JPH10136240A - Camcorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a camcorder in which difficulty of picking up a photographer himself or herself by a video camera and trouble in the use of a portable video camera are avoided. SOLUTION: The television receiver 1 that is remotely controlled by a remote controller 2 possessed by a photographer A1 is provided with a camera 3 and a video left/right inverting device 4 that inverts a video image picked up by the camera 3 horizontally. In the case of selecting the camera mode by a selection means, the camera and a microphone built in the television receiver 1 incorporating a camera are active and the camera 3 picks up the figure of the photographer A1 placed in front of a television screen. A signal B1 is given to the video left/right inverting device 4, which converts the signal B1 into a signal B2 representing a horizontally inverting video image and the signal is displayed in real time on a television screen.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera-integrated television receiver in which a camera device is built in a stationary television receiver for home use, for example.
The present invention relates to a camera-integrated television receiver that reverses the image captured by a camera device and displays it on a television screen in real time in a real-time manner, thereby eliminating the complexity associated with video photography.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various electronic devices have been remarkably developed with the development of multimedia in broadcasting due to the development of telecommunication technology. 2. Description of the Related Art Television receivers (hereinafter, also simply referred to as “televisions”) are widely used to provide great entertainment and information to viewers. Stationary video tape recorders (VTRs) and portable video cameras that are connected to or used inside this television receiver have also become widespread in ordinary households. Playing and watching are frequently performed.

[0003] On the other hand, despite the fact that video cameras are widely used in ordinary households, they are used less frequently than other home appliances. One of the causes is that preparation for photographing is complicated. For example, video cameras are typically stored in cases or shelves and must be removed from storage to use. Next, the power supply must be connected to a power outlet via a battery or a dedicated AC adapter. In addition, in order to view a recorded video without a stationary VTR, a video camera and a television receiver must be connected by a connection cable in addition to the above preparation.

In order to omit these preparations, there is a method of preparing all the connections in advance. However, leaving the video camera in a wired state in daily life is an impression that the video camera is not organized. It is not preferable to give. Even when cleaning, the unevenness of the video camera entails difficulties in work, and therefore, in general, it is generally stored in a predetermined storage case in a predetermined storage case. For this reason, when the video camera is used, the above-described preparations are required, and complexity is inevitable.

Another problem related to the use of a portable video camera
One problem is that it is difficult for the photographer to photograph himself. That is, a video camera rarely shoots the photographer himself, and in order to achieve this, a tripod or the like must be separately prepared. When photographing the photographer himself in this way, it is not possible to shoot while looking through the viewfinder.To shoot while confirming the composition, connect the video to the television receiver and look at the TV screen with the side view. Shooting. Thus, it has been difficult to photograph the photographer himself with a conventional video camera.

In connection with the present application, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-13047
No. 6 is known, such as a "television system". This is a system for video conferencing. Although it is common that a television and a camera device are integrated, they are captured by a camera device. The present invention is different from the present invention in that an image is projected on another television screen, an image captured by a camera device is not horizontally inverted, and a sound of a television receiver is not muted when switching to a camera device (details will be described later). It is clearly different.

A portable video camera with a liquid crystal monitor having an image reversing function is known as one having a system similar to the present invention, but the object of the present invention is to complicate the use of the portable video camera. In order to solve the above problem, a stationary television receiver of a general household is provided with a camera function, and therefore has a different purpose from a portable video camera with a liquid crystal monitor.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object the difficulty of photographing a photographer himself with a conventional video camera and the complexity involved in using a portable video camera. It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera-integrated television receiver which solves the above problem.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, a camera-integrated television receiver according to the present invention is a camera unit comprising a television receiver, a camera device incorporated in the television receiver, and a microphone. Selecting means (camera mode switch) for selecting a camera unit; a video left-right reversing device for reversing the video taken by the camera unit when the camera unit is selected by the selecting device; Means for displaying an image in real time on the display screen of the television receiver, sound processing means for muting the output sound of the television receiver when the camera unit is selected by the selection means, and shooting with the camera unit. Output means for outputting video and audio.

Preferably, the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention has a driving unit (driving mechanism) for performing a pan / tilt operation for mounting the camera unit and operating the camera unit up, down, left and right. It is desirable that the camera unit and the driving means can be remotely operated by a remote control device.

