JPH0427925A - Image recording system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily reset a photographing state in a camera based on a printed image photographed by a photographer by superposing and recording control information at the time of recording an image together with the image recorded on an image recording medium such as a film by the use of a bar code. CONSTITUTION:By tracing the image 3 where the bar code is recorded together with the photographed image by a reader 2, the bar code is read out. The bar code read out is transmitted to a camera apparatus 1 by the reader 2 with the aid of an infrared ray by depressing a button 14-a. The transmitted infrared ray is converted into an electrical signal by a photodetector circuit 1-f which is an interface circuit using a phototransistor and inputted in a terminal TX. When the signal is inputted in the terminal TX, various kinds of control concerning a control stop value, a shutter speed value and a zooming focal distance, etc., are performed according to the program of a control means 1-a. Thus, the camera apparatus is automatically set in the same state as at the time of photographing.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention records information such as photographic data by displaying a bar code on a film together with an image using an image recording device such as a camera, and prints out the printed information. The present invention relates to an image recording system that allows reading and, for example, photographing in the same photographing state again.

[Prior Art] Various methods have been proposed for setting information such as shutter speed and aperture value in a camera, and among these methods, the applicant has proposed a method using barcodes.

This is a system in which various photographic information is displayed in barcodes, and the publisher or camera manufacturer prepares, for example, a printed sheet of the photograph taken with that information along with the barcode, and the photographer prints it out. A barcode reading device reads a barcode corresponding to a photograph of a desired item, and the data is input into the camera.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, with such a camera, there is no reason why the printer is provided with scenes that the photographer intends or prefers to be included in the images prepared by the printing company or manufacturer. In the end, you end up setting it according to your own will.

At this time, in order to reproduce the drive control in a similar situation later, it may be difficult to perform the operation, forget the previously set operation, or make some kind of shooting error when organizing the printed images. Even though I noticed this and wanted to take another shot, I was unable to set it to the same condition.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording system that solves these conventional problems and allows the camera to easily reset the shooting condition based on, for example, a print image taken by a photographer.

[Means for Solving the Problem] The gist of the present invention to achieve the object is to control image recording on an image recording medium based on control information of the apparatus main body set for image recording, and to an image recording apparatus comprising a control means for controlling an information recording means to record at least the control information superimposed on a recorded image; The image recording system comprises an information reading means, inputting information read by the information reading means to a control means of the image recording means, and recording an image based on the input information.

[Function] The image recording system having the above-mentioned configuration records, for example, control information at the time of image recording in an overlapping manner using, for example, a bar code, together with an image recorded on an image recording medium such as a film by an image recording device such as a camera. For example, a barcode recorded along with a printed image is read by an information reading means such as a barcode reader, and this read information is input into the image recording device, and the image recording device records the image based on the information. It also controls the information recording means for recording message information and the like along with this information.

[Example] The present invention will be described in detail below based on an example shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image recording system according to the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 denotes an image recording device which is a camera device, and includes a control means 1-a consisting of a microcomputer, a setting means 1-d, a display means 1-e, and various information such as shooting information is imprinted onto a film 1-c. The film imprinting means 1-c is composed of a film imprinting means i-b for the purpose of printing, and the photographed image is imprinted on the film 1-c via a photographing optical system (not shown).
The information from b is superimposed on the image.

The setting means 1-d is for setting whether or not to imprint data, and whether to imprint such data.

2 is a barcode reading device, which is a known technology, and reads the result of reading the barcode shown in the area 3-a of the printed image 3 to the communication interface circuit 1.
-f to the control means 1-a.

Note that the barcode reading device 2 is provided as an accessory to the camera device 1 or is built into the camera device 1.

The film imprinting means 1-b has the configuration shown in FIG.

This includes a point light source array 5 in which a plurality of LEDs are arranged in one row, and is connected to terminals DOTO to 6 of the control means 1-a.

The lens 8 is optically arranged to focus the point light source array 5 onto the film 1-c.

FIG. 6 shows the window position 5a for imprinting, and the point light source array 5 is located within the enlarged circular frame.

In response to feeding or winding of the film 1-c, the rotation detector 13 generates a pulse train signal TCK and outputs it to the terminal TCK of the control means 1-a.

The rotation detector 13 is arranged as shown in FIG.

Winding and rewinding of film lc is carried out by motor 1.
1 is the power and is transmitted to the film 1-c by a gear train.

