JPH04357782A - Reproducing device for electronic still camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make sure of the quality of collecting sound during the sound collection by the electronic still camera. CONSTITUTION:After a voice signal is AD-converted and stored in a memory (step 120), whether or not a test reproduction switch is turned on is decided before stored in a magnetic disk (step 142). When the test reproduction switch is turned on, the voice signal stored in the memory is read out and DA- converted (step 164) for reproduction. As the result of the test, when the content of the voice signal is satisfactory, a photographer depresses a voice recording trigger switch (step 151). Thus, the voice signal stored in the memory is DA- converted, and stored in the magnetic disk (step 153).

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for reproducing audio signals recorded in an electronic still camera.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Some conventional electronic still cameras have an audio signal recording function. The recording time of an audio signal is, for example, 10 seconds, but the recording time of a magnetic disk is, for example, 3600 seconds.
Since the audio signal rotates at high speed (rpm), the audio signal is normally stored in a memory (RAM), compressed along the time axis, and recorded on a magnetic disk. To play the audio signal,
This is done by reading the audio signal from the magnetic disk, subjecting it to predetermined processing, and then outputting it from a speaker or the like.

0003

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] As mentioned above, it is impossible to reproduce a collected audio signal unless it is recorded on a magnetic disk. It was not possible to confirm this during the sound collection operation. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic still camera that can check the quality of sound collection during the sound collection operation of the electronic still camera.

0004

[Means for Solving the Problem] The reproducing device for an electronic still camera according to the present invention provides a first reproducing device for temporarily storing input signals.
a recording medium, a second recording medium that finally stores the input signal, and a test playback device that can read and reproduce the input signal from the first recording medium before storing the input signal in the second recording medium. It is characterized by having the means.

[0005]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be explained below with reference to illustrated examples. FIG. 1 shows the appearance of an electronic still camera to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. This figure shows the electronic still camera viewed from the back and top side, and the photographic lens is not shown in the figure because it is disposed on the front side. Electronic still camera body 1
An audio adapter 11 for recording audio is attached to the camera 0, and the microphone of the audio adapter 11 is also provided on the front side like the photographic lens, so it is not shown in the figure.

The back of the electronic still camera body 10 is provided with a finder 12, a liquid crystal display panel 13 for displaying various modes, and various switch buttons. These buttons include a power button 14, an up button 15 and a down button 16 for changing the track number of the magnetic disk, a mode button 17 for setting recording, playback and erasing modes, and shooting modes such as continuous shooting mode. This is a select button 18 for selection.

Various switch buttons are also provided on the top surface of the electronic still camera body 10. These buttons include a strobe button 21 for firing a strobe;
an exposure compensation button 22 for performing exposure compensation; a release button 23 for performing photometry and shutter release;
These are a wide button 24 and a tele button 25 for controlling zooming of the photographic lens. Note that there are video and audio output terminals 2 on the side of the electronic still camera body 10.
6 is provided.

On the back of the audio adapter 11, there are a liquid crystal display panel 31 for displaying various modes and elapsed time of sound collection, etc., and a sound collection cancel button 3 for canceling sound collection.
2, and a time compression mode switching button 33 for setting the sound collection time. On the top surface of the audio adapter 11, there are an audio recording trigger button 34 for recording the collected audio on a magnetic disk, a sound collection button 35 for starting and ending sound collection, and a recording of the collected audio on the magnetic disk. Test playback button 36 for test playback before
are provided respectively.

FIG. 2 shows a control circuit built into the electronic still camera of this embodiment. First, electronic still camera body 1
The circuit configuration in 0 will be explained.

The system controller 41 is a conventionally known microcomputer that controls the entire camera.
It has a PU, ROM, RAM, etc., and various switches are connected to this system controller 41. The power switch 41a is for supplying power to the control circuit, and is opened and closed in conjunction with the power button 14. The mode switch 41b is connected to the mode button 17, and the select switch 4
1c opens and closes in conjunction with the select button 18, respectively. The up switch 41d, down switch 41e, wide switch 41f, tele switch 41g, strobe switch 41h, and exposure compensation switch 41i are the up button 15, down button 16, wide button 24, tele button 25, strobe button 21, and exposure compensation button, respectively. It opens and closes in conjunction with 22. Photometry switch 41
j is closed when the release button 23 is pressed halfway, and the electronic shutter release switch 41k is closed when the release button 23 is pressed fully.

An image of the subject is formed on an image sensor (CCD) 43 via a lens 42 . The image sensor 43 is connected to a video signal processing circuit 45 via an imaging circuit 44.
The imaging circuit 44 and the video signal processing circuit 45 are also connected to and controlled by the system controller 41. Note that the lens 42 is connected to the zoom drive circuit 4.
6, this zoom drive circuit 4
6 is also connected to the system controller 41, and the system controller 4
The drive is controlled by 1.

