JP5560744B2 - Imaging apparatus, moving image imaging method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus moving image capturing method and program, and more particularly to a technique for controlling a frame rate of moving image capturing.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a technique related to a moving image imaging apparatus, there is a technique for capturing a moving image at a constant frame rate (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2006-229552 A

  However, since a moving image captured using the technique described in Patent Document 1 is captured at a fixed frame rate, for example, even in a scene where the angle of view does not move and changes little, the moving person However, even scenes that are rich in changes are played back at the same frame rate.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and by controlling the frame rate at the time of shooting, a scene that is rich in change or a scene that may be watched is regarded as a scene with poor change. The purpose is to reproduce it so as to emphasize it in comparison.

According to a first aspect of the invention,
Storage means for storing face recognition data of a specific person;
Imaging means for imaging a subject at a predetermined frame rate and outputting an image;
Face determination means for determining whether or not the face of a person in the image output by the imaging means is a face of a specific person stored in the storage means;
Number calculating means for calculating the number of subjects in the image output by the imaging means;
Number determination means for determining whether or not the number of subjects calculated by the number calculation means is a certain number or more;
Control means for controlling the predetermined frame rate based on the determination result by the face determination means and the determination result by the number determination means;
An imaging apparatus comprising:

According to a second aspect of the invention,
Size calculating means for calculating the size of at least one subject in the image output by the imaging means ;
A size determination unit for determining whether the size calculated by the size calculation unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined value;
The control unit controls the predetermined frame rate based on a determination result by the number determination unit and a determination result by the size determination unit;
An imaging device is provided.
According to a third aspect of the present invention,
A recording control unit that causes the recording unit to record an image captured by the imaging unit at a predetermined frame rate controlled by the control unit as a moving image;
An imaging apparatus comprising:
According to a fourth aspect of the invention,
The control means controls to increase the predetermined frame rate when the determination result is affirmative ;
An imaging device is provided.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention,
A selection unit that selects one of the face determination unit and the number determination unit as a detection mode for detecting a subject from the image output by the imaging unit;
An imaging apparatus is further provided.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention,
The control means controls the frame rate by distinguishing a first time zone determined as a face of a specific person by the face determination means and a time zone other than the first time zone,
An imaging device is provided.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention,
Reproduction control means for controlling to perform digest reproduction of the image in the first time zone based on the frame rate controlled by the control means;
An imaging apparatus is further provided.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention,
An imaging control method performed by an imaging apparatus,
An imaging control step for controlling the imaging means so as to image a subject at a predetermined frame rate and output an image;
A face determination step of determining whether or not the face of the person in the image output by the imaging means is a face of a specific person stored in the storage means;
A number calculating step for calculating the number of subjects in the image output by the imaging means;
A number determination step for determining whether the determination result by the face determination step and the number of subjects calculated by the number calculation step are equal to or greater than a certain number;
A control step of controlling the predetermined frame rate based on the determination result of the number determination step;
An imaging control method is provided.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer,
An imaging control unit that controls the imaging unit to output an image by imaging a subject at a predetermined frame rate;
Face determination means for determining whether or not a person's face in the image output by the imaging means is a face of a specific person stored in the storage means;
Number calculating means for calculating the number of subjects in the image output by the imaging means;
Number determination means for determining whether or not the number of subjects calculated by the number calculation means is greater than or equal to a certain number;
Control means for controlling the predetermined frame rate based on the determination result by the face determination means and the determination result by the number determination means;
Provide a program that functions as

  According to the present invention, by controlling the frame rate at the time of shooting, it is possible to reproduce a scene that is rich in change or a scene that is likely to be watched so as to be emphasized as compared with a scene that is poor in change. Objective.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the hardware of the imaging device which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram which shows the functional structure of the imaging device of FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of moving image imaging processing executed by the imaging apparatus of FIG. 2. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of moving image imaging processing executed by the imaging apparatus of FIG. 2, and an example different from the example of FIG. 3.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an imaging apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The imaging device 1 can be configured by a digital camera, for example.

  The imaging apparatus 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, a bus 14, an input / output interface 15, an imaging unit 16, and an operation unit 17. A display unit 18, a storage unit 19, a communication unit 20, and a drive 21.

