JPH08298609A - Visual line position detecting/sound collecting device and video camera using the device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a video camera using a visual line position detecting/sound collecting device capable of mainly collecting sound from the direction of a visual line position. CONSTITUTION: The video camera provided with a visual line position AF function part 8 for detecting a visual line position and focusing a subject arranged on the detected position consists of a sound collecting means 1 capable of optionally setting up directivity and a directivity adjusting means 2 for adjusting the directivity of the means 1 to the direction of a visual line position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a line-of-sight position detecting and sound collecting device which mainly collects sound in the direction of the line of sight and a video camera using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There has been proposed a video camera which detects a line-of-sight position and focuses an object at the line-of-sight position. FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the principle of this video camera. In this figure, the image displayed on the liquid crystal panel 101 in the finder is the lens 102,
The light enters the eyeball 111 via 103.

The pupil of the eyeball 111 gazes at somewhere on the liquid crystal panel 101, and the gaze position of this pupil is the line-of-sight position. In order to detect this line-of-sight position,
Infrared light emitting diode 104, dichroic mirror 10
5, a condenser lens 106, and a line-of-sight detection CCD 107 are provided. The infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting diode 104 is reflected by the eyeball 111, and the reflected infrared light is reflected by the dichroic mirror 105 arranged between the lenses 102 and 103, It is condensed by a condenser lens 106 arranged on this reflected light path and guided to a line-of-sight detection CCD 107, and a pupil image is formed on this CCD 107.

The pupil position on the CCD 107 is known from the pupil image formed on the line-of-sight detecting CCD 107, and it is determined which position on the liquid crystal panel 101 the pupil position corresponds to. Then, by adjusting the focus lens position so that the frequency component of the image at the position on the liquid crystal panel 101 corresponding to the pupil position becomes high, focusing according to the line-of-sight position is performed.

[0005]

By the way, as described above, even if the line-of-sight position is detected and the person who is the subject at the line-of-sight position is focused, the voice of a person different from the person who is focused is recorded. However, if the sound is mainly picked up, there is a drawback that the viewer feels uncomfortable because the video and the sound do not correspond to each other.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides a line-of-sight position detection and sound collection device capable of collecting sound in the direction of the line-of-sight position and a video camera using this line-of-sight position detection and sound collection device. To aim.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a line-of-sight position detecting and sound collecting device of the present invention includes a sound collecting unit whose directionality can be arbitrarily set, and the sound collecting unit in the direction of the line of sight. And a directivity adjusting means for matching the directivity of the.

The sound collecting means includes a plurality of microphones,
A / D converter connected to each microphone and each A / D
The directivity adjusting means may be configured to adjust the filter coefficient of each digital filter based on the line-of-sight position, the digital filter being connected to a converter. In addition, the sound collecting means includes a plurality of microphones, A / D converters connected to the microphones, and A / D converters.
A delay filter connected to the / D converter, and the directivity adjusting means may be configured to adjust the delay coefficient of each delay filter based on the line-of-sight position.

The video camera of the present invention is a video camera having a visual axis position autofocus function for detecting a visual axis position and focusing on an object at the visual axis position,
It is characterized in that the above-mentioned line-of-sight position detection sound collecting device is provided.

Further, this video camera may be provided with a visual axis position real direction calculating means for correcting the visual axis position according to the zoom amount, or with a microphone separately from the sound collecting means,
There may be provided means for increasing the volume ratio of the other microphone when the zoom amount is small, and for increasing the volume ratio of the sound collecting unit when the zoom amount is large.

[0011]

With the line-of-sight position detecting and sound collecting device having the above structure, since the directivity of the sound collecting means can be matched with the direction of the line-of-sight position, the sound in the direction of the line-of-sight position can be collected with emphasis. . Therefore, if it is a video camera using this,
When the person who is the subject at the line-of-sight position is focused, the voice of the person who is focused is mainly collected, and the image and the voice correspond.

