JP4302577B2 - Image processing apparatus, control method of image processing apparatus, and recording medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus such as a digital camera having a function for determining a type of a communication card, a control method therefor, and a recording medium.

In order to realize the communication means connected to the card interface, that is, the function of performing communication with the outside using a communication card, a card database holding information on various cards is provided on the digital camera body side and connected. A method of starting a driver suitable for a communication card is proposed (for example, see Patent Documents 1 to 3).
Patent Documents 1 to 3 disclose a digital electronic still camera that determines attribute information on a card, an apparatus that only performs distinction between a memory card and a communication card, a card system, and a camera. There is no mention of measures and judgment methods in case of failure to judge.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of a card database according to a conventional method. In FIG. 9, the manufacturer ID, manufacturer name, product name, card type, and other attributes are shown as a table.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-288519 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-098124 JP-A-11-168650

In the conventional card type determination method of the patent document as described above, the card type is determined from the card unique information, but it is difficult to handle a card having a plurality of functions.
However, the user can confirm the currently registered correspondence information, the user can use a plurality of correspondence information for one type of card, and the correspondence information is used for one type of card. It is desired to solve problems such as enabling the user to set.
An object of the present invention is to connect a communication card for transmitting image data to the card interface in consideration of the above situation, and to determine the type of the communication card and the individual information data registered in the card. An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus having a function of holding correspondence information and displaying the correspondence information, a method for controlling the image processing apparatus, and a recording medium recording the same.

In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention described in claim 1 includes an image photographing unit including a photographing optical system and a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD, a signal processing unit that processes an image signal converted into an electric signal, In an image processing apparatus having recording means for storing processed image data in a storage medium, a card interface capable of connecting a communication card used for communication with the outside, a type of the communication card, and a registration of the communication card A card database holding correspondence information having individual information data, and the card database contains a plurality of correspondence information of different types of the communication cards for communication cards having the same individual information data. It features an image processing apparatus configured to have.
Further, in the invention according to claim 2, when the type of the communication card connected to the card interface cannot be specified only by logical analysis, the card database is accessed and the correspondence information is referred to and connected. When the communication card being registered is registered in the card database, the type of the communication card is a type of correspondence information having a predetermined attribute (for example, an attribute such as “valid flag is 1”). The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a control device that determines the above.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided display means for displaying the correspondence information held in the card database, and a plurality of pieces of correspondence information with different types of the communication cards for communication cards having the same individual information data. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: a control device that gives the predetermined information to the correspondence information selected by the user.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided display means for displaying the correspondence information held in the card database, and setting means for allowing a user to set the correspondence information in the card database. 2 is an image processing apparatus.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image photographing unit including a photographing optical system and a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD, a signal processing unit for processing an image signal converted into an electric signal, and processed image data. In a control method of an image processing apparatus having recording means for storing in a storage medium, a card interface connects a communication card used for communication with the outside, and a card database stores the type of the communication card and the communication card. The correspondence information having registered individual information data is held, and the card database has a plurality of correspondence information of different types of the communication cards for communication cards having the same individual information data. It features a control method of the processing apparatus.
The control device may access the card database to obtain the correspondence information when the control device cannot identify the type of the communication card connected to the card interface only by logical analysis. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein when the connected communication card is registered in the card database, the type of the communication card is determined as the type of correspondence information having a predetermined attribute. It features a control method for an image processing apparatus.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the display means displays the correspondence information held in the card database, and the control device has a type of the communication card for a communication card having the same individual information data. 7. The image processing apparatus control method according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined attribute is given to the correspondence information selected by the user among the plurality of different correspondence information.
In the invention according to claim 8, the display means displays the correspondence information held in the card database, and the setting means causes the user to set the correspondence information in the card database. A control method for an image processing apparatus according to claim 5 or 6 is characterized.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which the control method for the image processing apparatus according to any one of the fifth to eighth aspects is recorded.

According to the present invention, since having a function of displaying the contents of the card DB, it is possible to confirm the functions currently assigned.
According to the present invention, since a plurality of pieces of correspondence information can be stored in the card DB, functions can be assigned as necessary.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing the configuration of a digital camera as a standard image processing apparatus. In FIG. 1, the digital camera A includes an image photographing unit B and a processing system unit C.
In the image photographing unit B, the photographing lens system 2 is operated in accordance with an instruction from the microcomputer 1, and the image signal obtained from the imager (photoelectric conversion unit) 3 such as a CCD is converted into digital data by the A / D conversion unit 4. Is transferred to the processing system unit C.
The image photographing unit B is provided with a timing signal generator 7 that generates timing signals to the motor driver 5, the strobe 6, the photoelectric conversion unit 3, and the A / D conversion unit 4 of the mechanism unit of the photographing lens system 2.
In the processing system unit C, RGB or RGB or image size conversion (resize) circuit 11 or the like is converted from the image data obtained by the photoelectric conversion unit 3 by the digital signal processing circuit 8, the DMAC 9, the image compression / decompression circuit 10, and the pixel number conversion (resize) circuit 11 as necessary. YUV format image data generation, image data resizing, image compression, and other processes are performed to generate image data for recording.
Here, as the image compression method, either a reversible or irreversible method may be used, but if compression is not necessary, uncompressed image data may be recorded. The recording image data is generally recorded on a recording medium such as a memory card.
Further, the image data for recording or the image data once recorded on the recording medium may be transmitted to an external device via a communication means or a communication means connected to the card interface.

