JPH11308493A - Digital camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate image management and to improve presentation performance by replacing information representing a storage location of each specified image or a storage location stored corresponding to each image. SOLUTION: After replacing positions of images and arranging the replaced image, the image is grouped according to a category. That is, in a state of multi-image display, when a keyboard is depressed once, the image is replaced and when a mode key is depressed once, the image is grouped. In this case, touching a touch panel 49 fitted to a liquid crystal display device 46 designates two images desired for replacement. After designating the replaced image, when a shutter key 5 is depressed, the images having been stored in a flush memory 40 are replaced. Thus, information denoting a storage location of each specified image or storage corresponding to each image is replaced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly, to a digital camera having a flat display device (generally, a liquid crystal display) capable of displaying a plurality of shot images collectively (hereinafter, referred to as a multi-screen display). It relates to a digital camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Digital cameras have features not available in conventional cameras (silver halide cameras), such as the ability to play images on the spot and the ability to transfer images to remote locations, and are often used in various fields, both public and private. However, in recent years, the use of large-capacity storage media accompanying the reduction in memory prices has made it possible to record and store tens to hundreds of images. One of the advantages of a digital camera is, as mentioned above,
The point is that the image can be confirmed on the spot, that is, there is no need to submit the image to development unlike a silver halide camera. For this reason, the usage is often different from the silver halide camera, for example,
Unnecessary images can be erased while viewing the flat display device (hereinafter, represented by a liquid crystal display) or the liquid crystal display can be shown to a person, so that printing can be completely eliminated.

When the number of images taken by a digital camera increases, image management using a liquid crystal display becomes considerably troublesome. For example, if it takes 5 seconds to display one image, it takes as much as 5 ms to finish viewing all m images. Therefore, the number of shots (m)
When there are hundreds of images, it is not easy to find a desired image. Therefore, a digital camera with a liquid crystal display has a multi-screen display function capable of displaying a plurality of images at a time except for inexpensive ones. ,
Since up to 16 images can be displayed at one time, the time can be greatly reduced (1/16).

[0004]

However, in the conventional multi-screen display function of a digital camera, the number of screen divisions is fixed, and the display order in each divided cell is determined by the shooting date and time. There is a problem that management is difficult and the usability when showing an image to a person is poor.

[0005] When photographing a large number of images, it is generally difficult to unify all the images under one subject (category), and it is inevitable to mix various categories. For example, if you use the same camera at work and at home,
Both images will be confused, and even if you use multi-screen display, it is difficult to find the image you need, and sometimes you do not want to show it to others. In such a case, extra work such as setting a password is required, which is inconvenient.
If you use an external device such as a personal computer, you can easily perform the classification by category, but it requires special software and interface cables, which is disadvantageous in terms of cost, and the use place is limited. It cannot be an essential solution.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to improve the display function of a multi-screen, thereby facilitating image management and improving presentation.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In a digital camera provided with a flat display device capable of multi-screen display for collectively displaying two or more images of captured images stored in a storage medium, an arbitrary plurality of images displayed on the multi-display screen Position specifying means for specifying the storage positions of the plurality of images in the storage medium based on the display positions of the images, and storing the plurality of images corresponding to the storage positions or the images of the images specified by the position specification means And a position replacing means for replacing information indicating the storage position. The invention according to claim 2 is a digital camera including a flat display device capable of multi-screen display for collectively displaying two or more images of captured images stored in a storage medium,
Position specifying means for specifying the storage positions of the plurality of images in the storage medium based on the display positions of any of the plurality of images displayed on the multi-display screen; and A position replacement unit that replaces information representing the storage position stored in correspondence with the storage position or each image, and an arbitrary plurality of images displayed on the multi-display screen after the storage positions are replaced by the position replacement unit. Information providing means for providing unique group identification information to an image and all images located between the plurality of images, and group identification information of the arbitrary image when displaying an arbitrary image on the flat display device And group display means for displaying all images having the same group identification information on the multi-display screen.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a division number selecting means for selecting the number of screen divisions of the multi-screen display from several candidate division numbers. It is characterized by the following. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the group display means sets the number of screen divisions for multi-screen display in accordance with the number of images having the same group identification information. I do.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, taking a digital camera having a maximum 4 × 4 multi-screen display function as an example. First, FIG. 1 is a conceptual flowchart of the “playback mode” of the digital camera according to the present embodiment. The reproduction mode is a mode in which a captured image is displayed on a liquid crystal display, and has several functions including the technical concept of the present invention in FIG. That is, "single display" for displaying one image and "multi-screen display (abbreviated as multi-display in the figure)" for displaying a plurality of images.
In addition to the functions described above, the functions include “setting of the number of divisions”, “group display”, “screen switching”, and “grouping”. In the figure, the procedure for selecting each function is as follows: single display is performed immediately after the playback mode, and group display is performed as necessary.
Although multi-screen display, screen swapping, and grouping are performed through the setting of the number of divisions, this procedure is only a representative example of what seems to be desirable, and is not limited to this. Not something. Also, circled numbers (-) in FIG.
To FIG. 9).

