, and performing the photographing operation according to the recognition state of the preliminary condition recognizing means. A preliminary state setting means for setting a necessary predetermined preliminary state, wherein a predetermined range before the information detected by the detecting means reaches an amount which satisfies a condition for starting photographing is obtained. The preliminary condition recognizing means recognizes that the value has been reached, and sets the preliminary state of photographing according to the recognized state.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic photographing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system includes a system controller 1 composed of a microcomputer and an image recording unit 2 driven by the controller 1 to perform image recording.
And a group of sensors for supplying the controller 1 with information indicating the amount of the state of the object, a group of switches for inputting a shooting instruction and a condition selection instruction to the controller 1, and a battery 16 serving as a main power supply of the present system. And a plurality of supply switches 15 of the main power supply to the above-described control elements, and a timer 17 having a battery 18 which is a power supply dedicated to the timer.

The imaging recording unit 2 is an imaging recording unit of an electronic still camera, and includes a lens and an imaging element unit, a video processing circuit, a signal processing unit such as a recording circuit, a floppy disk drive unit, a strobe light emitting unit, and other imaging control elements. Built-in. The drive system having a relatively long start-up time, ie, the spindle motor of the drive unit and the strobe light emission charging unit, are driven independently by the controller 1 as a standby start-up block 2a for the standby operation when performing photographing and recording. (Hereinafter referred to as a standby operation). Although the present embodiment is applied to an electronic still camera, when the present invention is applied to a silver halide film camera, the drive section does not exist as a matter of course, so that the preliminary start-up block is only a strobe light emission charging section.

The sensor group includes a photometric sensor 3 that detects luminance that is photometric information of the subject, a colorimetric sensor 4 that detects color tone and color depth that are colorimetric information of illumination light and reflected light from the subject, and imaging and recording. An acceleration sensor 5 attached to the unit 2 for detecting the acceleration of the imaging and recording unit 2; and a temperature sensor 6, a humidity sensor 7, and a pressure sensor for detecting temperature, humidity, and pressure, respectively, which are information relating to the environment. 8 and an airflow sensor 9 which similarly takes in information on the environment and information on the airflow. Each sensor of the above-mentioned environmental information has a built-in camera and also enables remote sensing. The output of each sensor is input to a condition determination block 1b built in the controller 1.

The photometric sensor 3 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. The photographing light forms an image on the imager 2d via the taking lens 2b of the imaging unit. And half mirror
Part of the light reflected by 2c is a light receiving element 3 which is a photometric sensor.
And is detected as a photometric output. In the case of using the imager 2d such as this imaging unit, the imager output can be used as a photometric output, and further,
It is also possible to supply area photometric information. In this case, since the output varies depending on the aperture, correction is naturally required.

The colorimetric sensor will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 shows a photometric sensor 4 'for obtaining light source color information, which is constituted by light receiving elements 4a, 4b, 4c equipped with R, G, B filters and a preamplifier 4d. Then, the color information of the light source is detected and output by the element. FIG. 4 shows a colorimetric sensor for obtaining color information of light reflected by a subject. Taking lens
The photographing light taken in via 2b 'forms an image on the imager 2d' and is input to the signal processing circuit 2e 'as an image pickup signal.
Then, simultaneously with the output of the imaging information, the reflected light color information is output. Based on the reflected light color information and the color information of the light source of the photometric sensor 4 'shown in FIG. 3, it is possible to estimate the tint of the subject itself, and it is also possible to output a photographing trigger signal based on the tint. Become. Further, also in this colorimetric sensor, a color signal including area information can be detected from its output.

The switch group includes first and second mode switches 10 and 11.
And an auto-trigger information selection switch 12, which will be described later, an interval setting switch 13 for setting an interval time during interval shooting, and an automatic shooting start / stop switch 14. The first mode switch 10 designates a manual photographing mode in which normal photographing is performed by its off operation, and designates an automatic photographing mode by its on operation. Also, the second mode switch 11
In the selected automatic shooting mode, interval shooting is selected by the ON operation and normal automatic shooting is selected and specified by the OFF operation. In addition, automatic shooting start /
The stop switch 14 is for instructing the start of the automatic photographing operation by its ON operation and for instructing the stop of the photographing by its OFF operation.

