JPH07199344A - Wink release camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To actuate wink release only at a necessary time and to eliminate inadvertent release by providing a release means performing the release of a camera according to the detection output from a wink state detection means and the judgement output from a camera-shake condition judgement means. CONSTITUTION:A state where a photographer opens/closes his(her) eyes (wink state) is detected based on the change of a light quantity made incident on a PD 23 and the detection output is outputted to a CPU circuit 26. A camera- shake detecting device 30 is a means for judging a condition that the camera- shake occurs, and the judged result by the detection device 30 is supplied to the CPU circuit 26. The CPU circuit 26 controls a shutter driving device 27, a focusing device 28 and a diaphragm driving device 29 based on the output from a blink detecting device 21, a photometry device 24 and a range-finding device 25. The control state of the CPU circuit 26 is selectively switched by operating respective switches, a half-depressing switch 31 to a cancelling switch 34.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wink release camera which performs release by detecting a wink state of a photographer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a wink release camera for releasing by detecting the wink state of a photographer,
It is known that shutter release is performed by emitting weak infrared light toward the photographer's eyes and detecting reflected light by blinking (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-40303).

[0003]

However, the conventional wink release camera has the following problems because the release operates when there is a wink. (1) Since the wink release always operates, a person who has a habit of blinking releases the release carelessly. (2) Especially when it is bright, it is dazzling, so it is easy to carelessly close your eyes, and you inadvertently release. (3) An infrared light emitting element is required to detect and release the wink, which increases the cost.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an object thereof is to operate a wink release only when necessary and to eliminate an inadvertent release.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a wink state detecting means for non-contact detection of a wink state of a photographer who is in contact with a viewfinder.
A camera shake condition judging means for judging a condition causing camera shake, and a release means for releasing the camera by the detection output of the wink state detecting means and the judgment output of the camera shake condition judging means are provided.

[0006]

In the winkle release camera having the above-described structure, the condition judging means judges the condition causing the camera shake,
Since the release means is operated only when the wink release is necessary, it is possible to eliminate an inadvertent release.

[0007]

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

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view, a lateral sectional view and a rear view showing an embodiment of a wink release camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 1A is a vertical sectional view showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a single-lens reflex camera. In FIG. 1A, the photographing light condensed by the photographing lens 1 is reflected by the mirror 2 and is applied to the pentaprism 3. Shooting light
After being inverted vertically and horizontally by the pentaprism 3, it is irradiated through the eyepiece lens 4 to the photographer's eyes. The film (not shown) is exposed by rotating the mirror 2 in the clockwise direction in FIG. 1 and then opening the shutter 9 to irradiate the film with photographing light.

Above the eyepiece lens 4, in order to detect the wink state of the photographer in a non-contact manner, an LED (Light emitting diode) 22 that emits light having a wavelength of visible light and a PD (light emitting diode) sensitive to the light of this wavelength Photo detector) 23 is provided. The light emitted by the LED 22 passes through the half mirror 6, is reflected by the half mirror 5, and is irradiated to the photographer's eyes. The half mirror 5 is a half mirror incorporated in the eyepiece lens 4.

When the photographer has his eyes open, the light reflected by the cornea is reflected by the half mirrors 5 and 6 and enters the PD 23. In addition, when the photographer closes his eyes, the light reflected by the eyelids is reflected by the half mirror 5.
Then, the light is reflected by the half mirror 6 and enters the PD 23. Since the cornea and eyelid have very different reflectivities, PD23
The state in which the photographer opens and closes his eyes (a wink state) can be detected by the amount of light incident on.

1 (b) and 1 (c) are a cross-sectional view and a rear view showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a compact camera. In FIG. 1B, the photographing light is applied to the photographer's eyes through the eyepiece lens 11. To the left and right of the eyepiece lens 11, in order to detect the wink state of the photographer in a non-contact manner, an LED (Ligh Light) that emits light of a wavelength of visible light.
A t emitting diode 22 and a PD (Photo detector) 23 sensitive to light of this wavelength are provided. LED
The light emitted by 22 is condensed by the condenser lens 14, and the aperture 1
It passes through 2a and is irradiated to the photographer's eyes. The openings 12 a and 12 b are openings formed in a part of the finder frame 12.

When the photographer has his eyes open, the light reflected by the cornea passes through the opening 12b, is condensed by the condenser lens 15, and enters the PD 23. When the photographer closes his eyes, the light reflected by the eyelids passes through the opening 12b, is condensed by the condenser lens 15, and enters the PD 23. Since the cornea and eyelid have very different reflectivities, PD23
The state in which the photographer opens and closes his eyes (a wink state) can be detected by the amount of light incident on.

The LED 22 and the PD 23 are the eyepiece lens 1.
1, which are provided on the left and right of FIG.
It is arranged as shown in (c). This is because when the LED 22 and the PD 23 are arranged at the positions 17 and 18, the eyelashes hinder the detection of the wink state.

The above-mentioned LED 22 and PD 23 are connected to a blink detection device 21, as shown in FIG. 2, and the blink detection device 21 supplies a detection output to the CPU circuit 26. The blink detection device 21 causes the LED 22 to emit light, and the light emitted by the LED 22 is applied to the photographer's eyes. When the photographer has his eyes open, the light reflected by the cornea enters the PD 23. Further, when the photographer closes his eyes, the light reflected by the eyelids enters the PD 23. Since the cornea and eyelid have very different reflectivities, PD23
The state in which the photographer opens and closes the eyes (a wink state) is detected by the change in the amount of light incident on, and the detection output is output to the CPU circuit 26. It is desirable to apply a predetermined modulation in order to eliminate the influence of external light on the detection by the LED 22 and the PD 23.

