JPH08110911A - Information equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To simply retrieve a photographed image by outputting image information having time data with the same contents as time data relating to schedule information as a retrieved result. CONSTITUTION: A notebook type electronic camera having an electronic notebook function automatically records photographing time as relative data. An image retrieving key is displayed in the upper right part 7b of a schedule screen displayed as a past schedule. When the image retrieving key is touched (pointed out) with an input pen, a prescribed display appears. When golf, e.g. is pointed out, since the golf display has time data of 1993/01/22/08/03 to 1993/01/22/17/00 e.g. as relative data, images having time data included in the period are successively retrieved and displayed from the one close to the time data 1993/01/22/08/00. At the time, retrieval on a time axis can be attained by an arrow key displayed in the upper right part 7b.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information device handling electronic information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In conventional photography using a silver salt film, due to advances in camera technology including automation of AF and AE, it has become possible to obtain a photograph intended by a photographer with a simple operation. There is.

However, when retrieving a photograph that the photographer needs from the photographed photographs, how much the photographed photographs are organized is the deciding factor of the load required for the retrieval, and it is exclusively the effort of the photographer. It is due to.

In other words, no matter how many wonderful pictures have been taken that reflect the photographer's intentions, if they are not well organized, they are the same as those kept in storage. In the system, the only consideration for organizing photos was the date imprinting function, which was not taken into consideration.

Therefore, the photographer has to sort out the photographs in an album or the like and keep a record of what was photographed, which is very troublesome.

Further, in the electronic still camera which records a photograph on a floppy disk as an electric signal, the system has not been improved in that respect. That is, since the information added to the image information is about the date and the serial number, it is necessary to describe the shooting content on the recorded floppy disk and manage it.

Further, since these data are recorded by being superimposed on the analog signal which is image data, it is necessary to rewrite the image data itself in order to rewrite these data and to add them later. Not only becomes large, but also at the time of search, only these data cannot be accessed, and high-speed search is difficult.

Recently, an electronic still camera has been provided which records a photograph as a digital signal on a memory card or the like. With this electronic still camera, it is possible to add data for retrieval to a photographed image very easily as compared with the conventional system. For example, JP-A-4-70735.
Japanese Patent Publications and the like have proposed a method for managing image data and a search method.

According to this, the date and time of shooting, place, weather,
Any one of a person's name, indoors / outdoors, a person's landscape, an event, and a voice is input by the photographer automatically at the time of photographing the camera or after the photographing and is recorded together with the image data. After that, if you specify the type of data and enter that data,
Images having the same content data are searched. For example,
When a person is designated and "Yoshida" is input, an image having person data "Yoshida" is searched and output.

If the time is designated and the time is entered,
An image having that time as data is retrieved and output. If you search by time, you can define it as "Spring from March 15th to May 31st",
If "Spring" is input, an image having time data from March 15th to May 31st is searched and output.

[0011]

However, in the above system, it is too cumbersome for the photographer to input the date and time, place, weather, person's name, indoors / outdoors, person landscape, event, and voice data when the image is photographed. It is troublesome and inconvenient. Further, although a method of automatically recording some types of data at the time of photographing is shown, for that reason, the entire apparatus becomes complicated and the apparatus cost becomes very high.

A method of automatically recording the above-mentioned data only in a preset limited place can be considered, but this limits the range of use of the camera.

Further, it is conceivable to record the date and time when the image is taken as an item which can be automatically recorded at the time of image taking with a relatively simple structure. However, in order to retrieve an image by time data,
You have to remember when you did it, and in the end, it's just as inconvenient as any other system.

Further, in the above system, even when the date and time when the image was taken, the place, the weather, the person's name, the indoors and outdoors, the scenery of the person, the event, and the voice data are automatically recorded in association with the image data. , The data itself cannot be searched by the photographer without inputting it.

For example, when searching for an event, if the event is held every month, it is necessary to store in which month the photo that the user wants to search is of the event. Also, if you want to search for an image of a person who participated in an event and forget the person's name, you have no choice but to search at the event and select a person photo from them. That is, an efficient search cannot be performed simply by recording various data related to an image.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an information device equipped with a search method capable of recording photographed images while organizing them and recording them for management, and efficiently searching the photographed images. .

[0017]

According to the present invention, information in a second data format having information in a first data format as related information and third data having information in a first data format as related information are provided. When an information device handling information in a format receives a search by information having a second data format, the information content is the same as the information in the first data format associated with the information, or is associated with the information. By outputting the information having the third data format, which has the related information of the content included in the information in the first data format, as the search result, the photographed images can be organized while photographing, and the retrieval of the photographed images is easy. I was able to do it.

[0018]

1 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of a notebook electronic camera 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This notebook type electronic camera 1 includes a camera body 3
And a lid 5, both of which are mechanically and electrically connected by a hinge 4. The hinge 4 is provided with a switch (not shown) so that the open / closed state of the hinge 4 (upper lid 5) can be detected.