FIG. 2 is an external view of the digital camera according to the present embodiment. The digital camera 1 is divided into a main unit 2 and a camera unit 3 rotatably mounted on the main unit 2, and a lens (not shown) is provided on the front surface (rear side in the drawing) of the camera unit 3. It is installed. Behind the lens, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), also not shown, is attached.
The image of the subject captured from the lens is converted into an electric signal, so that a frame image having a predetermined period can be generated.

On the other hand, a flat panel display device, for example, a liquid crystal display 4, for confirming a frame image or a photographed image is attached to the main body 2, and various operation keys such as a shutter key 5 are provided. Classes are attached at appropriate positions. By the way, the operation keys are, for example,
Plus key 6, minus key 7, delete key 8, power switch 9, mode key 10, display key 11,
The zoom key 12, the self-timer key 13, the function switch 14, and the like are described below. Of these keys, those that are particularly indispensable for understanding the operation of the flowchart described below are as follows.

(1) Shutter key 5: plays the role of its name in the photographing mode, but plays the role of the "execute" key of the selected function in the reproducing mode. (2) Plus key 6: a key for selecting the display image in the plus direction (the direction of the latest image) in the case of single display, and moving the cursor on the screen downward or to the right in the case of a multi-screen or various setting screens. Key (3) Minus key 7: Same function as the plus key except that the direction is reversed. (4) Mode key 10: a key for selecting various functions in a shooting mode or a reproduction mode. In particular, in the reproduction mode, it is often used to stop (end) the function being selected and move to the next function. (5) Function switch 14: a slide switch for switching between a shooting mode and a playback mode. Slide up for shooting mode, slide down for playback mode.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the digital camera according to the present embodiment.
2 is a vertical driver, 33 is a timing generator (TG: Ti
mingGenerator), 34 is a sample and hold circuit, 35
Is an analog-to-digital converter, 36 is a color process circuit, 37 is a DMA controller, 38 is a DRAM interface, 39 is a DRAM, 40 is a flash memory (storage medium), 41 is a CPU (position replacement means, information adding means, group display means). , Division number selection means), 42 is J
PEG (Joint Photographic Coding Experts Group)
Circuit, 43 is a VRAM, 44 is a VRAM controller,
45 is a digital video encoder, 46 is a liquid crystal display (flat display device), 47 is a bus, 48 is a key input unit, and 49 is a touch panel (position specifying means).

The key input unit 48 includes various operation keys described above, and a touch panel interface 50 that converts coordinate information from a touch panel 49 attached to the front of the liquid crystal display 46 into a predetermined signal format and outputs the signal format to the CPU 41. It has.