If you zoom in around one gear 131 in the gear train,
As shown in FIG. 4, the LED 132 and the photodiode 132 form a photo interrupter and the gear 13
Detect the peaks and valleys of tooth 1. The signal TCK generated by the above configuration corresponds to 12 pulses or one frame of the screen, and serves as a reference for the imprint position. The above electrical configuration is
It is shown in FIG.

Power supply 137 connects LED 132 and photodiode 133
are connected in parallel. The voltage generated across the resistor 135 changes depending on the rotational position of the photo-interrupter and the gear.

That is, if the teeth of the gear 131 on the optical path of the interrupter are valleys, the voltage will be high, and if the teeth are peaks, the voltage will be low. By applying this voltage to the comparator 136, a pulse signal TCK indicating film movement is outputted from the comparator 136.

Here, the operation of the program written in the control means 1-a will be explained.

The overall configuration is shown in FIG.

The program starts at step 801.

In step 801, variables of this program are initialized as necessary, and then the process advances to step 802.

In step 802, the operating status of the operating means 1-d is read. Here, one of the functions 0 to 6 shown in FIG. 19 is selected, and the process proceeds to step 803.

At step 803, the DX code printed on the cartridge of the film 1-c loaded in the cartridge chamber of the camera is read, and a value corresponding to the sensitivity is substituted into the variable DXC. Since this is a known technique, detailed explanation will be omitted.

The correspondence between this variable DXC and ISO sensitivity is shown in FIG. After this, the program proceeds to step 804.

At step 804, characters to be imprinted are determined according to the previously selected function. Since imprinting with ordinary characters (alpha heads and numbers) is not an uninvented feature, it will not be described in detail.

Therefore, the detailed format of the barcode portion is shown in FIG.

These numerical values are converted into barcodes, and, for example, the data string "4050513511+15" indicating function 4 in the figure becomes as shown in FIG.

The barcode format used here is Interlib2
of5 and is a widely known method in the world, so its explanation will be omitted.

This is expressed as a string of dots as shown in FIG. 9, and the character data shown in FIG. 18 is stored in variable TB2, and the process advances to step 805.

At step 805, the value 2 representing the start position of the imprint is assigned to variable PO3, and the process proceeds to step 806.

In step 806, other processing unrelated to the explanation of this program is performed, and then the process advances to step 807.

At step 807, it is determined whether a release operation is being performed.

If a release operation has not been performed, the process branches to step 802 again. Therefore, while the release operation is not being performed, this program continues from step 802 to step 8.
03→804→805→806→807→802 are repeated (period TI).

After the above operations, when a release operation is performed, the program branches to step 808 in step 807.

After exposure control is performed in step 808, the process advances to step 809. This exposure control includes shutter control, aperture control, etc., but since these are known techniques, they will not be described in detail.

At step 809, the film winding motor 11 is operated to start film feeding, and the process proceeds to step 810.

After imprint control is performed in step 810,
Proceed to step 811. FIG. 1o shows the detailed operation of this routine.

At step 811, the film winding motor 11 is made inoperative, film feeding is terminated, and step 81 is again performed.
Proceed to step 2 and repeat in the same way.

The operation of the subroutine of step 811 will be explained in detail.

To simplify the explanation here, in step 802, the function is selected and it is selected to imprint the control status of the camera device on the film 1-c using a bar code.
Assume that 4 is assigned to the variable MODE at the same time.

In the previous step 803, the DX code of film 1-C is read, and the ISO sensitivity is set to 100 and 5 is assigned to the variable DXC (FIG. 21).

The characters to be imprinted are set in step 804,
In the case of this embodiment, it is "4050513511115°". The above is the premise.

The imprint control routine in FIG. 10 includes step 1101.
will be started from.

In step 1101, it is determined whether the content of the variable MODE is 0 or not, and since the content of the variable MODE is a non-zero value,
At step 1102, which branches to step 1102, 0 is assigned to counter C, and the process proceeds to step 1103.

In step 1103, it is determined whether the state of the terminal TCK is at H level or not. Since the terminal TCK is at L level, the process branches to step 1103. While this state continues, step 110
3 is repeated (period T11).

After the period Tll, when the terminal TCK becomes H level, the process branches from step 1103 to step 1104.

At step 1104, counter C is incremented, the value of C becomes 1, and the process proceeds to step 11o5.