  The CPU 11 executes various processes according to programs recorded in the ROM 12. Alternatively, the CPU 11 executes various processes according to a program loaded from the storage unit 19 to the RAM 13. The RAM 13 also stores data necessary for the CPU 11 to execute various processes as appropriate.

  For example, in the present embodiment, programs that realize the functions of the moving image acquisition unit 51 to the meta information generation unit 56 of FIG. 2 to be described later are stored in the ROM 12 and the storage unit 19. Therefore, when the CPU 11 executes processing according to this program, each function of the moving image acquisition unit 51 to the meta information generation unit 56 of FIG. 2 described later can be realized.

  The CPU 11, ROM 12, and RAM 13 are connected to each other via a bus 14. An input / output interface 15 is also connected to the bus 14. An imaging unit 16, an operation unit 17, a display unit 18, a storage unit 19, and a communication unit 20 are connected to the input / output interface 15.

  Although not shown, the imaging unit 16 includes an optical lens unit and an image sensor.

  The optical lens unit is configured by a lens that collects light, for example, a focus lens or a zoom lens, in order to photograph a subject. The focus lens is a lens that forms a subject image on the light receiving surface of the image sensor. The zoom lens is a lens that freely changes the focal length within a certain range. The optical lens unit is also provided with a peripheral circuit for adjusting setting parameters such as focus, exposure, and white balance as necessary.

  The image sensor includes a photoelectric conversion element, AFE (Analog Front End), and the like. The photoelectric conversion element is composed of, for example, a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) type photoelectric conversion element or the like. A subject image is incident on the photoelectric conversion element from the optical lens unit. Therefore, the photoelectric conversion element photoelectrically converts (photographs) the subject image at regular intervals, accumulates image signals, and sequentially supplies the accumulated image signals to the AFE as analog signals. The AFE performs various signal processing such as A / D (Analog / Digital) conversion processing on the analog image signal. Through various signal processing, a digital signal is generated and output as an output signal of the imaging unit 16. In this embodiment, the digital signal of the image signal is output as “image data”. Therefore, image data is output from the imaging unit 16 and is appropriately supplied to the CPU 11 and the like.

  The operation unit 17 includes various buttons and receives user instruction operations. The display unit 18 displays an image expressed by various image data. The storage unit 19 is composed of a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) or the like, and temporarily stores the image data output from the imaging unit 16. The storage unit 19 also stores various data necessary for various image processing, such as image data, various flag values, threshold values, and the like. The storage unit 19 also includes a display memory area for saving and reading image data to be displayed on the display unit 18 (hereinafter referred to as “display image data”). The communication unit 20 controls communication performed with other devices (not shown) via a network including the Internet.

  A drive 21 is connected to the input / output interface 15 as necessary, and a removable medium 31 made of a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like is appropriately mounted. And the program read from them is installed in the memory | storage part 19 as needed. The removable medium 31 can also store various data such as image data stored in the storage unit 19 in the same manner as the storage unit 19.

  FIG. 2 illustrates a series of processes until a moving image is captured and recorded (hereinafter referred to as “moving image capturing process”) and a series of processes until the moving image is reproduced (hereinafter referred to as “moving image reproduction process”). 2 is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of the imaging apparatus 1 for executing

  As illustrated in FIG. 2, the imaging apparatus 1 includes a moving image acquisition unit 51 and a recording control unit 52 in addition to the imaging unit 16 to the display unit 18 described above in order to realize a moving image capturing process and a moving image reproduction process. A reproduction control unit 53, a face detection unit 54, a frame rate control unit 55, a meta information generation unit 56, and a mode control unit 57. In the present embodiment, the moving image acquisition unit 51 to the mode control unit 57 are configured as a combination of hardware called the CPU 11 and a program (software) stored in the ROM 12 or the like. A moving image recording unit 61 and a specific person face storage unit 62 are provided in the ROM 12, RAM 13, or storage unit 19 (FIG. 1) of the imaging apparatus 1.