In the recording mode, first, the lens 30
Is driven by signals from the vertical driver 32 and the timing generator 33, and the
The video collected in the step is photoelectrically converted at regular intervals, and an image signal for one screen is output. Then, the image signal is sampled by a sampling and holding circuit 34 and converted into a digital signal by an analog-to-digital converter 35, and then a digital luminance / color difference multiplex signal (YUV signal) is generated by a color process circuit 36. This YUV signal is transmitted to the DMA controller 37 and the DRAM
The data is transferred to the DRAM 39 via the interface 38, read out by the CPU 41 after the transfer to the DRAM 39 is completed, and is transferred to the liquid crystal display 46 via the VRAM controller 44 and the digital video encoder 45.
Sent to and displayed.

When the direction of the camera is changed in this state, DR
The YUV signal stored in AM39 is rewritten,
At the same time, the image displayed on the liquid crystal display 46 also changes, but at an appropriate time (when a desired composition is obtained).
When the shutter key 5 is depressed, the YUV signal stored in the DRAM 39 is fixed at the current YUV signal, and the image displayed on the liquid crystal display 46 is also fixed at the same point. And at that point D
The YUV signal stored in the RAM 39 is sent to the JPEG circuit 42 via the DRAM interface 38, and is subjected to JPEG encoding in units called 8 × 8 pixel basic blocks for each of Y, Cb, and Cr components. Is written to the flash memory 40 and J for one screen
Recorded as a PEG image.

On the other hand, in the reproduction mode, the CCD 31
In order to realize the functions of “single display”, “group display”, “division number setting”, “multi-screen display”, “screen switching” and “grouping”, the path from Then, the flowchart shown below is executed. In addition, the flow in this specification is:
Unless otherwise specified, the program is of the event-initiated type. That is, a specific event action (for example, function switch 14, shutter key 5, mode key 1) associated with the program
0, press down the plus key 6 or the minus key 7)
, The execution of the program is started.

FIG. 4 shows a flow including a single display function and a branching routine to another function. This flow is performed when the function switch 14 is slid down and the other functions are stopped (finished). Executed when That is, when the reproduction mode is entered, first, the latest one of the captured images is read from the flash memory 40, and the image is displayed on the liquid crystal display 46 (S1). If the image is not intended, the user presses the plus key 6 or the minus key 7 to find a desired image (S2, S3). In this single display state, pressing the mode key 10 once can shift to multi-screen display (S4), and pressing the mode key 10 once again can shift to group display (S5). If the button is pressed once more (three times), the branching process is stopped and the display returns to the single display (S7). When shifting to multi-screen display or group display, the shutter key 5 may be depressed after the mode key 10 (S
6, S7).

For example, after pressing the mode key 10 once,
When the shutter key 5 is pressed, the division number setting flow of FIG. 5 is executed. In this flow, first, a “division number setting screen” is displayed on the liquid crystal display 446 (S10).
This screen display is for displaying the number of candidate divisions of the multi-screen display and for allowing the user to arbitrarily select the number, for example, as shown in FIG. In FIG. 10, along with a title message (selection of the number of divisions in the drawing), the number of candidate divisions “× 1”, “× 2” to “× 16” are displayed in a selectable manner. In the figure, the center “x6” is highlighted in white, but this is the current cursor position. Each time the plus key 6 is pressed, the cursor position advances to "x8", "x9", "x12", "x16", and each time the minus key 7 is pressed, the cursor position changes to "x".
Returning to "4", "x3", "x2", "x1", move the cursor to an appropriate number of divisions and press the shutter key 5 (S12-S14) to display a multi-screen with the number of divisions. Can be executed.