The image formed on the image sensor 43 is input to a video signal processing circuit 45 via an imaging circuit 44. In this video signal processing circuit 45, the imaging circuit 4
The video signal input from 4 is divided into a color difference signal and a luminance signal, and the two color difference signals (R-Y, B-Y) are 1H
(horizontal scanning period). The video signal processing device 45 is also connected to a video and audio output terminal 26, and by connecting a playback device (not shown) to this terminal 26, the captured video can be viewed and the recorded video can be viewed. You can hear the audio.

The disk device includes a magnetic head 51 and a head movement drive circuit 52 for driving and controlling the magnetic head 51.
A spindle motor 53 for rotationally driving the magnetic disk D, a spindle motor drive circuit 54 for driving and controlling the motor 53, and a PG coil 55 for detecting the rotation timing of the magnetic disk D. PG coil 5
5 is connected to a spindle motor drive circuit 54, and the spindle motor drive circuit 54 and head movement drive circuit 52 are connected to the system controller 41.

The luminance signal and two color difference signals of the video signal are each FM-modulated and multiplexed onto the same recording track. Therefore, an FM modulation circuit 62 and an FM demodulation circuit 63 are directly connected to the video signal processing circuit 45 via a switch 61. The FM modulation circuit 62 is connected to the magnetic head 51 of the disk device through a head amplifier 64 and a switch 65, and the FM demodulation circuit 63 is connected to a head amplifier 66 and a switch 65, respectively. The switch 65 is controlled by the system controller 41.

The switch 61 is the system controller 41
During video recording, the video signal processing circuit 4
5 side, and when recording audio, the DA converter 71 (described later)
configured to connect to. Similarly, the switch 65 is
It is configured to be selectively switched between the FM modulation circuit 62 side and the FM demodulation circuit 63 side under control by the system controller 41. That is, the switch 65 switches the FM modulation circuit 62 when recording video data onto the magnetic disk D.
A head amplifier 64 on the side is connected to the magnetic head 51, whereby video data is FM modulated and recorded on the magnetic disk D. On the other hand, when reproducing images recorded on the magnetic disk D, the switch 65 connects the head amplifier 66 on the FM demodulation circuit 63 side to the magnetic head 51. Therefore, the video data recorded on the magnetic disk D is
The M demodulated signal is input to the video signal processing circuit 45, and the video is thereby played back by a playback device connected to the video output terminal 26.

The system controller 41 includes a liquid crystal display panel 13 for displaying the current status of the camera, etc.
is connected. The system controller 41 also includes a strobe light emission control circuit 68 that controls the strobe light emission section 67.
is connected.

Next, the circuit configuration inside the audio adapter 11 will be explained. The microphone 72 is connected to an audio signal processing circuit 74 via a microphone amplifier 73.
4 is connected to an AD converter 76 via a switch 75. Therefore, the audio input from the microphone 72 is logarithmically compressed by the audio signal processing circuit 74 and input to the AD converter 76, where it is AD converted.

AD converter 76, clock selection circuit 77,
Memory (RAM) 78 and DA converter 71 are interconnected by a data bus 79. Memory 78 and address counter 81 are connected by address bus 82. Clock selection circuit 77 outputs a clock signal to AD converter 76, memory 78, DA converter 71, and address counter 81, as will be described later. The clock selection circuit 77 is connected to a system controller 83 for audio processing. The system controller 83 is a microcomputer that performs overall control of the audio adapter 11, and is connected to the system controller 41 within the electronic still camera body 10.

DA converter 71 is connected to FM modulation circuit 62 via switch 61. The switch 61 is configured to selectively connect the FM modulation circuit 62 to the video signal processing circuit 45 or the DA converter 71. That is, the switch 61 is connected to the video signal processing circuit 45 side when recording video, and connected to the DA converter 71 side when recording audio. Therefore, when recording audio, the audio signal is input from the audio signal processing circuit 74 to the AD converter 76 and converted into a digital signal, and then transferred to the memory 78 and converted to an analog signal by the DA converter 71. Thereafter, the signal is FM modulated and recorded on one recording track of the magnetic disk D.

The switch 75 is the system controller 83
Switched by. Switch 75 is used when recording audio.
It is connected to the audio signal processing circuit 74 side, but when playing audio,
It is configured to be connected to the FM demodulation circuit 63 side. Therefore, when reproducing audio, the audio signal recorded on the magnetic disk D is FM demodulated, then subjected to predetermined processing by the AD converter 76, memory 78, and DA converter 71, and logarithmically processed by the audio signal processing circuit 84. After being expanded, it is amplified to a predetermined level and played back by a playback device connected to the audio output terminal 26.

