JPH0579820A - Electronic still camera system which can display size - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To secure easy observability even if a scale pattern, which is hard to observe, is displayed by freely selecting the color and the brightness of the displayed scale pattern by the manual operation of a photographer. CONSTITUTION:At the time of photographing, a CPU 14 receives zoom data and distance data, operates the data and obtains the scale data. A scale pattern is generated in a scale-pattern generator 23 based on the scale data. After color change is automatically processed with a judging circuit 20, a luminance adjusting lever 39 and a color selecting button 38 are operated. Thus, the brightness and the color can be freely selected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention calculates data relating to dimension display based on distance information, zoom information, aperture information, etc. when a photographed subject image is in focus, and generates a scale pattern based on the calculated data to form a subject image. The present invention relates to an electronic still camera system capable of displaying dimensions at the same time, and more specifically, to an electronic still camera system capable of changing the color and brightness of a scale to be dimensionally displayed according to a photographer's intention.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The applicant of the present application has proposed a system for an electronic still camera capable of inserting a size pattern into an image of a subject, which automatically changes the color when the size pattern is similar to the background color. There is (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-1
49850). When the dimensional pattern is displayed by the above system, the scale pattern is displayed differently from the background color to ensure the easy-to-read scale display.

[0003]

However, since the brightness (luminance) of the color of the dimension display is constant, when the color of the displayed scale is changed, the way the human eyes perceive the color is different. It was sometimes difficult to see. There was also a request to choose the color of the scale. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic still camera system in which the photographer himself can manually select the color and brightness of the scale pattern to be displayed by the photographer himself.

[0004]

To achieve the above object, an electronic still camera system capable of displaying dimensions according to the present invention is provided with focus information, zoom information and distance of a subject image formed on an image pickup device through a lens system. An electronic still camera capable of obtaining information and aperture information, calculating data relating to dimensions, and generating a scale pattern based on the calculated data by means of a scale pattern generating means and displaying the image together with a subject image. , A color control circuit for changing the color of the scale pattern to the color selected by the color selecting means, a brightness adjusting means for adjusting the brightness of the scale pattern, and a previous scale A brightness control circuit for controlling the brightness of the pattern to the brightness adjusted by the brightness adjusting means is provided.

[0005]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic still camera capable of displaying dimensions according to the present invention. The imaging system means includes a lens system 1, a diaphragm 2 and a CCD imaging device 3.
And so on. The lens system 1 is composed of a master lens, a focus adjustment lens, a variable power lens (zoom lens) and the like, and a diaphragm 2 is arranged behind it. The iris including the focus control means, the autofocus control circuit 18 is configured to include a drive unit for driving the focus adjustment lens and the variable power lens of the lens system 1, a drive unit for driving the diaphragm, and a control unit for controlling these. ing. A control signal is sent from the CPU 14 to the iris / autofocus control circuit 18 via the shutter control circuit 16.

The CPU 14 is the shutter control circuit 1
When the CCD driver 17 is activated via 6 to drive the CCD image pickup device 3, the subject image is taken into the circuit of the recording system through the image pickup system means and displayed on an electronic viewfinder (not shown). In addition to the above operation, the iris / autofocus control circuit 18 drives the focusing lens based on the high frequency signal extracted from the video signal to perform the focusing operation. Information (distance information) indicating the focus adjustment lens position and focus adjustment lens position is sent to the CPU 14. When a zoom operation is performed and a zoom signal is input from the CPU 14, the variable power lens is driven to enlarge or reduce the subject to a desired size. The zoom lens position information at that time, that is, zoom information is also sent to the CPU 14.
In addition to this, the iris / autofocus control circuit 18 receives the brightness information from the video signal and drives and controls the diaphragm 2 so that the subject is properly exposed.

