JPH0678261A - Electronic camera system and its recorded picture retrieval method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an electronic camera system by adopting the configuration such that cable connection and connection of a recording medium with a large capacity are attained for the system so as to extend the function of a reproduction device without losing features such as small size, light weight and low power consumption. CONSTITUTION:The electronic camera 2 uses a solid-state image pickup device to fetch a picture as an electric signal and to record the signal onto a recording medium 4 such as a semiconductor memory card and is provided with a recording medium connection section 5 and a cable connection section 6. The cable connection section 6 is able to connect to one terminal of a cable 7 removably. A 1st recording medium connection section 9 of a reproduction device 3 is connected removably to a recording medium 12 of a large capacity such as a hard disk drive unit pack or an optical disk unit pack and a 2nd recording medium connection section 10 connects removably to a recording medium 13 of a small capacity such as a semiconductor memory card. A monitor 11 displays a picture recorded on recording media 4, 12, 13.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic camera system for recording / reproducing images and a recorded image retrieval method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an electronic camera called a digital electronic still camera.

This generally records an image on a recording medium such as a semiconductor memory card.

Such an electronic still camera generally uses an optical finder in order to realize small size, light weight and low power consumption. Therefore, the electronic still camera cannot check recorded images.

Therefore, a portable player, which is a reproducing apparatus, is generally set as an accessory of the electronic still camera.

This is provided with a small monitor such as a liquid crystal display and a recording medium insertion port. A recording medium on which an image is recorded is inserted from the recording medium insertion port, and recorded images are sequentially displayed while watching the monitor. It searches and checks.

[0007]

In the conventional electronic camera system composed of the electronic still camera and the portable player, what the portable player can do is to check the image recorded on the recording medium. Even if the function is expanded, it is limited to the degree of erasing the image recorded on the recording medium, and despite the fact that both the electronic still camera and the player are carried around, there are few functions of the player, and therefore the effect of use is d. Low.

Recently, in electronic still cameras,
The types of recording media that can be used are expanded to hard discs and optical discs.

In addition, the natural image data compression technique is JPE.
G has made great progress.

For this reason, several hundred cut images can be recorded on one recording medium mounted on the electronic still camera.

In this case, when the recorded image is searched and checked while looking at the player's monitor, several hundreds of cut images must be viewed on the monitor in some cases until the really necessary image is extracted. Takes time and effort.

For this reason, it is possible to reduce the trouble of retrieval by displaying and outputting a large number of cut images on one screen of the monitor (multi-screen display), but still, an image with a considerable number of cuts can be displayed on the monitor. I have to look.
Further, in order to perform the multi-screen display, as a general rule, it is necessary to read out all the images, and the transfer time of the images associated therewith cannot be ignored.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. A first object of the present invention is to expand the function of a reproducing apparatus without losing the characteristics of small size, light weight, and low power consumption, and to enhance its use effect. To provide an electronic camera system that does.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a recorded image retrieval method for an electronic camera system which improves the retrieval efficiency of recorded images.

[0015]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned first object, the first invention of the present invention is an electronic camera which captures an image as an electric signal in a solid-state image pickup device and records it in a recording medium, and the electronic camera. In the electronic camera system including a reproducing device for reproducing the image recorded by the above, the electronic camera is a cable connection capable of detachably connecting a cable for transmitting and receiving an image signal and a control signal in a state where the recording medium is mounted. And a recording medium connection unit capable of detachably connecting two or more types of recording media, at least one type of which has a large capacity, and a cable connection unit of which the reproducing device can detachably connect the cable. It is characterized by having.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned second object, the second invention of the present invention is to record the time up to the second at the same time when recording an image on a recording medium, and to search the recorded image. A fixed time can be set for the time interval at the time of shooting, and in the case of a recorded image taken for a time shorter than the set fixed time, only one of the recorded images is output as an output image at the time of retrieval. Is output as.

Further, in achieving the above-mentioned second object,
Of the series of recorded images photographed in a time shorter than the fixed time set by the setting means, it is desirable that the first image to be output for retrieval.

[0018]

In the electronic camera system according to the first aspect of the invention, the cable for transmitting and receiving the image signal and the control signal can be detachably connected to the electronic camera with the recording medium mounted, and the reproducing apparatus can detach the cable. Can be connected to
Two or more types of recording media, at least one type of which has a large capacity, can be connected. As a result, the function of the playback device can be greatly expanded without losing the characteristics of small size, light weight, and low power consumption, and its use effect is high.

Further, according to the recorded image search method of the electronic camera system of the second invention, the "set time" is set, and for the images whose photographing time is shorter than the set time, the series of images is output to the monitor at the time of search. do not do. As a result, the search efficiency of the recorded image is improved.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a side view of an electronic camera system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
Is an electronic camera system, which comprises a digital electronic camera (electronic still camera) 2 and a reproducing apparatus (portable player) 3.