Various kinds of cards can be mounted in the card mounting ports 9 formed in the main body 3, and the functions of the camera main body 3 can be determined by the contents written in the ROM incorporated in each card. Is added. When a memory card MC having a memory for image recording and a CPU for controlling the camera is installed, the camera body 3
Acts as an electronic camera.

The functions of the camera body 3 when the memory card MC is attached will be described below.

The inside of the camera body 3 is constructed as shown in FIG. The image pickup unit 2 includes a CCD 22, which photoelectrically converts a subject image formed by the image pickup lens 21, a diaphragm shutter 25, a low-pass filter 28, and an infrared cut filter 30. Also, knob 31
Is a knob for focus adjustment provided integrally with a member for holding the taking lens, and by sliding it up and down, the distance between the taking lens 21 and the CCD 22 is changed, and focus adjustment is performed. Note that a detailed description of the image capturing unit 2 is publicly known, and will be omitted.

The signal extracted as an electric signal by the image pickup unit 2 is converted into a video signal for display on a liquid crystal display device 7 described later by a well-known signal processing circuit (not shown),
A sampling process for storing in the memory is performed.
Further, the signal processing circuit also performs signal processing such as reproducing a video signal from the memory information in order to display the video information stored in the memory on the liquid crystal display device 7.

The liquid crystal display device 7 displays various kinds of information. When it is used as an electronic still camera, it functions as a viewfinder (EVF) as shown in FIG. I do. Further, a known electrostatic switch is provided on the display screen of the liquid crystal display device 7, and it is possible to detect which part of the screen is touched by touching the screen with a pen (not shown).

The release button 15 is a button for giving a trigger to start photographing, and the power switch 18 is a switch for turning on / off the power of the main body.

The panel switch group 17 is provided inside the upper lid 5 and can be operated with the hinge 4 open. A part of the panel switch group 17 is for an electronic notebook function built in a main body ROM (not shown), but the rest is changed in function depending on the type of the card loaded in the card loading slot 9. Is configured to let.

Further, the camera body 3 has a built-in clock (not shown) for managing time.

Further, the main body ROM is provided with a schedule function and a data management function such as a telephone number and an address as an electronic notebook function. In addition to the schedule function, those related to the present invention will be described below. The other parts are known and will not be described.

Next, the operation of the schedule function of this apparatus will be described.

FIG. 3 shows a display screen of the schedule table of the liquid crystal display device 7 according to the present embodiment, taking January 22, 1993 as an example.

This is from 8:00 to January 22, 1993
It shows that golf is scheduled for 17:00 and a party is scheduled for 17:00 to 19:00. On the upper portion 7a of the liquid crystal display device 7, the current time obtained by the built-in clock is always displayed.

FIG. 4 shows the data structure of "golf" and "party" shown in FIG. According to this,
"Golf" is time data "1993/01/22/08/00 ~ 1993/01 /
22/17/00 ”, person data“ Yoshida ”,“ Inoue ”,“ Goto ”, place data“ ABC Golf Club ”, and other data“ waiting 6 o'clock, Shibuya ”are related data. Also, "Party" is the time data "1993/01 /
22/17/00 ~ 1993/01/22/19/00 "and person data" Yoshida "," Inoue "," Goto "," Arai "," Yamamoto "," Hamada "," Aoyama ", and place Data "ABC Golf Club"
Has as related data.

The numbers (data) in the related data
“1”, “2”, “3”, and “4” indicate that the data that follows are time, person, place, and other data, respectively. Therefore, by touching "golf" on the display screen of FIG. 3 with an input pen (not shown) (hereinafter referred to as "operating"), as shown in FIG.
When is operated, related data is displayed as shown in FIG. The display data in FIGS. 5A and 5B is underlined, which will be described later.

Next, the operation of the camera function of this apparatus will be described.

FIG. 6 shows a display screen of the liquid crystal display device 7 when the camera function is used. The liquid crystal display device 7 is
Images that are continuously captured by the image sensor are displayed, function as EVFs, and display the time by the built-in clock on the upper portion 7a of the liquid crystal display device 7. When the release button 15 is pressed in this state, the image at that time is stored and stored in the memory of the memory card MC.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 7 (a), the time of photographing (in this case, "January 22, 1993 1
3:28 ") is automatically recorded as related data. Furthermore, if the person's name is input (in this case, "Yoshida") by operating "Person" in the display screen of FIG. 7A with an input pen (not shown), the person data "Yoshida" If the place is operated and the place name is input (in this case, "ABC golf club"), the place data "ABC golf club" is recorded as related data (FIG. 7).
(B)). In addition, if you operate "Other" and input data, "Other" data can be recorded as related data.