When the CPU 14 receives a release operation signal, it sends a control signal to the shutter control circuit 16. The shutter control circuit 16 is the CCD driver 1
7, the CCD image sensor 3 is made to discharge the electric charge accumulated up to that point to start the transfer, and the transfer is ended after a predetermined time (shutter time). The CCD image pickup device 3 sends an electric signal of a subject image to a recording system circuit. In the circuit of the recording system, the electric signal of the CCD image pickup device 3 is the color signal processing circuit 5
Is input to the luminance signal processing circuit 7. Color signal processing circuit 5
Subtracts the Y (luminance) signal and the chroma signal,
Output a color difference signal. On the other hand, the luminance signal processing circuit 7 uses the timing pulse from the timing generator 19 to insert a synchronizing signal or the like to create a predetermined luminance signal.
A part of the output of the brightness signal processing circuit 7 is sent to a contrast detection unit (not shown), the contrast detection unit detects the brightness of the brightness signal, and the detection information is sent to the CPU 14. The CPU 14 analyzes the detection information and sends a control signal to the iris / autofocus control circuit 18 for the above-mentioned exposure control.

The scale inserter 6 is a circuit for inserting scale information into the color difference signal. The scale inserter 8 is a circuit for inserting scale information into the luminance signal. These scale inserters 6 and 8 operate only when a scale pattern signal is sent from the scale pattern generator 23, and the color signal processing circuit 5 and the luminance signal processing circuit 7 generate color difference signals and luminance signals forming an image of a subject. When supplied, the scale pattern signal is not inserted in those signals. Therefore, the scale inserters 6 and 8 output the image signal of the subject and the image signal in which only the scale pattern signal is inserted at different timings when one frame is photographed.

The scale pattern generator 23 is shown in FIG.
The signal of the scale 37 as shown in
The scale pattern corresponding to the size of the subject is output based on the scale data obtained by calculating the zoom information (information on the angle of view) and the distance information at the time of focusing, which is taken into the PU 14. This scale pattern also includes numbers indicating scales. Scale pattern generator 23
Is input to the scale inserter 8 via the controller 32. The controller 32 adjusts the scale signal to the selected brightness. The color difference signal is input to the scale inserter 6 via the controller 31. The controller 31 controls the color difference signal to be the color difference signal of the selected color. The discrimination circuit 20 takes in the color difference signal of the portion into which the scale is inserted among the color difference signals of the video signal of the subject outputted from the color signal processing circuit 5 by the timing pulse from the timing generator 19, and outputs it from the scale pattern generator 23. This is a circuit that takes in the color difference signals of the scale pattern and compares these color difference signals. Then, as a result of the comparison, if the colors are similar, a signal indicating the same is sent to the CPU 14.
The CPU 14 changes the color difference signal portion of the scale information to a color difference signal of a color different from the predetermined color.

The color difference signal and the luminance signal which have passed through the scale inserters 6 and 8 in this manner are sent to the recording processing circuit 22 which is composed of an emphasis circuit, a modulator and a synthesizer. In the emphasis circuit, the chrominance signal and the luminance signal hold the S / N ratio of the high frequency portion at the time of modulation, so that the characteristic of the high frequency portion is enhanced. Then, each signal is FM-modulated by the modulator and combined by the combiner. The composite signal is recorded on a predetermined recording track of the video floppy 12 by the magnetic head 13. At this time, the video signal of only the scale pattern is recorded on the even-numbered tracks, and the video signal of the subject is recorded on the odd-numbered tracks. The track number of the image of the subject and the track number of the image of only the scale pattern are associated with each other and stored in the memory built in the CPU 14.

The servo circuit 9 activates the motor driver 10 under the control of the CPU 14 to drive and control the motor 11, and rotates the video floppy 12 at a predetermined speed and phase. Further, the head driving motor (not shown) is driven to move the magnetic head 13 to the track of the video floppy 12 instructed by the CPU 14. CPU1
An LCD 15 is connected to the display 4, and various displays showing the state of the electronic still camera are made. A key input circuit 21 for selecting the scale mode is also provided. Further, a button 38 for selecting the color of the scale and a brightness adjusting lever 39 are connected.