The system controller 83 includes switches 8 that open and close in conjunction with the sound collection cancel button 32, time compression mode switching button 33, audio recording trigger button 34, sound collection button 35, and test playback button 36, respectively.
3a, 83b, 83c, 83d, and 83e are connected. The system controller 83 also includes an audio adapter 11.
A liquid crystal display panel 31 is connected for displaying the current status and the like.

In this embodiment, in order to record the audio signal on the magnetic disk D and to reproduce the audio signal recorded on the magnetic disk D, the audio signal is sent to the DA converter 71, AD
A signal processing circuit including a converter 76, a clock selection circuit 77, a memory 78, an address counter 81, etc. compresses or expands the signal along the time axis. usually,
Since the magnetic disk D rotates at 3600 rpm, in order to record approximately 20 seconds of audio on one track of the magnetic disk D, it is necessary to adjust the time axis. For this reason, still video devices are equipped with an audio memory, and after storing the audio signal in the audio memory in a time-compressed state, the data in the audio memory is recorded onto the magnetic disk at a timing corresponding to the rotational speed of the magnetic disk. It is configured as follows.

The circuit configuration for compressing and expanding the audio signal on the time axis will be explained with reference to FIG. In the signal processing circuit shown in FIG. 3, the analog circuit 91 corresponds to the audio signal processing circuits 74 and 84 shown in FIG. Further, the clock selection circuit 77 has first and second changeover switches 92 and 93, and the system controller 83 has a built-in counter. Furthermore, this signal processing circuit includes a high-speed clock oscillation circuit 94.
has. The first changeover switch 92 is selectively connected to one of the high-speed clock oscillation circuit 94 and the system controller 83, and the second changeover switch 93 is connected to the AD converter 76.
and one of the DA converters 71. These first and second changeover switches 92 and 93 are switched and controlled by a control signal output from the system controller 83.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a program for recording audio. When the sound collection button 35 is not pressed and the sound collection switch 83d is in the OFF state, the process moves from step 101 to step 102, and it is determined whether or not to end the audio recording mode. When a mode other than the recording mode is selected by the mode button 17, this program ends, but while the recording mode is selected, step 101,
The determination in step 102 is repeated.

If the sound collection switch 83d is in the on state, the sound collection time mode flag is determined in step 103. This mode flag is a flag indicating whether the sound collection time set by the time compression mode switching button 33 is the 10 second mode or the 20 second mode. mode is set. Note that this mode flag is set before step 101.

In steps 110-144, the audio signal is stored in memory 78. In order to store the audio signal in the memory 78, in step 110, a low-speed clock is selected and the address counter 81 for address management of the memory 78 is reset. In this embodiment, the sound collection time modes are the 10 second mode and the 20 second mode as described above, and in step 110, a predetermined low-speed clock is set so that a clock signal corresponding to the sound collection time mode is generated. is selected. This will be described later with reference to FIG.

In step 120, the address counter 8
1 and the AD converter 76 starts, thereby AD converting the audio signal. Next, in step 130, a low-speed clock generation process is performed, and a predetermined low-speed clock signal is generated based on the high-speed clock from the high-speed clock oscillation circuit 94, as will be described later with reference to FIG. Sampling (AD conversion) of the audio signal and writing to the memory 78 are performed in synchronization with this low-speed clock signal.

This writing continues as long as the sound collection switch 83d is not turned off in step 141, and as long as it is determined in step 142 that the address in the memory 78 is not finished. be done. When the sound collection switch 83d is turned off or the address in the memory 78 ends, the process proceeds from step 141 or 142 to step 143, and the generation of the low-speed clock signal ends.

Next, in step 144, the control code and control flag are written to memory 78. The recording state of the control code, control flag, and audio signal on the magnetic disk D will be explained with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 schematically shows the control code C1, control flags F1, F2, and audio signal C2 in one sector of the magnetic disk D. Within the sector,
The signal recorded is the control flag F1 which is a start flag.
, and ends with the control flag F2, which is the end flag. The control code C2 includes various information such as a track number and date, and is recorded after the start flag. The audio signal C2 is recorded after the control code. Note that by setting the control flag to a predetermined level, one audio signal can be continuously recorded over a plurality of sectors.

As described above, the audio signal is stored in the memory 78 in accordance with the low-speed clock signal.

In steps 151 to 155, the memory 78
The audio signal stored in . is stored on the magnetic disk D. In this embodiment, prior to this operation, step
1 to 167, the audio signal in the memory 78 can be test-played.

