JP4379191B2 - Electronic camera and image processing program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic camera capable of reproducing and displaying an image obtained by imaging, and an image processing program for realizing image processing on an image captured by the electronic camera by a computer having an image display unit.

Conventionally, an electronic camera can display an image generated by photographing on a display device such as a liquid crystal monitor. When an image is displayed, enlargement / reduction, position change (so-called scrolling), or the like is performed according to a user operation (for example, see Patent Document 1).
JP-A-4-356877

  However, when the displayed image is enlarged or reduced, the center of the image becomes the center of enlargement or reduction regardless of the subject. Therefore, for example, when the focus is confirmed, the user must perform an operation of moving the image to a desired position after performing the enlargement operation. When moving an image in this way, the image may not be accurately moved to a desired position.

  The present invention provides an electronic camera with high operability in enlargement or reduction operations during image reproduction, and image processing with high operability when realizing image processing on an image captured by the electronic camera with a computer having an image display unit The purpose is to provide a program.

  The electronic camera according to claim 1, a photographing unit that photographs a subject and outputs image data, an image storage unit that stores the image data, and a display unit that displays a photographed image photographed by the photographing unit; An assist menu storage unit that stores a plurality of assist menus including a composition determination auxiliary frame displayed on the display unit together with the photographed image, and the plurality of stored in the assist menu storage unit An assist menu selection unit for selecting one assist menu from the assist menu, and a scaling for electrically enlarging or reducing the stored photographed image based on the image data stored in the image storage unit on the display unit A reception unit that receives an instruction, and the image storage unit is further configured by the assist menu selection unit when shooting the captured image. The selected one assist menu is stored in association with the image data, and when the display unit receives the scaling instruction by the receiving unit, the display unit is stored in the image storage unit in association with the image data. In addition, the stored photographed image is electrically enlarged or reduced to be displayed in a scaled manner around a position determined based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu.

  An image processing program according to claim 2, wherein an assist menu storage stores a plurality of assist menus including a photographing unit that photographs a subject and outputs image data, and a composition determination auxiliary frame used for photographing by the photographing unit. Selected from the plurality of assist menus stored in the assist menu storage unit, the assist menu selection unit for selecting one assist menu, and the image data together with the image data selected by the assist menu selection unit An image processing program for realizing image processing on an image generated by an electronic camera having an image storage unit that stores the one assist menu in association with the image data by a computer having an image display unit , The image data stored in the image storage unit An acquisition procedure to be obtained, a display procedure for displaying a stored captured image based on the image data acquired by the acquisition procedure on the image display unit, and electrical enlargement or reduction of the stored captured image displayed by the display procedure The acceptance procedure for accepting the magnification change instruction and the stored photographed image stored in the image storage unit are determined based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the one assist menu in accordance with the magnification change instruction. And a scaling display procedure for electrically scaling up or down on the image display section with the position as the center.

  According to the present invention, an electronic camera having high operability in an operation of electrical scaling for enlargement or reduction during image reproduction, and operability when realizing image processing for an image captured by the electronic camera with a computer are high. An image processing program can be provided.

<First Embodiment>
Hereinafter, the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic camera 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic camera 1 includes an imaging unit 10, a control unit 11, an image processing unit 12, and a display processing unit 13, and has an interface with a memory card (card-like removable memory) 14. A memory card interface unit 15 is provided, which are connected to each other via a bus.

The imaging unit 10 includes a lens (not shown), various sensors that measure the brightness and shooting distance of a subject, an imaging device, an A / D converter, and the like.
The electronic camera 1 also includes an operation unit 20 and a liquid crystal monitor 25. In FIG. 1, the output of the operation unit 20 is connected to the control unit 11, and the output of the display processing unit 13 is connected to the liquid crystal monitor 25. The operation unit 20 includes a power button (not shown), a release button, a cross key related to user operations to be described later, and the like.

