JPH11136613A - Image recording device and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the image recording device that quickly retrieves undesired recording data while recording a moving image on a record medium accessed at random. SOLUTION: Cuts A-E are stored in a memory of the image recording device 51, and in case that the cuts B, D are set to the delete inhibit mode, the cuts B, D are not displayed by the search operation by the user in the photographic mode and only the cuts A, C, E are searched and displayed on a liquid crystal monitor 29. In the case of the reproduction mode, all the cuts A-E are searched according to the search operation by the user and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 29. Since an image set to the delete inhibit mode is not displayed but only images that may be deleted are displayed in the photographing mode, the images are deleted by the user by having only to discriminate whether or not the displayed image is aborted just now.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus and method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent spread of personal computers to general households and the development of multimedia technology, the need for digitally recording video and audio has rapidly increased. Recording an image as digital data enhances the affinity with a computer, and facilitates various processing and editing by a user.

Under such a background, digital still cameras and digital camcorders are known as means for digitally recording images. These recording media include disk devices such as semiconductor memories and floppy disks,
Alternatively, a magnetic tape or the like is used.

At present, recording media that can be accessed randomly, such as semiconductor memories and floppy disks, are not suitable for recording moving pictures due to some problems such as recording capacity. There are many cases that are used. At present, magnetic tapes that can obtain a large recording capacity at a lower cost than semiconductor memories and the like are exclusively used for recording moving images whose data amount is enormous compared to still images.

On the other hand, it has been attempted to record a moving image on a randomly accessible recording medium such as a semiconductor memory in terms of data retrievability and affinity with a computer.

[0006]

However, when a moving image is recorded on a randomly accessible recording medium, it is difficult to shoot a moving image for a long time without any change due to the above-mentioned problem of the recording capacity. Therefore, in practice, it is necessary to perform recording after erasing recorded data or transferring data to another large-capacity recording device such as a hard disk to secure a recordable free space.

At this time, it is necessary for the user to check the contents of the recorded image by reproducing the image and to select the data, and it is required that the operability of the data search is good. In particular, when erasing unnecessary recording data due to lack of capacity during shooting and urgently erasing unnecessary recording data, if it is not possible to quickly distinguish between erasable data and undesired data, missed shooting opportunities will be missed. This is inconvenient for the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording apparatus and method capable of quickly searching for unnecessary recording data during photographing for recording a moving image on a randomly accessible recording medium.

[0009]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image recording apparatus for photographing an image, and recording the photographed image on a recording medium. An image recording apparatus comprising: a recording unit; and a retrieval unit for retrieving the recorded image, wherein the retrieval unit performs a different retrieval depending on an operation mode.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the image recording apparatus according to the first aspect, further comprising a setting unit for setting erasure inhibition to the recorded image, wherein the operation mode is to record the image on the recording medium. In the case of the shooting mode, the search means does not search for the image in which the erasure prohibition is set.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image recording apparatus according to the second aspect, when the operation mode is a reproduction mode for reproducing an image recorded on the recording medium, the search means includes It is characterized in that all the images recorded on the recording medium are searched.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image recording apparatus according to any one of the first, second, and third aspects, the recording medium is a semiconductor memory.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image recording apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, the recording medium is a magnetic disk or a magneto-optical disk. I do.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image recording method for photographing an image and recording the photographed image on a recording medium. A different search is performed.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the image recording apparatus and method of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the image recording apparatus according to the embodiment. The image recording device 51 has a camera unit 27 for photographing an image and a liquid crystal monitor 29 for displaying the photographed image, and uses a semiconductor memory (hereinafter, referred to as a memory) as a recording medium. The memory is stored in a PC card 52, and the PC card 52 is detachable from the main body of the image recording device 51. A recording start switch 23, a search switch 24, and a mode changeover switch 25 are provided on the back of the main body.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the image recording apparatus 51. The image recording device 51 includes an image signal processing circuit 28,
A character generator 30, a combining circuit 31, and the like are provided.