A photometric device 24 and a distance measuring device 25 are connected to the CPU circuit 26, and outputs of the photometric device 24 and the distance measuring device 25 are also supplied to the CPU circuit 26. Also,
The camera shake detection device 30 is a unit that determines the conditions under which camera shake occurs. The camera shake detection device 30 may also be used as an angular acceleration detection device of a camera having a camera shake prevention device. The determination result of the camera shake detection device 30 is CP
It is supplied to the U circuit 26.

The CPU circuit 26 includes the blink detection device 2
The shutter drive device 27, the focus adjustment device 28, and the diaphragm drive device 29 are controlled based on the outputs of the first photometry device 24, and the distance measurement device 25. The control state of the CPU circuit 26 can be switched and selected by operating each of the half-push switch 31 to the cancel switch 34.

The half-push switch 31 is a switch which is turned on by half-pushing the release button, and the full-push switch 32 is a switch which is turned on by full-pushing the release button. The half-push switch 31 and the full-push switch 32 are composed of one two-stage switch, and are arranged on the upper surface of the camera body 19 (FIG. 1C). The changeover switch 33 is a switch for changing over between manual release and wink release, and is arranged on the upper surface of the camera body 19 (FIG. 1C). The cancel switch 34 is a cancel switch used when canceling a previously performed operation.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining an embodiment of the operation of the CPU circuit 26. This embodiment shows a basic program for releasing each wink.

In FIG. 3, when the program is started by turning on the power, first, the half-push switch 31 waits for turning on (step S801). Half-press switch 3
When 1 is turned on, the condition for occurrence of camera shake is determined from the output of the camera shake detection device 30 (step S802).
Determining the condition for the occurrence of camera shake is a determination as to whether or not wink release is necessary. For a camera having a camera shake detection device, it is determined whether the camera shake amount is larger than a predetermined value.
A camera having no camera shake detection device detects and determines whether or not the shutter speed is lower than a predetermined value. If it is determined that camera shake occurs, the process moves to step S807. If it is determined that hand shake does not occur, the process moves to step S803.

In step S803, since it is determined that the wink release is necessary, the output of the blink detection device 21 is validated and the wink detection is turned on in preparation for blink detection. Next, L of the blink detection device 21
The ED 22 is turned on to indicate that the wink release mode has been entered, and the preparatory operation for blink detection is started.
At the same time, the brightness of the LED 22 is adjusted based on the reflected light output and the brightness of ambient light (step S804). Then P
The sensitivity of D23 is adjusted (step S805).

In step S806, a wink is waited for, and if there is a wink, an image is taken (step S80
8) The program ends. If there is no wink in step S806, it is determined whether or not the full-press switch 32 has been turned on (the release button has been fully pressed). If it is turned on, shooting is performed (step S808), and the program ends. If the full-push switch 32 is not turned on (the release button is full-pushed), the process returns to step S801 and the above steps are repeated. In step S806,
Even when the release switch 32 is turned on before the wink, the process proceeds to step S808 and the release is performed.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, it is described that the wink mode is automatically switched.
Not just automatically
The switching may be performed by a manual switch.

According to the above-described embodiment, it is not necessary to forget to switch to the wink release mode, and it is possible to easily carry out photographing with reduced camera shake. Further, since the display element and the detection element are used in common, the cost can be reduced and the size can be reduced.

[0025]

As described above, according to the wink release camera of the present invention, the condition judging means judges the condition causing the hand shake and the release means operates only when the wink release is necessary. Therefore, careless release can be eliminated.

When the display means is used as the light emitting means, cost reduction and size reduction can be realized by using the display element and the detection element in common.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view, a lateral sectional view, and a rear view showing an embodiment of a wink release camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block connection diagram showing an embodiment of a wink release camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a wink release camera according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Photography Lens 2 Mirror 3 Penta Prism 4 Eyepiece 5 Half Mirror 6 Half Mirror 9 Shutter 11 Eyepiece 12 Viewfinder Frame 12a Opening 12b Opening 14 Condensing Lens 15 Condensing Lens 17 Position 19 Camera Body 21 Detector 22 LED 23 PD 24 Photometric device 25 Distance measuring device 26 CPU circuit 27 Shutter drive device 28 Focus adjustment device 29 Drive device 30 Detection device 31 Switch 32 Release switch 33 Switch 34 Cancel switch

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A wink state detecting means for non-contact detection of a wink state of a photographer who is in contact with a viewfinder, a hand shake condition determining means for determining a condition causing hand shake, and a detection output of the wink state detecting means. And a release means for releasing the camera based on the judgment output of the camera shake condition judging means. 2. The camera according to claim 1, further comprising photometric means for measuring an exposure value of photographing light, wherein the camera shake condition determining means determines that camera shake occurs when the photometric value detected by the photometric means is a predetermined value or less. The wink release camera according to claim 1, wherein 3. A camera shake detecting means for detecting a camera shake state according to the presence or absence of vibration, wherein the camera shake condition determining means determines that camera shake occurs based on the presence or absence of the camera shake state detected by the camera shake detecting means. The wink release camera according to claim 1. 4. The display device further comprises display means for notifying the photographer that the camera shake detection means has determined that a camera shake will occur, and the display means displays within the visual field of the photographer who is in contact with the viewfinder. Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned.
The winkle release camera described in. 5. The display means is used as a light emitting means to illuminate the eyeballs and eyelids of a photographer who is in contact with the viewfinder with emitted light and receive reflected light from the eyeballs or eyelids of the photographer. 5. The wink release camera according to claim 4, further comprising a light receiving unit, wherein the wink state detecting unit detects the wink state of the photographer from a change in the amount of light received by the light receiving unit. 6. The wink release camera according to claim 5, wherein the light emission amount of the display unit and / or the light reception sensitivity of the light receiving unit is adjusted based on the light receiving amount of the light receiving unit.