In addition, the control unit 11 includes a memory 50, and records in advance a shooting scene described later, an assist menu for each shooting scene, a menu screen at each setting, and the like. The memory 50 also temporarily records an image captured by the imaging unit 10 (details will be described later). Further, the control unit 11 performs an image scaling process, which is a feature of the present invention (details will be described later).
The electronic camera 1 according to the first embodiment includes a scene shooting function for performing shooting by selecting a shooting scene in which shooting conditions are set in advance, in addition to a so-called auto shooting function for automatically performing various settings. Shooting scenes that can be selected in scene shooting include “portrait” and “landscape”. These shooting scenes have an assist menu described later.

  The imaging unit 10 and the control unit 11 correspond to the “imaging unit” in the claims, and the memory 50, the memory card 14, and the memory card interface unit 15 correspond to the “image storage unit” in the claims. The control unit 11, the display processing unit 13, and the liquid crystal monitor 25 correspond to “display unit” in the claims, and the memory 50 corresponds to “assist menu storage unit” in the claims. The control unit 11 and the operation unit 20 correspond to “assist menu selection unit” and “accepting unit” in the claims. Further, the image stored in the “image storage unit” described above corresponds to the “stored captured image” in the claims.

In the electronic camera 1 configured as described above, when a power button (not shown) of the operation unit 20 is operated, the control unit 11 detects this and starts operation.
First, the operation of the electronic camera 1 during shooting will be described.
In a state where auto shooting is selected as a shooting mode by a cross key (not shown) of the operation unit 20, when the release button is pressed, the control unit 11 detects this and instructs each unit to execute auto shooting. . The specific operation at the time of auto shooting is the same as that of the publicly known technology, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

  On the other hand, when scene shooting is selected as a shooting mode by a cross key (not shown) of the operation unit 20, the control unit 11 detects this and detects the scene shooting in the liquid crystal monitor 25 via the display processing unit 13. A selection screen for selecting a shooting scene from a plurality of predetermined shooting scenes is displayed. When a shooting scene is selected by the user, the control unit 11 detects this and displays an assist menu selection screen for each shooting scene on the liquid crystal monitor 25 via the display processing unit 13.

As described above, the electronic camera 1 according to the first embodiment includes an assist menu for each shooting scene such as “portrait” and “landscape” in scene shooting.
The assist menu includes a display of a composition determination auxiliary frame (composition determination auxiliary frame) at the time of shooting and shooting conditions based on the composition, and is recorded in the memory 50 in the control unit 11 as described above. The user can easily determine the composition by selecting any of the assist menus and shooting, and can obtain a good image without performing complicated settings related to shooting. .

  The “Portrait” assist menu includes “no assist”, “person left” and “person right” which create a space on the screen by shifting the person from the center, and “west” which is the basic composition of portrait photography. “Shot”, “two-shot” which is a composition for two-person photography, and “vertical position” which is a composition for whole-body photography. Each of “no assist”, “person left”, “person right”, “west shot”, “two shots”, and “vertical position” corresponds to an “assist menu” in the claims.

The user selects any assist menu while viewing the “portrait” assist menu selection screen shown in FIG. 2 displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 25. Note that selection of the assist menu on the selection screen is realized by operating a cross key (not shown) of the operation unit 20 or the like.
In addition, the “Landscape” assist menu includes “No Assist”, “Mountain” with a composition that balances the sky and mountains, “Building” with a composition that shoots the building straight, and a commemorative photo taken at the travel destination. For example, “left background” and “right background”, which are compositions in which the person and the background are balanced, are included. FIG. 3 shows an example of the selection screen for the “landscape” assist menu.

Next, the operation of the control unit 11 when any assist menu is selected will be described below.
First, the control unit 11 displays the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the selected assist menu so as to overlap the through image (moving image) displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 25. By displaying the composition determination auxiliary frame in this manner, the composition determination auxiliary frame can be presented to the user.

Then, the shooting conditions included in the selected assist menu are read and set. Note that the composition determination auxiliary frame and the shooting conditions are recorded in the memory 50 in the control unit 11 for each assist menu, as described above.
FIG. 4 shows a display example of a composition determination auxiliary frame for each assist menu associated with “portrait”, and FIG. 5 shows a display example of a composition determination auxiliary frame for each assist menu associated with “landscape”. Indicates. In FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the composition determination auxiliary frame is indicated by a dotted line. In FIGS. 4 and 5, in order to present to the user which assist scene the selected assist menu is associated with, the mark X indicating the capturing scene is displayed on the upper left portion of the liquid crystal monitor 25. An example of displaying Y and Y is shown.