In Patent Document 1 and the present embodiment, the card interface 12 shown in FIG. 1 is provided to provide various communication means using various communication cards. Specifically, a card interface conforming to PCMCIA, CompactFlash (registered trademark) (CFA standard) or SDIO standard is provided.
A modem means, a card type PHS, a wired network card, a wireless LAN card, a general-purpose serial card, a Bluetooth (Bluetooth) card, or the like that conforms to these standards is attached, and a communication means for communicating with the outside through these cards is provided. .
Some cards conforming to the CFA standard, which is one of the card interfaces 12, include those that are not for communication purposes, such as GPS and barcode scanners. In order to cope with these, by preparing appropriate control software executed on the digital camera body side, it becomes possible to use functions unique to each card.
The processing system unit C is also provided with a video encoder 13, a display device 14, a storage medium control circuit 15, a data storage memory 16 such as a memory card, and a card interface control circuit 17 that controls the card interface 12.
Further, a communication control circuit 19 for controlling the communication interface 18, a memory control circuit 21 for controlling the main memory 20, a camera operation unit 22 connected to the microcomputer 1, an EEPROM 23, and a system bus 24 are provided.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a software configuration in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 2, a PHS driver, a modem driver 26, a wired LAN driver 27, and a wireless LAN driver 28 are connected to the overall control unit (microcomputer) 1.
These drivers 25, 26, 27 and 28 are connected to a pre-communication driver 29, which is connected to the card database 32 on the one hand and to the communication card 31 on the other hand.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the card database according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the display and setting example of the contents of the card database of FIG. 3 as a table.
Thus, in order to support a plurality of types of cards having various communication means, a means for determining the type of the inserted card is required. For example, in the case of a PCMCIA card, it is possible to specify the card type by reading card attribute information called a tuple (data for one case).
In most cases, the card type can be determined by logical analysis of tuple data. However, some cards lack logical information, so It may be necessary to specify the card type from text information such as the manufacturer name and product name.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the modem unit. For example, in the case of a modem card, as shown in FIG. 5, in the modem card 32, the interface 33 viewed from the system side is a serial port, to which a modem unit 35 is connected, and these are integrated. In a single card.
Since the function ID of the card tuple mainly describes the first interface viewed from the host, the function ID of these modem cards is a serial port.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of the serial interface card. FIG. 6 shows a single-function serial interface card. As described above, since the function ID of the modem card is a serial port, it cannot be distinguished from this single-function serial interface card.
Therefore, in the PCMCIA standard, a “function expansion tuple” for describing the function of a modem is prepared, and the type of modulation / demodulation supported by the modem can be described therein.
However, the implementation of this tuple is treated as “arbitrary” in the standard, so just because it is a modem card does not necessarily mean that it exists, and since there is no function expansion tuple, it cannot be distinguished from a simple serial interface card. There is an example.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the card type PHS. A similar example is a card-type PHS. An example that cannot be distinguished from a simple serial interface card is a card-type PHS.
As shown in FIG. 7, a serial port and a PHS telephone are integrated. However, since it is recognized as a serial port from the host side, the situation that makes it indistinguishable from the serial interface card is the same as that of the modem card.
In addition, since a tag indicating that a GPS card or the like is generally a GPS card is not prepared as a tuple data, it cannot be distinguished from a general-purpose serial card only by logical analysis of tuple information. There is a situation.
In order to deal with such cards, a card database (card DB) as shown in FIG. 4 is provided, and card type determination is performed. In the card database, for a specific card that cannot be resolved by logical analysis alone, the card type is specified, and some parameters required by the communication driver are retained and provided to the communication driver. To do.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing according to the present invention. A system activation method using the card DB will be described below. FIG. 8 shows processing when it is necessary to determine the type of card, such as when the system is turned on or when a card is inserted.
In FIG. 8, paths that have been processed based on the results determined in each step are indicated by solid arrows, and paths that have not been processed are indicated by dotted arrows.
After the start of processing (S1), the pre-communication driver 29 reads all card tuple information (S2), and tries to specify the card type from the logical information written there. In this step, first, categorization according to function ID (S3) is performed, and communication cards are roughly divided into two types, serial ports and network cards.
In this example, a serial port is detected. In the case of a network card, the wired LAN card or the wireless LAN card is distinguished with reference to the function expansion tuple (S4).
In the case of a serial port, if a modem modulation / demodulation tuple exists as a function expansion tuple, it is determined that the modem card includes a PHS (S5), and if it does not exist, it is treated as a serial interface card. Here, an example recognized as a serial interface card is shown.
However, as described above, some modem cards do not have function expansion tuples, so some cards determined as serial interfaces as in this embodiment are actually modem cards. Things are also mixed.
Therefore, an inquiry is made to the card DB as to whether or not the card is registered in the card DB, and if it is registered, the installed card must be treated as having a card type on the card DB and registered. For example, it is handled as having a card type obtained as a result of logical analysis (S6).
Here, an example is shown in which the card type is registered as a result of inquiry to the card DB, and the modem driver 26 is finally activated.
In accordance with the card type obtained in this way, necessary communication drivers are activated to perform communication operations.

