JP7134721B2 - IMAGING DEVICE, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND PROGRAM - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an imaging device, an image processing method, and a program.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, due to improvements in the continuous shooting performance of digital cameras, the number and amount of image data acquired in one continuous shooting have increased. Generally, in continuous shooting, the user predicts the movement of the subject and starts shooting several seconds before the desired scene occurs. is used. However, there may be cases where the desired scene does not occur, for example, when you want to capture the moment when you hit a hit in baseball, but miss the shot. In that case, a large amount of unnecessary image data is written to the recording medium. In addition, since the next continuous shooting is restricted while the image data is being written to the recording medium, the opportunity for shooting is lost.

On the other hand, in Patent Document 1, when the next shooting instruction is given while the image data is being written to the recording medium, the image data in the temporary storage device is discarded and the transmitted image data is overwritten. A technique for immediately resuming continuous shooting is disclosed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-274323

However, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-200012, there is a problem that the image in the temporary storage device is discarded when the next photographing instruction is input by mistake.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to prevent an erroneous operation in canceling the recording of an image on a recording medium.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an imaging apparatus comprising: imaging means; first recording means for recording a plurality of images obtained by continuous imaging by said imaging means in temporary storage means; second recording means for recording the image on a recording medium; and temporary storage means when a second operation is received from the user along with the first operation while the image is being written on the recording medium. and control means for controlling to discard the recorded image and stop recording the image on the recording medium.

According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation in canceling the recording of an image on a recording medium.

2 is a hardware configuration diagram of a digital camera; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data configuration example of an internal memory; FIG. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of user operations; 4 is a flowchart showing continuous shooting processing; 4 is a flowchart showing write processing; FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of user operations; 4 is a flowchart showing continuous shooting processing; FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of user operations;

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of the digital camera 100. As shown in FIG. A digital camera 100 is an example of an imaging device and an image processing device. A control unit 101 is, for example, a CPU, and controls the entire digital camera 100 . The display unit 102 displays various information. The imaging unit 103 includes an imaging element such as a CMOS sensor that converts incident light into an electric signal, and an A/D converter that converts an analog signal output from the imaging element into a digital signal. The converted digital signal is stored in the internal memory 104 as RAW image data.

The internal memory 104 is a storage medium for temporarily storing data, and is composed of a volatile memory such as a DRAM. Internal memory 104 is an example of a temporary storage device. The internal memory 104 is used divided into a plurality of areas as shown in FIG. 2(a). The program storage area 201 is an area for storing programs for controlling operations. The work area 202 is used as a temporary data storage area during various data processing. A data storage area 203 is a memory area other than the program storage area 201 and the work area 202 . A data storage area 203 is a recording area used for storing a plurality of pieces of RAW image data captured from the imaging unit 103 .

A write processing unit 105 performs various types of image processing on the RAW image data stored in the internal memory 104 according to preset contents, and then writes the image data after the image processing into the external memory 106 . The external memory 106 is a storage medium for permanently storing data, and is composed of non-volatile memory such as flash memory. The RAW image data written to the external memory 106 is deleted from the data storage area 203 . The memory area freed by the deletion can be used when RAW image data is captured next time. Functions and processes of the digital camera 100, which will be described later, are realized by the control unit 101 reading a program stored in a storage unit such as the internal memory 104 and executing the program. As another example, the processing of the write processing unit 105 may be performed by the control unit 101 .

The speed at which the imaging unit 103 takes data into the internal memory 104 is faster than the speed at which the write processing unit 105 writes data to the external memory 106 . Therefore, RAW image data accumulates in the data storage area 203 one after another during continuous shooting. When the entire area of the data storage area 203 is filled with RAW image data as shown in FIG. Become. The digital camera 100 according to this embodiment suspends the writing process in response to a user operation in the writing process waiting state. Processing for interrupting the write processing will be described below.

3A and 3B are explanatory diagrams of user operations on the digital camera 100. FIG. FIG. 3 shows the user holding the housing 300 of the digital camera 100 with the right hand 301 . A display unit 102 is a display device that displays the status of the digital camera 100 and a message prompting user operation input. A shutter button 303 and a write interrupt button 304 are operation buttons used for operation input from the user, and are arranged on the rear surface of the digital camera 100 as shown in FIG. The shutter button 303 is installed at a position corresponding to the position of the right index finger when the user holds the digital camera 100 by hand during shooting. The write interruption button 304 is installed at a position corresponding to the position of the right thumb when holding the camera.

