KR100604520B1 - Camera phone - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera phone, and more particularly, to a camera phone capable of capturing a plurality of images by varying an exposure time of an electronic shutter and a method of photographing a subject in the phone. The camera phone of the present invention includes an electronic shutter for adjusting the amount of light incident to the light and includes a CCD photographing unit for generating and outputting an image signal of the subject photographed by the light incident through the electronic shutter as a basic configuration,

A camera controller for repeatedly capturing a subject by varying an exposure time of the electronic shutter; An image pickup signal processing unit for processing the image signals repeatedly captured at different exposure times into image signals that can be displayed; A memory controller which records each video signal output from the imaging signal processor in a memory, and reads out and controls an image having a luminance level equal to or higher than a threshold value among the recorded images; And a display unit which displays the image read out by the memory controller in a sized and adjusted form according to a display format.

Exposure Compensation, Emergency, Luminance.

Description

Camera phone {CAMERA PHONE}

1 is a partial configuration diagram of a camera phone according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart of photographing a subject according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view for explaining a process of using an image obtained by the method for photographing a subject according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a camera phone, and more particularly to a camera phone capable of taking a plurality of images by varying the exposure time of the electronic shutter.

Mobile phones, also known as camera phones, are gaining popularity worldwide as mobile communication terminals with the addition of digital camera functions in addition to voice calls and wireless Internet access.

These camera phones were initially designed to simply photograph subjects, and new camera phones were introduced to solve the problem of not being able to identify images captured at night and in dark environments.

A typical example is a camera phone with a built-in illuminance sensor. Such a camera phone photographs a subject by automatically adjusting the exposure time of the electronic shutter according to the ambient light. Therefore, even if the subject is photographed in a dark place has the advantage that a brighter image than the initial model can be obtained.

Another example is a camera phone that can be used by attaching an infrared camera. This also has the advantage of being able to obtain a bright video screen in the dark because of the use of an infrared camera.

Illustrative camera phones are useful in that they take a picture of the surrounding image and transmit it in case of an emergency such as kidnapping.

However, the two camera phones exemplified have a separate hardware configuration, that is, in comparison with a general camera phone, that is, a light sensor or an infrared camera has to be provided, and therefore, there is a problem in that costs must be paid.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a camera phone that can obtain a subject screen of a bright image even in a dark place without the provision of an illumination sensor,

Furthermore, the present invention provides a camera phone capable of wirelessly propagating a subject screen of a bright image that can be identified even in an emergency situation.

Camera phone according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, basically includes an electronic shutter for adjusting the amount of light incident to generate an image signal of the subject captured by the light incident through the electronic shutter CCD photographing unit for outputting

A camera controller for repeatedly capturing a subject by varying an exposure time of the electronic shutter;

An image pickup signal processing unit for processing the image signals repeatedly captured at different exposure times into image signals that can be displayed;

A memory controller which records each video signal output from the imaging signal processor in a memory, and reads out and controls an image having a luminance level equal to or higher than a threshold value among the recorded images;

And a display unit which displays the image read out by the memory controller in a sized and adjusted form according to a display format.

In addition, an emergency radio wave reception unit for receiving an emergency radio wave command;

And an emergency wireless transmitter for wirelessly transmitting the image read by the memory controller to the designated terminal together with the emergency message.

According to the characteristics of the present invention as described above, only the image having a high brightness level is automatically selected and displayed among the plurality of subject images obtained by varying the exposure time during photographing, so that a brighter shooting screen even when shooting in a dark place It is possible to obtain the same image screen as the automatic brightness adjustment without a separate key operation for adjusting the screen brightness.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of related known functions or configurations may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

First, FIG. 1 shows a partial configuration of a camera phone according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a camera phone according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a CCD photographing unit 10, an image pickup signal processing unit 20, a memory control unit 30, a memory 40, and an emergency wireless transmission unit 50. In addition, the emergency signal receiver 60, the camera controller 70 and the display unit 80, and further includes a GPS receiver 90 for providing the location information of the terminal.

The CCD photographing unit 10 generates a photographing lens 12 for converting an incident image into a predetermined size, and a CCD for generating and outputting an image signal of a subject photographed by light converted in size by the photographing lens 12. The imaging device 16 and the electronic shutter 14 which controls the amount of light incident as a result of the shutter speed being controlled by the camera control part 70 mentioned later are included.

The image pickup signal processor 20 converts the analog image pickup image signal output from the CCD photographing unit 10 into digital image data, and processes the image signal into displayable image signals (Y, U, V).

The memory controller 30 records an image signal output from the image pickup signal processor 20 in a designated area of the memory 40 in a general photographing mode or an emergency propagation mode, and has an image having a luminance level equal to or higher than a threshold value among the recorded images. This is output to the emergency wireless transmitter 50 or (and) display unit 80 to be described later. In the embodiment of the present invention, the image recorded in the designated area of the memory 40 refers to each image repeatedly captured by varying the exposure time.

The memory controller 30 reads out one image through a method of comparing the luminance level of the pixel with the previously registered threshold value for the same position pixels of each image repeatedly captured by different exposure times. In general, the image is taken while inducing the face image to be in the center of the screen. Therefore, it is preferable to select the center pixel among the captured images as the position of the pixel for comparing the luminance levels. For reference, if a plurality of images having a luminance level above a registered threshold is detected, the image having the brightest luminance may be programmed to be read.

Meanwhile, the emergency wireless transmitter 50 wirelessly transmits the image read by the memory controller 30 to the designated terminal together with the emergency message. The emergency wireless transmitter 50 is a block including a phone controller and a wireless transceiver for controlling the overall operation of a general camera phone. The designated terminal may be a computer of a control center, or may be a mobile communication terminal designated by a user. Identification information and emergency message of the designated terminal is stored and managed in the memory managed by the phone control unit.

