JPS62291628A - Main image indicating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To correctly indicate a main image by superposing the flickering state of pixels to a main image on a liquid crystal panel kept at a light transmitting state by moving with a shift key and using the coordinate position of the flickering pixels as the positional information of the main image. CONSTITUTION:The liquid crystal panel 48 is obtained by arraying the pixels 50 formed by fine electrodes like a matrix. In case of indicating a main image, a pulse generated from an oscillator 49 is impressed at least to one pixel 50a corresponding to the main image to alternately change a transparent state and an opaque state every discriminatable period. Since no voltage is impressed to residual pixels except the pixel 50a, these pixels are kept at the transparent state. The hatched flickering pixel 50a can be moved to a required position through a keyboard so as to coincide with the main image 52 of a negative image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention 3. Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is used for photo printing equipment, preliminary negative verification equipment for printing, etc. This invention relates to a device for giving instructions.

[Conventional technology]

In general, original images such as color negative film and color positive film have frames with an underexposed negative image in addition to frames with an appropriate exposure amount for the negative image.

This includes overexposed negative image frames, negative image frames with high contrast, etc. Even if such an improperly exposed negative image is printed, the reds, greens, and blues of the negative image are sometimes printed so that the printed photograph has the correct color balance and density.

The 0LATD value (Large Area Average Transmission Density Value) is measured and the LATD value of each color is used to control the blue exposure amount, green exposure amount, and red exposure amount, respectively.

A normal original image includes not only the intentionally photographed part (the main image) but also the background image that exists behind it. Generally, if the density and color balance of the main image are good, the finish of the printed photograph is often considered to be good. By the way, the method using the LATD value mentioned above is
The exposure amount is controlled so that the integral of each color is finished as gray, and this empirical rule holds true for background images that include landscapes and the like. Therefore, L
In the ATD method, the main image may not have a good finish depending on the scene.

Therefore, an apparatus for specifying a main image on an original image and controlling exposure in consideration of the image characteristics of this main image is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-29412. In addition, to specify the position of the main image, a mirror is placed above the original image, and a color TV camera captures the image of the original image through this mirror and displays it on a monitor, and this monitor is equipped with a transparent touch panel. There is a known system in which the position of the main image is indicated by observing the image displayed on the monitor and touching a part of the touch panel above the main image with a finger. Furthermore, it is also known to use a mouse or a light pen to specify the main image instead of a touch panel.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional main image indicating device described above, since the color TV camera images the original image through a mirror, the image displayed on the monitor has almost no graphic distortion. However, since the sensor unit for measuring the three-color density of each pixel of the original image is arranged diagonally above the original image, the rectangular original image becomes trapezoidal due to graphical distortion. Therefore, the image displayed on the monitor and the image formed on the sensor unit are
The pixels no longer correspond and the main image cannot be correctly indicated.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a liquid crystal panel that is placed close to an original image setting position and has a plurality of pixels formed two-dimensionally, and a liquid crystal panel that drives the liquid crystal panel. a driving means for periodically changing the light transmission state of one pixel to a blinking state and setting the remaining pixels to a transparent or translucent state; a movement instruction means for instructing movement of the blinking state; a control means for determining a position to which the blinking state should be moved based on a signal from the movement instruction means, and moving the blinking state via the driving means;
The apparatus is provided with means for extracting a position signal from the control means when the blinking state matches the main image and stops, and storing it as position information of the main image.

In the present invention, at least one pixel of the liquid crystal panel in a light transmitting state is in a blinking state,
This blinking state is moved using the movement key and superimposed on the main image, and the coordinate position of the pixel in this blinking state is used as position information of the main image.

The blinking includes repeating a translucent state and a transparent state, repeating a translucent state and an opaque state, or repeating a transparent state and an opaque state. Also, pixels that match the background image are treated as transparent, but
This can be completely transparent or semi-transparent.

The position information of the main image is used during exposure calculation, for example, to weight the density value of the main image portion. Thereby, the main image of the printed photograph can be finished with appropriate density and good color balance.