FIG. 6 shows a flow including a multi-screen display function and a branch routine to a screen replacement and grouping function. In this flow, first, multi-screen display is performed with the selected number of divisions (S30). For example, assuming that “× 16” is selected and at least 16 images have been captured, FIG.
A multi-screen display as shown in FIG. In FIG.
The number at the upper right of each image is a page number, which is sequentially numbered from the upper left to the lower right for each cell of the multi-screen. By the way, the 16 images shown in the figures are, of course, examples of convenience, but a point to be noted is that an appropriate subject that can be classified into several categories is intentionally selected. That is, as can be seen from the figure, "animal", "flower"
And images classified into three categories of “car” and “car”. As mentioned at the beginning, the display order of the multi-screen is the shooting order, and in this example, the categories are mixed up, but one of the categories is a private image that you do not want to actively show to people In the case of, when performing multi-screen display, inconvenience may occur.

In this embodiment, in such a case, after the positions of the images are rearranged and arranged, the images can be grouped by category. That is, when the mode key 10 is pressed once in the multi-screen display mode, the screen can be switched to another (S33).
Pressing 0 once can move to grouping (S3
4). The decision may be made by pressing the shutter key 5 (S35,
S37). When the mode key 10 is pressed again, the multi-screen display can be stopped and the display can return to the single display (S36).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the screen exchange. In this flow, first, two images to be exchanged are touched and designated on the touch panel 49 attached to the liquid crystal display 46 (S40).
As shown in FIG. 11, the touch panel 49 has a large number of vertical and horizontal wirings 49b and 49c laid on a transparent panel 49a approximately the same size as the screen of the liquid crystal display 46, and small switches 49d are formed at each intersection of the wirings. A switch at a position touched by a finger or a pen tip is turned on to generate coordinate information of the position.

When the shutter key 5 is pressed after designating the replacement image (S42), the image stored in the flash memory 40 is replaced (S43).
This replacement process can also be performed, for example, by replacing the storage address of the image (*)
Alternatively, when the image is managed by indirect information (information indirectly indicating a storage position) such as a keyword and a pointer, the image can be replaced by exchanging the indirect information. If the replacement image is specified by mistake, the mode key 10 may be pressed to start over (S
41). FIG. 13 is a display example of the multi-screen immediately after the replacement, and it can be seen that the flowers are arranged in order in each category of “flower”, “animal”, and “car”. The page number of each image is
Although the original number is used for comparison with the number before the replacement, this number is reassigned every time the replacement process is executed (S44). FIG. 14 shows a multi-screen display example after all the numbers have been reassigned. * In general, image management in a digital camera is often performed in an address table of a storage medium (the flash memory 40 in the above example). For example, when replacing an image on the storage medium, address exchange on the table, that is,
What is necessary is just to swap the address of one image and the address of the other image.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for grouping. In this flow, first, the liquid crystal display 4
Touching two images (for example, images of page numbers 1 and 6, images of same numbers 7 and 11, and images of same numbers 12 and 16 in FIG. 14) from the touch panel 49 attached to A range is specified (S50). When the shutter key 5 is pressed after the range is specified (S52), the group identification information is given to each image within the specified range among all the images stored in the flash memory 40 (S5).
3). The identification information is, for example, a sequence of m / 2 numbers corresponding to a value obtained by dividing the maximum storage number of the flash memory 40 by m and dividing this m by the number of images (two) constituting the smallest group. , A character string, or a mixed symbol string of these may be prepared (or generated), and one of the groups may be assigned so as not to overlap. If the range is incorrectly specified, the user may press the mode key 10 and start over (S51).

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a group range, and the range of the thick frame is an image for each category. Here, for the sake of convenience, it is assumed that the group identification information “A” is given to the images of the “flower” category with page numbers 1 to 6.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of the group display. In this flow chart, after the mode key 10 is pressed twice from the single display state, the shutter key 5 is turned on.
This is performed by pressing the button twice (see FIG. 4). In FIG. 9, first, all the images having the same identification information are read from the flash memory 40 using the group identification information of the image displayed in the single display as a keyword, and the read image is the same image. Is displayed on a multi-screen with an appropriate number of divisions corresponding to the number of images (S20). For example,
Assuming that the image displayed during the single display is the image of page number 4 in FIG. 15, the identification information of this image is “A”.
The six images up to are read from the flash memory 40. Then, the number of divisions suitable for this readout number is
Since it is “× 6” in FIG. 10, only six images belonging to the “flower” category are eventually displayed on the liquid crystal display 46 as shown in FIG. 16. This is the same for other categories (see FIG. 1).
7, see FIG. 18).

