JP4003316B2 - Camera with pedometer - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a pedometer with a camera such as an electronic camera and a film camera with a built-in pedometer function.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In general, a pedometer counts the number of steps the user has walked and displays the accumulated number of steps on a display. Recently, a pager pedometer with a built-in pedometer in a pager has been proposed ( JP-A-7-250363, JP-A-8-51654). This pager pedometer shares a pager display and a pedometer display, and usually displays the total number of steps on the display and displays the caller when the pager is called. Is going.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, there has been no conventional pedometer built into a camera which is a portable device.
An object of the present invention is to provide a camera with a pedometer that has a built-in pedometer function in the camera and can record pedometer data such as the total number of steps by linking both functions.
[0004]
Another object of the present invention is to provide a camera with a pedometer that has a built-in pedometer function in the camera and can share a common sensor, display, etc. for both.
Still another object of the present invention incorporates a pedometer function in the camera, a pedometer with a switching function as functional and camera as pedometer can be performed satisfactorily, it is possible to reduce the power consumption The purpose is to provide a camera with a mark.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a camera with a pedometer according to claim 1 of the present application includes a walking detection means for generating a walking detection signal in relation to a walking motion, and the number of steps based on the walking detection signal from the walking detection means. A pedometer-equipped camera having a pedometer comprising a counting means for counting and a display means for displaying the cumulative number of steps counted by the counting means, the camera operating member related to camera operation, and the camera operating member Is switched to the first mode that functions as a camera by controlling the supply of power, and when the camera operating member is not operated for a predetermined time during the first mode and / or from the walking detection means A mode that switches to the second mode in which only the pedometer can operate by controlling the supply of power when the walking state is determined based on the walking detection signal Characterized by comprising a replacement unit. As a result, the mode is switched accurately reflecting the user's intended use, operability without a sense of incongruity can be realized, and the power consumption of the camera can be reduced.
[0006]
The invention according to claim 2 is the camera with a pedometer according to claim 1, further comprising recording means for recording the cumulative number of steps counted by the counting means on a recording medium of the camera. That is, the camera is have a function of recording the captured image and the shooting date and time, etc., so that also can record pedometer data such as total number of steps by the recording function.
The recording means records, on the recording medium, the cumulative number of steps counted by the counting means together with the photographed image at the time of photographing as shown in claim 3 of the present application. Further, as shown in claim 4 of the present application, the recording unit links and records at least the time including the time at the time of photographing and the cumulative number of steps on the recording medium. The invention according to claim 5 is the camera with a pedometer according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a graph creating means for creating a graph based on the cumulative number of steps counted by the counting means, wherein the display means is The graph created by the graph creating means is displayed. By recording the total number of steps linked to the photographed image in this way, it is very convenient for recording such as climbing. In addition, it is possible to graph the cumulative number of steps from the total number of steps and time, so that the workload of the photographer can be known.
[0007]
The invention according to claim 6 of the present application is characterized in that, in the camera with a pedometer according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the walking detection means and the vertical and horizontal detection means of the camera are shared.
[0008]
The invention according to claim 7 of the present application is characterized in that, in the camera with a pedometer according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the walking detection means and the camera shake detection means are shared.
[0009]
In other words, the inventions according to claims 6 and 7 of the present application share the detection means common to the pedometer and the camera to reduce the cost.
[0010]
Further, as shown in claim 8 of the present application, the display means for displaying the cumulative number of steps and the display means for displaying the state of the camera are shared, and further, the mode switching means can be switched to the mode as shown in claim 9 of the present application. The display contents on the display means are switched accordingly. Further, the recording medium is a memory card or a photographic film as shown in claim 10 of the present application.
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A preferred embodiment of a camera with a pedometer according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a camera with a pedometer according to the present invention. Pedometer with a camera shown in the figure, provided with a pedometer function is the electronic camera can record pedometer data cumulative step count or the like obtained by the image signals and the pedometer obtained by the imaging means in a memory card 28 .
[0012]
This camera with a pedometer is mainly composed of a camera-dedicated part, a pedometer- dedicated part, and a part common to the camera and the pedometer .