[0011] In the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention, the television receiver has a built-in camera device, inverts an image photographed by the camera device by a video left-right reversing device, and displays the image on a display screen in real time. Audio output means of the television receiver is muted by audio processing means. This makes it easy for the photographer to take a picture with the camera device, and can easily take a picture at any time without complicating the use of a portable video camera and without missing a chance to take a picture. Can open up new possibilities for camera photography.

[0012]

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

First, an outline of a camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention will be briefly described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outline of a camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention.

The camera-integrated television receiver 1 of the present invention can be remotely controlled by a remote control device (hereinafter simply referred to as "remote controller") 2 carried by the photographer A1. The camera-integrated television receiver 1 of the present invention includes a camera device 3 and a video left / right reversing device 4 for reversing the video captured by the camera device 3 from side to side.

When a camera mode is selected by a selecting means (not shown), a camera device 2 and a microphone (not shown) incorporated in the camera-integrated television receiver 1 are operated, and are positioned in front of the television screen. The camera device 3 captures the appearance of the photographer A1 who is performing. Its signal B
1 is input to the video left-right reversing device 4, and a signal B 2 electrically or optically left-right reversed by the video left-right reversing device 4
And displayed on the TV screen in real time.

Since the photographer A1 can see his / her own image as the inverted image A2, the photographer A1 can correct his or her posture and composition as if standing in front of a mirror. However, if the sound captured by the microphone is output in real time from a speaker (not shown) of the camera-integrated television receiver 1, howling occurs. When the camera mode is selected by the selection means, the camera-integrated television is automatically set. The sound of the receiver 1 is muted. The signal B1 output from the camera device 3 is a signal integrated with the camera-integrated television receiver 1.
, And can be recorded by a VTR or the like connected to the line output terminal. When the camera-integrated television receiver 1 includes a VTR, the signal B1 from the camera device 3 is
The data is input to the TR and can be recorded.

Next, an embodiment of a camera-integrated television receiver according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention. Parts common to those described in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

The camera-integrated television receiver 1 of the present invention comprises a camera unit 3, a video left-right reversing device 4, a CRT 5, and a camera unit 6 together with the camera device 3 incorporated in the television receiver. A microphone 7, a driving mechanism 8 on which the camera unit 6 is placed and which performs a pan / tilt operation, a remote control light receiving unit 9, an input selection unit 11 having an input terminal 10, and an output selection unit 13 having an output terminal 12. ing. The configurations of the receiving unit and the audio processing unit usually provided in the television receiver are omitted for simplicity.

As shown in FIG. 3, a remote controller 2 for remotely controlling a camera-integrated television receiver 1 according to the present invention is constructed by adding the following additional parts to a conventionally known remote controller attached to a television. Is done. That is, a camera mode switch 21, which is a selection means for selecting a camera mode, a camera angle adjustment switch 22, which adjusts the angle of the camera unit 6, a zoom switch 23, which controls the zoom of the camera device 3, and adjusts the focus of the camera device 3. A focus adjustment switch 24 is provided. Note that the remote controller 2 is an example of a design, and the overall shape and arrangement may be shared or may be another design. Further, the additional portion of the remote controller 2 may be provided in the camera-integrated television receiver 1 and directly operated.

The operation of the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIGS.

When the photographer operates the camera mode switch 21 of the remote controller 2 to select the camera mode, the camera unit 6 and the drive mechanism 8 are energized. At the same time, an audio processing unit (not shown) operates to operate the television receiver 1.
Is muted.

The camera device 3 is composed of an image pickup device such as a CCD solid-state image pickup device and a processing circuit. A signal obtained by image pickup by the image pickup device is amplified by a processing circuit and subjected to processing necessary for camera signal processing. And output as a signal B1. A signal B1 from the camera device 3 is branched, and one of the signals is converted into an inverted signal B2 via an image left / right inverting device 4 which performs an electric process for inverting an image horizontally, and is input to the cathode ray tube 5 via an input selection unit 11. . The other is the output selection unit 13 as a signal B1 from the camera device 3.
Is output to the output terminal 12. As a result, the inverted image inverted by the image left-right inverting device 4 is displayed on the display screen of the cathode ray tube 5, and the output selection unit 13
The signal B1 taken from the camera device 3 and the microphone 7 is output to the output terminal 12 of the.