Further, in the line-of-sight position detection shown in the conventional example,
The line-of-sight position determined from the correspondence between the pupil image formed on the line-of-sight detection CCD and the image on the liquid crystal panel deviates from the actual line-of-sight position due to the change in the zoom amount. If used as it is, it is not always possible to pick up the sound of the subject at the actual line-of-sight position, but if the configuration is such that the line-of-sight position is corrected according to the zoom amount, this drawback can be eliminated.

If a microphone is provided separately from the sound collecting means and the volume ratio of the other microphone is increased when the zoom amount is small, and the volume ratio of the sound collecting means is increased when the zoom amount is large, When the zoom amount is small, the ambient sound is picked up, and when the zoom amount is large, the sound of the zoomed-in subject is mainly picked up, and the zoom-up feeling can be enhanced.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings showing its embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a video camera using the sight line position detecting and sound collecting device of the present invention.
The line-of-sight position detection and sound collection device includes sound collection means 1 and directivity adjustment means 2. The sound collecting means 1 is configured so that the directivity can be arbitrarily set, and the directivity adjusting means 2 is configured to match the directivity of the sound collecting means 1 with the direction of the line-of-sight position. The specific configuration of these will be described later.

Further, in this embodiment, a separate microphone 3 is provided in addition to the sight line position detecting and sound collecting device. The output of the separate microphone 3 and the output of the sound collecting means 1 are respectively amplified by amplifiers 4 and 5 at a predetermined ratio, added by an adder 6, and then supplied to a voice recording system (not shown). Has become.

The amplification factors of the amplifiers 4 and 5 are set by the output (zoom information) of the zoom information generator 7. When the zoom amount is small, the volume ratio of the separate microphone 3 is increased, and when the zoom amount is large, the amplification ratio is increased. Sound collecting means 1
It is designed to increase the volume ratio of.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a concrete configuration of the zoom information generator 7. The zoom control unit 7a generates a zoom control signal based on the zoom instruction information from the zoom button 7b, and outputs this to the zoom motor 7c.
The zoom encoder 7d outputs a signal proportional to the rotation angle of the zoom motor 7c. This signal is sent to the zoom controller 7
a and the multiplier 7e.

The multiplier 7e multiplies the signal (optical zoom information) from the zoom encoder 7d by the electronic zoom control signal supplied from the zoom control unit 7a to the electronic zoom unit 7f, and uses the multiplied value as zoom information. Output. At the time of optical zoom, "1" is output as electronic zoom information. Therefore, during the optical zoom, the zoom information matches the optical zoom information. The electronic zoom unit 7f is driven based on the electronic zoom information from the zoom control unit 7a,
Electronic zoom processing is performed by pixel interpolation or the like. Further, the zoom control unit 7a monitors the upper limit of the optical zoom based on the optical zoom information from the zoom encoder 7d, and drives the electronic zoom unit 7f when the zoom instruction information exceeding the upper limit is received from the zoom button 7b. When the electronic zoom unit 7f is driven, a value corresponding to the magnification is output to the multiplier 7e as the electronic zoom information.

The line-of-sight AF function section 8 has, for example, a configuration similar to that of the conventional example shown in FIG. 6, and an infrared light emitting diode and a line-of-sight detection CCD are provided in the finder.
Is provided. Then, the pupil position on the CCD is known from the pupil image formed on the line-of-sight detection CCD, it is determined which position on the liquid crystal panel the pupil position corresponds to, and the liquid crystal panel corresponding to the pupil position. The focus lens position is adjusted so that the frequency component of the image at the upper position becomes high.

