JPH06231014A - Information recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To remarkably improve usability by performing the retrieval of the recordable area of a medium again when an operation to change data size is performed. CONSTITUTION:The re-retrieval of an unrecorded block is performed corresponding to the change of target file size, and the position of a recording area on the medium is changed appropriately. The recording area of a memory card is shown in (A), and a managing area and a recorded area exist there. As for each recording file size, one of it is equivalent to file size B shown in (B), and file size B in (C) is set in size doubling file size A. When the file size of video data to be recorded is of A, the unrecor-ded area is retrieved again, and recording can be performed on an unrecorded area #11 whose recording start position is designated by a pointer A in (A), however, when the file size is of B, recording capacity is insufficient in the unrecorded area #1, therefore, a pointer B is set so as to perform the recording on an unrecorded area #2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording device, and more particularly to an information recording device for recording information data as a file on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in an electronic still camera, various data such as image data, audio data and control data are recorded as files on a recording medium such as a memory card, a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium. When data is recorded in a file format on a recording medium such as a memory card, it is desirable that memory management be performed in a standard DOS format in a personal computer or the like in terms of data compatibility. In an electronic still camera, DOS is used. The format manages memory. This also applies to other information recording devices.

[0003]

As described above, the information recording apparatus such as the conventional electronic still camera adopts the memory management system of the DOS format. By the way, for example,
When the operation mode or system data is changed, such as when the compression rate when compressing video data, monochrome / color, field / frame, single / continuous shooting, or a combination of these changes, it is recorded. The required memory capacity (target file size) changes. When the target file size changes in this way, appropriate measures have not been taken conventionally, and there was a problem in terms of usability.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to appropriately cope with the case where the size of a data file such as an image is changed,
An object is to provide an information recording device with improved usability.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an information recording apparatus according to the present invention is a file of recorded image data for each predetermined unit or recorded sound data for each predetermined unit which is recorded data. As an information recording device for storing in a corresponding area in the applied recording medium as described above, a means for changing the corresponding area in the recording medium when an operation that causes a change in file size is performed Consists of

[0006]

In the present invention, in the above information recording apparatus, when an operation that causes a change in the size of a file is performed, the corresponding area in the recording medium is changed.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of an electronic still camera which is an example of an information recording apparatus related to the present invention. A subject image is formed on the image pickup element of the image pickup circuit 2 via the optical system 1 and converted into an electric image signal. This video signal is converted into a digital signal by the A / D conversion circuit 3 and stored in the frame memory 4. The video data read from the frame memory 4 is converted into an analog signal by the D / A conversion circuit 5, then converted into a video signal by the video encoder 6, and displayed on a monitor by a viewfinder 7 composed of liquid crystal or the like. And is supplied to the output terminal OUT.

The video data read from the frame memory 4 is compressed by the compression / expansion circuit 8 and recorded on the memory card 16 via the bus 10 and the card interface (I / F) circuit 9.

At the time of reproduction, the video data read from the memory card 16 via the card I / F circuit 9 is expanded by the compression / expansion circuit 8 and then stored in the frame memory 4. The image data read from the frame memory 4 is converted into a video signal through the processing of the D / A conversion circuit 5 and the video encoder 6, and is output to the viewfinder 7 and the output terminal OUT.

The system controller 12 controls the entire camera device. The clock module 11 supplies the system controller 12 with information such as date and time for performing processing unique to this example as described later. The non-volatile memory 13 records information necessary for the operation of the system controller 12. The display panel 14 displays the operating state of the camera device. The operation switch 15 is composed of various tact switches for instructing a camera operation. As will be described later, the buzzer 17 gives an alarm when an inappropriate state occurs in the camera operation.

In this example, the conventional inconvenience is solved by setting a file name defined as a combination of a predetermined calculation result of a fixed pattern, serial number, date and time data as a file name. Figure 2 shows D in the memory card
An example of area arrangement according to the OS regulation is shown. The memory card recording area includes a boot sector area, a FAT area, a root directory area, and a data file recording area. The root directory area has consecutive directory entries 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, as shown in FIG. ... with a region. In the electronic still camera, each entry area 0, 1,
Frame numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... Are assigned to 2, 3, 4 ,.

As shown in FIG. 4, the directory entry is divided into a file name, an attribute, a reservation, a time, a date, a start cluster, and an area indicating the size of the file. The file name is composed of 11 bytes. The main file name is 8 bytes and the sub file name is 3 bytes. The following description will be given for the root directory, but the same applies to subdirectories.

As for the file name, as shown in FIG. 5, 3 bytes "DSC" of 8 bytes of the main file name are fixed and 3 bytes "J6I" of the sub file are fixed. Of the remaining 6 bytes of the main file name, 3 bytes (~) are assigned to the operation result of the date and time described later, and 2 bytes (
And) are assigned serial numbers. The number of digits and position can be freely selected within the standard. The serial number may be a serial number from the time when the part other than the serial number of the name is determined. Further, it may be processed data such as an entry number. Bytes to are determined by performing a calculation as described below using date and time data at the time when the memory card is mounted. The data is retained until the memory card is removed. This calculation may be recalculated at the time of power-on, or may be calculated each time photographing is performed.

The above calculation is performed as shown in FIG. 6 using a hash function, for example. The example of FIG. 6 is '92 .09.
26:13:19 (September 26, 1992, 13:19)
Minutes), arrange each number in a vertical column, express each number in binary, and shift by 1 bit,
EX-OR (exclusive OR) is performed on each binary value in the vertical direction. The EX-OR operation in this case is set to "1" when the sum of "1" of each digit is odd, and set to "0" when it is even. The result is displayed at the bottom, and is read from the upper side by dividing into 4 bits, read as 0 to 9, A to F (hexadecimal number), and read as ASCII code. At this time, the last byte is not used. The result is “93
7 ".

Therefore, the recorded file name is
The names are as shown in FIG. 7, and the determined file names can be displayed on the viewfinder or the external monitor screen.

In the above file name determination method, the name may be read as an alphabetic code, and the number of delimiter bits can be set arbitrarily. Further, the calculation for determining the file name may be performed by any method other than the hash function method, and a random number or the like may be used.

Next, an example of solving and avoiding the problem when the file names are duplicated will be described. When data compatibility with an external device such as a personal computer is performed, it is not possible to predict what the name of the data file in the medium will be,
There is always the possibility of duplication. This example avoids such a problem.

In this example, first, the file name determined as described above is held and displayed if possible. Next, search the file name in the directory to see if there is a matching file name.If there is no match, use that file name as it is, and if there is a match, increment the serial number part. Then, the processing for returning to the above-mentioned file name search processing is performed again.

For example, if the contents of the directory of the attached memory card are as shown in FIG.
When the image data of the first image is recorded, the data of the first image is recorded in the area A of FIG. When the data of the second sheet is recorded, the file name of the second sheet is "DSC93702.J6".
Since I ″ already exists (C in FIG. 9), the serial number part is incremented and recorded in the B area.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of the processing procedure of this example. When the memory card is mounted, first, the card management area is read (step S1), it is determined whether the card format is proper, the recording capacity is sufficient, etc., and it is determined whether recording is possible (step S2). If it is determined that the recording is not possible, a warning process is executed (step S11). If the recording is possible, the recording start address is calculated from the data in the management area (step S3). Next, the serial number counter is initialized (step S4), and the date and time data (in this example, '92 .0
9.26 13:19) is read (step S5),
It is converted to a file name by the above operation ("93
7 ") and hold (step S6). Subsequently, a file name (" DSC93701.J6I ") is generated (step S7), this file name is compared with the file name in the directory (step S8), and the same name is obtained. (Step S9) If there is no same name, the process is terminated (uses the file name),
If there is the same name, the serial number part is incremented (step S10), and the process returns to step S8.

The warning process of step S11 is a process of blinking a frame number portion on the monitor screen and sounding a buzzer as shown in FIG. In FIG. 10, the process of avoiding duplication of file names is step S8.
It is a process of S10.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the processing procedure at the time of recording.
2 is shown. At the time of recording, first, a recording start address is set from the data in the management area (step S2
1), after performing image pickup processing (step S22), compression and transmission processing (step S23), directory, F
The AT is written (step S24). When the next recording process is started, the recording start address is calculated (step S2
5) It is determined whether or not the remaining recording capacity is sufficient and whether recording is possible (step S26). If it is determined that recording is not possible, warning processing is performed as in the above (step S30), and if recording is possible, the serial number is incremented (step S27) and a file name is generated (step S28). . Then, the duplication avoidance process shown in FIG. 11 is performed (step S29), and the process ends.

Next, as an example related to the present invention, an electronic still camera in which a part of the file name can be manually set and a fixed pattern set by the user and a serial number are added will be described. As shown in FIG. 13, 6 bytes (characters) of the main file name constituting the file name can be manually set, and similarly to the above example, 2 bytes are a serial number and the remaining 3 bytes are a fixed pattern "J6I". .

At the time of manual setting, when the manual setting instruction switch is operated, the display of the first digit corresponding to the first byte displayed on the monitor blinks as shown in FIG. Encourage. U of operation switch 15
When the P / DOWN switch is pressed, alphabets are sequentially displayed in blinking as shown in FIG. When the alphabet desired by the user is displayed, it is confirmed by pressing the setting switch, and the blinking display moves to the next digit as shown in FIG. The display when the setting of each digit is completed is shown in Fig. 14.
It is shown in (D). In this example, the character set as the file name by the user is "BIRTH". After that, the display on the monitor shows the directory entry position ("0" in this example) which is the normal display, as shown in FIG.
1 ").

In this way, the file name is set and recording is performed. FIG. 15 shows a state in which recording of three sheets has been completed. When the file names are duplicated, the duplication is avoided by incrementing the serial number as described above. Of course, this example can be applied to a subdirectory, and the setting of the subdirectory name is performed in the same manner.

Next, as an embodiment of the present invention, an example in which the position of the recording area on the medium is changed when the size of a data file such as an image is changed will be described. For example, when the operation mode or the system data is changed, such as when the compression rate when compressing the video data, monochrome / color, field / frame, single shooting / continuous shooting, or a combination thereof changes, The memory capacity required for recording (target file size) changes. In this embodiment, in response to such a change in the target file size, the unrecorded block is searched again, and the position of the recording area on the medium is changed appropriately.

FIG. 16A shows a recording area of the memory card, and has a management area which is a unit of memory management and a recorded area shown by a shaded area. One of the recording file sizes corresponds to the file size A as shown in FIG. 7B, and the file size B shown in FIG.
Is twice the file size A.

If the file size of the video data to be recorded is A, the unrecorded area is searched again and recorded in the unrecorded area # 1 where the recording start position is designated by the pointer A in FIG. Although it is possible, when the file size is B, the recording capacity in the unrecorded area # 1 is insufficient, so the pointer B is set to record in the unrecorded area # 2. In the case of continuous shooting, a large unrecorded area is desirable, so the pointer B is set.

When the unrecorded area has only the file size A as shown in FIG. 17, the pointer A is set for recording the file size A, and the unrecorded area is insufficient when recording the file size B. Therefore, give a warning.

FIG. 18 shows a flowchart of the processing procedure in the embodiment for switching the file size. When the file size is switched, the file size is determined by referring to the data table of the file size according to the setting conditions (step S41), the unrecorded area is searched by the FAT search (step S42), and the presence or absence of the unrecorded area is checked. The determination is made (step S43). If there is no unrecorded area, a warning process is executed (step S4
6) If there is an unrecorded area, it is determined whether the area is a continuous area having a size equal to or larger than the file size (step S44). If it is determined in step S44 that the continuous area is not sufficient, the process returns to step S42. If it is determined that the continuous area is sufficient, the pointer of the recording start area is set (step S45), and the processing ends. . The pointer is used when setting the recording start address in FIG.

In the example described above, a name including processed data of date and time is generated as the file name, and the file name duplication avoidance function is provided. In addition, the user can specify a part of the file name, and the camera supplements the remaining part, thereby generating a name that avoids duplication.

[0032]

As described above, according to the information recording apparatus of the present invention, when the operation of changing the data size is performed, the recordable area of the medium is re-searched.
Usability is greatly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic still camera showing an example of an information recording apparatus related to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an area layout diagram in the memory card in the example of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of a root directory of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a structure of a directory entry of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a file name in the above example.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a file name generation process in the above example.

7 is a diagram showing a file name generated by the processing of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example directory of a memory card installed in the above example.

9 is a diagram showing a directory after recording two images on the card of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when the memory card is mounted in the above example.

11 is a diagram showing a display example on a monitor at the time of warning processing in the example shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure at the time of recording in the above example.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a file name that allows manual setting of a file name in another example related to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a change in a display example on the monitor at the time of setting and setting operation instructions in the example shown in FIG.

15 is a diagram showing a directory at the end of recording in the example shown in FIG.

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining processing when changing a target file size according to the embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining a state where there is not enough unrecorded area in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when switching file sizes in the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Optical system 2 Imaging circuit 3 A / D conversion circuit 4 Frame memory 5 D / A conversion circuit 6 Video encoder 7 Viewfinder 8 Compression / expansion circuit 9 Card interface (I / F) circuit 10 Bus 11 Clock module 12 System controller 13 Nonvolatile Memory 14 Display panel 15 Operation switch 16 Memory card 17 Buzzer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An information recording device for storing recorded image data of each predetermined unit or recorded audio data of each predetermined unit as a recorded data as a file in a corresponding area in a recording medium to which the recording medium is applied. An information recording apparatus comprising means for changing a corresponding area in the recording medium when an operation that causes a change in file size is performed.