The system controller 1 has the built-in decision block 1b. The block 1b captures the amount of state of each object from each sensor, and sets conditions for starting photographing in the automatic photographing mode, that is, supply information. Satisfies the condition for allowing the shooting operation to start, or
This is a means for recognizing, based on the output of each sensor, whether or not a predetermined range very close to the photographing condition, that is, a range recognized as a preliminary condition (standby condition) is satisfied. The type of information to be determined in the block 1b and the reference amount or range of the information are input to the system controller 1 by an auto trigger information selection switch 12, which will be described later. In the interval shooting, the block 1b is also a means for recognizing a case where the supply information does not satisfy the shooting conditions.

Further, in addition to the condition determination block 1b, the system controller 1 sets a photographing activation unit in the automatic photographing mode and a preliminary state (hereinafter referred to as a standby state) for activating the preliminary start-up block 2a based on the preliminary conditions. Built-in means for instructing, means for prohibiting shooting operation in interval shooting based on the instruction from the shooting condition unsatisfied recognition means, and monitoring block 1a for controlling main power supply during standby in automatic shooting mode are doing.

The monitoring block 1a starts operation in connection with the ON operation of the automatic photographing start / stop switch 14 in a general automatic photographing mode, and supplies only weak sensor operating power to each of the sensors 3 to 9. When the precondition recognition is performed in the condition determination block 1b, the operation is performed so as to supply the main power to the control elements of the pre-startup block 2a. It controls the supply switch 15 to supply power.

In the case of interval shooting in the automatic shooting mode, the monitoring block 1a activates the timer 17 to detect the designated interval, and simultaneously determines whether the state of each object satisfies the shooting condition. Sensing is performed by the sensors 3 to 9, and supply control of sensor power for that is also performed.

The operation of the automatic photographing system according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the processing of FIG. 5 is started by turning on a power switch (not shown). In step S1, it is checked whether or not there is an instruction to stop shooting, and if so, this routine ends. Then, in step S2, the first mode switch 10
Check ON / OFF of If it is off, it is the case of normal shooting mode selection, jump to step S3,
Normal shooting sequence processing is executed. If on,
When the automatic shooting mode is selected and the
To each sensor 3 that permits the start of automatic shooting, which is set in advance by the auto trigger shooting information selection switch.
9 are registered in the system controller 1. Subsequently, the on / off state of the second mode switch 11 is checked (step S5). If the second mode switch 11 is on, that is, if interval shooting is designated, the process proceeds to step S20. If the second mode switch 11 is off, that is, normal automatic shooting selection If, step S6
Jump to

In step S6, it is determined whether the automatic shooting start / stop switch 14 is on or off. If the switch is on, the automatic shooting operation is started, and the process proceeds to step S7. If it is off, the process returns to step S1 again, and the above processing is repeated. In step S7, it is determined whether or not the standby condition is satisfied. That is, the outputs of the sensors 3 to 9 are determined in the condition determination block 1b, and the vicinity before the amount of the state of the object reaches the amount satisfying the shooting condition is determined. Is determined to be within the range. And if the condition is satisfied, step
Proceeding to S9, the start-up block 2a for starting flash charging is started when the spindle motor is started or flash shooting is performed, and standby processing is performed. If the condition is not satisfied, the process jumps to step S8 and starts /
The on / off of the stop switch 14 is checked, and the check in step S7 is repeated unless it is off. If it is off, the process returns to step S1.

After step S9, the standby condition is checked again (step S10). If the condition is out of the condition range, the process jumps to step S11, cancels the standby state, and checks on / off of the start / stop switch 14. If it is off, it returns to step S1, and if it is on, it returns to step S7 (step S12). If the standby condition is satisfied, the trigger condition is checked (step S13). That is, if it is determined that the information supplied to the condition determination block 1b conforms to the photographing condition, the process proceeds to step S14, and if it is determined that the information does not conform to the photographing condition, the process returns to step S10.