That is, in step 151, if the audio recording trigger button 34 is not pressed and therefore the trigger switch 83c is not in the on state, it is determined in step 161 whether or not the test playback switch 83e is in the on state, that is, the test It is determined whether or not the playback button 36 is pressed. If the test playback switch 83e is turned on before the audio recording trigger button 34 is pressed, the playback mode is entered in step 162.

In step 163, the control code is decoded to recognize the sound collection time mode, etc., and according to this sound collection time mode, a predetermined low-speed clock is selected and the address counter is reset. Step 164
Then, the address counter 81 is reset and the DA converter 71 is started, and in step 165,
Similar to step 130, low-speed clock generation processing is performed. Thereby, the audio signal is DA-converted in synchronization with the low-speed clock signal, and is output from the output terminal 26 and reproduced while being expanded along the time axis. The address counter 81 indicates the end address of the audio data in the memory 78,
That is, when the last address where the audio signal is stored is reached, the process proceeds from step 166 to step 167, and the generation of the low-speed clock signal ends. Then, the test playback of the audio signal is completed, and the recording mode is entered in step 168.

As a result of such test playback, when it is confirmed that a predetermined audio signal is stored in the memory 78, the audio recording trigger button 34 is pressed by the photographer. As a result, it is determined in step 151 that the trigger switch 83c is in the on state, and step 152
~155, the audio signal stored in the memory 78 is stored on the magnetic disk D. First, step 15
2, the high speed clock is selected and the address counter 81
is reset and the DA converter 71 is started. That is, the audio signal is DA-converted in synchronization with a high-speed clock signal, thereby being compressed along the time axis and transferred to the electronic still camera main body 10 side. This audio signal is FM-modulated by the FM modulation circuit 62 and written to the magnetic disk D under the control of the system controller 41.

When the address counter 81 reaches the end address of the memory 78, that is, the last address where the audio signal is stored, steps 154 to 155 are performed.
Then, the generation of the high-speed clock signal ends. This completes the control of writing the audio signal onto the magnetic disk D.

On the other hand, if it is determined as a result of the test playback that the predetermined audio signal is not stored in the memory 78, the sound collection cancel button 32 is pressed by the photographer. As a result, the audio signal in the memory 78 is erased.

FIG. 6 shows steps 110, 120, and
130 in more detail. Steps 111 and 112 in FIG. 6 correspond to step 110 in FIG.
Steps 131 to 136 correspond to step 130 in FIG. 6 also corresponds to steps 163 to 165 in FIG. 4, steps 111 and 112 correspond to step 163 in FIG. 4, and steps 131 to 136 correspond to step 165 in FIG. 4. Note that step 120 in FIG.
corresponds to step 164 in FIG. 6 by changing "A/D start" to "D/A start".

In step 111, the sound collection time mode set in step 104 or 105 is determined. In step 112, a set pulse value corresponding to this sound collection time mode is set, and is also set in the address counter 81.

After address counter 81 and AD converter 76 are started in step 120, step 13
1, counting of high-speed pulse signals output from the high-speed clock oscillation circuit 94 is started. When this count value reaches the set value, from step 132 to step 1
33, output port P of the system controller 83
It is determined whether the level is "L" (low) level or not. When the level of output port P is “L” level,
The level is changed to "H" (high) in step 134, and conversely, when the level of the output port P is "H", it is changed to the "L" level in step 135.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 7, a predetermined low-speed clock signal is generated from the high-speed clock signal. The period of this slow clock signal is determined by the set pulse value set in step 112, that is, determined by the sound collection time mode.

After the level of the output port P is changed, the count value is reset to "0" in step 136, and steps 131 and subsequent steps are executed again to repeat the above-described operations.

As described above, this embodiment is configured so that the collected audio signal can be reproduced before being stored in the magnetic disk D from the memory 78. That is, it is possible to check whether the sound collection is good or not during the sound collection operation, and desired audio data can be reliably recorded on the magnetic disk D.

Note that the system controllers 41 and 83 do not need to be configured separately, and can be configured from a common computer.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to check the quality of sound collection during the sound collection operation by an electronic still camera, and to ensure that a desired audio signal is transferred to a recording medium such as a magnetic disk. It becomes possible to record.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an electronic still camera that is used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control circuit of the electronic still camera of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an audio signal processing circuit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a program for recording audio.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a control flag, a control code, and an audio signal.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a program for generating a low-speed clock signal from a high-speed clock signal.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a high speed clock signal and a low speed clock signal.

[Explanation of symbols]

36 Test play button 78 Memory (first recording medium)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first recording medium for temporarily storing an input signal, a second recording medium for finally storing the input signal, and a first recording medium for temporarily storing the input signal, and a second recording medium for finally storing the input signal. A reproducing apparatus for an electronic still camera, comprising: a test reproducing means capable of reading and reproducing an input signal from the first recording medium.