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

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows an example of a photo printing apparatus embodying the present invention. The white light emitted from the white light source 1o is diffused in the diffusion tube 11, and then reaches the original image, for example, a color negative film 12, set in the printing position, and illuminates it from behind. The diffusion tube 11 is composed of a rectangular tube 13 whose inner surface is formed into a mirror surface, and two diffusers 14 fixed to both open ends of the rectangular tube 13. A yellow filter 16 for adjusting the blue component, a magenta filter 17 for adjusting the green component, and a cyan filter 18 for adjusting the red component are provided between the diffusion tube 11 and the white light source 10. The amount of insertion into the optical path 20 is adjusted by the filter adjustment section 19.

The color negative film 12 is guided by a negative carrier 22 and transported frame by frame, and the next frame to be printed is placed at a position on the optical path 20. A mask 23 with an opening of a size corresponding to the screen size is placed at the printing position, and in order to ensure the flatness of the color negative film 12, the printing is sometimes performed from above on the color negative film 12. hold down

A lens 24 is disposed above the printing position, and a negative image is formed on color photographic paper 26 while the shutter 25 is open. The opening and closing of this shutter 25 is controlled by a shutter drive section 27. Also, color photographic paper 2
6, when the printing of one frame is completed, the take-up reel 28
The unexposed portion is then pulled out from the supply reel 29.

A mirror 31 that rotates about an axis 30 is arranged between the lens 24 and the shutter 25. This mirror 31 is previously set at a position where it is inserted obliquely into the optical path 20 as shown by a solid line, and sometimes moved to a position evacuated from the optical path 20 as shown by a two-dot chain line. . When the mirror 31 is inserted into the optical path 20, the light from the lens 24 is reflected toward the transmission screen 32. This screen 32 includes a white light source 10
Since a negative image illuminated by the main image is projected, the operator's eyes 33 confirm the main image.

For printing, either directly observe the negative image from diagonally above the position, or for printing, place a television camera diagonally above the position, and use the negative image captured by this television camera as a monitor C.
If the image is displayed on RT, the mirror 31 and screen 32 can be omitted.

Further, a sensor unit 35 for photometrically measuring each pixel of the negative image is arranged diagonally above the printing position.

This sensor unit 35 is composed of an imaging lens 36 and an image area sensor 38 such as a CCD type or MOS type with a BGR mosaic filter or BGR stripe filter 37 attached to the front surface, and reads each pixel of the negative image. outputs a time-series signal that is a mix of blue, green, and red signals. This time series signal is A
The signal is converted into a digital signal by the /D converter 39, and then sent to the logarithmic converter 40, where it is logarithmically converted. The obtained blue density, green density, and red density signals are taken into the microcomputer 42 via the I10 port 41, separated for each color, and written into the RAM 43. In addition,
In order to measure the LATD value of each color, a sensor unit may be provided for each color separately from the sensor unit 35.

As is well known, the microcomputer 42 has an I10
Port 4L CPU44. It is composed of a RAM 43 and a ROM 45, and performs exposure amount calculation and control of various parts, which will be described later. The calculated exposure amount for each color is sent to a filter adjustment section 19, which adjusts the insertion amount of each color filter into the optical path and adjusts the light quality of the printing light.

A liquid crystal panel 48 driven by a driver 47 is placed under the color negative film 12 at the printing position and is used to indicate the main image before printing. This liquid crystal panel 48, as is well known,
A liquid crystal, such as a twisted nematic liquid crystal, is sealed between two glass substrates, and a transparent common electrode with a large area is formed inside one glass substrate, and transparent individual electrodes with a small area are formed on the other glass substrate. In addition, a polarizing plate is arranged on the outside of each glass substrate. When voltage is applied to the pair of transparent electrodes, the liquid crystal twists back, but if the absorption axes of the pair of polarizing plates are shifted by 90 degrees, the liquid crystal changes to a transparent state when voltage is applied, and the absorption axes are aligned. When voltage is applied, it changes to an opaque state. The former type is called a normally closed type, and the latter type is called a normally open type, and in both cases, the twist return changes depending on the applied voltage. In the present invention, either type can be used, but since printing sometimes requires complete transparency, a normally open type is used in this embodiment.