With the digital camera 100, the user can perform the following four operations.
(1) Shooting preparation instruction (2) Shooting execution instruction (3) Shooting resuming instruction (4) Writing interruption instruction (1) Shooting preparation instruction calculates parameters related to control of exposure and focal length for the digital camera 100. This is an instruction to let The shooting preparation instruction is realized by an operation of pressing the shutter button 303 only halfway (half-pressing). The shooting execution instruction (2) is an instruction to cause the digital camera 100 to execute image data acquisition processing. A shooting execution instruction is realized by an operation of fully pressing the shutter button 303 (fully pressing). The (3) instruction to resume shooting is an instruction to immediately resume the next continuous shooting to the digital camera 100 in the write processing waiting state. An instruction to resume shooting is realized by half-pressing or full-pressing the shutter button 303 (also used as an instruction to prepare for shooting or an instruction to execute shooting). The write suspension instruction (4) is an instruction to suspend the write process to the external memory 106 . The writing interruption instruction is realized by continuously pressing the writing interruption button 304 after inputting the photographing resumption instruction.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing continuous shooting processing by the digital camera 100 . In S401, the control unit 101 determines whether or not a shooting preparation instruction has been received. The control unit 101 waits until an instruction to prepare for shooting is received, and when the instruction to prepare for shooting is received (YES in S401), the process proceeds to S402. In S402, the control unit 101 calculates parameters related to control of exposure and focal length. Next, in S403, the control unit 101 determines whether or not a shooting execution instruction has been received. If the control unit 101 has received a shooting execution instruction (YES in S403), the process proceeds to S404. If the control unit 101 has not accepted the imaging execution instruction (NO in S403), the process proceeds to S402.

In step S<b>404 , the control unit 101 instructs the imaging unit 103 to capture one frame of RAW image data and store it in the internal memory 104 . In response to this, the imaging unit 103 records one piece of RAW image data obtained by continuous shooting in the internal memory 104 . Next, in S405, the control unit 101 instructs the write processing unit 105 to execute a series of processing (hereinafter referred to as write processing) for writing the RAW image data saved in the internal memory 104 to the external memory .

Here, write processing by the write processing unit 105 will be described with reference to FIG. In S501, the write processing unit 105 reads RAW image data for one image from the internal memory 104, and performs development processing that applies noise reduction processing and edge enhancement processing to the read RAW image data. Next, in step S502, the write processing unit 105 performs special processing such as optical correction processing for suppressing the influence of aberration and relighting processing for adjusting the shadow of a person on the image data that has undergone development processing. Since optical correction processing and relighting processing have a large processing load, it may take several seconds to process one image.

In step S503, the write processing unit 105 compresses the specially processed image data to reduce the data size. Next, in S<b>504 , the write processing unit 105 writes the reduced image data to the external memory 106 . The write processing unit 105 deletes from the internal memory 104 the RAW image data that has been written to the external memory 106 . Thereby, the control unit 101 can recognize the deleted area as a free area that can be used in the next continuous shooting.

The capture of RAW image data by the imaging unit 103 and the write processing to the external memory 106 by the write processing unit 105 are independently executable processes. Therefore, the control unit 101 can execute the subsequent processing of S406 (FIG. 4) without waiting for the write processing unit 105 to complete the write processing after issuing the write processing execution instruction in S405. .

Returning to FIG. 4, in S406, the control unit 101 determines whether or not the data storage area 203 of the internal memory 104 has free space for one sheet of RAW image data or more. If there is free space (YES in S406), control unit 101 advances the process to S407. In S407, the control unit 101 determines whether or not the shooting execution instruction continues. If the shooting execution instruction continues (YES in S407), the control unit 101 advances the process to S404. Continuous shooting is continued by repeating the processing of S404 to S406. If the shooting execution instruction has not continued (NO in S407), the control unit 101 terminates loading of the image data by the imaging unit 103 into the internal memory 104, and advances the process to S408. At the timing before execution of the process of S<b>408 , RAW image data is not captured by the imaging unit 103 , and only the process B by the write processing unit 105 is sequentially performed. As the writing process progresses, the free space in the internal memory 104 increases.

