JPH0591453A - Image recording/reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily record a pointer to show a desired part of a subject in a photographing state and at the same time to prevent the omission of the information on the subject with use of the pointer. CONSTITUTION:The light emitted from a subject is made incident on the incident surface of a CCD 12 and also on a viewfinder 17. A CPU 15 drives an LCD driver 20 with operation of a pointer shift key 5 and displays the pointer image at a prescribed position on a display screen of the LCD 12. Thus the pointer image pointing a desired position of the subject is projected on a viewfinder window 2. When a shutter button 3 is pushed, the CPU 15 records the subject image on a memory card 16 together with the value showing the coordinates of the pointer image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly to an image recording / reproducing apparatus suitable for electronic still cameras and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an electronic still device which photoelectrically converts a subject image by an image pickup device such as a CCD (charge coupled device) to obtain a luminance signal (Y) and a chroma signal and records the same on a memory card or the like via a signal processing system. Cameras are widespread. During reproduction, data can be read from the memory card and displayed on the display screen of the display.

It is assumed that, for example, a document on a desk is photographed by the conventional image recording / reproducing device such as the electronic still camera. In this case, it may be necessary to simultaneously shoot a pointer such as a pen to indicate an important point on the document. A pen or the like is placed on a document, and an important portion is pointed by, for example, its tip. In addition, a predetermined mark indicating an important point may be written at a predetermined position on the document for photographing.

However, when the document to be photographed is stuck on the wall surface, the pen or the like cannot be used as the pointer. Further, even with a pencil, it is not possible to write a predetermined mark on a highly public document.

Further, when a plurality of persons are photographed as subjects, it is sometimes desired to indicate a predetermined person. However, in this case, a relatively large pointer needs to be prepared so that a predetermined person can be identified by the reproduced image, which is extremely complicated. In these cases,
There is also a drawback that a part of the subject is masked by the pointer pointing to a predetermined part of the subject and information is lost.

[0006]

As described above, in the above-described conventional image recording / reproducing apparatus, it may be difficult to record the pointer pointing to a part of the subject on the subject image, and the pointer may be difficult to record. There was a problem that information was lost due to.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording / reproducing apparatus capable of easily recording and reproducing a pointer indicating a predetermined portion of a subject without losing information of the subject.

[0008]

An image recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention comprises, on the recording side, display means for synthesizing and displaying an image based on an input image signal and predetermined display information based on the content of the image. Moving means for moving the display information to a predetermined position on the display surface by instructing coordinates on the display surface of the display means, and recording means for recording the coordinates instructed by the moving means on the recording medium. On the reproduction side, the generation means reads the coordinate information from the recording medium, generates an image signal for displaying predetermined display information at a position corresponding to the coordinate information, and uses this display information as an input image. It is possible to synthesize and display.

[0009]

In the present invention, the image based on the input image signal and the predetermined display information are combined and displayed on the display surface of the display means. The moving means moves the display information to a desired position by instructing the coordinates of the display surface. The recording means records the coordinates on a predetermined recording medium together with the input image signal. During reproduction, an image based on the input image signal is displayed on the display screen of the display device, and at the same time, predetermined display information is combined with the image on the display screen and displayed based on the coordinate information read from the recording medium.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the recording side of the image recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external rear surface of the apparatus of the embodiment.

In FIG. 2, an optical lens (not shown) is provided on the front surface of the camera body 1, and the incident light from the subject enters the incident surface of the CCD (not shown) through the optical lens. A viewfinder is provided on top of the camera body 1,
The subject light from the subject enters through a finder objective lens (not shown) provided on the front surface of the camera body 1, and the subject image is projected on the finder window 2 on the rear surface of the camera body 1. A shutter button 3 is provided on the upper surface of the camera body 1. The user presses the shutter button 3 to drive a shutter blade (not shown) to determine the recording timing of the subject light incident through the optical lens. Further, a memory card insertion slot 4 for inserting a memory card is provided on one side surface of the camera body 1.

Further, a pointer moving key 5 is provided on the back surface of the camera body 1 at a position where it can be manually operated during photographing. The pointer movement key 5 is for instructing the movement of a pointer image, which will be described later, and is composed of four switches 5a to 5d each having an arrow on the surface which indicates the up, down, left and right directions.