At this time, the data structure of the photographed image is
It is as shown in FIG. According to this, "image 1" has time data "1993/01/22/13/28", person data "Yoshida", and place data "ABC Golf Club" as related data, and finally image data have.
Further, this data is also used as schedule data that "Image 1" was photographed at 13:28 on January 22, 1993.

Next, the image search operation of this apparatus will be described.

In the related data display screen as shown in FIG. 9A (similar to FIG. 5A), the underlined data (for example, "Inoue") has the same content ("Inoue"). ") Is present as image data having related data. Therefore, for example, when "Inoue" is operated, the most recent image data having "Inoue" as related data is displayed (FIG. 9B). Furthermore, it is possible to search on the time axis by using the arrow key on the upper right 7b.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10A, the schedule screen display (Jan. 24
(See the calendar for January 22nd on the day), the "image search" key is displayed in the upper right 7b part, and when this key is operated,
The display is as shown in (b). Again, there are underlined data (eg "Golf"),
This indicates that there is image data having time data included in the time data of the data (“golf”). So, for example, "golf"
When you operate, "Golf" displays the time data "1993/01/22/0
"8/00 to 1993/01/22/17/00" is related data, so search for images with time data included between them from those close to "1993/01/22/08/00". , Are displayed (FIG. 10 (c)). Also at this time, it is possible to search on the time axis by using the arrow key on the upper right portion 7b.

As described above, by simply inputting "golf" as the retrieval data, the retrieval is performed by referring to the time data that it has as related data. Therefore, even if another golf image exists, You can easily find the golf image you need.

Further, in the state of FIG. 10B, when the "person" key in the upper right portion 7b is operated, an image having the same person data as that of the data ("golf") is displayed. An underline is displayed on the existing data. Therefore, when you operate "Golf" after that,
The images that have the person data “Yoshida”, “Inoue”, and “Goto” in “Golf” as related data are
22/08/00 to 1993/01/22/17/00 ”are searched and displayed (FIG. 10 (c)). Also at this time, it is possible to search on the time axis with the arrow key on the upper right 7b.

Further, also at this time, by operating the "person" key as the retrieval data and inputting "golf", it is possible to retrieve by referring to the person data which it has as related data. Is "golf" and "person"
It becomes an AND and can search data efficiently. Also,
In this case, the search is possible without remembering the name of the person.

Also, in the state of FIG. 10B, the same operation is performed when the "place" key and the "other" key on the upper right 7b are operated.

Further, in FIG. 10 (b), a black mark 7d is attached on the time axis 7c, but this is displayed by the schedule data indicating that the image was photographed at this time, as described in FIG. Then, if you operate this part, the image will be searched and displayed. Therefore, if the black mark at about 13:00 in FIG. 10B is operated, the image in FIG. 10C is also searched.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
In an information device that handles schedule information having time data as related data and image information having time data as related data, when a search by certain schedule information is received, the same content as the time data associated with this information, Alternatively, by outputting the image information having the time data having the content included in the time data as the related information as the search result, the search can be performed very easily.

If the schedule is input,
Since time data is automatically added to image information at the time of shooting and data is created for image management, the images are organized at the same time as shooting, which is very convenient.

In the present embodiment, an example of a notebook electronic camera in which all the constituent elements are integrated is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is not integrated. Both have similar effects.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, the second information having the information in the first data format as the related information is used.
When the information device handling the information in the second data format and the information in the third data format having the information in the first data format as the related information is searched by the information in the second data format, Information having the third data format having the same content as the information in the first data format associated with or the related information having the content included in the information in the first data format associated with the information By outputting as a result,
There is an effect that the photographed images can be organized while photographing and the photographed images can be easily searched.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the outer appearance of a notebook electronic camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view showing the internal structure of the camera body in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the liquid crystal display device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a structure of schedule data in the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the liquid crystal display device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the liquid crystal display device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the liquid crystal display device in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of image data in the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the liquid crystal display device in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the liquid crystal display device in the above-mentioned embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Notebook type electronic camera, 2 ... Imaging part, 3 ... Camera body, 4 ... Hinge, 5 ... Top lid, 7 ... Liquid crystal display device, 9 ... Card mounting slot, 15 ... Release button, 17 ... Panel switch group, 18 ... Power switch, 21 ... Imaging lens, 22 ... CCD, 25 ... Aperture shutter, 28 ... Low pass filter, 30 ... Infrared cut filter, 31 ... Knob.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An information device that handles information in a second data format having information in a first data format as related information and information in a third data format having information in the first data format as related information. In the case of receiving a search by the information having the second data format, the same content as the information in the first data format associated with the information, or the first data format associated with the information An information device, which outputs information having a third data format, which has related information of contents included in information, as a search result. 2. The information device according to claim 1, wherein the information in the first data format is time information. 3. The information device according to claim 1, wherein the information in the third data format is image information. 4. The information device according to claim 1, wherein the information in the first data format is time information, and the information in the third data format is image information.