The line-of-sight detection information by the line-of-sight AF function unit 8 and the zoom information from the zoom information generation unit 7 are output to the line-of-sight position real direction calculation unit 9. The line-of-sight position actual direction calculation unit 9 corrects the line-of-sight position according to the zoom amount,
The corrected line-of-sight position (real direction of the line-of-sight position) is output to the directivity adjusting means 2.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a method of calculating the real direction of the line-of-sight position by the line-of-sight position real direction calculation unit 9. As the zoom amount increases, the line-of-sight position on the left side of the screen center position moves to the left, and the line-of-sight position on the right side of the screen center position moves to the right. Here, assuming that the calculated line-of-sight position and the actual direction of the line-of-sight position are adjusted so that the calculated line-of-sight position and the real direction of the line-of-sight position match with each other, the calculated line-of-sight position increases in zoom amount. Therefore, if the line-of-sight detection information from the line-of-sight AF function unit 8 is used as it is, the zoom angle in the figure increases in the direction shown in FIG. The direction of the sound pickup means 1 is directed in the direction of angle B). Therefore, the line-of-sight detection information from the line-of-sight AF function unit 8 is corrected based on the zoom information from the zoom information generation unit 7 to perform the correction calculation for correcting the angle B to the angle A, for example, to determine the actual line-of-sight position. You can judge the direction.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing an example of the sound collecting means 1. The sound collecting means 1 of FIG. 4 includes a plurality of omnidirectional microphones 11a to 11d arranged vertically and at predetermined intervals with respect to the direction of the sound source, and the microphones 11a to 11a.
A / D converters 12a to 12d connected to 11d, FIR (non-recursive) digital filters 13a to 13d connected to the A / D converters 12a to 12d, and outputs of the digital filters 13a to 13d And an adder 14 for adding.

In the sound collecting means 1 having such a structure, directivity can be arbitrarily set by adjusting the filter coefficients and sampling frequencies of the digital filters 13a to 13d.

The directivity adjusting means 2 provided corresponding to the sound collecting means 1 of FIG. 4 adjusts the filter coefficient of each of the digital filters 13a to 13d based on the output of the line-of-sight position real direction calculating section 9. For example, the relationship between the filter coefficient and the directivity of each of the digital filters 13a to 13d is experimentally known in advance, and a filter coefficient group suitable for picking up sound in some directions is stored in a memory (not shown). Based on the output of the line-of-sight position real direction calculation unit 9, an appropriate filter coefficient group is read from the memory and given to the digital filters 13a to 13d.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing another example of the sound collecting means 1. The sound collecting means 1 of FIG. 5 includes a plurality of omnidirectional microphones 21a to 21d distributed side by side (or concentric circles) in the direction of the sound source, and A / D conversion connected to the microphones 21a to 21d. 22a ~
22d, delay digital filters 23a to 23d connected to the respective A / D converters 22a to 22d, and an adder 24 for adding the outputs of the delay digital filters 23a to 23d. -9-1
0: See "A Study on Microphone Array with Selectivity Based on Sound Source Position").

The sound collecting means 1 having such a configuration adjusts the delay coefficients of the delay digital filters 23a to 23d so that the sound sources from the sound source (viewpoint position) to the microphones distributed on the plane are distributed. The directivity is set for the purpose of collecting sound by delaying the outputs of the microphones so that the propagation times are equivalently all equal and then adding them all.

The directivity adjusting means 2 provided corresponding to the sound collecting means 1 shown in FIG. 5 has the output of the line-of-sight position real direction calculating section 9 and the distance calculating means 10 as shown by a dotted arrow in FIG. The delay coefficient of each of the digital filters 23a to 23d is adjusted based on the output (distance information to the line-of-sight target). For example, the relationship between the delay coefficient and the directivity of each of the delay digital filters 23a-23 is experimentally known in advance,
A delay coefficient group suitable for picking up sound in several directions is stored in a memory, and based on the output of the visual line position actual direction calculating unit 9 and the output of the distance calculating means 10, an appropriate delay coefficient group is obtained from the memory. The delay digital filter 23a is read out.
˜23d.

The distance calculation means 10 is provided to consider the distance information to the line-of-sight target because the longer the distance to the line-of-sight target, the larger the radius of curvature of the wave front of the sound and the sound to each microphone. This is because the deviation of the arrival time is reduced and the delay amount needs to be corrected when the distance is increased or decreased. The distance calculating means 10 is adapted to calculate the distance to the line-of-sight target based on the position of the lens moved by autofocus, the focal length of the lens, and the like.