The circuit portion on the right side of the video floppy 12 is a reproducing system circuit. The video signal of the subject of a predetermined odd numbered track recorded on the video floppy 12 is the CPU 1
Under the control of No. 4, it is read out to the reproduction processing circuit 24 composed of a Y / C separation section, a demodulator, a de-emphasis circuit and an RY / BY synchronization circuit. The reproduction processing circuit 24 separates the luminance signal modulated wave and the color difference signal modulated wave.
The chrominance signal modulated wave and the luminance signal modulated wave are demodulated, and the demodulated signals are restored to their original flat characteristics.
Then, the R-Y and B-Y demodulated waves of the color difference signals are subjected to synchronization processing, and the signals and the luminance signals subjected to the synchronization processing are input to the NTSC encoder 25. The NTSC encoder 25 converts these signals into NTSC signals and sends the converted NTSC signals to the A / D converter 26.

The output of the A / D converter 26 is temporarily stored in the address space of the memory 27 indicated by the memory control circuit 30 instructed by the CPU 14. CPU1 here
When a command for inputting a dimension display is given by key input from the key input circuit 21, reference numeral 4 indicates a predetermined odd-numbered track and set even-numbered track number information, and the even-numbered track number information is read. The servo circuit 9 is controlled to move the magnetic head 13 to the track. When the magnetic head 13 is positioned on the even-numbered track, the video signal of only the scale is read. The read video signal is processed in the same manner as the video signal of the subject, and is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 26. The memory control circuit 30 stores the scale-only video signal in an address space different from the address space of the memory 27 in which the video signal of the subject is stored. After that, the video signals of the subject and scale in the memory 27 are simultaneously read and synthesized by the memory control circuit 30 during reproduction, and converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 28. Then, it is amplified by the video amplifier 29 and output from the video output terminal.

FIG. 4 is a circuit block diagram showing details of the discrimination circuit. The discrimination circuit 20 is a circuit portion surrounded by a dotted line,
Gate circuits 20a, 20b, comparator 20c, integrator 20
d, a reference generator 20g, a comparator 20e and a switching signal generator 20f.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the input / output relationship of each circuit section. In FIG. 5A, the RY and BY color difference signals indicated by a are input to the input of the gate circuit 20a. Further, a rectangular color difference signal indicated by b is input to the gate circuit 20b. Timing generator 19
When the gate pulse c indicating the timing of the color difference signal corresponding to the scale pattern input position is supplied, the gate circuits 20a and 20b respectively supply the normal and inverted input terminals of the comparator 20c while the gate pulse c is supplied. The color difference signals a and b are output to. Gate circuit 20a
Only the color difference signal of the scale pattern portion is extracted by the operations of and 20b. The output signal e of the comparator 20c is integrated by the integrator 20d. The integrated output f is compared with the reference signal h output from the reference generator 20g and the comparator 2
0e for comparison. The timing generator 19 outputs the gate pulse c and then outputs the reset pulse g to the integrator 20d at constant time intervals, and the comparator 20e compares the output integrated during that time with the reference signal h. Here, the waveforms shown from h to j are examples when the colors are not similar colors. The output f of the integrator 20d is the reference signal h as a result of comparison.
, The low level signal i indicating that the colors are not similar colors is output. Timing generator 19
Is the switching signal generator 2 immediately before the reset pulse g is output.
The comparison timing pulse k is output to 0f, and the switching signal generator 20f outputs the logical product of the output of the comparator 20e and the comparison timing pulse k. The output of the switching signal generator 20f becomes a low level signal j and is sent to the CPU 14. The CPU 14 determines from the low level signal j that the background color of the subject is different from the scale color.

FIG. 2 is a diagram in which a color selection display section and a brightness adjustment display section are provided on the upper and right portions of the display section. In the color selection display portion 34, one of seven colors can be selected by pressing the color selection button 38.
One can be selected and each color is associated with 1-7. A displays automatic color selection. Also,
The brightness adjustment display section 35 is a display section showing the brightness when the brightness adjustment lever 39 is operated.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the flow when the size display mode is selected and an image is taken. After setting the dimension display mode by the key input circuit 21 (step 1) and pressing the release button halfway (step 2), the focusing operation is performed and the distance information and the like are stored in the CPU.
Taken in 14. The CPU 14 performs calculation to calculate scale data (step 3). The scale data is sent to the scale pattern generator 23, and the scale pattern signal is sent to the discrimination circuit 20. Judgment circuit 2
At 0, the background color is compared with the display color having a predetermined size as described above (step 4), and it is determined whether or not they are similar colors (step 5). If the colors are similar, the display color of the dimension is changed (step 6). If the colors are not similar colors, the change is not performed and the signal is fed back to the CPU 14.