In FIG. 1, subject light from a subject enters an incident surface of a CCD 12 through an optical lens 11 for image pickup. The CCD 12 photoelectrically converts the subject light and outputs a Y signal and a chroma signal to the A / D converter 13. The A / D converter 13 converts the output of the CCD 12 into a digital signal, and a signal processing unit
Output to 14. The signal processing unit 14 is controlled by the CPU 15 to perform signal processing such as aperture correction and γ correction on the video signal from the A / D converter 13 and output it to the memory card 16.

On the other hand, the pointer movement key 5 outputs a signal based on a user operation to the CPU 15.
The CPU 15 internally has two pointer address registers (Px, Py). The CPU 15 increments the Px register by 1 when the user operates the rightward switch 5d of the pointer movement key 5 once. Also, C
PU15 is Py when the downward switch 5b is operated once.
The register is incremented by 1, the Px register is decremented by 1 when the leftward switch 5c is operated once, and the Py register is decremented by 1 when the upward switch 5a is operated once.

The CPU 15 instructs the signal processing section 14 to process the image signal from the A / D converter 13 and output it to the memory card 16 at the timing when the shutter button 3 is operated, and at the same time, the type of the image and the photographing operation. Image attribute information such as date and time and the values of the registers (Px, Py) are given to the signal processing unit 14 and recorded in the memory card 16.

FIG. 3 shows a recording area of the memory card 16.

The memory card 16 has a TOC area and N image information areas. In the TOC area, the start address and the data amount of each image information are recorded together with the attribute information of the card itself. Each image information area has an image attribute information area and an image data area. Px, P
The value of the y register is recorded in the image attribute information area, and the image data of the subject image is recorded in the image data area.

On the other hand, the subject light also enters the objective lens 18 which constitutes the finder 17. Between the objective lens 18 and the finder window 2, a transmissive liquid crystal display (hereinafter,
LCD) 19 is provided, and LCD 19 is LCD
The pointer image is displayed by being driven by the driver 20. The CPU 15 also outputs the values of the registers (Px, Py) to the LCD driver 20, and the LCD driver 20 outputs CP
L indicated by the values of the Px and Py registers from U15
A pointer image is displayed at a predetermined position on the CD19 screen. As a result, the subject image and the pointer image are optically combined, and the pointer image is superimposed on a predetermined position of the subject image and displayed on the finder window 2.

When the value of the Px register and the value of the Py register are both zero, the pointer image is located at the upper left of the finder window 2, and when the value of the Px register is large, the pointer image is in the finder window 2. Move to the right, Py
When the register value increases, the pointer image moves to the lower side of the finder window 2.

Next, the operation of the embodiment thus constructed will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a subject image and a pointer image 21 projected on the finder window 2.

First, the user inserts the memory card 16 which is a recording medium into the memory card insertion slot 4. The subject light enters the entrance surface of the CCD 12 via the optical lens 11 and also enters the objective lens 18 of the finder 17. CC
D12 photoelectrically converts the subject image into a Y luminance signal and RG.
It is converted into a B color signal and given to the A / D converter 13. The A / D converter 13 converts the input signal into a digital signal and gives it to the signal processing unit 14.

On the other hand, the user can look into the subject image through the viewfinder window 2. LCD driver 20
Displays an arrow pointer image 21 shown in FIG. 4 on the display surface of the LCD 19, and the pointer image 21 is optically combined with the subject image that has passed through the objective lens 18 for the finder 17, as shown in FIG. It is projected on the viewfinder window 2. Now, it is assumed that the user shoots three people as shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the user operates each of the switches 5a to 5d of the pointer movement key 5 in order to point the middle person by the pointer image 21. The signal from the pointer movement key 5 is given to the CPU 15, and C
The Px and Py registers of PU15 are rewritten. CPU15
Outputs the values of the Px and Py registers to the LCD driver 20, and the LCD driver 20 displays the pointer image 21 displayed on the display surface of the LCD 19 based on the values of the Px and Py registers.
Move the display position of. Each time the user operates the pointer movement key 5, the display position of the pointer image 21 moves on the display surface of the LCD 19. In this way, the user operates the pointer movement key 5 while looking through the finder window 2 to point the pointer image 21 to a desired position of the finder window 2, that is, a desired portion of the subject image (a human in the middle of FIG. 4). Can be moved to a position.

When the user presses the shutter button 3, the CPU 15 controls the signal processing unit 14 to process the image data from the A / D converter 13, and then the predetermined recording area of the memory card 16. To record. Furthermore, CPU15
Together with the image attribute information such as the image type and shooting date and time,
The values of the x and Py registers are recorded in a predetermined recording area of the memory card 16 via the signal processing unit 14.

