JP7345779B2 - Electronics - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to electronic equipment.

2. Description of the Related Art Electronic devices are known that include cameras on both the front and back surfaces of the main body, and use the front cameras when taking a selfie of the user. An example of such an electronic device is the electronic device described in Patent Document 1. In the electronic device described in Patent Document 1, in order to take a self-portrait, a user performs a switching operation to switch between a front camera and a rear camera, and a photographing operation to release a shutter. Further, the user needs to maintain a distance between the camera of the electronic device and the subject at a certain level or more due to constraints such as focus, composition including the background, and size of the subject. Therefore, when taking a self-portrait, a user holds an electronic device including a camera with one hand, extends the arm, and performs a photographing operation such as tapping a touch panel or pressing a button in this state.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2017-045091 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-104162

In the electronic device described in Patent Document 1, when taking a selfie, the user operates a button on the same side of the electronic device as the camera or on the side of the electronic device to release the shutter. At this time, if the user attempts to firmly grasp and fix the electronic device with one hand, the screen on which the image is displayed will be covered by the palm of the hand, making it difficult to see. Therefore, especially when taking self-portraits with many people as subjects, it is difficult for the user who operates the button to accurately confirm the image that is about to be taken. On the other hand, if you try to hold and fix an electronic device on the side opposite to the camera in order to accurately check the image being taken, your hand will be positioned behind the screen. For this reason, it is difficult to perform an operation to release the shutter or to perform target recognition of a subject, for example, to confirm a frame indicating a human face detected by image recognition.

In order to solve this problem, it is conceivable to use a device for photographing operation provided separately from the camera. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a system including a digital camera as a photographing device and a communication terminal wirelessly connected to the digital camera.
In the system described in Patent Document 2, a user operates a button on a communication terminal to release the shutter. Therefore, when taking a selfie using the system described in Patent Document 2, the user must hold the digital camera with one hand and operate buttons on the communication terminal with the other hand. Therefore, when taking a self-portrait using the system described in Patent Document 2, there is a problem that the photographing operation cannot be easily performed with one hand.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device that can be easily operated while being held with one hand.

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic device according to the present invention includes:
The main body and
an image display section disposed on a first surface of the main body;
a camera disposed on the first surface;
an operation detection unit that is arranged in an upper 1/5 to 1/3 region of the second surface corresponding to the back surface of the first surface and detects an operation by a user;
a rear camera disposed above the area on the back surface;
When the operation detection unit detects a shutter operation, which is an operation to release a shutter, and when the rear camera that continues to acquire images is blocked by the user, the brightness value of the image acquired by the rear camera is less than a predetermined threshold. a control unit that performs photographing by the camera when .
Equipped with

According to the present invention, an electronic device that can be easily operated while being held with one hand is provided.

(A) is a front view of the smartphone according to the embodiment, (B) is a rear view thereof, and (C) is an explanatory diagram of an example of operating the button of the smartphone in (A) with the index finger of the right hand. It is. (A) is a hardware configuration diagram of the smartphone of FIG. 1, and (B) is a block diagram of its input/output unit. 2 is a flowchart of photographing processing in the smartphone of FIG. 1. FIG. It is a flowchart of timer photographing processing in a smartphone.

Hereinafter, a smartphone 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1(A), the smartphone 1 includes a touch panel 11 and a front camera 12. Hereinafter, with reference to the casing that is the main body of the smartphone 1, the side that includes the touch panel 11 that is the display surface will be referred to as the front (front), and the opposite side will be referred to as the back (back).
The touch panel 11 displays information to the user and receives input operations from the user. The touch panel 11 displays information such as characters and images, and detects input operations such as touch, tap, flick, pinch, and swipe using a finger, stylus pen, or the like.
The front camera 12 is a camera that is provided on the front of the smartphone 1 and photographs a subject on the front side. The front camera 12 includes, for example, an optical lens, an optical system drive mechanism, a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) image sensor, and the like.
Note that the touch panel 11 of the smartphone 1 is an example of an image display section in the claims, and the front surface is an example of the first surface in the claims.