In step S14, a shooting trigger signal is transmitted from the system controller 1 to the shooting recording unit 2, and a shooting sequence process is started (step S15). Subsequently, the on / off of the start / stop switch 14 is checked again. If it is off, the process returns to step S1, and if it is on, the process proceeds to step S17 (step S16). In step S17, it is determined whether or not shooting can be continued, for example, whether automatic shooting for the specified number of images has been completed or whether or not unrecorded tracks are left on the disc. If it is possible to continue, the flow returns to step S10 again to repeat the automatic shooting. At the time of this repetition, the standby condition or the trigger condition may be determined, and the next shooting may be prohibited at least once after removing the condition. That is, it is possible to shoot one frame each time the condition is newly satisfied.

On the other hand, in the ON / OFF check of the second mode switch 11 in step S5, if the interval shooting is selected by the switch ON, the process proceeds to step S20. In step S20, the start / stop switch 14 is checked, and the start / stop switch 14 is checked. If so, the process returns to step S1, and if on, the process proceeds to step S21. Then, the timer 17 which is an interval timer corresponding to the time of the photographing interval is reset, and the timer starts counting. And step
Count time step S22 it is checked whether or not elapsed as little time T ₁ advance interval setting switch 13 the time required for the above-described standby processing than the interval time T ₂ that is set in. When it reaches the time T _1, and executes the standby processing such as a spindle motor start (step S23), followed by counting of the timer 17 is checked whether the arrival time T ₂ (step S24). And if timed reaches the time T _2, checks the trigger condition in the condition decision block 1b (step S25). This is the same process as the determination in step S13 described above. When the trigger condition is satisfied, that is, when the amount of the target state satisfies the shooting start condition, the process proceeds to step S27, a shooting trigger signal is transmitted, and a shooting sequence process is executed (step S2).
8). Then, the process proceeds to step S29.

On the other hand, if the trigger condition is not satisfied in step S25,
That is, when it is recognized in the condition determination block 1b that the photographing start condition is not satisfied, the process jumps to step S29 via step S26, which is a photographing prohibiting unit.
Step S26 is a skip processing routine in which a shooting trigger is not transmitted, and instead, the time when the shooting was not performed or the number of frames to be shot for "memo" is used by the controller 1.
This is a subroutine process for recording in a memory inside.

In step S29, the standby state is released, and then in step S30, the start / step switch 14 is restarted.
Check the on / off status and if it is on (continue shooting),
Returning to step S21, if it is off (stop shooting),
It returns to step S1.

Next, steps S7 and S1 in the processing of the photographing routine are performed.
Examples of FIGS. 6, 7, 8, and 9 will be described as specific examples of the 0 standby condition determination processing.

FIG. 6 shows a condition determination range when brightness information (photometric information) of a subject is selected as the auto trigger information. As a range of the condition determination, the B area indicates a range that satisfies the shooting start condition (shooting trigger transmission condition), and the A / C area is a preliminary condition (standby condition) recognition area that is very close to the B area. If the conditions of this area are satisfied, the preliminary start-up block 2a is activated. For example, this is a preferable application example in which an attempt is made to automatically capture the traffic condition of a road at sunset, and when it is detected that the brightness has been reduced to a predetermined brightness based on the photometric data, When it reaches, the strobe charging and the spindle motor are activated to be in the standby state, and then, the photographing is executed after waiting for the trigger condition, that is, the state where the photometric data falls within the area B. By performing the processing as described above, automatic photographing can be performed while suppressing waste of power and without delay in photographing timing.