The driver 47 is supplied with pulses from an oscillator 49 and causes at least one of the liquid crystal panels 48 to blink in order to designate the position of the main image. The remaining pixels correspond to the background image and are transparent so that the entire color negative film 12 can be observed. By aligning this flashing pixel with the main image, the position of the main image is indicated.

The purpose of blinking the pixels is to make that part stand out, and there are three ways to blink. In other words, there are cases where transparency and opacity are repeated at discernible intervals;
There are cases where translucent and opaque are repeated, and cases where translucent and transparent are repeated. Furthermore, pixels that match the background image may be either transparent or semi-transparent. In this embodiment, the pixels indicating the main image are alternately transparent and opaque, and the pixels corresponding to the foreground image are in the transparent state.

As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the liquid crystal panel 48 has pixels 50 formed of microelectrodes arranged in a matrix. When indicating a main image, at least one corresponding pixel 50a is applied with a pulse from an oscillator 49 to cause it to alternate between a transparent state and an opaque state at a discernible period. Since no voltage is applied to the remaining pixels except for this pixel 50a,
These pixels become transparent. This flashing pixel 50a with hatching can be moved to a desired position using a keyboard, which will be described later, so as to match the main image 52 of the negative image. In this example, since the main image is a person's face, the blinking pixel 50a is aligned with the person's face. Note that the hatched portion 52
a indicates a portion overlapping the blinking pixel 50a.

Generally, in order to measure negative images with high precision, it is desirable for the image area sensor 38 to have a large number of pixels. On the other hand, since the liquid crystal panel 48 indicates the main image, the number of pixels may be small. Therefore, if the numbers of pixels are different between the two, it is necessary to give the correspondence between the coordinates in advance.

The keyboard 55 includes a size designation key 56 for designating the size of the main image, a movement key 57 for moving the blinking pixels 50a in four directions, and a switch key 58 for stopping the driving of the liquid crystal panel 48. , a numeric key 59, a channel key 60 for specifying a channel,
Key 61 is used to set the weighting coefficient for the main image.
and a photometry start key 62 for starting concentration measurement.
A burn start key 63 is used to start burning, and a display 64 is used to monitor and display input channels or weighting coefficients.

In this embodiment, the size designation key 56 has three keys: large size (L), medium size (M), and small size (S), and it is possible to select a desired size from among the three sizes. It is now possible to do so. The movement keys 57 are provided with four keys corresponding to four directions, and the blinking pixel 50a can be moved in the direction of an arrow formed on the top surface of each key.

Note that the movement key 57 may be a joystick consisting of one operating lever and four microswitches that detect the direction in which the operating lever is tilted. The switch key 58 is turned ON when there is a risk that the main image will not be printed well in automatic exposure using the LATD method, and drives the liquid crystal panel 48 to make at least one pixel 50 transparent and to make the remaining pixels transparent. A relatively small voltage is applied to the pixel to make it translucent.

In the exposure calculation formula, the type of color negative film (sensitivity,
The coefficients and constants of the calculation formula change depending on the combination of the paper size), the type of color photographic paper (sensitivity), and the enlargement magnification, so channels that combine these are prepared in advance, and each channel are written with coefficients and constants. These channels can be accessed using channel key 60.
and the numeric keys 59.

When the photometry start key 62 is pressed by the operator, the coordinate position of the blinking pixel 50a is loaded into the RAM 43, and then the pulse voltage application to the blinking pixel 50a is stopped to make all pixels transparent. Thereafter, the sensor unit 35 starts measuring each pixel of the negative image. When the printing start key 63 is pressed by the operator, the mirror 31 is retracted from the optical path 20, and then the shutter 25 is opened to start printing.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 3, which shows the functions of the microcomputer.

To start burning, first turn on the power, press the channel key 60, and then operate the numeric keys 59 to specify a channel according to the burning conditions. By specifying this channel, coefficients and constants necessary for the exposure calculation formula described later are read out from the memory 70 (the exposure calculation unit 71
sent to. For weighting, if the key 61 is operated and then the numeric key 59 is operated, a weighting coefficient to be multiplied by the density of the main image is set, and this is stored in the memory 73.