  The moving image acquisition unit 51 acquires image data of a moving image captured by the imaging unit 16. For example, the moving image acquisition unit 51 sets the frame rate controlled by the frame rate control unit 55 described later in the imaging unit 16 and continuously drives the imaging unit 16. Thereby, image data of a plurality of images (hereinafter referred to as “frames”) sequentially supplied from the imaging unit 16 at the set frame rate is acquired by the moving image acquisition unit 51 as image data of the moving image. .

  The recording control unit 52 causes the moving image recording unit 61 to record the image data of the moving image acquired by the moving image acquisition unit 51. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the recording rate at this time is the same as the frame rate at which each frame is acquired by the moving image acquisition unit 51. Further, the recording control unit 52 causes the moving image recording unit 61 to record the meta information generated by the meta information generating unit 56 described later in association with the image data of the moving image.

  The reproduction control unit 53 reproduces a moving image recorded as image data in the moving image recording unit 61 using a frame rate controlled by a frame rate control unit 55 described later as a reproduction rate. Specifically, among the moving image image data stored in the moving image recording unit 61, the image data of the display target frame is stored as display image data in the display memory area of the storage unit 19. Then, at the time of reproducing a moving image, the reproduction control unit 53 reads the display image data, and causes the display unit 18 to display an image expressed by the display image data, that is, a display target frame. The reproduction control unit 35 can reproduce the moving image by executing such processing for each frame constituting the moving image based on the frame rate controlled by the frame rate control unit 55 described later. it can.

  As a moving image reproduction method by the reproduction control unit 53, in this embodiment, attention is paid to a scene in which a human face appears as a scene of interest to the user, and the focused scene is emphasized more than other scenes. (Hereinafter, referred to as “interest scene enhancement reproduction method”). In order to realize the interested scene emphasis reproduction method, a face detection unit 54, a frame rate control unit 55, and a meta information generation unit 56 are provided in the imaging apparatus 1.

  The face detection unit 54 includes a face number detection unit 71, a specific person face detection unit 72, and face size detection in order to detect a person's face from a moving image that is a target of recording control of the recording control unit 52. Part 73.

  In other words, in the present embodiment, two types of scenes in which a certain number or more of faces appear and scenes in which a specific person's face appears are employed as scenes of interest to the user. Therefore, the user can select a more interesting type of scene from these two types by operating the operation unit 17.

  For example, when a scene in which a certain number of persons or more appear is selected, the face number detection unit 71 detects a person's face from a moving image that is subject to recording control of the recording control unit 52 at predetermined intervals. And the number of detected faces is detected. Based on this detection result, it is possible to specify a scene in which a certain number of faces appear from a moving image that is a target of recording control of the recording control unit 52. Hereinafter, such a mode in which the face number detection unit 71 operates is referred to as a “face number detection mode”.

  On the other hand, for example, when a scene in which a specific person appears is selected, the specific person face detection unit 72 detects a specific person from a moving image that is a target of recording control of the recording control unit 52 at predetermined intervals. Detect the face. Specifically, for example, specific person face image data (hereinafter referred to as “specific person face recognition data”) is stored in the specific person face storage unit 58. Therefore, the specific person face detection unit 72 acquires the face recognition data of the specific person from the specific person face storage unit 58, and the image data of the person's face from the moving image that is the target of the recording control of the recording control unit 52. Is detected. Next, the specific person face detection unit 72 uses the detected face image data as a comparison target, compares the specific person's face recognition data as a comparison target, and compares the comparison target with the comparison target. When it is determined that the comparison target and the comparison target are face data of the same person, the specific person face detection unit 72 detects the comparison target as image data of the face of the specific person. Based on this detection result, it is possible to specify a scene in which a specific person's face appears from the moving images that are the targets of recording control of the recording control unit 52. Hereinafter, such a mode in which the specific person face detection unit 72 operates is referred to as a “specific face detection mode”.

  Here, even if any of the face number detection mode and the specific face detection mode is selected, a face that is included in a small frame is not necessarily a face that is of interest to the user. For this reason, out of the faces included in the frame, it is necessary to exclude a face having a size less than a certain size from the detection target and to make only a face having a certain size or more as the detection target. Therefore, the face size detection unit 73 detects the size of the face detected by the face number detection unit 71 or the specific person face detection unit 72. Based on this detection result, it is possible to determine whether or not to employ the face detected by the face number detection unit 71 or the specific person face detection unit 72 as a detection target.