  4A shows a composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu “person left”, FIG. 4B shows a composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu “person right”, and FIG. 4C shows an assist menu “two shot”. 4D shows a composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu “West shot”, and FIG. 4E shows a composition determination auxiliary frame included in “vertical position”. Show.

5A shows a composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu “mountain”, FIG. 5B shows a composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu “building”, and FIG. 5C shows an assist menu “left background”. FIG. 5D shows a composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu “right background”.
The user can determine the composition by aligning the subject with the displayed composition determination frame. For example, the right background or the left background of “landscape” is effective when it is desired to photograph both a person and the background beautifully, such as a commemorative photo taken at a travel destination. By aligning the person who is the subject to the composition determination frame, the person can be photographed in a balanced manner without being too small, and the composition determination auxiliary frame for composition determination is displayed. It is convenient because the composition can be designated even when other people are requested to take pictures.

In addition, each assist menu includes shooting conditions such as a focus detection area used in the automatic focusing operation and a position and size of the exposure amount detection area used in the automatic exposure control operation. It is determined in advance according to the composition of the composition determination auxiliary frame.
When shooting is performed by auto shooting or scene shooting described so far, the control unit 11 performs predetermined image processing via the image processing unit 12 on the image captured via the imaging unit 10, The data is temporarily stored in the memory 50 in the control unit 11 and then displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 25 via the display processing unit 13. In this manner, an image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 25 immediately after shooting is hereinafter referred to as a “review image”.

When the user instructs to record an image via the operation unit 20, the control unit 11 records the image temporarily stored in the memory 50 on the memory card 14 via the memory card interface unit 15.
Note that the control unit 11 captures an image capture mode (at the time of image capture) when the image is temporarily stored in the memory 50 in the control unit 11 or recorded on the memory card 14 via the memory card interface unit 15. Auto shooting or scene shooting), shooting scene, type of assist menu, shooting conditions, and the like are recorded as EXIF information in association with an image.

Next, the operation of the electronic camera 1 during image reproduction will be described.
When the reproduction of the image is instructed by the user's operation of the operation unit 20, the control unit 11 detects this, reads out the image from the memory card 14 via the memory card interface unit 15, and passes through the display processing unit 13. Displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 25.
Hereinafter, an operation at the time of enlargement or reduction scaling operation at the time of image reproduction, which is a feature of the first embodiment, will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

The control unit 11 determines whether or not a magnification change instruction has been performed by an enlargement or reduction magnification operation (step S1).
When the enlargement / reduction scaling instruction is not performed (when another instruction is performed), the control unit 11 performs the instructed process, and when the enlargement / reduction scaling instruction is performed, reproduction display The EXIF information of the image being processed is acquired (step S2). As described above, EXIF information is recorded in association with an image.

Next, the control unit 11 refers to the acquired EXIF information, and determines whether or not the image being reproduced and displayed is an image captured by the assist menu (step S3). When the image is captured using the assist menu (YES in step S3), the control unit 11 performs electrical operation using the position determined based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu selected at the time of capture as the center of enlargement or reduction. A variable magnification process is executed (step S4).

  Here, the position determined based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu is a position where the main subject is estimated to exist. For example, in the “portrait” “person left” assist menu shown in FIG. 4A, the face of the person who is the main subject is estimated to be in the vicinity of point a in FIG. 4A. Then, by performing an electrical scaling process with this position (a in FIG. 4A) as the center of enlargement or reduction, the user can quickly check focus and camera shake.

In the case of the “portrait” “person right” assist menu shown in FIG. 4B, the vicinity of the point b in FIG. 4B may be set as the center of enlargement or reduction scaling processing.
In the case of the “portrait” “two-shot” assist menu shown in FIG. 4C, the position of the focus detection area used in the automatic focusing photographing is recorded as EXIF information, and the position is expanded or What is necessary is just to make it the center of the scaling process of reduction. The focus detection area is often set at point c1 or point c2 in FIG. 4C. Therefore, the faces of the two persons who are main subjects enlarged around the points c1 and c2 in FIG. 4C may be switched and displayed by operating the operation unit 20. Of course, an enlarged face image of two persons may be displayed simultaneously. Thereby, the focus states of the main subject set in the focus detection area and the main subject not set in the focus detection area can be confirmed on the display screen of the liquid crystal monitor 25. Furthermore, the midpoint of points c1 and c2 in FIG. 4C may be used as the center of enlargement / reduction scaling.