Therefore, according to the above embodiment,
The number of screen divisions for multi-screen display can be arbitrarily selected from among several candidates, and the display order of the images on the multi-screen can be changed arbitrarily. Since it can be changed, and no special external device is required, it is possible to freely perform editing processing such as rearranging images in category order or giving stories to images in order. A special effect is obtained in that the ease of presentation and the presentation can be improved.
Further, since the multi-screen display can be performed for each category of the image, a special effect that it is possible to easily show a specific image only to a specific partner can be obtained.

[0028]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the storage positions of the plurality of images in the storage medium are specified based on the display positions of arbitrary plural images displayed on the multi-display screen, and Since the position or the information indicating the storage position is replaced, multi-screen display editing can be performed, and image management can be facilitated and presentation can be improved. According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to group photographed images stored in a storage medium and to perform multi-screen display in group units, thereby facilitating image management and presenting. The improvement effect can be further enhanced.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the number of screen divisions for multi-screen display can be selected from several candidate division numbers, so that only necessary and sufficient images can be displayed on the multi-screen. According to the invention described in claim 4, multi-screen display can be performed with the number of screen divisions corresponding to the number of images in a group, and blank image cells (dummy cells in which no images are displayed) are eliminated or minimized. The screen display can be optimized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual flowchart of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a digital camera.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a digital camera.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a single display.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for setting the number of divisions.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a multi (screen) display.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of screen replacement.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of grouping.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a group display.

FIG. 10 is a display state diagram of a screen division number setting.

FIG. 11 is a structural diagram of a touch panel.

FIG. 12 is a display state diagram before screen replacement.

FIG. 13 is a display state diagram after screen replacement.

FIG. 14 is a display state diagram after screen replacement and page number reassignment.

FIG. 15 is a display state diagram of grouping.

FIG. 16 is a display state diagram of a flower category group.

FIG. 17 is a display state diagram of an animal category group.

FIG. 18 is a display state diagram of a car category group.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 40 flash memory (storage medium) 41 CPU (position replacing means, information adding means, group display means, division number selecting means) 46 liquid crystal display (flat display device) 49 touch panel (position specifying means)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A digital camera provided with a flat display device capable of multi-screen display for collectively displaying two or more images among photographed images stored in a storage medium, wherein the digital camera is displayed on the multi-display screen. Position specifying means for specifying the storage positions of the plurality of images in the storage medium based on the display positions of the arbitrary plurality of images, and the storage position or each image of each image specified by the position specification means. And a position changing means for changing the information indicating the storage position correspondingly stored. 2. A digital camera provided with a flat display device capable of multi-screen display for collectively displaying two or more images among photographed images stored in a storage medium, the digital camera being displayed on the multi-display screen. Position specifying means for specifying the storage positions of the plurality of images in the storage medium based on the display positions of the arbitrary plurality of images, and the storage position or each image of each image specified by the position specification means. A position replacement unit that replaces information representing the storage position correspondingly stored, and a plurality of images displayed on the multi-display screen after the storage positions are replaced by the position replacement unit and the plurality of images. Information providing means for providing unique group identification information to all images located therebetween; and an image providing means for displaying an arbitrary image on the flat display device. Digital camera of the group display means for displaying all the images with group identification information identical group identification information and the multi-display screen of the image, comprising the. 3. The digital camera according to claim 1, further comprising a division number selection unit for selecting the number of screen divisions of the multi-screen display from several candidate division numbers. 4. The digital camera according to claim 2, wherein said group display means sets the number of screen divisions for multi-screen display according to the number of images having the same group identification information.