The electronic camera 2 captures an image as an electric signal by a solid-state image pickup device (not shown) and records it on a recording medium 4 such as a semiconductor memory card. A recording medium connecting portion (recording medium interface) 5 and a cable are used. It has a connection part (cable interface) 6. The recording medium connection unit 5 can detachably connect the recording medium 4. The cable connecting portion 6 can detachably connect one end of the cable 7. The cable 7 is for transmitting and receiving bidirectional control signals between the electronic camera 2 and the reproducing apparatus 3 and for transmitting image signals from the electronic camera 2 to the reproducing apparatus 3 with the recording medium 4 being connected to the recording medium connecting section 5. belongs to.

The reproducing device 3 reproduces an image recorded on the recording medium 4 by the electronic camera 2, and includes a cable connecting portion (cable interface) 8, a first recording medium connecting portion (recording medium interface) 9, and It has a second recording medium connection unit (recording medium interface) 10 and a monitor 11. The cable connecting portion 8 can detachably connect the other end of the cable 7. The first recording medium connecting section 9 is
A large-capacity recording medium 12 such as a hard disk drive unit pack or an optical disk unit pack can be detachably connected. The second recording medium connection unit 10 can detachably connect a small capacity recording medium 13 such as a semiconductor memory card. The monitor 11 outputs and displays the images recorded on the recording media 4, 12, and 13.

Next, the operation of the electronic camera system having the above configuration will be described.

(1) Checking the image recorded on the recording medium 4 inside the electronic camera 2.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cable 7 is connected to the cable connecting portion 6 of the electronic camera 2 and the cable connecting portion 8 of the reproducing apparatus 3, and the recording medium 4 is connected to the recording medium connecting portion 5 of the electronic camera 2.
In the state in which is connected, a control signal is sent to the electronic camera 2 via the cable 7 by operating an operation member (not shown) of the playback device 3, and the recording medium 4 inside the electronic camera 2 is sent to the electronic camera 2 via the cable 7. The recorded image is checked by looking at the monitor 11 of the reproducing apparatus 3.

In this case, it is not necessary to connect the recording media 12 and 13 on the reproducing apparatus 3 side to the connecting portions 9 and 10 as shown in FIG.

(2) Remote control operation of the electronic camera 2.

By operating the operation member of the reproducing apparatus 3 in the state shown in FIG. 2, a control signal is sent to the electronic camera 2 via the cable 7 and the electronic camera 2 is remotely controlled.

(3) The electronic camera 2 is used as an EVF.

In the state of FIG. 2, the image currently taken by the electronic camera 2 is transmitted to the reproducing apparatus 3 via the cable 7, and the monitor 11 is checked to check the image.

(4) An image recorded on a small-capacity recording medium 4 on the electronic camera 2 side is recorded on a large-capacity recording medium 1 on the reproducing device 3 side.
Dubbing to 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the cable 7 is connected to the cable connecting portion 6 of the electronic camera 2 and the cable connecting portion 8 of the reproducing apparatus 3.
Is operated, the recording medium 4 is connected to the recording medium connecting section 5 of the electronic camera 2, and the large capacity recording medium 12 is connected to the first recording medium connecting section 9 of the reproducing apparatus 3. By operating a member, a control signal is sent to the electronic camera 2 via the cable 7, the electronic camera 2 is controlled, and the image recorded on the recording medium 4 of the electronic camera 2 is reproduced via the cable 7. The image is sent to the device 3, and the image is dubbed on a large capacity recording medium.

By configuring the electronic camera system 1 as in the present embodiment, it is possible to greatly expand the functions without increasing the size of the portable player 3 which is the reproducing device.

That is, the electronic camera 2 is remotely controlled by a control signal from the portable player 3.

Dubbing is performed from a recording medium on the electronic camera 2 side (generally having a small capacity such as a semiconductor memory card) to a large capacity recording medium 12.

The electronic camera 2 is used as an EVF.

An image taken by the electronic camera 2 is recorded on a large-capacity recording medium (which enables, for example, long-time automatic shooting or continuous shooting for several tens of seconds). Etc.

The player 3, which is a reproducing device, does not have a large-capacity recording medium built therein but is removable, so that the portability of the player is not lost.

[Second Embodiment] Next, a recorded image retrieval method of the electronic camera system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the reproducing device in the electronic camera system for carrying out the method of the present invention. In FIG. 4, 14 is a reproducing device, which is a monitor 15, a "set time" indicator 16, and a "set time". "Setting switch 17," Time setting "
It has an on / off switch 18, an increment switch (+) 19, and an increment switch (−) 20.

Next, a method for retrieving an image recorded on a recording medium (not shown) by the reproducing apparatus 14 having such a configuration will be described.

The recording medium is inserted into the recording medium insertion portion (not shown) of the reproducing device 14.

In this recording medium, the time up to the second unit is recorded at the same time when the image is recorded.

In this state, the operator first sets the "set time" with the "set time" setting switch 17. The set contents are displayed on the “set time” display 16.