Figure 7 is an auto color information of the subject as the trigger information in which is shown by the color vector diagram for determining areas of color information when selected, horizontal, respectively the vertical axis blue and red color difference signal axis E _B −E _Y , E _R −E _Y. Then, if the color information is in the area H
Then, the shooting start (trigger transmission) condition is satisfied, and the region I
, The preliminary condition (standby condition) is satisfied. For example, in the case of automatically photographing “sunset clouds”, the region H may be set as a sunset color and the region I may be set as a color range that is very close to the sunset color. Then, the standby state is set when the color of the cloud falls into the region I, and then, when the cloud reaches the region H, the shutter is automatically released.

Further, FIG. 8 shows each area in the case where the color of the subject to be photographed is determined, and the position of the subject having the color in the image frame is set as a photographing start (trigger transmission) condition or a preliminary condition (standby condition) region. J and K are shown. And
When a subject having a specified color appears in the area K, the imaging and recording unit is activated in the standby state, and shooting is started when the subject is located in the area J.

Further, FIG. 9 shows the ranges of temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure under the shooting trigger transmission condition and the standby condition when the cloud condition is automatically photographed. Based on these values, standby processing and shooting trigger transmission are performed.

Figure 10 applies an acceleration as the amount of physical phenomena state determines start shooting, the system acceleration change the shooting trigger for such to perform photographing immediately after receiving the predetermined magnitude of the acceleration alpha ₂ or more cameras FIG. ₃ is a diagram showing timings t ₁ , t ₂ , and t ₃ of FIG. The maximum acceleration experienced by the image-recording unit of time the acceleration alpha ₁ is for transmitting at least shooting trigger in FIG. That is, the camera unit comprising the acceleration alpha ₁ or less is set only to cut the shutter in a state close to the still. This photographing system is used in a case where an image is taken by bringing a hand-held camera into a crowd. Then, greatly moves during shooting, acceleration exceeds the alpha ₂ accordingly, immediately thereafter, the shutter is cut when the acceleration becomes alpha ₁ below (e.g. timing _{t 1, t 2, t 3} ). With such a system, it is possible to provide a camera capable of executing automatic photographing with little camera shake.

In this embodiment, an atmospheric pressure, airflow sensor, and the like are proposed as environmental state information sensors. However, other sensors, such as a water pressure sensor, a water flow sensor, a water quality sensor, and a sensor relating to liquid, and a vibration sensor may be used. It is also possible to equip a sensor or the like and perform automatic photographing in response to those outputs.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the automatic photographing system of the present invention, the shutter is immediately released in response to the transmission of the photographing trigger, so that there is no delay in shutter release and power consumption is reduced. It can be suppressed as much as possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic photographing system showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic arrangement of a photometric sensor used in the automatic photographing system of FIG. 1, FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a colorimetric sensor for a light source used in the automatic photographing system of FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a colorimetric sensor of subject reflected light used in the automatic photographing system of FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a photographing process of the automatic photographing system of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 are states of objects of the automatic photographing system of FIG. 1, respectively. FIG. 6 shows each area of the shooting start condition and the preliminary condition (standby condition). FIG. 6 shows a case where the state of the object is luminance, FIG. 7 shows a case where the state of the object is the color of the subject, and FIG. FIG. 8 shows that the state of the object is the color of the subject, Further, FIG. 9 shows each area when the position is added to the condition. FIG. 9 shows a photographing start condition and a preliminary condition (standby condition) corresponding to the environment information (state of the object) of the automatic photographing system of FIG. FIG. 10 is a time chart showing a photographing operation corresponding to the acceleration information (state of an object) of the automatic photographing system of FIG. 1 ... System controller (imaging start means, preliminary state setting means, imaging prohibition means when imaging conditions are not satisfied) 1b ... Condition determination block (supply information recognition means, preliminary condition recognition means, imaging condition unsatisfied recognition means)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A detecting means for detecting any one of photometric information, colorimetric information, and environmental information, and a predetermined value before the information detected by the detecting means reaches an amount which satisfies an imaging start condition. Preliminary condition recognizing means for recognizing that a value in the range has been reached, and setting of a preliminary state for bringing the camera into a predetermined preliminary state necessary for executing a shooting operation according to the recognition state of the preliminary condition recognizing means. Means, and an automatic photographing system, comprising: