JPH06332070A - Photographing box - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the speed of an output and to make maintenance of a device easy and inexpensive by performing the picture processing of a photographed object picture signal and printing it out by a sublimate transfer printer. CONSTITUTION:A photographing box 1 consists of a housing part housing a photographing device and photographing space, and unmanned photographing is performed in the box 1. When a charge is put in a charge collection machine 8 at the time of photographing, a controller 7 starts controlling a light 3, a camera 4 and the sublimate transfer printer 9. A man sitting on a chair 2 is illuminated by the light 3 and is photographed by the camera 4. The camera 4, for example, consists of a device with a built-in CCD imaging device and a built-in A/D converter, and a digital image signal is obtained by A/D converting a picture signal from a CCD. The controller 7 fetches the picture signal and performs picture processing such as variable power for the picture and sharpness correction, and picture-processed picture data is transferred to the sublimate transfer printer 9 and is printed out.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photographic box having a photographic mechanism for photographing a subject such as a person in response to payment of a fee, performing necessary image processing and printing it out.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a so-called instant photographic method using a silver salt photographic method or a diffusion transfer type silver salt photographic method is known as a method for taking a picture of a person and outputting a photograph in a time of about several minutes. ing.

[0003]

In the silver salt photographic method, it takes 3 to 5 from the end of photographing to the output of the photograph.
It takes about a minute and requires a developing solution and a fixing solution due to the wet process, which requires time and effort for maintenance of the apparatus such as exchange of these solutions, and the atmospheric temperature greatly affects the image quality. Needs precise temperature control. In addition, the diffusion transfer type silver salt photographic method has a high running cost.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems and uses a thermal sublimation transfer method to enable high-speed output in at most 1 to 2 minutes or less, and at the same time, to take a photograph at low cost and with easy maintenance. Intended to provide a box.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a photography box comprising a photography mechanism accommodating portion for accommodating a photography mechanism and a photographing space portion, wherein the photography mechanism includes an illumination means for illuminating an object. , A photographing means for photographing a subject illuminated by the illuminating means, and a subject image signal photographed by the photographing means are inputted, and at least an image is enlarged or enlarged.
An image processing unit having a reduction function and an image layout processing function, a sublimation transfer printer which inputs an image-processed image signal and prints out based on the image signal, and an illumination unit, a photographing unit, and an image processing unit based on a start signal. , And a control unit for controlling the sublimation transfer printer. Further, the present invention is characterized in that a monitor for displaying the subject image is further provided. Further, the present invention is characterized by further comprising a fee payment mechanism, wherein the activation signal is generated from the fee payment mechanism.

[0006]

The function of the photography box of the present invention is as follows:
If you use an imaging device such as a still video camera or a dedicated imaging device and pay the fee by cash or by any method such as a prepaid card, the photography mechanism operates to take a photograph, image scaling, image layout After processing, a photo of a size suitable for various purposes such as a license, passport, etc. is output from a thermal sublimation transfer printer with multiple faces. In the present invention, since the process is a dry process and a thermal sublimation transfer printer is used, it is possible to print out at high speed and to reduce the cost. Further, by providing a monitor, it is possible to check and print again before printing.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall construction of a photography box of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a shooting box, 2 is a chair,
3 is a light, 4 is a camera, 5 is a monitor, 7 is a controller, 8 is a payment machine, 9 is a thermal sublimation transfer printer, and 10 is a power supply. The photographing box 1 is composed of a storage unit for storing a photographing device and a photographing space in which a chair or the like on which a person sits is arranged, and basically, an unmanned photographing is possible.

[0008] At the time of photographing, if a charge is put in the payment machine 8 or a predetermined charge is paid by a prepaid card or the like, an activation signal is transferred from the payment machine 8 to the controller 7. When the controller 7 receives the activation signal, it starts controlling the light 3, the camera 4, the sublimation transfer printer 9, and the like. Here, the activation signal is generated by paying the fee, but there are other methods such as automatically detecting that a person has entered the photography box with an optical sensor and generating the activation signal, or a separate activation switch. It is also possible to apply a method that does not depend on fee payment, such as a method in which the person to be photographed presses it to generate an activation signal. The power supply 10 supplies power to each device.

First, the light is turned on to illuminate the person sitting on the chair 2, and the camera 4 takes an image. The camera 4 is, for example,
As shown in FIG. 2, the CCD image pickup device 11 and the A / D converter 1
The digital image signal is obtained by directly A / D converting the image signal from the CCD.
Here, the method of directly A / D converting the signal from the CCD is used to suppress image deterioration to a minimum, but, of course, an imaging device such as a commercially available video camera or still video camera can also be used, The output video signal may be A / D converted by any method. In the case of a color photograph, a dichroic mirror 13 is used to divide it into R, G, and B light as shown in FIG. 3, and the image signals are read by the CCD image pickup devices 11a to 11c for each of the R, G, and B lights. Or, as shown in FIG. 4A, a mosaic color filter (or stripe filter) 14 is used to separate R, G, and B lights for each pixel, and the CCD image pickup device 11
Then, the R, G, B image signals as shown in FIG. 4B are obtained.

The digital image signal from the camera 4 thus obtained is fetched by the controller 7. The controller 7 controls each device, and also performs image scaling, sharpness correction function, color masking, image layout,
It has an image processing function such as gradation correction. Image scaling is
Image data D0, D1, D2, as shown in FIG.
When D3 ... Is obtained, as shown in FIG. 5B, for example, D1, D3, D5 ...
By setting D2, D4 ..., a 50% reduced image can be displayed as, for example, D0, D1, D2, D3 as shown in FIG.
... is interpolated and D0, D0, D1, D1, D2, D2,
By setting D3, D3 ..., A 200% enlarged image can be obtained. The magnification can be set arbitrarily, and the method of creating the interpolation data may be any method. The sharpness correction is a process for emphasizing the contour of the image. For example, the contour component extracted by the differentiation process is converted into the original image by using a filter as shown in FIGS. 6 (a) and 6 (b). An image in which the edge portion is emphasized can be obtained by adding in.