Next, the "time setting" ON / OFF switch 1
Operate 8. When the switch 18 is turned on, the images taken at time intervals shorter than the "set time" set by the "set time" setting switch 17 are not displayed except for the first one. That is, when the increment switch (+) 19 is pressed once, all the images captured within the "set time" are captured in the order in which the images are currently displayed from the image currently displayed on the monitor 15. The captured image is not displayed on the monitor 15 and is displayed on the monitor 15 for the first time after the shooting time is set longer than the “set time” interval. By repeating this, a desired image is searched, and whether or not to delete the image is checked.

When a desired image reaches a related image at a certain place, "time setting" is turned on /
The off switch 18 is turned off. In this case, when the increment switch (+) 19 is pressed once, the image captured next in time with respect to the image currently displayed on the monitor 15 is displayed on the monitor 15 regardless of the shooting time interval.

When the desired image has gone too far, the increment switch (-) 20 is pressed to sequentially output the images on the monitor 15 in the reverse direction (the direction reverse to the temporal order of photographing). It

Even in this case, the "time setting" on / off switch 18 is effective, and the selected image changes accordingly.

[Other Embodiments] In the above-described first embodiment, the case where the interfaces which are the connecting portions of the small-capacity recording medium and the large-capacity recording medium are different from each other will be described. Two interfaces 9,
If the interface provided with 10 can be shared by both recording media, only one interface need be provided.

Further, in the drawing, the interfaces 9 and 10 of the reproducing apparatus 3 are located outside the housing, and the recording medium 12 and
13 is also attached to the outside of the casing of the reproducing apparatus 3, but the interfaces 9 and 10 are not limited to this, and the recording media 12 and 13 can be inserted into the casing. You may make it a different structure.

Further, the reproducing apparatus 3 may have a structure in which the recording media 12 and 13 are connected by a cable.

Further, in the recorded image retrieval method of the electronic camera system of the present invention, those exceeding the "set time" are first displayed on the monitor 15 by the multi-image system so that the images can be retrieved in more detail. It may be configured to instruct.

Further, for example, when the "time setting" on / off switch 18 is on, the image displayed on the monitor 15 may be automatically incremented at intervals of, for example, 3 seconds.

Further, the method of selecting one of the series of photographed images within the "set time" is not necessarily the first one, and it is conceivable that the middle hit is better.

However, if it is the first one, the photographer needs to devise a method such as intentionally capturing an image "the whole can be estimated" for the first one.

[0057]

As described above, according to the electronic camera system of the present invention, it is possible to connect a cable and a large-capacity recording medium, so that the characteristics of small size, light weight, and low power consumption can be obtained. The function of the portable player, which is a reproducing device, can be dramatically expanded without loss.

Further, according to the recorded image retrieval method of the electronic camera system of the present invention, the "set time" is set, and for the images whose photographing interval is shorter than the "set time", the series of images is displayed on the monitor at the time of retrieval. By not displaying the output, it is possible to rationalize the search of recorded images.

Generally, when shooting with a camera, images taken with a short shooting interval (several seconds to several tens of seconds) are often related to each other, depending on the purpose of use. Even if you don't check them for one cut, if you look at one of them, you can think of the image content that follows it (when you shoot it yourself) or you can imagine it (when someone else shoots it). In many cases, the number of image cuts that must be checked by search can be greatly reduced and rationalized by the method of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an electronic camera system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a usage state of the system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a usage state of the system different from that in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side view of a playback device of the electronic camera system for implementing the recorded image search method of the electronic camera system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 electronic camera system 2 electronic camera 3 playback device 4 recording medium 5 recording medium connecting portion 6 cable connecting portion 7 cable 8 cable connecting portion 9 first recording medium connecting portion 10 second recording medium connecting portion 11 Monitor 12 Recording medium 13 Recording medium 14 Playback device 15 Monitor 17 "Set time" setting switch

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electronic camera system comprising: an electronic camera that captures an image as an electric signal by a solid-state imaging device and records it on a recording medium; and a reproducing device that reproduces the image recorded by the electronic camera, wherein the electronic camera is the A cable connection part having a cable for detachably connecting an image signal and a control signal with a recording medium attached, the cable connecting part being detachably connectable, and the reproducing device being capable of detachably connecting the cable. And an electronic camera system comprising: a recording medium connection unit capable of detachably connecting two or more types of recording media, at least one type of which has a large capacity. 2. A time up to a second unit is recorded at the same time when an image is recorded on a recording medium, and when searching the recorded image, a fixed time can be set as a time interval at the time of shooting, A recorded image search method for an electronic camera system, wherein in the case of a recorded image taken in a time shorter than a set fixed time, only one of the recorded images is output as an output image during a search. 3. Of the series of recorded images photographed in a time shorter than the fixed time set by the setting means, the image output for retrieval is the first one of them. Recording image retrieval method for electronic camera system.