In this embodiment, the display position of the pointer image 21 displayed on the LCD 19 is moved by the pointer moving key 5, and the values of the Px and Py registers indicating the address of the display position of the pointer image 21 are stored in the memory. It is recorded in the image attribute information area of the card 16. This makes it easy to record the pointer image 21 at the time of shooting,
Further, the pointer image 21 does not cause the image data of the subject image to be lost, and all the information of the subject image can be recorded.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an image recording / reproducing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention. The device of FIG. 5 shows the reproduction side. 5, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

The operation key 25 is based on a user operation.
The image number data of the reproduced image is output to the CPU 26. The CPU 26 reads the data in the TOC area of the memory card 16 via the signal processing unit 27 and
The start address of the image information corresponding to the desired image number is calculated from the data in the C area and the data from the operation key 25.

The CPU 26 indicates the start address to the memory card 16, reads the image data from the image data area and gives it to the signal processing section 27, and also reads the data of the Px and Py registers from the image attribute information area to obtain the pointer image. It is given to the generation unit 29. The signal processing unit 27 performs predetermined signal processing on the image data and outputs it to the synthesizing circuit 28. The pointer image generation unit 29 generates image data for displaying the pointer image at a predetermined position on the plane based on the input data and outputs it to the synthesizing circuit 28. The synthesizing circuit 28 synthesizes the image data from the signal processing unit 27 and the image data of the pointer image from the pointer image generating unit 29, and gives it to the D / A converter 30. The D / A converter 30 converts the input image data into an analog signal and outputs it to the display 31 for display.

Next, the operation of the embodiment thus configured will be described.

At the time of reproduction, the user operates the operation key 25 to specify a desired image number. The CPU 26 is reading data from the TOC area of the memory card 16, calculates the start address of the designated image data, and reads the image data of this image number from the image data area of the memory card 16. This image data is subjected to predetermined signal processing in the signal processing unit 27 and is given to the synthesizing circuit 28.

On the other hand, the CPU 26 also reads out the values of the Px and Py registers corresponding to the image data from the image attribute information area and outputs them to the pointer image generator 29. Pointer image generator 29
Supplies the image data for displaying the pointer image at a position on the plane based on the input data to the synthesizing circuit 28.
The image data and the data of the pointer image are combined by the combining circuit 28, converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 30, and given to the display 31. Thus the display
Similar to FIG. 4, a pointer image 21 indicating a predetermined portion of the subject is displayed on the display screen 31 together with the subject.

By operating the operation key 25, the pointer image 21 may not be displayed. In this case, the entire area of the subject is displayed without being blocked by the pointer image.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the pointer image recorded at the time of photographing can be displayed on the subject by the user operation.

In the above embodiment, a finder that optically combines a subject image and a pointer image is used, but the image signal of the subject from the CCD 12 and the image signal of the pointer image are electrically connected. What synthesize | combines and images a synthetic image may be employ | adopted.

Although an arrow is used as the pointer image, other marks may be used, and a desired portion may be surrounded by a rectangular window.

Further, in the above embodiment, the example in which the invention is applied to the camera having the optical lens 11 and the CCD 12 has been described, but it can be applied to any image recording device to which an electric image signal is inputted. It's clear.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily record and reproduce the pointer indicating a predetermined portion of the subject without losing the information of the subject.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a recording side of an embodiment of an image recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external rear surface of the apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a recording area of a memory card 16.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a subject image and a pointer image 21 projected on a finder window 2.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

5 ... Pointer movement key, 12 ... CCD, 15 ... CPU, 16 ...
Memory card, 17 ... Finder, 19 ... LCD, 20 ... L
CD driver

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image recording / reproducing apparatus for recording an input image signal on a predetermined recording medium, a display unit for displaying an image based on the input image signal and predetermined display information based on the content of the image by combining them. By designating the coordinates on the display surface of this display means,
An image recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: a moving unit that moves the display information to a predetermined position on the display surface; and a recording unit that records the coordinates designated by the moving unit on the recording medium. 2. A recording medium on which image information and coordinate information indicating a predetermined position of an image based on the image information are recorded, and signal processing means for reading the image information from the recording medium and converting the image information into an image signal for display. Generating means for reading the coordinate information from the recording medium and generating an image signal for displaying predetermined display information at a position corresponding to the coordinate information; and an image signal from the signal processing means and the mark generating means. An image recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: a display device capable of synthesizing and displaying images.