  As described above, since the operation of the face detection unit 54 is necessary to realize the interest scene enhancement reproduction method, the user records a moving image that can be reproduced according to the interest scene enhancement reproduction method. If desired, the operation unit 17 may be operated to select the face number detection mode or the specific person face detection mode.

  The frame rate control unit 55 is set in the imaging unit 16 based on the detection state of the face detected by the face detection unit 54 so that the moving image can be reproduced in accordance with the interest scene enhancement reproduction method. The frame rate when reproducing the moving image is controlled.

  Specifically, in the present embodiment, a constant recording is performed without distinguishing the time zone in which the face is detected by the face detection unit 54 (hereinafter referred to as “face detection time zone”) and other time zones. Moving image data is recorded at a rate. On the other hand, the image data of the moving image is reproduced so that the reproduction rate is lower in the face detection time period than in other time periods. As a result, the scene in the face detection time zone, that is, the scene that is of interest to the user is reproduced more slowly than the other scenes, so that it is emphasized more than the other scenes. In this way, the interest scene enhancement reproduction method is realized.

  In order to realize the reproduction of a moving image to which such an interest scene enhancement reproduction method is applied, it is necessary to determine the reproduction rate of each of the face detection time zone and other time zones at the time of reproduction of the moving image. . Therefore, the frame rate control unit 55 performs control so that the recording rate is constant in the entire time zone of the moving image during recording of the moving image, and at the time of reproducing the moving image, the face detection time zone and the other time The meta information generation unit 56 is instructed to generate meta information that can determine the playback rate of each time period.

  Upon receiving this notification, the meta information generation unit 56 generates meta information including a face detection time zone and a frame rate for the moving image to be recorded. Here, as described above, the “frame rate” included in the meta information may be information that can determine the playback rate of each of the face detection time zone and the other time zones at the time of playback of the moving image. Therefore, as the “frame rate” included in the meta information, a recording rate as the actual value during the time when the image data of the face detection time zone is recorded may be employed, or based on the recording rate. You may employ | adopt the reproduction | regeneration rate as a calculated estimated value. Such meta information is recorded in the moving image recording unit 61 in association with the image data of the moving image by the recording control unit 52 as described above. Thereby, when reproducing the moving image, the reproduction control unit 53 sets the reproduction rate of each of the face detection time zone and other time zones based on the meta information associated with the image data of the moving image. It becomes possible to decide.

  The mode control unit 57 appropriately controls the operation of the operation unit 17 and displays various notification contents on the display unit 18 as appropriate, thereby controlling operations such as transition to and start of the various modes described above.

  Next, a moving image imaging process executed by the imaging apparatus 1 having such a functional configuration will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of moving image imaging processing.

  In step S <b> 1, the mode control unit 57 determines whether or not the operation mode of the imaging apparatus 1 is a moving image imaging mode. When a mode other than the moving image capturing mode, such as a moving image playback mode, is selected as the operation mode of the image capturing apparatus 1, it is determined as NO in step S1, and the moving image capturing process ends. On the other hand, when the moving image reproduction mode is selected as the operation mode of the imaging device 1, it is determined as YES in Step S1, and the process proceeds to Step S2.

  In step S2, the mode control unit 57 notifies the user to select the face number detection mode or the specific person face detection mode. For example, the mode control unit 57 causes the display unit 18 to display a message for prompting selection of the face detection mode.

  After visually recognizing the message, the user can select the face number detection mode or the specific person face detection mode by operating the operation unit 17.

  Therefore, in step S3, the mode control unit 57 determines whether or not the face number detection mode is selected.

  When the face number detection mode is selected by the user, it is determined as YES in Step S3, and the process proceeds to Step S4. In step S4, the mode control unit 57 activates the face number detection mode. In step S5, the mode control unit 57 starts recording.

  In step S <b> 6, the face number detection unit 71 determines whether or not a number greater than a certain number has been detected from the image data of the moving image output from the imaging unit 16.