The camera-dedicated parts mainly include a photographing lens 10, an aperture 12, a solid-state imaging device (CCD) 14, an analog signal processing circuit 16, a digital signal processing circuit 20, a memory (DRAM) 22, a compression / decompression circuit 26, a memory card 28, and a liquid crystal monitor. 32. A switch related to camera operation, such as a release switch in the operation switch unit 50, and a camera battery (not shown), etc., and the pedometer- dedicated part is a pedometer battery 42 and the cumulative number of steps in the operation switch unit 50. Reset switch or the like.
[0013]
A part common to the camera and the pedometer includes a central processing unit (CPU) 40, a display unit 46, a vibration detection unit 48, and the like. That is, the CPU 40 has a counter circuit that controls and controls each circuit of the camera and counts the number of steps. Display unit 46, for example, a liquid crystal display panel, the camera mode to be described later photographable frame number / reproducing frame number, etc. to display the remaining amount of the camera battery, pedometer data such as total number of steps, calorie consumption pedometer mode Is displayed.
[0014]
The vibration detection unit 48 generates a walking detection signal in relation to the walking motion, and doubles as a camera vertical / horizontal detection means or a camera shake detection means. Here, the vertical / horizontal detection means of the camera detects the posture (vertical position or horizontal position) when the camera is held, and the detected vertical position or horizontal position determines the shooting position of the shooting date and time. It is used as information. The camera shake detection means is used in a camera shake correction apparatus that moves an optical member of the camera so as to cancel out camera shake, and includes an angular velocity sensor and the like. The camera shake correction device is effective when an image signal indicating a moving image is externally output from the electronic camera.
[0015]
When the release switch in the operation switch unit 50 is pressed, the CPU 40 detects this and sends a command to the control circuit 34. The control circuit 34 performs focus control through the photographing lens driving unit 36 and performs exposure control by controlling the charge accumulation time in the diaphragm 12 and the CCD 14. The photographing lens 10 can be zoomed by operating a zoom switch or the like.
[0016]
The subject light incident on the light receiving surface of the CCD 14 via the photographing lens 10 and the diaphragm 12 is converted into a signal charge in an amount corresponding to the amount of light incident on each sensor of the CCD 14, and this signal charge is based on a clock pulse. Are sequentially read out as voltage signals (image signals) corresponding to the signal charges. Image signal output from the CCD14 is Ru they are written to the analog signal processing circuit 16. The analog signal processing circuit 16 includes a CDS clamp, a gain control amplifier, and the like, where image signal sampling, white balance adjustment, and the like are performed. The image signal processed by the analog signal processing circuit 16 is converted into R, G, B digital signals by the A / D converter 18 and added to the digital signal processing circuit 20.
[0017]
The digital signal processing circuit 20 includes a gamma correction circuit, a YC signal generation circuit, etc., and gamma correction of the R, G, B digital signals, YC signals of the R, G, B signals (luminance signal Y and chroma signal C). The YC signal is stored in the memory 22. The YC signal stored in the memory 22 is compressed into a predetermined format by a compression / decompression circuit 26 and recorded in a memory card 28 that is detachable from the camera.
[0018]
Note that the LCD controller 30 generates R, G, B signals and pulses necessary for liquid crystal display based on the YC signal input from the memory 22 at the time of shooting and outputs them to the LCD panel 32 to display an image on the LCD panel 32. Further, at the time of reproduction, a reproduction image is displayed on the LCD panel 32 based on the YC signal read from the memory card 28 and decompressed by the compression / decompression circuit 26. The YC signal is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 24, further converted into a predetermined video signal by an encoder (not shown), and output from the video output terminal to an external device such as a television.
[0019]
On the other hand, the CPU 40 counts a signal (walking detection signal) related to the walking motion input from the vibration detection unit 48 with an internal counter, and displays the total number of steps and pedometer data indicating the calories consumed according to the total number of steps. The pedometer data is recorded at the time of photographing. Details of this will be described later.
Next, the operation of the camera with a pedometer having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
[0020]
First, the CPU 40 determines whether or not the camera operation switch is operated (ON) in the operation switch unit 50 (step S10). As a camera operation switch, for example, a half-push switch S1 that is turned on when the release switch is half-pressed, a full-push switch S2 that is turned on when the release switch is fully pushed, a camera power switch, a zoom switch, a mode dial that selects a mode such as shooting Etc. are considered.