FIG. 1(B) is a diagram of the smartphone 1 viewed from the back (back side). As shown in FIG. 1(B), the smartphone 1 includes a rear camera 13, a flash 14, and a button 15, which is a switch operated by pressing with an index finger, middle finger, etc., on the back.
The rear camera 13 is a camera that is provided on the back of the smartphone 1 and photographs a subject on the back side. The rear camera 13 includes, for example, an optical lens, an optical system drive mechanism, a CMOS image sensor, and the like.
The flash 14 illuminates a subject on the back side when photographing with the rear camera 13. The flash 14 includes, for example, a light emitting diode (LED).
The button 15 is a push button located at the top, which is the side closer to the rear camera 13 and flash 14. The button 15 is arranged at a position where the tip of the index finger or middle finger of the user's hand can touch the button 15 when the user covers at least a portion of the lower part of the back of the main body of the smartphone 1 with a standard-sized palm and grips the main body. It is desirable that On the other hand, the button 15 is arranged below the rear camera 13 and the flash 14 and has an interval of 1 cm or more so that fingers are not located on the rear surface of the rear camera 13 and flash 14 when using the rear camera 13 and flash 14. This is desirable. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1(B), the rear camera 13 and flash 14 are arranged at the upper end of the main body 1, and the button 15 is separated from the rear camera 13 and flash 14, and It is desirable to arrange it in the region R shown by the broken line up to 1/3.
The position of the button 15 may be set based on, for example, the statistically standard hand size and shape of the user assumed by the smartphone 1.
The button 15 includes, for example, a push button switch that is on when pressed and off when not pressed.
FIG. 1(C) corresponds to FIG. 1(B), and is a diagram illustrating a case where the smartphone 1 is held on the back and side with the palm, thumb, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger of the right hand H, and the button 15 is operated with the index finger. be. As illustrated in FIG. 1C, the button 15 indicated by a broken line is arranged at the upper center of the back of the smartphone 1. Therefore, when the user holds the smartphone 1 from the back with one hand, the button 15 is arranged at a position where the tip of the index finger, middle finger, etc. naturally touches the button 15.
Note that the back surface of the smartphone 1 is an example of the second surface in the claims, the button 15 is an example of the operation detection unit in the claims, and the area R is an example of the finger operable area in the claims. This is an example.

Next, the hardware configuration that realizes the functions of the smartphone 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2(A) and 2(B).
FIG. 2(A) is a specific hardware configuration diagram that realizes various functions of the smartphone 1.
The information calculation device 100 is a device that calculates and processes information related to the present invention among various functions provided in the smartphone 1. That is, the information calculation device 100 is a device that controls the operations of the smartphone 1, including operations such as photographing by the front camera 12 or the rear camera 13, image acquisition, storage, or storage, and is composed of, for example, a computer.
Specifically, the information processing device 100 includes a processor 101, a communication section 102, a main storage section 103, an auxiliary storage section 104, a bus 110, and an input/output section 120.
The processor 101 calculates and processes various information, and includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit).
The communication unit 102 exchanges data with other devices, and includes, for example, a wired or wireless communication interface.
The main storage unit 103 is a device that temporarily stores information, and includes, for example, DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and SRAM (Static Random Access Memory).
The auxiliary storage unit 104 is a device that permanently stores information, and includes, for example, a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD).
The bus 110 is used to exchange data between the processor 101, the communication section 102, the main storage section 103, and the auxiliary storage section 104.
The input/output unit 120 exchanges various data with the outside of the smartphone 1, and will be described in detail below.
Note that the information calculation device 100 is an example of a control unit in the claims.

FIG. 2(B) is a more detailed block diagram of the input/output unit 120 shown in FIG. 2(A).
The input/output unit 120 includes a touch panel 11 , a front camera 12 , a rear camera 13 , a button 15 , and an internal bus 111 .
The internal bus 111 is a bus that interconnects devices included in the input/output section 120. Since the internal bus 111 is also connected to the bus 110, data can be exchanged with the processor 101, communication section 102, main storage section 103, auxiliary storage section 104, etc. of the information processing device 100.