  If the face number detection unit 71 fails to detect a human face, or if the number of detected faces is less than a certain number, it is determined as NO in step S6, and the process proceeds to step S10. . In step S10, the moving image acquisition unit 51 controls the imaging unit 16 to capture a moving image at a constant frame rate. That is, the frame rate control unit 55 controls the recording rate to be a constant frame rate. In step S <b> 11, the recording control unit 52 writes moving image data in the moving image recording unit 61. As a result, the moving image capturing process ends. As described above, the processes in steps S10 and S11 are processes for recording a normal moving image that cannot be reproduced by the scene-enhanced reproduction method. Therefore, hereinafter, the processing of steps S10 and S11 is referred to as “normal recording processing”.

  On the other hand, if the face number detection unit 71 detects a certain number of faces or more, it determines that the answer is YES in step S6, and the process proceeds to step S7. In step S <b> 7, the face size detection unit 73 determines whether or not the detected face is a face having a predetermined size or more.

  The face size detection unit 73 detects the size of the detected face, and when it is determined that all of these sizes are less than the predetermined size, it is determined as NO in step S7, and the process proceeds to step S10. Proceed. Then, the normal recording process described above is executed in steps S10 and S11, and the moving image capturing process ends.

  On the other hand, the face size detection unit 73 detects the size of the detected face, and when it is determined that at least one of these sizes is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, it is determined as YES in step S7. Then, the process proceeds to step S8.

  In step S8, the moving image acquisition unit 51 controls the imaging unit 16 to capture a moving image at a constant frame rate. That is, the frame rate control unit 55 controls the recording rate to be a constant frame rate. At this time, the meta information generation unit 56 generates meta information including the face detection time zone and the frame rate. In step S9, the recording control unit 52 writes the meta information including the face detection time zone and the frame rate in the moving image recording unit 61 together with the image data of the moving image. As a result, the moving image capturing process ends.

  As described above, the processes in steps S8 and S9 are moving image recording processes that can be reproduced by the interest scene enhancement reproduction method. Therefore, hereinafter, the processing in steps S8 and S9 is referred to as “interest scene enhancement recording processing”. When the moving image recorded by the interest scene emphasis recording process is reproduced, as described above, the reproduction rate of the face detection time zone included in the meta information is set to other time based on the frame rate included in the meta information. It is controlled to be lower than the band reproduction rate. As a result, the scene in the face detection time zone, that is, the scene that is of interest to the user is reproduced more slowly than the other scenes, and is therefore emphasized more than the other scenes.

  This is the end of the description of the moving image capturing process when the face number detection mode is selected. Next, the moving image capturing process when the specific face detection mode is selected will be described.

  In this case, it is determined as NO in Step S3, and the process proceeds to Step S12. In step S12, the mode control unit 57 activates the specific person face detection mode. In step S <b> 13, the specific person face detection unit 72 reads the face recognition data of the specific person from the specific person face storage unit 62. In step S14, the mode control unit 57 starts recording.

  In step S15, the specific person face detection unit 72 determines whether or not a specific person's face has been detected from the image data of the moving image output from the imaging unit 16, and the specific person's face recognition data read in step S13. Determine using.

  If the specific person face detection unit 72 fails to detect the person's face, or if the detected face is other than the face of the specific person, it is determined as NO in step S15, and the process proceeds to step S10. . Then, the normal recording process described above is executed in steps S10 and S11, and the moving image capturing process ends.

  On the other hand, when detecting the face of the specific person, the specific person face detection unit 72 determines YES in step S15 and advances the process to step S7. In step S7, the face size detecting unit 73 determines whether or not the detected face is a face having a predetermined size or more.

  The face size detection unit 73 detects the size of the detected face, and when it is determined that all of these sizes are less than the predetermined size, it is determined as NO in step S7, and the process proceeds to step S10. Proceed. Then, the normal recording process described above is executed in steps S10 and S11, and the moving image capturing process ends.

  On the other hand, the face size detection unit 73 detects the size of the detected face, and when it is determined that at least one of these sizes is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, it is determined as YES in step S7. Then, the process proceeds to step S8. Then, in steps S8 and S9, the above-described scene-enhancement recording process is executed, and the moving image capturing process ends.