When the R, G, B signals obtained in this way are output by a printer, it is necessary to convert them into C, M, Y signals. For example, if controlling with 256 gradations, Here, r is a normalized value of the obtained R signal value, and g and b are similarly normalized values. Color masking is a process for removing a turbid component of printing ink. For example, as a print signal to a printer, C, M,
If Y is obtained, The conversion processing described above is performed to convert the signals into C ′, M ′, and Y ′ signals in which the turbid component of the ink is canceled. In the above, the conversion from the R, G, B signals to the C, M, Y signals and the color masking processing are separately processed, but they may be processed at the same time.

As for the image layout, when an image of a size corresponding to the application obtained by the image scaling processing as described above is output in multiple layout as shown in FIG. 7, for example, what layout is printed. Is to process
The position data of one or a plurality of four corners of each photograph is generated. In this case, since the size of each photograph is known by the image scaling process, position data is generated so that the photographs do not overlap. Gradation correction is performed, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, by setting the density gradation of 0 to 255 (horizontal axis) to γ1,
It is changed by a characteristic such as γ2. For example, the characteristic γ
In the case of 1, the low density is finely corrected, and in the case of the characteristic γ2, the high density is finely corrected.

The image data subjected to the image processing as described above is transferred to the sublimation transfer printer 9 and printed out. The transfer mechanism of the sublimation transfer printer is, for example, as shown in FIG. The transfer film 21 is a heat resistant slipping layer 2
1a, a transfer base material 21b, and a sublimation transfer layer 21c are laminated with a primer interposed to improve the adhesion of the coating material to the base material. A film that has been subjected to an easy-adhesion treatment may be used. The heat resistant slipping layer 21a is a mixture of polyvinyl butyral, polyisocyanate and phosphoric acid ester, the transfer base material 21b is polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, etc., and the sublimation transfer layer 21c is an indoaniline type, pyrazolone type, azo type, etc. Sublimable dyes, polyvinyl acetal, cellulosic binders.

The image receiving paper 22 is formed by laminating an image receiving layer 22b and an image receiving paper base material 22a with a primer interposed. The image receiving layer 22b is made of saturated polyester, vinyl chloride or the like, and the base material 22a is made of synthetic paper, expanded polyester, or the like. The back surface layer, such as foamed polypropylene, is composed of a binder, a lubricant, a coating agent and the like. Further, the vinyl chloride resin itself may be used as the image receiving layer. The image receiving paper 22 is wound around the platen roll 23, and the transfer film 21 is superposed on the platen roll 23 in a closely contacted state, and the thermal head 24 is brought into contact with the back surface of the transfer film 21 to heat the transfer film 21 to heat the sublimation transfer dye. It is transferred by heating, and is attached to the image receiving layer 22b and dyed. In the sublimation transfer device, the dye transfers to the image receiving layer by the amount of applied heat, so that gradation can be recorded according to the amount of heat for each pixel dot.

Since such a thermal sublimation transfer recording system is used, for example, in the silver salt system, the temperature change of 1 ° C. of the developer has a great influence on the image quality, and the cost for the temperature control becomes large. On the other hand, a slight temperature change has a small effect on the image quality, and by detecting the ambient temperature at that time and performing appropriate temperature correction, it is possible to maintain a constant image quality over a wide temperature range. Becomes

The image thus obtained is displayed on the monitor 5
By using, it is possible to confirm in advance before printing out, and it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the image can be taken again if he / she does not like it. Further, since the position, composition, etc. of the subject can be confirmed before shooting, it can be used by the person himself / herself to be photographed to adjust the position, composition, etc. At the same time, it is possible to display various information such as instructing a person to be photographed by using the monitor for the next operation or displaying the trouble when some trouble occurs.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the process is a dry process and the thermal sublimation transfer printer is used, it is possible to print out at a high speed, and at a low cost, the maintenance is easy. A photography box can be realized. Further, by providing a monitor, it is possible to check before printing out and take another image again.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a photography box of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a camera.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a shooting method for a color image.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a shooting method in the case of a color image.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating image scaling.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a filter for sharpness correction.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an image layout.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating gradation correction.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a sublimation transfer mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Shooting box, 2 ... Chair, 3 ... Light, 4 ... Camera, 5 ... Monitor, 7 ... Controller, 8 ... Payment machine, 9
… Thermal sublimation transfer printer, 10… Power supply.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A photography box comprising a photography mechanism accommodating section for accommodating a photography mechanism and a photography space section, wherein the photography mechanism includes illumination means for illuminating a subject, and a subject illuminated by the illumination means. A photographing means for photographing the object, a subject image signal photographed by the photographing means is inputted, an image processing means having at least an image enlargement / reduction function and an image layout processing function, and an image processed image signal are inputted, Sublimation transfer printer that prints out based on the image signal, and lighting means based on the start signal,
A photography box comprising: a photographing means, an image processing means, and a control means for controlling a sublimation transfer printer. 2. The photography box according to claim 1, further comprising a monitor for displaying a subject image. 3. The photography box according to claim 1, further comprising a fee payment mechanism, wherein the activation signal is generated from the fee payment mechanism.