[0021]
Here, when the camera operation switch is not turned on, the pedometer mode is set, and display switching is performed so that the display unit 46 displays pedometer data such as the total number of steps and calories consumed (step S12). In the pedometer mode, power is supplied from the pedometer battery 42 only to the portion indicated by the one-dot chain line in FIG.
[0022]
On the other hand, when the camera operation switch is turned on, the camera mode is set, and the CPU 40 sends a command to the power control circuit 44 to turn on the camera power (step S14). That is, power is supplied from the camera battery (not shown) to each part of the camera via the power supply control circuit 44 to enable each circuit to operate. This camera with a pedometer has an auto power off function that automatically turns off the power when the camera is not operated for a predetermined time, and determines whether or not to turn off the auto power when the camera power is on. A timer for resetting is reset (step S16). In the camera mode in which the camera power is on, the display unit 46 performs display switching so as to display camera data such as the number of frames that can be shot / the number of frames that can be played back and the remaining battery level (step S18). .
[0023]
Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the half-press switch S1 and the full-press switch S2 of the release switch are turned on (steps S20 and S22). When these switches S1 and S2 are turned on, a photographing process is performed. Recording processing of the image data and the like acquired by photographing to the memory card 28 is performed (steps S24 and S26).
Here, CPU 40 has a pedometer data regardless pedometer mode or camera mode, pedometer data in recording to the memory card 28 of the image data also is recorded simultaneously. Incidentally, pedometer data, by recording the sub-information area of the main image data or within the image data, it is possible to link the captured image and pedometer data. Further, it goes without saying that date information indicating the shooting date and time can be fetched from the clock unit 52 shown in FIG. 1, and this date information can also be linked to the shot image and recorded in the memory card 28.
[0024]
By thus recording the pedometer data in the format of an electronic camera, users from the display of the pedometer data, printing and storage are easy, also, it is possible to display the pedometer data visually It is an easy-to-use device.
In particular, since the photographed image and the pedometer data are linked and recorded, it is very effective when used for mountain climbing. For example, by resetting the accumulated number of steps at climbing the start, it is a child then the record linked with captured images accumulated number of steps for each shooting. Figure 3 also print the total number of steps with the captured image shows an example of a case of reproducing.
[0025]
When the recording of the image data or the like is completed in this way, the timer is reset (step S28), and then the process returns to step S20 to prepare for the next shooting.
On the other hand, if the switches S1 and S2 are not turned on in steps S20 and S22, it is determined whether or not another camera operation switch (for example, a zoom switch at the time of shooting or a frame advance key at the time of reproduction) has been operated. When the camera operation switch is operated (step S30), the timer is reset (step S32), and the process returns to step S20. If the camera operation switch has not been operated, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time (for example, 2 minutes) has elapsed by the timer (step S34). If the predetermined time has not elapsed, step S20 is determined. When the predetermined time has passed, the camera power is turned off (step S36), and the process returns to step S10. In this case, since the camera operation switch is not operated, the pedometer mode is set.
[0026]
In this way, the pedometer mode and the camera mode are automatically switched to accurately reflect the user's intention to use, and operability without a sense of incongruity can be realized, and the camera power is turned off in the pedometer mode. Therefore, the power consumption of the camera can be reduced.
In the above embodiment, the camera mode is switched from the camera mode to the pedometer mode by the auto power off function. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the pedometer data changes in relation to the walking motion in the camera mode (for example, When a predetermined number of steps or more are counted during the camera mode, or when the cumulative number of steps continuously changes at a constant period), the camera power may be turned off immediately to switch to the pedometer mode. Furthermore, when the camera is not operated for a predetermined time or more and the pedometer data changes, the camera power may be turned off to switch to the pedometer mode.
[0027]
Next, another recording method of pedometer data will be described.
That is, the pedometer data is recorded by using the recording function of the camera every predetermined time. In this case, the CPU 40 turns on the camera power to record the pedometer data every time a predetermined time elapses based on the clock data from the clock unit 52, and records the pedometer data and time on the memory card 28. Set to OFF. By repeating this, the daily pedometer data can be recorded. Also, as described above, pedometer data is also recorded when shooting is performed.