A microcomputer (microcomputer) 21 supervises overall control, monitors input signals from operation switches (mode changeover switch 22, recording start switch 23, search switch 24), and responds to switch operations by a user. Switching the operation mode, starting recording /
Controls various operations such as recording stop and search. Further, the microcomputer 21 communicates with the memory control circuit 26 which is stored in the PC card 52 and manages the memory 25, and communicates with the memory 2
5 is constantly monitored.

The image recording device 51 includes a camera unit 27.
And a playback mode in which the image recorded in the memory 25 is recorded in the memory 25, and a playback mode in which the image recorded in the memory 25 is played back and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 29. Can be switched by the user with the mode switch 22.

In the photographing mode, an image photographed by the camera section 27 is processed by an image signal processing circuit 28 and then displayed on a liquid crystal monitor 29 and recorded in a memory 25 in accordance with a user's operation of a recording start switch 23. Is done.
On the other hand, in the reproduction mode, the microcomputer 21 reads out image data from the memory 25 and displays it on the liquid crystal monitor 29.

The search operation is an operation for searching for an image recorded in the memory 25 and displaying the image on the liquid crystal monitor 29. The search operation is operable in both the photographing mode and the reproduction mode.

In the image recording device 51, every time the user operates the search switch 24, the microcomputer 21
Are sequentially searched for and reproduced from the head of the image data recorded in.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of image data.
The image data recorded in the memory 25 has an index (I
An NDEX) section 32, an image data area 33, and an end mark 34 indicating the end of the image data area 33, which together form one cut of image data.

The one-cut image data is a series of photographed image data until the user operates the recording start switch 23 to start recording and then operates the recording start switch 23 to stop recording. . The INDEX section 32 is a data area for storing information related to image data, and includes image data protection information in which erasure permission / non-permission (erase prohibition) of the image data is set and information such as recording time. In.

The image recording device 51 records information such as the recording time in the INDEX section 32 in the memory 25 in response to the user's first recording start operation, and then starts recording the photographed image data. Then, the image recording device 51 continuously records the captured image until the user operates the recording start switch 23 next time. Further, the user sets the recording start switch 2 next.
When 3 is operated, the image recording device 51 stops recording the image data, and records the end mark 34 indicating the end of the recorded image in the memory 25 following the image data.

In this manner, one cut of image data is recorded in the memory 25. Therefore, the INDEX part 3
By retrieving 2, the microcomputer 21 can recognize the recorded image for each cut.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a search operation procedure in the image recording apparatus 51 in the photographing mode. This processing program is executed by the RO in the microcomputer 21.
M and is executed by the microcomputer 21.

In the search operation in the photographing mode, first, I
The NDEX unit 32 is searched (step S1). As a result of the search, it is determined whether or not the INDEX unit 32 has been found (step S2). And the first found INDE
For the X section 32, the microcomputer 21 refers to the information stored therein and determines whether or not the image is prohibited from being erased (step S3).

If the image data is not prohibited from being erased, the image data is read out and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 29 (step S4). On the other hand, if the image data is prohibited from being erased, the process returns to step S1 without reading out the image data, and the next INDEX unit 32 is searched.

When the next INDEX unit 32 is found, the information stored in the INDEX unit 32 is checked in the same manner as before, and the same processing is performed according to whether or not the image data is prohibited from being erased. . On the other hand, the following INDEX part 3
If 2 is not found, the search operation ends.

As described above, when the user performs a search operation in order to secure the recording capacity at the time of shooting, only the images that can be deleted are displayed without displaying the images set to be prohibited. The user can delete the displayed image only by deciding whether or not to immediately discard it.
In particular, when urgency is required, confusion of the user is not caused. If the user decides to discard the displayed image, the data area can be used immediately for the next photographing.

In the search operation in the reproduction mode,
When the NDEX unit 32 is searched and the INDEX unit 32 is found, the image data is read out and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 29 regardless of whether or not the image data is prohibited from being erased. When the display is completed, the next INDEX unit 32 is searched, and when the next INDEX unit 32 is found, an image is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 29 similarly. On the other hand, if the next INDEX unit 32 is not found, the search operation is terminated.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a search operation. FIG. 3A shows the recording state of data in the memory 25. The cuts A to E are recorded in the memory 25, and the cuts B and D among them are set to prohibit erasure.