In S<b>408 , the control unit 101 determines whether or not the internal memory 104 has an empty area necessary for restarting the next shooting. Specifically, when the free space in the internal memory 104 is equal to or greater than a preset threshold, the control unit 101 determines that there is free space necessary for resuming shooting. Determine that there is no free space. If the control unit 101 has a free space required for resuming imaging (YES in S408), the process proceeds to S409. If the control unit 101 does not have a free space required for resuming imaging (NO in S408), the control unit 101 advances the process to S410. In S409, the control unit 101 determines whether or not the shooting preparation instruction continues. If the shooting preparation instruction continues (YES in S409), the control unit 101 advances the process to S402 to resume continuous shooting. On the other hand, if the shooting preparation instruction has not continued (NO in S409), the control unit 101 advances the process to S401 to resume continuous shooting.

In S410, the control unit 101 controls the display unit 102 to display that it is in a write waiting state. The control unit 101 displays, on the display unit 102, a message indicating that writing processing is in progress as shown in FIG. 3, for example. This process is an example of the display control process. Next, in S411, the control unit 101 determines whether or not an instruction to resume shooting has been received. The control unit 101 of the present embodiment can accept a photographing resumption instruction even in the write waiting state. If the control unit 101 receives an instruction to resume shooting (YES in S411), the process proceeds to S412. If the control unit 101 has received an instruction to resume shooting (NO in S411), the process proceeds to S408.

In S412, the control unit 101 validates the operation of the write interruption button 304, that is, the input of the write interruption instruction. The control unit 101 further controls the display unit 102 to display that the button has been activated. For example, by operating the writing interrupt button 304, writing processing is interrupted and a message indicating that continuous shooting can be started is displayed. Furthermore, the control unit 101 may enable the operation of the write interruption button 304 for a predetermined period of time, such as within several seconds after receiving the instruction to resume shooting. Next, in S413, the control unit 101 determines whether or not a write interruption instruction has been received while the write interruption button 304 is activated. If the control unit 101 receives the write interruption instruction (YES in S413), the control unit 101 advances the process to S414. If the control unit 101 has not received a write interruption instruction (NO in S413), the process proceeds to S408.

In S<b>414 , the control unit 101 controls to reset the write processing unit 105 and stop the write processing to the external memory 106 . This processing is an example of control processing for controlling to stop the recording processing to the temporary storage device. Next, in S415, the control unit 101 clears the data storage area 203 of the internal memory 104 and changes the entire area to a free area. The control unit 101 then advances the process to S402 to resume continuous shooting.

As described above, the digital camera 100 according to the present embodiment can receive a write interruption instruction from the user even during the process of writing a series of image data obtained by continuous shooting to the external memory 106. , the next continuous shooting can be resumed immediately.

In a conventional digital camera, when a write process wait state is entered, no user operation can be accepted until a certain amount of free space is secured in the data storage area 203 . For this reason, when a process with a large load such as a special process is executed, the user is forced to wait several tens of seconds before resuming the next operation. Also, even if there is free space and the operation can be resumed, the number of pictures that can be taken is limited by the free space in the internal memory, so the continuous shooting performance was maximized until the writing process was completed. Continuous shooting was not possible.

On the other hand, the digital camera 100 of the present embodiment can immediately resume the next continuous shooting when the user inputs an instruction to interrupt the writing process even in the write waiting state after continuous shooting. . Furthermore, the digital camera 100 of the present embodiment does not transfer an image to a recording medium when two operations, a first operation of inputting an instruction to resume shooting and a second operation of inputting an instruction to interrupt writing, are performed. I decided to stop recording. This makes it possible to avoid inadvertent deletion of image data due to an erroneous operation during writing processing. That is, it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation in canceling the recording of an image on the recording medium.