[0028]
Then, when displaying or printing the pedometer data, based on the recorded pedometer data into the memory card 28 creates a graph by a predetermined program, and displays the graph on the liquid crystal monitor 32 outputs, or to a printer And print.
FIG. 4 shows an example of a graph display of pedometer data. This graph is a line graph in which the cumulative number of steps is expressed using time as a parameter. Further, the numbers in FIG. 4 indicate frame numbers at the time of each photographing.
[0029]
By sequentially recording the pedometer data in this way, it is possible to grasp the daily work amount (walking amount) of the photographer.
The camera with a pedometer according to the present invention may be configured by appropriately combining the above embodiments. Moreover, the camera with a pedometer is applicable not only to an electronic camera but also to a silver halide camera. In the case of a silver halide camera, the pedometer data is recorded optically or magnetically on a magnetic recording layer on the photo film in connection with the photo frame of the photo film, or a memory card that is detachable from the silver halide camera. May be recorded.
[0030]
【The invention's effect】
According to the pedometer with a camera according to the present invention described above, since the built-in pedometer function in the camera, it is possible to associate both function to record pedometer data such as total number of steps. In other words, the camera has a function of recording a photographed image, a photographing date and time, etc., but pedometer data such as the total number of steps can be easily recorded by the recording function. In particular, recording the total number of steps linked to the photographed image is very convenient for recording, for example, climbing, and it is also possible to graph the total number of steps from the total number of steps and time. You can know the amount.
[0031]
Furthermore, according to the camera with a pedometer according to the present invention, it is possible to share a sensor, a display, and the like that are common to both, and to reduce the cost.
In addition, the pedometer mode and the camera mode can be switched to accurately reflect the user's intention to use, and operability without a sense of incongruity can be realized, and the camera power is automatically turned off in the pedometer mode. By doing so, the power consumption of the camera can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a camera with a pedometer according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart used to explain the operation of the camera with a pedometer shown in FIG. 1. FIG. Fig. 4 shows an example of printing or playing back the total number of steps. Fig. 4 shows an example of graph display of pedometer data.
10 ... Photography lens 14 ... Solid-state image sensor (CCD)
16 ... Analog signal processing circuit 20 ... Digital signal processing circuit 26 ... Compression / decompression circuit 28 ... Memory card 40 ... Central processing unit (CPU)
42 ... Battery 44 ... Power supply control circuit 46 ... Display unit 48 ... Vibration detection unit 50 ... Operation switch unit 52 ... Clock unit

Claims (10)

A walking detection means for generating a walking detection signal in relation to the walking motion, a counting means for counting the number of steps based on the walking detection signal from the walking detection means, and a display for displaying the total number of steps counted by the counting means A camera with a pedometer having a pedometer comprising means,
Camera operation members related to camera operation;
When the camera operating member is operated, switching to the first mode that functions as a camera by controlling the supply of power, and when the camera operating member is not operated for a predetermined time during the first mode and / or the walking When the walking state is determined based on the walking detection signal from the detecting means, the mode switching means for switching to the second mode in which only the pedometer can operate by controlling the supply of power is provided. Camera with pedometer to do.   2. The camera with a pedometer according to claim 1, further comprising recording means for recording the cumulative number of steps counted by the counting means on a recording medium of the camera.   3. The camera with a pedometer according to claim 2, wherein the recording unit records the cumulative number of steps counted by the counting unit together with a photographed image at the time of photographing on a recording medium.   4. The camera with a pedometer according to claim 2, wherein the recording unit records at least a time including a time at the time of photographing and the accumulated step count on the recording medium. A graph creating means for creating a graph based on the cumulative number of steps counted by the counting means;
The pedometer-equipped camera according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays the graph created by the graph creation unit.   6. The camera with a pedometer according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the walking detection means and the vertical / horizontal detection means of the camera are shared.   The camera with a pedometer according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the walking detection means and the camera shake detection means are shared.   8. The camera with a pedometer according to claim 1, wherein the display means for displaying the total number of steps and the display means for displaying the state of the camera are shared.   The display means for displaying the cumulative number of steps and the display means for displaying the camera state are shared, and the display content on the display means is switched according to the mode switched by the mode switching means. The camera with a pedometer according to any one of 8 above.   The camera with a pedometer according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the recording medium is a memory card or a photographic film.

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