In the case of the “West Shot” assist menu of “Portrait” shown in FIG. 4D, the vicinity of the point d in FIG. 4D is set as the center of enlargement / reduction scaling processing, and shown in FIG. In the case of the “portrait” “vertical position” assist menu, the vicinity of the point e in FIG. 4E may be set as the center of enlargement / reduction scaling.
In the case of the “mountain” assist menu of “landscape” shown in FIG. 5A, the vicinity of the ridgeline of the mountain is set as the center of enlargement / reduction scaling processing, and “landscape” shown in FIG. In the case of the “building” assist menu, the vicinity of the top of the building may be the center of enlargement / reduction scaling. Further, in the case of the “left background” and “right background” assist menus of “landscape” shown in FIGS. 5C and 5D, it may be performed in the same manner as “two-shot” of “portrait” described above.

In any case, it is preferable to record the coordinates in the image in the form of a table as to which position is the center of enlargement / reduction scaling.
On the other hand, when the image is not an image captured by the assist menu (NO in step S3), the control unit 11 executes an electric scaling process with the center of the image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 25 as the center of enlargement or reduction (step S3). S5). Then, the control unit 11 displays the image subjected to the electrical scaling process in step S4 or step S5 on the liquid crystal monitor 25 via the display processing unit 13, and returns to step S1.

In step S4 and step S5, when the image scaling process is performed, the magnification is determined according to the size of the image, or one dot of the liquid crystal monitor 25 is equal to one pixel of the image to be displayed. What is necessary is just to make it the same pixel.
As described above, according to the first embodiment, an enlargement / reduction scaling instruction is accepted when an image shot by an assist menu including a composition determination auxiliary frame and a shooting condition based on the composition is reproduced and displayed. Then, the stored photographed image is electrically enlarged or reduced and displayed in a scaled manner around the position determined in advance based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu. Therefore, there is no need to change the display position after the enlargement operation with the center of the playback image as the enlargement center, or to specify the enlargement center prior to the enlargement operation. improves.

  In the first embodiment, the same operation as that performed at the time of enlargement or reduction scaling operation at the time of image reproduction may be performed when a review image is displayed. That is, when an image is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 25 immediately after shooting by the assist menu, the user can focus by displaying the image at a position determined based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu. Confirmation of camera shake and camera shake can be performed promptly. At this time, after shooting the scene by operating the release button and displaying the whole image as a review image, for example, automatically switching to a magnified image with a predetermined magnification after a predetermined time without any operation. You may make it display, and you may enable it to set what kind of image is displayed immediately after imaging | photography.

Further, other shooting scenes prepared in the first embodiment may be prepared. Moreover, you may make it prepare the other assist menu of the assist menu prepared in 1st Embodiment.
In the first embodiment, an example in which the assist menu is selected after selecting a shooting scene has been described. However, the assist menu may be directly selectable.

  In the first embodiment, a review image is displayed immediately after shooting and recorded on the memory card 14 after waiting for a user's instruction. However, the review image may be automatically recorded on the memory card 14 after shooting. good. In such a case, an electronic camera provided with a function of reading and displaying the image taken immediately before may perform zoom display as in the case of the review image described above.

Further, when the enlargement or reduction function described in the first embodiment is combined with a function such as a camera shake warning function, it can be expected that the operability is further improved.
In the first embodiment, the configuration in which the electronic scaling operation is changed according to the assist menu selected at the time of shooting has been described. However, the configuration may be changed according to shooting conditions such as the position of the focus detection area.

Second Embodiment
The second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram of the computer 100 according to the second embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 7, the computer 100 includes a control unit 111, a display processing unit 113, an operation unit 120, and a monitor 125, and an external interface unit 130 that can receive data from the outside, such as an electronic camera or a memory card. Prepare. In the control unit 111, the image processing program of the present invention is recorded in advance. The computer 100 performs image processing according to the image processing program.