According to the above configuration, since the directivity of the sound collecting means 1 can be matched with the direction of the line-of-sight position, the sound in the direction of the line-of-sight position can be collected with emphasis. Therefore, in a video camera using this, when the person who is the subject at the line-of-sight position is focused, the voice of the person who is in focus is picked up, and the video and audio are corresponded. Can be made.

Further, if the line-of-sight position that does not consider the zoom amount is used as it is, the sound of the subject at the actual line-of-sight position cannot always be picked up. As described above, since the line-of-sight position is corrected according to the zoom amount, this drawback can be solved.

Further, a microphone 3 is provided separately from the sound collecting means 1, so that when the zoom amount is small, the volume ratio of the other microphone 3 is increased, and when the zoom amount is large, the volume ratio of the sound collecting means 1 is increased. Therefore, when the zoom amount is small, the ambient sound is picked up, and when the zoom amount is large, the sound of the zoomed-in subject is focused on, and the zoom-up feeling can be enhanced.

In this embodiment, the directivity adjusting means 2 is provided with a memory holding the filter coefficient and the delay coefficient, and based on the outputs of the zoom information generating section 9 and the distance calculating means 10, the appropriate filter coefficient and the delay coefficient. However, the filter coefficient and the delay coefficient may be calculated by performing appropriate arithmetic processing based on the outputs of the zoom information generation unit 9 and the distance calculation means 10 without the memory. Good.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the sound in the direction of the line-of-sight position can be focused, and the video camera focuses on the person who is the subject at the line-of-sight position. At this time, the voice of the focused person is mainly collected, and the video and the voice can be associated with each other. Further, if the line-of-sight position is corrected according to the zoom amount, the directivity can be surely adjusted to the actual direction of the line-of-sight position. Further, when the zoom amount is small, the ambient sound is picked up, and when the zoom amount is large, the sound of the zoomed-up subject is mainly picked up, so that the zoom-up feeling can be enhanced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a video camera equipped with a line-of-sight position detection and sound collection device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of a zoom information generation unit of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a method of calculating a line-of-sight position real direction of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of the sound collecting means of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another specific configuration of the sound collecting means of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the principle of a video camera that detects a line-of-sight position and focuses an object at the line-of-sight position.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 sound collecting means 2 directivity adjusting means 3 separate microphones 7 zoom information generating section 8 visual axis AF function section 9 visual axis position actual direction calculating section 10 distance calculating means 11a to 11d microphones 12a to 12d A / D converters 13a to 13d digital filter 21a to 21d Microphones 22a to 22d A / D converters 23a to 23d Delay digital filter

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A sound collecting means capable of arbitrarily setting directivity,
A line-of-sight position detection and sound collection device comprising directivity adjusting means for adjusting the directivity of the sound collecting means in the direction of the line-of-sight position. 2. The sound collecting means comprises a plurality of microphones, an A / D converter connected to each microphone, and each A.
2. A digital filter connected to a D / D converter, wherein the directivity adjusting means is configured to adjust the filter coefficient of each digital filter based on the line-of-sight position. Gaze position detection and sound collection device. 3. The sound collecting means comprises a plurality of microphones, an A / D converter connected to each microphone, and each A.
2. A delay filter connected to a D / D converter, and the directivity adjusting means is configured to adjust the delay coefficient of each delay filter based on the line-of-sight position. Gaze position detection and sound collection device. 4. A video camera having a line-of-sight position auto-focusing function for detecting a line-of-sight position and focusing on an object at the line-of-sight position, wherein the line-of-sight position detection sound collection is performed. A video camera having a device. 5. The video camera according to claim 4, further comprising line-of-sight position real direction calculation means for correcting the line-of-sight position in accordance with the zoom amount. 6. A microphone is provided separately from the sound collecting means, and means is provided for increasing the volume ratio of the other microphone when the zoom amount is small, and for increasing the volume ratio of the sound collecting means when the zoom amount is large. 6. The video camera according to claim 4, wherein the video camera is a video camera.