This weighting coefficient may be set for each frame.

Before printing starts, the color filters 16 to 18 are evacuated from the optical path 20, so the white light emitted from the white light source 10 is sufficiently diffused when passing through the diffusion tube 11, and then the color filters 16 to 18 are removed from the optical path 20. Color negative film 1 transmitted through panel 48
2 is illuminated from below.

The light transmitted through this color negative film 12 is transmitted through the lens 2
4. After passing through the mirror 31, it reaches the screen 32,
A negative image is projected onto this screen 32.

For printing, look at frame 12a set in position and press LATD.
In the automatic exposure method, if it is predicted that the main image will not be finished properly, the switch key 5 is turned on.

When this switch key 58 is turned on, the controller 72
commands the driver 47 to apply a pulse from the oscillator 49 to the pixel in order to cause it to blink. As a result, the pixel in the center repeats blinking at an appropriate period, making it possible to distinguish it from the remaining pixels that are in a transparent state.

Then, while looking at the screen 32, the movement key 57 is operated to match the blinking pixel 50a with the main image 52. When a signal indicating the movement direction from the movement key 57 is sent to the controller 72, the controller 72 calculates the coordinate position to which the blinking pixel 50a is to be moved.

Then, the controller 72 instructs the driver 47 to apply a pulse voltage to the pixels currently in the transparent state and to release the pulse voltage applied to the pixels at the position to be moved. As a result, the driver 47 sequentially switches the pixels to which the pulse voltage is applied.
The state is the same as if the blinking pixel 50a had moved.

If the blinking pixels 50a are smaller than the main image 52, the number of blinking pixels can be increased by operating the size designation key 56. In this case, the measurement range of the main image becomes larger and the amount of information increases, so
More accurate exposure control can be performed.

In addition, if the conventional LATD method is sufficient.

Alternatively, if the main image cannot be determined, the switch key 58 is turned OFF. When this switch key 58 is turned OFF, the operation of the controller 72 is stopped, so the voltage application to the blinking pixels 50a is stopped, and all the pixels 50 become transparent.

When the switch key 58 is turned on and the controller 72 is operating, the coordinate position of the blinking pixel 50a is stored. When the photometry start key 62 is pressed in this state, the coordinate position of the blinking pixel 50a is written into the memory 74 as position information of the main image. This memory 7
4, the controller 72 writes the information to the liquid crystal panel 48.
Stop applying pulse voltage to the pixel and make the blinking pixel transparent. Note that when the switch key 58 is OFF, no data is written to the memory 74.

After writing the coordinate position of the main image into the memory 74, the sensor unit 35 starts measuring the density of the negative image. That is, since a negative image is formed on the image area sensor 38 by the imaging lens 36, when density measurement is started, the image area sensor 38 outputs a time series signal obtained by photoelectrically converting each pixel of the negative image. . Since this time-series signal uses the BGR stripe filter 37, it has a mixed form of a blue signal, a green signal, and a red signal. The time-series signal output from the image area sensor 38 is sequentially subjected to digital conversion and logarithmic conversion processing, and is then taken into the microcomputer 42 as a density signal. This microcomputer 42 separates the density signals for each color and writes them into memories 75-77.

The density of each pixel separated for each color and written in the memories 75-77 is sent to the weighting units 78-80, respectively. These weighting units 78 to 80 have input weighting coefficients from the memory 73 and main image position information from the memory 74, so they weight the density of the pixel corresponding to the position of the main image. The addition is multiplied by a coefficient. Generally, a value larger than 1 is used for this weighting coefficient, but if this value is extremely large, it becomes spot metering, and exposure is controlled according to the density information of the main image. . Note that parts other than the main image are not weighted, and when the switch key 58 is OFF,
Naturally, no weighting is given.

After weighting the density of the main image in units 78 to 80, the weighting is sent to average value calculation units 81 to 83 provided for each color, where the arithmetic mean of the density of each pixel is calculated. The obtained arithmetic mean is sent to the exposure calculation unit 71, and the blue exposure amount Eb, the green exposure amount Eg, and the red exposure amount Er are calculated, respectively. The filter adjustment section 19 is operated according to each exposure amount, and the insertion amount of each color filter 16 to 18 into the optical path 20 is adjusted.