A program for operating the front camera 12 or the rear camera 13 is stored in the main storage unit 103 or the auxiliary storage unit 104 of the smartphone 1. When the processor 101 executes this program in cooperation with the main storage unit 103 and the like, the information processing device 100 operates the front camera 12 or the rear camera 13 to take, save, edit, etc. a still image or a video. .

Specifically, the smartphone 1 performs self-portrait processing using the function of the input/output unit 120 shown in FIGS. 2(A) and 2(B).

When the smartphone 1 is not performing any camera-related operations, for example, in a standby state, it is in a standby mode in which the front camera 12 and rear camera 13 are not allowed to take pictures.
In preparation for taking a selfie, that is, taking a picture of a subject using the front camera 12, the user performs an operation to transition the smartphone 1 from a standby mode to a shooting mode in which a picture can be taken. This transition is performed, for example, by the user's operation on the touch panel 11. Specifically, the user taps the camera app icon displayed on the touch panel 11 to start the camera app, and sets the app to take a picture with the front camera 12, if necessary. This setting is performed, for example, when the user taps a camera switching button of the camera application displayed on the touch panel 11 and the information calculation device 100 detects the tap. After being activated, the camera application performs a so-called through image display process of displaying an image captured by the front camera 12 on the touch panel 11.

Hereinafter, the flow of the photographing process in the smartphone 1 will be explained with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 3.

When taking a selfie, the user starts the camera app and selects the front camera 12 to make it active, as described above. Then, the user grasps the smartphone 1 as shown in FIG. 1(C) and directs the front camera 12 toward himself. At this time, the smartphone 1 displays the image acquired from the front camera 12 as a through image on the touch panel 11 (step S1). However, since the user's hand holding the smartphone 1 is on the back side and is not located on the touch panel 11, viewing of the through image is not obstructed.
The user checks the through image displayed on the touch panel 11 and operates the button 15 at an appropriate timing to release the shutter.
When detecting that the button 15 has been operated (step S2; YES), the information processing device 100 acquires an image from the front camera 12 at the moment the shutter is released, and stores it in the main storage unit 103 or the auxiliary storage unit 104. The image is stored (step S3). If it is not detected that the button 15 has been operated (step S2; NO), the information calculation device 100 proceeds to step S4, which will be described later.

After step S2 or step S3, the information calculation device 100 determines whether to end the shooting mode (step S4). For example, when the touch panel 11 is not operated for a certain period of time, when the user operates the touch panel 11 and explicitly instructs to end the shooting, the information processing device 100 determines that the shooting mode is to be ended ( Step S4; YES). Thereby, the smartphone 1 transitions from the shooting mode to the standby mode, and the information calculation device 100 continues other processing.

After releasing the shutter once, the user may continue releasing the shutter. In this case, the information calculation device 100 does not determine that the photographing mode has ended (step S4; NO) and returns to step S1. Note that during this time, the information calculation device 100 may continue to acquire through images through the front camera 12.

In the smartphone 1, the button 15 is arranged in an area that can be easily reached by the tip of the index finger, middle finger, etc. when held with one hand, and the touch panel 11 and front camera 12 are arranged on the front. It can be easily operated while being held with one hand, and the above-mentioned photographing process is performed smoothly.

Next, another embodiment of the smartphone 1 will be described. This embodiment enables timer photography.
In this embodiment, when the user presses the button 15 for a time T1 or longer, a timer photographing process is performed instead of photographing immediately after the button 15 is operated. Specifically, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, the information calculation device 100 performs the following photographing process.