  The control unit 111, the display processing unit 113, and the monitor 125 correspond to the “image display unit” in the claims, and the control unit 11 and the operation unit 20 correspond to the “assist menu selection unit” in the claims. In addition, the electronic camera used when capturing an image included in the data received by the interface unit 130 is an “imaging unit”, “assist menu storage unit”, “assist menu selection unit”, “image storage unit” Are provided.

The computer 100 acquires image data obtained by imaging via the external interface unit 130, and displays an image on the monitor 125 via the display processing unit 113 in accordance with a user instruction via the operation unit 120. Note that the acquired image data corresponds to the “stored captured image” in the claims.
Then, the control unit 111 performs an image enlargement or reduction process according to the procedure described in FIG. Since the specific method is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.

The acquisition of the image data via the external interface unit 130 described above corresponds to the “acquisition procedure” in the claims, and the display of the image on the monitor 125 via the display processing unit 113 corresponds to the “display procedure” in the claims. ". Further, step S1 in FIG. 6 corresponds to the “acceptance procedure” in the claims, and steps S2 to S6 in FIG. 6 correspond to the “magnification display procedure” in the claims.
However, the computer 100, together with the image data (processing target image) obtained by the imaging, as the imaging information when the image is captured, the imaging mode (auto shooting or scene shooting) selected at the time of shooting, the shooting scene Get assist menu type, shooting conditions, etc.

Note that the shooting conditions may be recorded as incidental information of image data using a file format such as EXIF, for example.
As described above, according to the second embodiment, the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.

It is a functional block diagram of electronic camera 1 of a 1st embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the selection screen of the assist menu in the electronic camera 1 of 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the selection screen of the assist menu in the electronic camera 1 of 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the auxiliary frame for composition determination in the electronic camera 1 of 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the auxiliary frame for composition determination in the electronic camera 1 of 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the electronic camera 1 of 1st Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of the computer 100 of 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electronic camera 10 Image pick-up part 11,111 Control part 12 Image processing part 13 Display processing part 14 Memory card 15 Memory card interface part 20,120 Operation part 25 Liquid crystal monitor 50 Memory 100 Computer 125 Monitor 130 External interface part

Claims (2)

A shooting unit for shooting a subject and outputting image data;
An image storage unit for storing the image data;
In an electronic camera comprising a display unit for displaying a photographed image photographed by the photographing unit,
An assist menu storage unit that stores a plurality of assist menus including a composition determination auxiliary frame displayed on the display unit together with the captured image;
An assist menu selection unit for selecting one assist menu from the plurality of assist menus stored in the assist menu storage unit;
A reception unit that receives a scaling instruction to electrically enlarge or reduce the stored captured image based on the image data stored in the image storage unit on the display unit;
The image storage unit further stores the one assist menu selected by the assist menu selection unit at the time of shooting the captured image in association with the image data,
When the display unit accepts the magnification change instruction by the accepting unit, the display unit is determined based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the assist menu stored in the image storage unit in association with the image data. An electronic camera characterized in that the stored photographed image is enlarged or reduced electrically and displayed at a variable magnification. A shooting unit for shooting a subject and outputting image data;
An assist menu storage unit that stores a plurality of assist menus including a composition determination auxiliary frame used for shooting by the shooting unit;
An assist menu selection unit for selecting one assist menu from the plurality of assist menus stored in the assist menu storage unit;
An image for an image generated by an electronic camera including the image data and an image storage unit that stores the one assist menu selected by the assist menu selection unit at the time of photographing the image data in association with the image data. An image processing program for realizing processing by a computer having an image display unit,
An acquisition procedure for acquiring the image data stored in the image storage unit;
A display procedure for displaying a stored captured image based on the image data acquired by the acquisition procedure on the image display unit;
An acceptance procedure for accepting an electrical enlargement or reduction scaling instruction for the stored photographed image displayed by the display procedure;
In response to the magnification change instruction, the stored photographed image stored in the image storage unit is electrically enlarged around a position determined based on the composition determination auxiliary frame included in the one assist menu. An image processing program comprising: a scaling display procedure for scaling down and displaying the scaled image on the image display unit.

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