In the photographing mode, the cuts of B and D are not displayed in response to the user's search operation as shown in FIG. 4B, and only the cuts of A, C and E indicated by oblique lines are searched. To display on the LCD monitor 29. In the reproduction mode, all cuts from A to E are searched in response to the user's search operation and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 29 as shown in FIG.

In the search operation in the photographing mode,
When the image data is not prohibited from being erased and the image data is read out and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 29 in step S4, the user waits for an erasure instruction, and when there is an erasure instruction, this is displayed to erase the image data It may be.

When a large-capacity storage device is connectable, the image data may be transferred to the large-capacity storage device instead of erasing the image data.

Further, in this embodiment, the semiconductor memory is shown as the recording medium. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a magnetic disk such as a hard disk or a floppy disk or a magneto-optical disk may be used. In particular, a randomly accessible recording medium such as a semiconductor memory or a disk device is more effective for speeding up image search.

The image to be recorded may be a still image or a moving image.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus constituted by a single device.

It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In this case, by reading out a storage medium storing a program represented by software for achieving the present invention into a system or an apparatus, the system or the apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the program is stored in the ROM in the Mylok computer 21. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a floppy disk,
Hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-
A ROM, a CD-R, a DVD, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, or the like can be used.

[0040]

According to the image recording apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, when an image is photographed by the photographing means, and the photographed image is recorded on the recording medium by the recording means, the recording means is searched by the retrieval means. Although the searched image is searched, at this time, a different search is performed according to the operation mode, so that a search process can be performed according to the operation mode. Unnecessary record data can be quickly searched.

The same effect can be obtained in the image recording method according to the sixth aspect.

According to the image recording apparatus of the second aspect,
Setting means for setting erasure prohibition on the image to be recorded, and when the operation mode is a shooting mode for recording an image on the recording medium, the search means does not search for the image for which erasure prohibition is set; In addition, only the image data area permitted to be deleted by the search operation can be searched, and selection of data at the time of shooting becomes easy.

According to the image recording apparatus of the third aspect,
When the operation mode is a reproduction mode for reproducing an image recorded on the recording medium, the retrieval unit retrieves all images recorded on the recording medium, so that it is easy to select data during shooting. At the same time, all the images can be searched at the time of reproduction.

According to the image recording apparatus of the fourth aspect,
Since the recording medium is a semiconductor memory, it is effective in an image recording apparatus using the semiconductor memory.

According to the image recording apparatus of the fifth aspect,
Since the recording medium is a magnetic disk or a magneto-optical disk, it is effective in an image recording apparatus using a magnetic disk or a magneto-optical disk.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of the image recording apparatus 51.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of image data.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a search operation procedure in a shooting mode in the image recording apparatus 51.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating a search operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 21 microcomputer 22 mode changeover switch 23 recording start switch 24 search switch 25 semiconductor memory (memory) 29 liquid crystal monitor 51 image recording device

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image recording apparatus comprising: photographing means for photographing an image; and recording means for recording the photographed image on a recording medium, comprising: a search means for searching for the recorded image; An image recording apparatus, wherein the means performs a different search depending on an operation mode. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting unit configured to set erasure prohibition on the image to be recorded, wherein when the operation mode is a shooting mode for recording an image on the recording medium, the search unit sets the erasure prohibition. 2. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein no image is searched. 3. When the operation mode is a reproduction mode for reproducing an image recorded on the recording medium, the retrieval unit retrieves all the images recorded on the recording medium. Item 3. The image recording device according to Item 2. 4. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recording medium is a semiconductor memory. 5. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is a magnetic disk or a magneto-optical disk.
An image recording apparatus according to claim 3. 6. An image recording method for photographing an image and recording the photographed image on a recording medium, wherein a different search is performed according to an operation mode when retrieving the recorded image. Image recording method.