(Second embodiment)
Next, a digital camera 100 according to a second embodiment will be described. In the digital camera 100 of the second embodiment, the user can perform the following three operations.
(A) Write interrupt instruction (B) Write cancel instruction (C) Write setting change instruction (A) The write interrupt instruction is an instruction to interrupt the write process, as described in the first embodiment. The write cancel instruction (B) is an instruction to interrupt writing to the external memory 106 and simultaneously erase a series of image data already written to the external memory 106 . The writing setting change instruction of (C) is an instruction to change the setting of the image processing to be performed on the RAW image data during the writing process.

6A and 6B are explanatory diagrams of user operations on the digital camera 100. FIG. In the second embodiment, the housing 300 is provided with a write cancel button 601 and a write setting change button 602 in addition to the shutter button 303 and write interrupt button 304 described in the first embodiment. The write cancel button 601 is arranged at a position farther from the position corresponding to the right thumb position than the write interrupt button 304 on the shutter button side. The write cancel instruction described above is realized by pressing the write cancel button 601 . Further, the write setting change instruction is implemented by pressing the write setting change button 602 .

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing continuous shooting processing by the digital camera 100 according to the second embodiment. In the continuous shooting process of the second embodiment, the control unit 101 performs the same processes as S401 to S411 shown in FIG. . In S<b>701 , the control unit 101 validates the operation of each button for the write interruption instruction, write cancel instruction, and write setting change instruction described above. The control unit 101 may enable it for a predetermined period of time from the instruction to resume shooting. Further, the control unit 101 notifies the user to the display unit 102 that each operation input is enabled as shown in FIG. display a message to Furthermore, a message may be displayed indicating that continuous shooting is possible by these processes.

Next, in S702, the control unit 101 determines whether or not a user operation has been received within the validity period. If the control unit 101 receives a user operation (YES in S702), the process proceeds to S703. If the control unit 101 has not received a user operation (NO in S702), the process proceeds to S408 (FIG. 4). In S703, the control unit 101 determines whether or not a write interruption instruction has been received. If the control unit 101 receives a write interruption instruction (YES in S703), the control unit 101 advances the process to S704. If the control unit 101 has not received a write interruption instruction (NO in S703), the process proceeds to S706.

In S<b>704 , the control unit 101 resets the write processing unit 105 to interrupt the write processing to the external memory 106 . Next, in S705, the control unit 101 clears the data storage area 203 in the internal memory 104 and changes the entire area to a free area. Note that the processes of S704 and S705 are the same as the processes of S414 and S415. After the process of S705, the control unit 101 advances the process to S402 and restarts continuous shooting.

In S706, the control unit 101 determines whether or not a write cancel instruction has been received. If the control unit 101 receives a write cancel instruction (YES in S706), the process proceeds to S707. If the control unit 101 does not accept the write cancel instruction (NO in S706), the process proceeds to S710. The processing of S707 and S708 is the same as the processing of S414 and S415. After the process of S708, the control unit 101 deletes the series of image data written in the external memory 106 in S709. Deletion of the image data written in the external memory 106 is realized by resetting the memory area in which the image data is written as an overwritable area.

The control unit 101 advances the process to S710 when receiving the write setting change instruction. In S710, the control unit 101 waits for completion of the write processing for one sheet that the write processing unit 105 is performing, and then instructs the write processing unit 105 to stop executing the write processing in S711. The write processing unit 105 stops the write processing according to this instruction. Next, in step S712, the control unit 101 displays the operation input content related to the change of the writing setting on the display unit 102, and prompts the user to input the change of the writing setting.

As shown in FIG. 8, there are three types of operation input related to changing the writing setting.
(1) Special processing OFF
(2) Special processing OFF+reduced size (3) RAW image data only When (1) special processing OFF is selected, the special processing (S502) in the write processing is skipped without being executed. As a result, the quality of the image data is partially degraded, but the processing time required for the writing process is shortened. Therefore, the period from the write wait state until the operation is resumed is shortened.

If (2) special processing OFF+reduced size is selected, developed image data whose image size is reduced in development processing (S501) is output. This shortens the processing time after S502. For this reason, the period of waiting for further writing with respect to the special processing OFF is shortened.

When only the RAW image data of (3) is selected, the processing of S501 to S503 in the write processing is skipped, and the RAW image data is written to the external memory 106 as it is. Since it is necessary to write uncompressed data, the processing time for writing to the external memory (S504) increases. However, since the processing time for the entire write process is shortened compared to when the special process is ON, the period of the write wait state is shortened. Furthermore, the data saved in the external memory 106 as RAW image data can be rewritten later. Therefore, it is useful when you want to quickly restart the next continuous shooting while leaving all the information of the image data acquired by the continuous shooting.