At step 1105, the contents of counter C (=1) and the contents of variable pos (=2) are compared, and here c<po
s, the process branches to step 1121.

At step 112+, it is determined whether the state of terminal TCK is at L level or not. Since terminal TCK is at H level, the process branches to step 1121. While this state continues, step 112+
1 is repeated (period T12).

After the period T12, when the terminal TCK becomes L level, the process branches from step 1121 to step 1103.

At step 11o3 again, it is determined whether the state of the terminal TCK is at H level or not. Since the terminal TCK is at L level, the process branches to step 1103, and while this state continues, step 1
103 is repeated (period T13). After the period T13 (7), when the terminal TCK becomes H level, the process branches to step 11o4 in step 1103.

In step 1104, the counter C is incremented and the value of C becomes 2, and the process proceeds to step 1105.In step 1105, the contents of the counter C (=2) and the contents of the variable pos (=2) are compared. c<po
Since it is not s, the process branches to step 1106.

At step 1106, the function value TB1[DXC] (=400) obtained from the table function TBI shown in FIG. 17 is assigned to the timer variable T1 with the argument DXC (=5), and the process proceeds to step 1107.

In step 1107, O is assigned to counter N,
Proceed to step 1108.

In step 1108, the argument is set to N (=O), and the second
Function value T found from table function TB2 shown in Figure 2
B2[N, (=7c (hexadecimal)) is assigned to the variable DTD, and the process advances to step 1109.

At step 1109, the contents of variable DTD (=70) and constant 55 (hexadecimal) are compared, and since they are not equal, the process branches to step 1110.

At step 1110, the contents of the variable DTD are output to the terminal DOT, and if the contents of each bit are 1, the contents of the variable DTD are output to the terminal DOT.
D is lit. Furthermore, since the most significant bit of the terminal DOT is not connected to the LED, the most significant bit of the variable DTD is ignored. Thereafter, the process advances to step 1111.

At step 1111, a standby operation is performed for a time period equal to the value of the timer variable T1 (unit: usec), and the process proceeds to step 111z.

At step 1112, O is output to the terminal DOT, and since the terminals corresponding to each bit are 0, all LEDs ~ are turned off, and the process proceeds to step 1113.

At step 1113, a standby operation is performed for the time of the value of (T2-TI) [unit: 1 sec], and at step 11
Proceed to 14 (72=1600). At step 1114, counter N is incremented, the value of N becomes 1, and the process returns to step 1108.

After the period T13, the period up to step 1114 is defined as a period T14.

Again, in step 1108, the argument is set to N (=2), and the function value TB2 [N, (=12 (hexadecimal)) found from the table function TB2 shown in FIG. 22 is set as the variable DTD.
, and the process proceeds to step 1109.

Thereafter, steps 1108 → 1109 → 1110 → 1111 → 11 until the value of variable DTD becomes 55 (hexadecimal)
12→1113→1114→1108 are repeated (period T15).

After the period T15, when the value of DTD reaches 55 (hexadecimal), the process branches to R in step 1109, and this routine ends and returns.

FIG. 11 shows the timing of the above operations.

On the other hand, if you want to imprint a normal image instead of a barcode, set the variable MO in step 802 of the main program.
When 1 or 2 is assigned to DE and, for example, the character "AB" shown in Fig. 13 is imprinted, it is a good idea to prepare a table for variable TB2 as shown in Fig. 18 in the same way as Fig. 22. There's no need to explain.

Similarly, FIG. 12 shows the tanning in this case.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to imprint both characters and barcodes.

Here, an image 3 is obtained by printing the film 1-c on which the photographed image and the previous barcode are recorded overlappingly,
By tracing the barcode as shown on the reading device 2 placed at the position 3-a in FIG. 14, it becomes possible to display the barcode. Since barcode reading is possible with existing technology, we will not discuss it in detail.

The read barcode is transmitted to the camera device 1 by the reader 2 by infrared rays by pressing the button 14-a.

The transmitted infrared rays are converted into electrical signals by a light receiving circuit 1-f, which is an interface circuit using a phototransistor, and sent to a terminal TX.

Of course, in this method of communicating by directly contacting the terminals, as shown in FIG. 15, data is exchanged by asynchronous serial communication. The example in the figure is a 4-bit 2-digit (0
5) is shown in which data d1 is being communicated, and similarly data d2.5) is being communicated. d3. ...is then communicated. Since the method of asynchronous serial communication is already known, it will not be explained in detail.