The user starts the camera app and selects the front camera 12 to activate it. A through image display is performed by the information calculation device 100 (step S11).
When determining that the button has been operated (step S12; YES), the information computing device 100 determines that the button 15 has been continuously operated for a certain period of time T1 or more, for example, that the button 15 has been pressed for a long time (step S13). ). If the information calculation device 100 does not determine whether the button has been pressed (step S12; NO), the process advances to step S16, which will be described later.
Although the button 15 has been operated (step S12; YES), for example, if the button 15 is not operated before the elapse of time T1 (step S13; NO), the above-mentioned normal shooting, that is, the image capture Acquisition and storage are performed (step S15).

When the information calculation device 100 determines that the button 15 has been continuously operated for a certain period of time T1 or more (step S13; YES), a countdown for timer photography is performed (step S14). Specifically, from when the information computing device 100 determines that the button 15 has been operated for the time T1, the information computing device 100 newly starts counting the time T2 (step S14).
During the countdown (step S14), the information calculation device 100 displays, on the touch panel 11, the remaining time until the shutter is released, for example, characters such as "5 seconds".
After time T2 has elapsed, the information processing device 100 releases the shutter of the front camera 12, acquires an image, and stores the image in the main storage unit 103 or stores the image in the auxiliary storage unit 104 (step S15).
Step S16 is a step similar to step S4 in FIG. 3, in which the information calculation device 100 determines whether the photographing mode has ended.
Note that the long press of the button 15 is an example of a long-time operation in the claims, the time T1 is an example of a first time in the claims, and the time T2 is an example of a second time in the claims. This is an example.

Note that when the button 15 is pressed during the countdown, the information calculation device 100 may immediately release the shutter or cancel the countdown.
In addition, as the remaining time decreases, the number representing the remaining time is increased or a graphic is added to emphasize it and display it on the touch panel 11, making it easier to intuitively grasp the time when the shutter will be released. Good too.
Furthermore, the information calculation device 100 may change the upper limit of the countdown time for timer photography according to the elapsed time for which the button 15 is pressed. For example, if button 15 has been pressed for 5 seconds, the upper limit of the countdown time is 10 seconds, and if button 15 has been pressed for 10 seconds, the countdown time limit is 10 seconds. The upper limit of the time may be set to 20 seconds. By doing so, the user can intuitively set the countdown time for timer photography.

By displaying the remaining time on the touch panel 11 during the countdown, when multiple people are included in the subject, the remaining time until the shutter is released is displayed on the touch panel 11, so subjects other than the user can also see the remaining time. It can be easily understood.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications are possible. That is, although the button 15 has been described as a push button switch as an example, it may be any device that detects contact with an object. For example, the button 15 may be a touch pad, a touch panel, a fingerprint sensor, or the like.
Further, the rear camera 13 may be used in place of the button 15. That is, the information processing device 100 continues to acquire images from the rear camera 13, and when the rear camera 13 is blocked by the user's finger, palm, etc., the brightness value of the image acquired from the rear camera 13 becomes less than a predetermined threshold. It is also possible to release the shutter when a condition such as a condition is met.
In a further modification, when the user operates the button 15, instead of releasing the shutter, another function related to the front camera 12, such as setting or changing the zoom magnification, aperture, or imaging range, may be performed. You can also do this.

1 Smartphone 11 Touch panel 12 Front camera 13 Rear camera 14 Flash 15 Button 100 Information calculation device 101 Processor 102 Communication unit 103 Main storage unit 104 Auxiliary storage unit 110 Bus 111 Internal bus 120 Input/output unit

Claims (1)

The main body and
an image display section disposed on a first surface of the main body;
a camera disposed on the first surface;
an operation detection unit that is arranged in an upper 1/5 to 1/3 region of the second surface corresponding to the back surface of the first surface and detects an operation by a user;
a rear camera disposed above the area on the back surface;
When the operation detection unit detects a shutter operation, which is an operation to release a shutter, and when the rear camera that continues to acquire images is blocked by the user, the brightness value of the image acquired by the rear camera is less than a predetermined threshold. a control unit that performs photographing by the camera when .
Electronic equipment.

Images