Camera unit 6 and camera unit 6
The adjustment of the drive mechanism 8 on which the
Done by That is, up, down, left, and right of the camera unit 6 are adjusted by the camera angle adjustment switch 22, zoom adjustment is performed by the zoom switch 23, and focus adjustment is performed by the focus adjustment switch 24. The remote control is performed by receiving a remote control format such as a PPM (Pulse Position Modulation) system emitted from the remote control 2 by the remote control light receiving unit 9 and controlling the remote control format by a microcomputer (both not shown).

The result of a use test performed by connecting the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention to a VTR will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a use test in which the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention is connected to a VTR.

The camera mode is selected by the camera mode switch 21 of the remote controller 2, and the VTR 14 is set to the recording state while the photographer A1 himself is projected on the television screen. At this time, since the photographer A1 can see his / her own image as the inverted image A2, the photographer A1 can correct his or her own posture and composition as if standing in front of a mirror, thereby facilitating photographing. Also, when changing the position or desired pose of the photographer A1,
By operating the camera angle adjustment switch 22, the zoom switch 23, and the focus adjustment switch 24 of the remote controller 2, a desired pose can be displayed on the television screen.

After the photographing, when the VTR 14 was reproduced, it was confirmed that the desired video and audio were recorded. In addition, the camera-integrated television receiver 1 of the present invention.
Because the camera device is integrated with the television receiver, there is no need for a video camera-specific storage space, and it has been confirmed that the camera has the appearance characteristics that can be safely left in the living room of a general household. Was.

Next, the operation of the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention, and SP to processing steps in the figure.

The operation starts when the photographer operates the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention. Step SP
At 1, it is verified whether or not the camera mode has been selected by the camera mode switch, and if NO, the operation of the function of the present invention is terminated. If YES, step S
The flow shifts to P2, where the sound being received by the television receiver is set to a mute state. In step SP3, the power of the camera device and the microphone is turned on. In step SP4, the power of the driving mechanism on which the camera unit including the camera device and the microphone is mounted is turned on.

In step SP5, an input terminal is selected by the input selection unit. In step SP6, a camera signal is selected by the output selection unit, and the functional operation of the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention ends. Note that a picture-in-picture (PI)
If P) or the like is provided, the camera signal may be displayed on the PIP screen, and the muted broadcast sound may be output as a sub sound.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
Various embodiments can be employed. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the television receiver and the video tape recorder have been exemplified as examples of the recording / reproducing apparatus. However, other electronic devices such as a TV-integrated VTR, a projector device, and a recording device which will be developed in the future will be described. Naturally, it can be applied to a type DVD or the like. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be developed in various forms without being limited to the above-described embodiment.

[0031]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention, the television receiver has a built-in camera device, and the image photographed by the camera device is converted into a video left-right reversing device. In addition, the image is inverted and displayed on the display screen in real time, and the sound output from the television receiver is muted by the sound processing means. In addition, since the television receiver has a built-in camera device, it does not involve the complexity of using a portable video camera,
In addition, it is possible to easily shoot a camera at any time without missing a shooting opportunity, and it is possible to expand a new possibility of camera shooting, which is useful.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outline of a camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a camera-integrated television receiver according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an operation surface of the remote control device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a use test in which the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention is connected to a VTR.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1.... The camera-integrated television receiver of the present invention, 2.
... Remote control device (remote control), 3 ... Camera device, 4 ... Image left / right reversing device, 5 ... CRT
6 Camera unit 7 Microphone 8
Drive mechanism, 10 ... input terminal, 11 ... input selection unit, 12 ... output terminal, 13 ... output selection unit, 1
4 VTR, 21 Camera mode switch, 22
... Camera angle adjustment switch, 23 ... Zoom switch,
24 Focus adjustment switch

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A television receiver, a camera unit including a camera device and a microphone built in the television receiver, a selection unit for selecting the camera unit, and the camera unit selected by the selection unit When, a video left-right reversing device for reversing the video taken by the camera unit left and right, a means for displaying the video reversed by the video left-right reversing device on a display screen of the television receiver in real time, and the selecting means A camera comprising: a sound processing unit for muting an output sound of the television receiver when the camera unit is selected; and an output unit for outputting video and sound captured by the camera unit. An integrated television receiver. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a driving unit for mounting the camera unit and performing a pan / tilt operation, wherein the camera unit and the driving unit can be remotely operated by a remote control device. The television receiver with a built-in camera according to 1. 3. The camera according to claim 2, wherein the item remotely operated by the remote control device is at least one of a camera mode selection, a camera angle adjustment, a zoom adjustment, and a focus adjustment. An integrated television receiver.