When a signal is input to the terminal TX, an interrupt occurs in the program of the control means 1-a, and control shifts to step 840 in FIG.

The program proceeds from step 840 to step 841, where it is determined whether the camera device 1 is in the external control mode.

Since this was selected in step 802 described above, it is only necessary to determine whether the content of the variable MODE is 6 or not. Here, assuming that the content of the variable MODE is 6, the process advances to step 842.

At step 842, the data input from the terminal TX is substituted into a group of parameters that define the control state of the camera device such as exposure control at step 808. The serial data described above, di d2 d3. . . . are substituted into variables Av, Sv, f, . . . that respectively define camera operations.

Each variable represents a control aperture value, shutter speed value, zoom focal length, etc., and various controls are performed according to these variables.

Furthermore, in step 843, it is determined whether or not the previous parameter can be set, and if it is, the process directly advances to step 844 and ends this process. Alternatively, if the setting is not possible, a warning operation is performed and then the process proceeds to step 844.

In the above-described embodiment, the information is displayed using a bar code, but it may also be encoded using alphanumeric characters or the like and read using a character reader (OCR).

In addition, the display data by barcode is shown in Figure 20.
In addition to the information shown in Fig. 21, the number of frames to be photographed, the exposure correction coefficient, the weather conditions at the time of shooting, and annotations that are manually set as shown in Fig. 23, such as 'Fr1ends, ``F
amily", etc., and may also be a voice.

As explained above, the barcode imprinted on the image is read and transmitted to the camera device, and the camera device is controlled accordingly, so after the film is developed,
If you notice some kind of shooting error and want to take another shot, it is convenient because the camera device is automatically set to the same state as when shooting.

In addition, it is possible to imitate the techniques of photographers of printed images, which is effective in improving the skills of inexperienced photographers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of the image recording system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a film imprinting means, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the inside of the camera as seen from the back side, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the details of the rotation detector, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the electrical configuration of the rotation detector, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the data imprinting position on the film, and FIG. 7 is an example of a bar code. 8 is a flowchart showing the main flow of the camera device, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the pixel arrangement of the barcode, and FIG.
Figure 0 is a flowchart showing the camera imprint control routine, Figures 11 and 12 are diagrams showing the sequence, and Figure 1.
Figure 3 shows the imprinting of characters, Figure 14 shows the status of barcode information reading, Figure 15 shows the serial communication method, and Figure 16 shows the relationship between the rso sensitivity and the variable DXC. Figure 17 shows the imprinting time and table function T.
A diagram showing the relationship with BI, Figure 18 is table function TB2
Figure 19 is a diagram showing the relationship between codes and functions, Figures 20, 21, and 23 are diagrams showing the barcode format, and Figure 22 is a table function. It is a figure which shows the relationship between TB2 and 3 number n. 1... Camera device 1-a... Control means 1-6
...Film imprinting means 1-c...Film 1-d Operating means 1-e...
Display means 1-f... Interface circuit 2... Barcode reading device 3... Printed image Figure 4 Figure 6 Rorororororororororo Figure 5 Money version Figure 7 % 9 Illustration study 8 Figure ￥13 figure Fig. 14 Fig. 15 Liang I6 Fig. Horse 17 Fig. Liang 18 Fig. Liang 19 Fig. 20 Fig. 21 Fig. Ka 22

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Image recording on an image recording medium is controlled based on control information of the apparatus main body set for image recording, and an information recording means is controlled so that at least the control information is superimposed on the recorded image. an image recording device equipped with a control means capable of recording; and an information reading means for reading information recorded on an image recording medium by the information recording means of the image recording device,
An image recording system that inputs information read by the information reading means to a control means of the image recording means and enables image recording based on the input information. 2. The image recording system according to claim 1, wherein the image recording device is a camera. 3. The image recording system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the information recorded on the image recording medium is barcode information. 4 Information recorded on the image recording medium includes exposure control method, aperture, shutter speed, aperture value, number of frames, recording medium sensitivity, use of strobe, shooting date, shooting time, exposure correction coefficient, weather conditions at the time of shooting, manual 4. The image recording system according to claim 3, wherein one or more of an annotation and a voice are set. 5. The image recording system according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein the image recording device controls the next recording based on control information of the information from the information reading means. 6. The image recording system according to claim 3, wherein the information recording means is controlled to enable imprinting of characters.