KR20000043311A - Apparatus and method for searching picture of digital camcorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for searching a picture of a digital camcorder is provided to perform picture search by using index information and reduction information of a picture frame for index. CONSTITUTION: An apparatus and a method for searching a picture of a digital camcorder comprises a picture input portion(100), a frame memory(110), a control portion(120), a reduced picture generation portion(130), a reduced picture storage portion(140), and a display portion(150). The picture input portion processes a picture signal applied from a camera. The frame memory portion stores the input picture data in frame units. The control portion performs a control for storing the input picture data in frame units. The reduced picture generation portion reduces an edited picture as much as a predetermined ratio according a control signal. The reduced picture storage portion stores the generated edited picture. The display portion displays the edited picture from the reduced picture storage portion according to the control signal.

Description

Image Searching Device and Method of Digital Camcorder

The present invention relates to an image search apparatus and method for a digital camcorder, and more particularly, to store index information and a reduced image of an index image frame in a tape built-in memory (MIC) and to use the same for playback and editing. The present invention relates to an image search apparatus and a method of a digital camcorder for performing an image search.

As is well known, a camcorder is a device in which the functions of a video tape recorder and a camera are integrally formed. As camcorder-related technology develops, more and more homes have camcorders to record children's growth or family events. In the use of home camcorders, it is common to discontinuously record image data for a short time rather than continuous recording for one to two hours. For example, in the case of recording the growth of a young child, a few minutes of video data is recorded at a specific time point and then reproduced or edited as necessary.

1 shows an image processing apparatus of a conventional camcorder. The image processing apparatus of the conventional camcorder is composed of an image input unit 10, a frame memory 20, a controller 30, and a display unit 40. As shown in FIG. 1, conventionally, an image to be stored as image data is captured through an image input unit 10 including a camera or the like during recording. The captured image is stored in the frame memory 20 through appropriate processing in units of frames under the control of the controller 30. At this time, the recording date and the recording time can be stored together with the image data. When recording is completed, the image data recorded in chronological order is recorded in the frame memory 20 in units of frames.

When the image data is reproduced, the recorded image is displayed on the display unit in units of frames from the frame memory 20 under the control of the controller 30. If the user wants to find a specific video frame while the video data is playing, the user cannot play the desired part immediately even if the recording date or recording time is known, and the user can use the fast forward or rewind function in the playback mode. You have to search the tapes one by one to find the video frame you want. Furthermore, when the amount of recorded video data is large, there is a problem in that a large amount of time is spent searching for a desired portion.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the problems of the conventional video search apparatus and method of the digital camcorder, the first object of the present invention is to use a reduced image frame stored in the built-in memory of the cassette tape with the index data The present invention provides an image search apparatus and method for a digital camcorder that can easily find an image frame.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an image search apparatus and method of a digital camcorder that can easily edit images by displaying all the reduced image frames to be edited on one screen.

In order to achieve the above object, an image search apparatus of a digital camcorder according to the present invention includes an image input unit for processing an image signal so that an image signal applied from a camera can be recorded on a predetermined recording medium; A frame memory for recording image data input from the image input unit in units of frames; A controller configured to store the image data input from the image input unit in the frame memory in units of frames; A reduced image generating unit which reduces the edited image at a predetermined ratio according to a control signal of the controller; Reduced image storing means for storing the edited image generated by the reduced image generating unit; And a display unit configured to read an edited image from the reduced image storage unit and display the edited image on a screen according to a control signal of the controller.

The reduced image storing means is a tape embedded memory.

The display unit displays the editing image on the screen in the form of an icon.

In order to achieve the above object, an image search method of a digital camcorder according to the present invention comprises: an edit mode checking step (ST1) for checking whether an image editing mode is selected; A reduced image reading step (ST2) of reading out the reduced image from the reduced image storing means when the editing mode is selected in the editing mode checking step (ST1); A display step (ST3) of displaying the reduced images read in the reduced image reading step (ST2) in the form of an icon; A work memory setting step (ST4) for designating a work memory address for temporarily storing an index of the edited image frames; An image selecting step (ST5) of selecting an image to be edited among the reduced images displayed on the screen; An index storing step (ST6) of storing the index of the image selected in the image selecting step (ST5) in the working memory; A preview determination step (ST7) of determining whether to display the edited image frames on a screen; A preview step (ST8) of displaying the images edited from the work memory in order on the screen when the preview is selected in the preview determination step (ST7); An editing completion determination step (ST9) for deciding whether to continue image editing; And an edited image storing step ST10 of storing the edited image in the preview step ST8 in an editing memory.

