JPH01191838A - Speech recognizing camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the setting of a mode and the condition of special photographing by setting the prescribed photographing mode and photographing condition by a voice. CONSTITUTION:When the E switch 16a of a registration switch 16 is turned ON and an 'exposure' is inputted, the 'exposure' is registered as an instruction voice for setting an exposure correction mode in a speech recognizing circuit 3. Subsequently, when an M switch 16b is turned ON and the voice of 'multiple' is inputted, the 'multiple' is registered as an instruction voice for setting a multiple exposure mode. Thereafter, in the same way, the instruction voice is registered in accordance with each switch for constituting the switch 16. Next, in case of executing special photographing, for instance, when voices of 'exposure', 'under' and '2' are inputted successively to a microphone 1, and recognized in the voice recognizing circuit 3, a photographing mode and a photographing condition are set, and from the circuit 3, a signal corresponding to the mode and the set condition is outputted to a microcomputer 4. In accordance therewith, the microcomputer 4 controls each part of a camera, and when a shutter button is depressed, photographing is executed by an exposure having a smack of 'under'.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a voice recognition camera that operates based on voice input, and more particularly to a voice recognition camera that allows shooting modes and conditions for special photography to be set by voice.

(Prior art) With the advancement of voice recognition technology, voice recognition cameras are being developed in which when a pre-registered voice or keyword (command voice) is input, the camera recognizes the voice and performs a predetermined action. ing. If the camera is activated by voice, the user can release the shutter simply by saying, for example, ``release,'' and there is no need to worry about ``shaky hands,'' and the camera can be operated remotely.

On the other hand, high-end camera users sometimes use a photography technique called special photography. This special photography includes, for example, exposure compensation photography, where you shoot with your preferred exposure (overexposure or underexposure) rather than the appropriate exposure determined by the camera's automatic exposure circuit, and shooting with multiple photos in one photo. Examples include multiple exposure photography and interval exposure photography in which images are taken at regular intervals, and cameras capable of such special photography are already on the market.

However, with this type of camera, setting the shooting mode and shooting conditions is extremely troublesome. For example, in the button operation method, first the mode switch is used to set the shooting mode to exposure compensation, multiple exposure, or interval exposure, and then the set switch is used to set the shooting conditions. In other words, if exposure compensation is used, set underexposure or overexposure and the number of apertures to compensate for, if multiple exposure is used, set the number of overlapping images, and if interval exposure is used, set the interval time (hours, minutes, seconds). .

In conventional cameras, it is very difficult to set special shooting modes and their conditions, and in order to prevent people from accidentally operating these switches, for example, they have a structure with a lid. Design considerations are also required.

(Object and Structure of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to enable easy setting of special photography modes and conditions. The camera is configured so that the shooting mode and shooting conditions can be set using voice.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an embodiment of a voice recognition camera according to the present invention. 3 is an amplifier that amplifies the input voice signal; 3 is a voice recognition circuit that determines whether the input voice signal matches a registered command voice; and when the input voice signal matches, outputs a signal corresponding to the voice; 4 is a voice recognition circuit that outputs a signal corresponding to the voice; a microcomputer that controls each part of the camera according to the output signal from the voice recognition circuit 3;
Reference numeral 5 denotes a photometry circuit that measures the subject brightness using a photodiode 6; 7 a shutter control circuit that controls the shutter speed by turning on and off the magnet 8 according to the subject brightness; 9 detects the focus of the photographic lens and moves the photographic lens to the focal position. AF circuit to move the film to
This is a motor drive circuit that drives the.

Next, to explain the camera operation switches, 12.13
are S, , S, which are turned on by the release button, respectively.
When the release button is pressed down one step lightly, the S switch 12 is turned on, and when it is pressed down further, both the 31 switch 12 and the S2 switch 13 are turned on. In the camera shooting sequence, when S and switch 12 are turned on, photometry and distance measurement are performed in that order, and S2 switch 1
When 3 is turned on, lens driving, shutter driving, and film winding are performed. 14 is a self-timer switch that operates a self-timer, and 15 is a rewind switch that is operated when rewinding the film.

16 is a registration switch for registering the command voice;
This switch is constituted by a matrix switch and is connected to the voice recognition circuit 3.

The registration switch 16 includes a switch for registering a command voice for setting a photographing mode, and a switch for registering a command voice for setting photographing conditions in that mode.

The former is an E switch 16 that registers an exposure compensation command voice.
a. M switch 16b for registering multiple exposure command voice;
and an I switch 16c that registers a command voice for interval exposure; the latter is a + switch 16 that registers a command voice to set overexposure when in exposure compensation mode.
d. A switch 16e for registering a command voice to set underexposure, and a numeric switch 16f for registering a command voice to set the aperture correction amount, the number of films for multiple exposure, or the interval time for interval exposure in each mode. Consists of. The voice recognition circuit 13 is in a voice registration mode when the registration switch 16 is operated, and is in a voice recognition mode when it is not operated. These registration switches register the command voices shown in the table below, for example.

(The following is a blank space) 17 is a display unit drive circuit that drives the display unit 18 according to the output from the voice recognition circuit 3 or the microcomputer 4.