Next, it is judged whether or not the release button has been pushed down (step 7). When the release button is pressed all the way, the image of the subject is recorded on the odd-numbered tracks and the image of the scale pattern is recorded on the even-numbered tracks on the video floppy 12 (step 12). If the release button has not been pressed down, it is next determined whether the color selection button 38 has been pressed to select a color (step 8). If the color is selected, the dimension display color is changed to the selected color (step 9). If not selected, it is next determined whether or not the brightness (luminance) of the color has been changed (step 10). The brightness of the color is initially set at the center of the luminance display section. If the brightness adjusting lever 39 is adjusted from this position to the bright direction or the dark direction, the dimensional brightness is changed to the adjusted brightness (step 11). If you have not changed it, next is Step 7.
Return to the judgment as to whether or not the release has been pressed. The operations of steps 8 to 11 are repeated unless the release is pushed all the way down, so the photographer is free to change the color and brightness of the scale pattern before shooting if the automatically set colors are inappropriate. it can.

As described above, in this embodiment, the color and the brightness of the scale pattern are selected at the time of photographing, but they may be selected at the time of displaying on the TV monitor or the like at the time of reproducing. Also,
The image of the subject and the scale pattern are recorded on different tracks on the recording medium, and are combined at the time of reproduction. However, the image of the subject and the scale pattern may be superposed at the time of recording and recorded on the recording medium. In such a case, the reproduction screen is a screen in which the scale is inserted, and it is not possible to select whether or not to display the scale. Although the video signal of the subject is analog-recorded, it can be similarly applied to the case where the semiconductor memory (IC card or the like) is digitally recorded on the recording medium. Although there is a video camera equipped with a still function, this camera is also included in the category of the electronic still camera system of the present invention as long as it satisfies the requirements of the claims of the present invention.

[0020]

As described above, the electronic still camera system according to the present invention is constructed so that the color and brightness of the scale displayed together with the image of the subject can be selected according to the photographer's intention. If the scale displayed along with the subject image on the viewfinder or TV monitor is difficult to see, the color and brightness can be changed to an easy-to-see color. You can also choose your favorite color,
The application of painting will spread.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic still camera system capable of displaying dimensions according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a color selection display unit and a brightness adjustment display unit displayed on the upper side and the right side of the display unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a flow of an operation for performing color selection.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing details of a determination circuit.

FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram for explaining the operation of the determination circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Lens 2 ... Aperture 3 ... CCD 5 ... Color signal processing circuit 6, 8 ... Scale inserter 7 ... Luminance signal processing circuit 9 ... Servo circuit 10 ... Motor driver 11 ... Motor 12 ... Video floppy 13 ... Magnetic head 14 ... CPU 15 ... LCD 16 ... Shutter control circuit 17 ... CCD driver 18 ... Iris, autofocus control circuit 19 ... Timing generator 20 ... Discrimination circuit 21 ... Key input circuit 22 ... Recording processing circuit 23 ... Scale pattern generator 24 ... Reproduction processing circuit 25 ... NTSC Encoder 26 ... A / D converter 27 ... Memory 28 ... D / A converter 30 ... Memory control circuit 31 ... Controller (color control circuit) 32 ... Controller (luminance control circuit) 34 ... Color selection display section 35 ... Luminance adjustment display Part 38 ... Color selection box Tan 39 ... Brightness adjustment lever

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Obtaining focus information, zoom information, distance information and diaphragm information of a subject image formed on an image sensor through a lens system, calculating data relating to dimensions, and calculating the same by a scale pattern generating means. An electronic still camera capable of generating a scale pattern based on data and displaying it together with a subject image, wherein color selecting means for selecting one of a plurality of colors and color of the scale pattern is selected by the color selecting means. A color control circuit for changing the brightness of the scale pattern, a brightness adjusting unit for adjusting the brightness of the scale pattern, and a brightness control circuit for controlling the brightness of the previous scale pattern to the brightness adjusted by the brightness adjusting unit. An electronic still camera system capable of displaying dimensions characterized by