Next, press the start key 63 for printing, and the mirror 31 will move into the optical path 2.
After retracting from 0, the shutter 25 is opened and the color photographic paper 26 is exposed. After a certain period of time has elapsed, the shutter 25 is closed, and then the filter adjustment section 19 retreats each of the filters 16 to 18 from the optical path 20. Further, the take-up reel 28 winds up the exposed color photographic paper 26 for one frame, and the unexposed color photographic paper is reeled onto the supply reel 2.
9 and set it at the exposure position. At the same time, the color negative film 12 is transferred by one frame, and the next frame to be printed is placed in the printing position. Furthermore,
A mirror 31 is inserted into the optical path 20 as shown by the solid line.

When the switch key 58 is in the ON state, the liquid crystal panel 48 is driven again. At this time, the controller 72 causes the pixel located in the center to blink again. Incidentally, since frames of the same scene are often consecutive, it is convenient to store the position of the main image of the previous frame in the controller 72 and to set the pixel at this position to a blinking state. In addition, since the main image is often a person's face, the sensor unit 35 measures the negative image, automatically extracts the part that has the same hue as the person's skin color, and matches this part. If the pixels are automatically brought into a blinking state, the number of operations of the movement key 57 is reduced, so that negative verification can be carried out efficiently.

Although the above-described embodiment is a photographic printing apparatus, the present invention may also be applied to a negative pre-verification apparatus. In this case, the mirror 31 and screen 32 may not be needed because the user can look into the test position.

Then, information indicating the position of the main image specified at the time of negative verification is output to a tape, floppy disk, etc., and this is loaded into the photo printing apparatus. Further, the present invention can be applied in a similar manner to recording an image recorded on an original picture onto a storage medium such as a magnetic tape, an optical disk, or a magnetic disk film.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the main image is weighted, but in addition to this, image features such as gray density are extracted from the main image area, and all or a part of it except the main image area is weighted. The image feature amount may be extracted from the image region and the background image region, and the exposure amount may be calculated using the image feature amount of each of these regions. Furthermore, the scene of the original image is classified based on the difference in the image features extracted from the two image regions and the color of the main image region, and the exposure is calculated using an exposure amount calculation formula prepared in advance according to the type of scene. The amount may also be calculated.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above explanation, since the present invention directly indicates the main image on the original image, a positional shift occurs between the original image displayed on the monitor and the image on the image sensor. There's nothing to do.

Therefore, the present invention can correctly indicate the main image. Further, since a part of the liquid crystal panel is blinked to indicate the main image, there is an advantage that it is easy to distinguish it from other parts. Furthermore, the present invention has an extremely simple configuration because there is no mechanical movement mechanism and there is no need to move the liquid crystal panel during exposure.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a photo printing apparatus for carrying out the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between a liquid crystal panel and a color negative film. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the microcomputer shown in FIG. 1. 10... White light source 11... Diffusion tube 12... Color negative film 16... Yellow filter 17... Magenta filter 18... Cyan filter 25... Shutter 26... Color photographic paper 32... Screen 38... Image area sensor 48...Liquid crystal panel 50...Pixel 50a...Flashing pixel 52...Main image 56...Size specification key 57...Move key 58...Switch key 61...For weighting, key 62...Metering start key 63... - Burning is the start key. 5゜

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A liquid crystal panel disposed close to the original image setting position and having a plurality of pixels arranged two-dimensionally; and driving the liquid crystal panel to periodically change the light transmission state of at least one pixel. a driving means for changing the blinking state and making the remaining pixels transparent or translucent; a movement instruction means for instructing the movement of the blinking state; and a movement of the blinking state by a signal from the movement instruction means. a control means for determining a position where the blinking state should be moved and moving the blinking state via the driving means; and a control means for taking out a position signal when the blinking state matches the main image and stops from the control means; 1. A main image indicating device comprising: means for storing position information of a main image; (2) The main image indicating device according to claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal panel is of a normally open type that becomes transparent when no voltage is applied.