The display section 18 is arranged, for example, at an easily visible position on the top surface of the camera, and is configured as a liquid crystal display or the like as shown in FIG. 2.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 18a denotes an ES display which lights up when an exposure compensation command voice is registered by the voice recognition circuit 3 in the registration mode and when recognized in the recognition mode.
8b is an ME display that lights up when the multiple exposure command voice is registered and recognized; 18c is an IT display that lights up when the interval exposure command voice is registered and recognized; 1
Numeral displays 18e and 18f 8d display the digits when the numeric command voice is registered and recognized.

18g is a time display that displays the time when the interval time command voice is recognized, and indicates hours, minutes, and seconds from the left. In addition, 18h is an overexposure display that lights up when a command voice for setting overexposure is registered and recognized in exposure compensation mode, and underexposure display that lights up when a command voice for underexposure setting is registered and recognized is 18h. It is.

Further, 18fL is a display section that displays the status of each part of the camera, such as battery voltage display and film winding completion. The numerical display 18d displays the shooting conditions for special photography and also displays the number of shots of the film.

Next, registration of command voices will be explained.

First, when you turn on the E switch 16a, the ES display section 18a
or blink. At this time, when inputting ``Rosetsu'', the voice recognition circuit 3 registers ``Rosetsu'' as a command voice for setting the exposure compensation mode. Once registered, the ES display section 18a stops blinking and lights up, and then the E switch 16a is turned on.
It turns off when you turn it off. Next, when the M switch 16b is turned on, the ME display section 18b is decremented, and when the voice "Tajyu" is input at this time, "Tajyu" or the command voice to set the multiple exposure mode is registered. When registered, the ME display section 18b stops blinking and lights up, and then turns off when the M switch 16b is turned off. Similarly, command voices (see the above table) are registered in correspondence with each switch constituting the registration switch 16. At this time, IT display 18c, number display 18d, overexposure and underexposure display 18h
, 18 perform blinking, lighting, and extinguishing operations in exactly the same manner as the ES display 18a and ME display 18b described above. These displays allow the user to confirm that each command voice has been registered.

Next, the operation in the recognition mode will be explained. When performing special photography, a command voice is input from the microphone 1 to set the photography mode and its conditions.

Now, suppose you want to stop down the camera by two stops and take a picture with slightly underexposure. First, input the sound "Roshutsu" into microphone 1 and set the shooting mode. When "Roshutsu" is recognized, the ES display 18a lights up, confirming that it has been recognized.

After recognizing the mode, the voice recognition circuit 3 enters a state to recognize the photographing conditions, and when "under" is input next, the underexposure display 18k lights up to indicate that "under" has been recognized. Next, input "2" into the microphone L.

When the voice recognition circuit 3 recognizes "2", the number display 18d displays "2". The setting of the shooting mode and shooting conditions is now complete, and the voice recognition circuit 3 outputs a signal corresponding to the set mode and conditions to the microcomputer 4, and the microcomputer 4 controls each part of the camera accordingly.
When the shutter button is pressed, the image is underexposed.

Similarly for the multiple exposure mode, if you input "Tajyu" into the microphone L, the ME display 18b lights up, and if you then input "Zero" and "Hachi", "08" is displayed on the number display 18d, and the voice recognition circuit 3 It is recognized that this is a multiple exposure photograph of eight images.

Regarding the interval exposure mode, when "interval" is input, the IT display 18c lights up and the user is recognized as being in the interval exposure mode. After that, the voice recognition circuit 3 enters a state where it accepts the interval time, and continues to say "zero", "ichi", "ichi", "go", "zero".
, when "zero" is input, rolJ is displayed on the hour display 18e, r15J is displayed on the minute display 18f, and "00" is displayed on the second display 18g, indicating that the interval time of 1 hour and 15 minutes has been recognized. These recognition results are output to microcomputer 4,
The microcomputer 4 controls each part of the camera accordingly, and when the release button is pressed, the camera repeats the shooting operation every 1 hour and 15 minutes.

As described above, once the command voice is registered, the special photographing mode and photographing conditions can be set very easily using the command voice. Furthermore, since this setting is performed by voice input, there is no need to take special consideration as in the past, and there is no possibility that settings other than the groove for special photography will be mistakenly set.

However, as the speech recognition circuit in the above embodiment, for example, a speech recognition IC based on so-called specific speaker recognition, which registers a spectrum analysis pattern of input speech of a specific speaker, is used. In this case, the mode and condition settings for special photography can be set only by a specific speaker, which is convenient because erroneous settings can be prevented. However, the present invention can be applied regardless of the type of voice recognition system, and in the near future, a voice recognition camera will be developed that performs linguistic analysis of the input voice and understands the meaning of the voice to operate the camera. If so, it is also applicable to such cameras.

Note that the special shooting mode explained in the embodiment is only an example.
It goes without saying that other special shooting modes, such as Harz wide-open shooting, can also be set using voice input.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the two aspects of the present invention, since the predetermined photographing mode and photographing conditions are set by voice, it is possible to obtain the effect that the conditions for special photographing can be set extremely easily.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of an embodiment of a voice recognition camera according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the display section of the camera shown in FIG. 1.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A voice recognition camera that recognizes voice commands and operates in accordance with the voice recognition, characterized in that it is equipped with voice recognition means for registering and recognizing voice commands that respectively set predetermined shooting modes and shooting conditions. camera. (2) The voice recognition camera according to claim 1, wherein the voice registration by the voice recognition means is voice registration for specific speaker recognition.