The above is the outline of the card type determination method using the card DB and the card driver activation method. However, in the above configuration, in the case of a card that is used by connecting other devices via the card, such as a serial interface card, a serial I that can be connected to the outside such as a modem, PHS, GPS unit, barcode scanner, etc. It is conceivable that a plurality of devices having / F are connected as necessary.
However, in the conventional card DB system, it is necessary to register any one of “GPS”, “modem”, “PHS”, and the like as functions corresponding to hardware such as a serial I / F card. It was necessary to limit the types of devices connected to the outside at the time of DB construction.
Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of pieces of correspondence information are given to the same card on the card DB. A display example of the display function is shown in FIG.
In FIG. 4, the contents of the card DB can be displayed on the display device, and the function currently assigned to the corresponding card can be confirmed. FIG. 4 shows that PRODUCT 2 has two types of functions, GPS and modem.
As a function of PRODUCT2, the GPS valid flag is 1, which means that the GPS function is used as the function of the card. Although the modem is focused on the screen, the assignment function can be set to “modem” by operating the OK button, for example.
Also, as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of pieces of correspondence information are held on the card DB, and one to be used is selected from these as required. Further, when the user sets correspondence information, the user can set the correspondence information itself on the card DB on the screen of FIG.
As an operation method, for example, when the OK button is operated in a focused state, a list of assignments that can be set is displayed, and a function to be used is assigned from the list.
As described above, the user can change the setting of the card assignment function, and a plurality of devices can be connected to the same card. Moreover, since the contents on the card DB can be changed, functions can be assigned as necessary.

1 is a block circuit diagram showing a configuration of a digital camera as a standard image processing apparatus. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a software configuration in an image processing apparatus according to the present invention. The figure which shows the structure of the card database by embodiment of this invention. The figure explaining the display and setting example of the contents of the card database of FIG. 3 as a table. Schematic explaining a modem unit. Schematic explaining the structure of a serial interface card. Schematic which shows the structure of card type PHS. The flowchart which shows the flow of the process by this invention. The figure which shows the structure of the card database by a conventional system.

Explanation of symbols

A Image processing device (digital camera)
B Image capturing unit C Signal processing unit (processing system unit)
1 Control device (microcomputer, overall control unit)
2 Shooting optical system 3 CCD (photoelectric conversion element)
12 card interface 14 display device 15 recording means (storage medium control circuit)
16 Storage media (data storage memory, memory card)
31 Communication Card 32 Modem Card 37 Serial Interface Card 39 Card Type PHS

Claims (9)

An image having an image capturing unit including a photographing optical system and a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD, a signal processing unit that processes an image signal converted into an electric signal, and a recording unit that stores the processed image data in a storage medium In the processing device,
A card interface to which a communication card used for communication with the outside can be connected;
A card database holding correspondence information having the type of the communication card and individual information data registered in the communication card;
The image processing apparatus , wherein the card database includes a plurality of pieces of correspondence information of different types of the communication cards for communication cards having the same individual information data . When the type of the communication card connected to the card interface cannot be specified only by logical analysis, the card database is accessed and the correspondence information is referenced, and the connected communication card is registered in the card database. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a control device that determines that the type of the communication card is a type of correspondence information having a predetermined attribute . Display means for displaying the correspondence information held in the card database;
And a control device for giving the predetermined attribute to the correspondence information selected by the user among the plurality of correspondence information of different types of the communication card with respect to the communication card having the same individual information data. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2. Display means for displaying the correspondence information held in the card database;
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting unit that allows a user to set the correspondence information of the card database. An image having an image photographing unit including a photographing optical system and a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD, a signal processing unit for processing an image signal converted into an electric signal, and a recording unit for storing the processed image data in a storage medium In a control method of a processing device,
The card interface connects the communication card used for communication with the outside,
The card database holds correspondence information including the type of the communication card and individual information data registered in the communication card,
The method of controlling an image processing apparatus, wherein the card database includes a plurality of pieces of correspondence information of different types of communication cards with respect to communication cards having the same individual information data. The control device accesses the card database and refers to the correspondence information when the type of the communication card connected to the card interface cannot be specified only by logical analysis, and the connected communication card is 6. The method of controlling an image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, when registered in the card database, the type of the communication card is determined to be a type of correspondence information having a predetermined attribute. . The display means displays the correspondence information held in the card database,
The control device is configured to give the predetermined attribute to the correspondence information selected by the user among the plurality of correspondence information of different types of the communication card with respect to the communication card having the same individual information data. The method of controlling an image processing apparatus according to claim 6. The display means displays the correspondence information held in the card database,
7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the setting means causes a user to set the correspondence information of the card database. 9. A recording medium on which the control method for an image processing apparatus according to claim 5 is recorded.

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