  Note that such a moving image imaging process may be executed only once after the imaging apparatus 1 is turned on, or may be executed at predetermined intervals. Here, the predetermined cycle is not particularly limited, and may be a frame period, or may be a predetermined time (5 seconds, 1 minute, or a predetermined time). In addition, when it is executed at predetermined intervals after the start of recording, the processing up to the start of recording may be omitted. That is, when the face detection mode is selected, the process may be started from step S6. If the specific person face detection mode is selected, the process may be started from step S15.

  As described above, the imaging apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment captures a moving image, detects a human face from the captured moving image, and based on the detected state of the human face, the imaging unit The frame rate is set to 16, and the frame rate when the moving image is reproduced is controlled. The digital camera 1 records the image data of the moving image based on the controlled frame rate.

  As a result, when the moving image is played back, the frame rate in the face detection time zone is appropriately controlled, so that the human face scene, i.e., the scene of interest to the user, is emphasized more than other scenes. Can be played.

  It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and modifications, improvements, etc. within a scope that can achieve the object of the present invention are included in the present invention.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, as a control method of the frame rate control unit 55, the recording rate of the moving image in all time zones is made constant, and the face detection time zone and the frame rate in the face detection time zone are included. A control method is used in which the generation of meta information is instructed to the meta information generation unit 56. The reason why such a control method is adopted in the present embodiment is that, in this embodiment, the recording rate is made constant in the entire time zone of the moving image, while the playback rate in the face detection time zone is set higher than that in other time zones. This is for realizing a method for reproducing a scene of interest emphasis.

  However, the implementation mode of the interest scene enhancement reproduction method is not particularly limited to this embodiment, and for example, the reproduction rate may be controlled by distinguishing a face detection time zone from another time zone. In other words, the playback rate in the face detection time zone may be set higher than in other time zones, while the playback rate may be made constant in the entire time zone of the moving image. Also in this case, the scene in the face detection time zone, that is, the scene that is of interest to the user is reproduced more slowly than the other scenes, so that it is emphasized more than the other scenes.

  Specifically, the frame rate control unit 55 employs a constant frame rate as the recording rate for moving images other than the face detection time zone, and the face detection time zone is higher than the constant frame rate. A high frame rate may be adopted as the recording rate. The moving image capturing process in this case is a process according to the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of the moving image capturing process and an example different from the example of FIG.

  Comparing FIG. 3 with FIG. 4, the processes in steps S21 to S27 and S30 to S35 in FIG. 4 are basically the same as the processes in steps S1 to S7 and S10 to S15 in FIG. It is. In other words, the interest scene enhancement recording process is the process of steps S8 and S9 in the example of FIG. 3, whereas the process of steps S28 and S29 in the example of FIG. This is a difference from FIG. 4 and other processes are the same. Therefore, only the processes in steps S28 and S29, which are the interest scene emphasis recording process in FIG. 4, will be described below, and the other description will be omitted.

  In step S <b> 28, the moving image acquisition unit 51 controls the imaging unit 16 to capture a moving image at a higher frame rate for the face detection time zone. That is, the frame rate control unit 55 controls the recording rate to be constant except for the face detection time zone, and controls the recording rate to be higher for the face detection time zone. In step S29, the recording control unit 52 writes the image data of the moving image in the moving image recording unit 61. As a result, the moving image capturing process ends.

  When the moving image recorded by the moving image capturing process of FIG. 4 is reproduced in this way, the reproduction control unit 53 merely sets the reproduction rate constant throughout the entire time period, that is, the scene in the face detection time period, that is, Scenes of interest to the user can be played back more slowly than other scenes. In this way, the scene in which the user is interested is emphasized more than other scenes. The point to be noted here is that, in this case, it is possible to realize a method for emphasizing and reproducing an interest scene without generating meta information at the time of recording.

  Further, for example, in the above-described embodiment, the playback mode of the moving image according to the interest scene emphasis playback method employs the mode of slow playback of the scene in the face detection time zone, but is not particularly limited thereto. For example, a form in which a scene in the face detection time zone is digest-reproduced may be employed.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the imaging apparatus to which the present invention is applied has been described as an example configured as a digital camera. However, the present invention is not particularly limited to a digital camera, and can be applied to general electronic devices having an imaging function. Specifically, for example, the present invention is applicable to a video camera, a portable navigation device, a portable game machine, and the like.

  The series of processes described above can be executed by hardware or can be executed by software.