Returning to FIG. 7, after S712, in S713, the control unit 101 reflects the write setting change input in S712 to the write processing unit 105, and then restarts the write processing. After the process of S713, the control unit 101 advances the process to S408. The configuration and processing of the digital camera 100 according to the second embodiment are the same as those of the digital camera 100 according to the first embodiment.

As described above, in the write wait state, the digital camera 100 according to the second embodiment not only interrupts the write process, but also cancels all writing of a series of captured images to the external memory 106. be. In addition, since the digital camera 100 can change the setting of the writing process, it is possible to shorten the period of waiting for writing while leaving the desired image data information.

Also, as shown in FIG. 6, the write cancel button 601 is arranged farther from the position of the right thumb than the write interrupt button 304 . This makes it possible to more reliably avoid the risk of the image data written in the external memory 106 being inadvertently erased due to an erroneous operation.

As described above, according to each of the above-described embodiments, it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation in canceling the recording of an image on a recording medium.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the invention described in the claims.・Changes are possible.

The present invention supplies a program that implements one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in the computer of the system or device reads and executes the program. It can also be realized by processing to It can also be implemented by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that implements one or more functions.

100 Digital camera 101 Control unit 104 Internal memory 105 Write processing unit 106 External memory

Claims (14)

imaging means;
a first recording means for recording a plurality of images obtained by continuous photography by the imaging means in a temporary storage means;
a second recording means for recording the image recorded in the temporary storage means on a recording medium;
Discarding the image recorded in the temporary storage means and recording the image on the recording medium when a second operation is received from the user along with the first operation while the image is being written on the recording medium. and control means for controlling to stop processing. When the second operation is received while the first operation is being received, the control means discards the image recorded in the temporary storage means and stops recording the image on the recording medium. 2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein control is performed such that The control means, when receiving the first operation, discards the image recorded in the temporary storage means and validates the second operation for stopping recording of the image on the recording medium. 2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein control is performed so as to When the first operation is received and when the free space of the recording area for recording a plurality of images obtained by continuous shooting in the temporary storage means is less than a threshold, the control means controls the first 4. The imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein control is performed so as to validate operation 2. 2. The imaging according to claim 1, wherein said imaging means starts continuous shooting according to said first operation after the images recorded in said temporary storage means are discarded by said control means. Device. When a third operation is received together with the first operation, the control means discards the image recorded in the temporary storage means, stops recording the image on the recording medium, and 2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein control is performed so as to delete an image recorded in said recording medium by photographing . When a fourth operation is received along with the first operation, the control means controls to enable a user operation for changing the setting, interrupts recording on the recording medium, and controls the user operation for changing the setting. 2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein control is performed so that recording on the recording medium is resumed in accordance with the setting change, when the setting change is received. In response to the acceptance of the first operation, the display means displays a message for notifying the user that the image recorded in the temporary storage means is discarded by the second operation. 2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display control means for controlling the image. display control means for controlling to display on the display means a message for notifying the user that continuous shooting can be started by the second operation in response to the acceptance of the first operation; 2. The imaging device according to claim 1, comprising: 2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first operation is an operation of pressing a shutter button. 11. The imaging apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the second operation is an operation of pressing a second button arranged on a shutter button side of the back surface of the imaging apparatus. The first operation is an operation of pressing a shutter button,
the second operation is an operation of pressing a second button arranged on the back side of the imaging device on the shutter button side;
7. The imaging apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the third operation is an operation of pressing a third button located farther from the shutter button than the second button. An image processing method comprising:
a first recording step of recording, in temporary storage means, a plurality of images obtained by continuous photographing by the imaging means;
a second recording step of recording the image recorded in the temporary storage means onto a recording medium;
Discarding the image recorded in the temporary storage means and recording the image on the recording medium when a second operation is received from the user along with the first operation while the image is being written on the recording medium. and a control step of controlling to stop processing. A program for causing a computer to execute each step of the image processing method according to claim 13 .

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