The emergency radio wave receiver 60 is for receiving an emergency radio wave command or a camera photographing command. The emergency radio wave receiver 60 receives an emergency radio wave command generated by manipulation of a special key formed on a general keypad of a camera phone or a phone body. It serves to deliver to the camera control unit 70 to be.

When the emergency situation radio wave command is received through the emergency wave reception unit 60, the camera controller 70 may repeatedly photograph the subject by varying the exposure time of the electronic shutter 14. To this end, the camera controller 70 includes a table in which different exposure time values are registered.

The display unit 80 adjusts and displays the image read by the memory controller 30 in accordance with a display format of a display device such as an LCD. It may be assumed that the display unit 80 includes, for example, an LCD and a video encoder.

Hereinafter, a method of photographing a subject in the camera phone having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a subject photographing according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a process of using an image acquired by a subject photographing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

First, referring to FIG. 2, when a user who wants to take an image using a camera mounted on the phone gives a shooting command, it is applied to the camera controller 70 through an emergency situation radio receiver 60. Accordingly, the camera controller 70 repeatedly photographs the subject (step 110) by varying the speed of the electronic shutter based on the table registered in the internal memory.

The image signal obtained by subject imaging is signal-processed by the image pickup signal processing unit 20 and applied to the memory control unit 30, so that the memory control unit 30 stores each of the field-specific image signals obtained by the repeated imaging in the memory 40. Save it in the designated area (step 120). The designated area may be defined as an area for storing images repeatedly captured by different exposure times.

When each image is stored in the designated designated area, the memory controller 30 detects the brightness level of each stored image (step 130). As mentioned above, the position of the pixel at which the luminance level is detected is the pixel located at the center of each image.

After detecting the luminance level of each stored image, the memory controller 30 compares the detected luminance level with a threshold (step 140), reads an image having a luminance level higher than or equal to the threshold value (step 150), and applies it to the display unit 80. The read image is displayed (step 160).

For reference, the threshold should have a fluorescence level value capable of pia identification of an image. If the luminance level values extracted from two or more images exceed all of the threshold values, the image having the brightest value is selected.

According to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, since only a bright screen is selected from among a plurality of screens photographed by varying the exposure time when the subject is simply photographed, the user can identify a bright image without a separate operation for brightness adjustment. Not only can the screen be obtained, but the automatic exposure compensation effect can be obtained without the addition of additional hardware such as an illumination sensor.

Hereinafter, as another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figure 3 the case of taking and transmitting the image of the surroundings in case of emergency,

First, when a person who wants to propagate an emergency presses an emergency propagation key mounted on the phone, it is applied to the camera controller 70 through the emergency propagation receiver 60. Accordingly, the camera controller 70 repeatedly photographs the subject (step 210) by varying the speed of the electronic shutter based on the table registered in the internal memory.

The image signal obtained by subject imaging is signal-processed by the image pickup signal processing unit 20 and applied to the memory control unit 30, so that the memory control unit 30 stores each of the field-specific image signals obtained by the repeated imaging in the memory 40. Save to the designated area of step (220).

When each image is stored in the designated area, the memory controller 30 detects the luminance level of each stored image (step 230) and compares the detected luminance level with a threshold (step 240). If the luminance level is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the image including the pixel is read (step 250), and wirelessly sent to the designated terminal (terminal of the disaster prevention center or designated communication terminal, etc.) with an emergency message.

According to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, when a terminal user is confined in a dark room due to abduction or the like, since the bright screen of the plurality of screens photographed at different exposure times is transmitted to the disaster prevention center with an emergency message For example, the disaster prevention center can identify the prisoner on a brighter screen and easily monitor the current state of the prisoner.

On the other hand, although not mentioned in the embodiment of the present invention may transmit the position information obtained through the GPS receiver 90 during the emergency situation propagation. Also, in the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, although the luminance level of the designated pixel point is extracted and compared with the threshold value, a bright image screen may be selected by a method of comparing the average luminance level of the entire image with the threshold value.

As described above, since the present invention simply selects and displays a bright screen from among a plurality of screens photographed by varying the exposure time when taking a subject, the user can display a bright picture screen that can be identified without a separate operation for adjusting the brightness. In addition, it is possible to obtain an automatic exposure compensation effect without additional hardware such as an illumination sensor.

In addition, since the present invention repeatedly photographs a subject in a dark environment with different exposure times, and transmits only the bright screen with the emergency message to the disaster prevention center, it is easy to identify the emergency propagator and the situation of the situation propagator. It's useful to make it easier to recognize.

On the other hand, the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, which are merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention should be defined only by the appended claims.

Claims (3)

A camera phone comprising an electronic shutter for controlling the amount of light incident thereon and having a CCD photographing unit for generating and outputting an image signal of a subject photographed by the light incident through the electronic shutter. An emergency situation radio wave receiver for receiving a photographing command; A camera controller for repeatedly photographing a subject by varying an exposure time of the electronic shutter according to the command; An image pickup signal processing unit for processing the image signals repeatedly captured at different exposure times into image signals that can be displayed; A memory controller which records each video signal output from the imaging signal processor in a memory, and reads out and controls an image having a luminance level equal to or higher than a threshold value among the recorded images; And a display unit for adjusting the size of the image read by the memory controller in accordance with a display format. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: an emergency wireless transmitter for wirelessly transmitting an image read by the memory controller to a designated terminal together with an emergency message when an emergency radio propagation command is received from the emergency radio receiver. The camera phone which features. The camera phone of claim 2, further comprising a GPS receiver for additionally transmitting location information of the terminal to the emergency message.

Images