  When a series of processing is executed by software, a program constituting the software is installed on a computer or the like from a network or a recording medium. The computer may be a computer incorporated in dedicated hardware. The computer may be a computer capable of executing various functions by installing various programs, for example, a general-purpose personal computer.

  Although not shown, the recording medium including such a program is not only constituted by a removable medium distributed separately from the apparatus main body in order to provide a program to the user, but also in a state of being incorporated in the apparatus main body in advance. It is composed of a recording medium provided to the user. The removable medium is composed of, for example, a magnetic disk (including a floppy disk), an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or the like. The optical disk is composed of, for example, a CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory), a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), or the like. The magneto-optical disk is configured by an MD (Mini-Disk) or the like. In addition, the recording medium provided to the user in a state of being preliminarily incorporated in the apparatus main body includes, for example, the ROM 12 in FIG. 1 in which a program is recorded, the hard disk included in the storage unit 19 in FIG.

  In the present specification, the step of describing the program recorded on the recording medium is not limited to the processing performed in time series along the order, but is not necessarily performed in time series, either in parallel or individually. The process to be executed is also included.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Imaging device, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... ROM, 13 ... RAM, 16 ... Imaging part, 17 ... Operation part, 18 ... Display part, 19 ... Storage unit, 20 ... communication unit, 21 ... drive, 31 ... removable media, 51 ... moving image acquisition unit, 52 ... recording control unit, 53 ... reproduction control unit, 54. ..Face detection unit, 55 ... Frame rate control unit, 56 ... Meta information generation unit, 57 ... Mode control unit, 61 ... Moving image storage unit, 62 ... Specific person face storage unit

Claims (9)

Storage means for storing face recognition data of a specific person;
Imaging means for imaging a subject at a predetermined frame rate and outputting an image;
Face determination means for determining whether or not the face of a person in the image output by the imaging means is a face of a specific person stored in the storage means;
Number calculating means for calculating the number of subjects in the image output by the imaging means;
Number determination means for determining whether or not the number of subjects calculated by the number calculation means is a certain number or more;
Control means for controlling the predetermined frame rate based on the determination result by the face determination means and the determination result by the number determination means;
An imaging apparatus comprising: Size calculating means for calculating the size of at least one subject in the image output by the imaging means;
Size determination means for determining whether the size calculated by the size calculation means is equal to or greater than a predetermined value;
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the predetermined frame rate based on a determination result by the number determination unit and a determination result by the size determination unit.   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a recording control unit that causes the recording unit to record an image captured by the imaging unit at a predetermined frame rate controlled by the control unit as a moving image. .   The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs control so as to increase the predetermined frame rate when the determination result is affirmative. As the detection mode for detecting an object from the image outputted by the imaging means, the face determination unit and in the claims from 1 to 4, characterized by further comprising a selection means for selecting one of said number determining means The imaging device according to any one of the above. The control means controls the frame rate by distinguishing between a first time zone determined by the face determination means as a face of a specific person and a time zone other than the first time zone. The imaging device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 . The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising a reproduction control unit configured to perform digest reproduction of the image in the first time period based on the frame rate controlled by the control unit. . An imaging control method performed by an imaging apparatus,
An imaging control step for controlling the imaging means so as to image a subject at a predetermined frame rate and output an image;
A face determination step of determining whether or not the face of the person in the image output by the imaging means is a face of a specific person stored in the storage means;
A number calculating step for calculating the number of subjects in the image output by the imaging means;
A number determination step for determining whether the determination result by the face determination step and the number of subjects calculated by the number calculation step are equal to or greater than a certain number;
A control step of controlling the predetermined frame rate based on the determination result of the number determination step;
An imaging control method comprising: Computer
An imaging control unit that controls the imaging unit to output an image by imaging a subject at a predetermined frame rate;
Face determination means for determining whether or not a person's face in the image output by the imaging means is a face of a specific person stored in the storage means;
Number calculating means for calculating the number of subjects in the image output by the imaging means;
Number determination means for determining whether or not the number of subjects calculated by the number calculation means is greater than or equal to a certain number;
Control means for controlling the predetermined frame rate based on the determination result by the face determination means and the determination result by the number determination means;
A program characterized by functioning as

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