1 is a block diagram showing an image search apparatus of a conventional digital camcorder.

2 is a block diagram showing an image search apparatus of a digital camcorder according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of generating a reduced image of a digital camcorder according to the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for searching an image of a digital camcorder according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for main parts of drawing>

100: video input unit 110: frame memory

120: control unit 130: reduced image generating unit

140: built-in tape memory 150: display unit

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 2, an image search apparatus of a digital camcorder according to the present invention includes a camera 90, an image input unit 100, a frame memory 110, a controller 120, a reduced image generation unit 130, and a reduced image. Image storage means 140, and the display unit 150. The image input unit 110 is connected to the output of the camera 90. The frame memory 110 is connected to the output of the controller 120 and the image input unit 100. The reduced image generation unit 130 is connected to the control unit 120 and the frame memory 110. The reduced image storing unit 140 is connected to an output terminal of the control unit 120 and the reduced image generating unit 130. The display unit 150 is connected to an output terminal of the frame memory 110 and the reduced image storing unit 140.

The operation of the video search apparatus of the digital camcorder having the above configuration will be described.

The image input unit 100 processes an image signal so that an image signal applied from the camera 90 can be recorded on a predetermined recording medium. Image data processed by the image input unit 100 is recorded in the frame memory 110 in units of frames under the control of the controller 120. The reduced image generating unit 130 reduces the selected image frame by a predetermined ratio when an editing image frame is selected according to the control signal of the controller 120. The reduced image frame and its index information are stored in the reduced image storage unit 140. The reduced image storage means 140 used in the present invention is a tape internal memory (MIC).

A method of storing a reduced image as described above is illustrated in FIG. 3.

First, a recording mode determination step S1 of determining whether a recording mode is selected is performed. If the recording mode is selected in the recording mode determination step (S1), the video recording step (S2) for recording an image is performed. During the image recording step S2, a reduced image generation determination step S3 of determining whether to generate a reduced image is performed. If the reduced image is not generated in the reduced image generation determination step (S3), the image recording step (S2) is performed.

When the reduced image generation is selected in the reduced image generation determining step (S3), an image reduction step (S4) of reducing the frame currently being recorded is performed. The reduced image storing step S6 of storing index information of the reduced image frame in the image reduction step S4 is performed. Next, a reduced image generation completion determination step (S7) for determining whether to continue to generate a reduced image is performed. If the user wants to continue generating the reduced image in the reduced image generation completion determination step (S7), the reduced image generation step (S4) is performed. do. If recording is to be continued in the recording end determination step (S8), the video recording step (S2) is performed.

If you want to edit the image, according to the image search method of the digital camcorder according to the present invention shown in Figure 4 as described above to edit the reduced images stored in the reduced image storage means 140.

First, an editing mode checking step ST1 for checking whether an image editing mode key is input is performed. When the editing mode is selected in the editing mode checking step ST1, a reduced image reading step ST2 of reading out the reduced images stored in the reduced image storing unit 140 is performed. The reduced images read in the reduced image reading step ST2 are displayed on the screen in the form of an icon in the display step ST3. The position and size of the reduced images displayed on the screen can be adjusted according to the user's selection. Next, in order to arrange the image frames to be edited in order, a work memory setting step ST4 of specifying an address of the work memory to temporarily store the indexes of the image frames is performed.

Next, the user performs an image selection step ST5 of selecting an image to be edited from among the reduced images in the icon format displayed on the screen in the reduced image display step ST3. If there is no image to be edited among the reduced images displayed on the screen, the editing mode determination step ST1 is performed. If the edit mode is not selected at this time, the process proceeds to the mode selection step ST11 for selecting another mode. An index storing step ST6 for storing the index of the reduced image selected in the image selecting step ST5 in the working memory is performed.

A preview determination step ST7 is performed to determine whether to display the edited image frames on the screen while the index is stored in the working memory. At this time, if the preview key is not input, the display proceeds to the reduced image display step ST3 and edits the reduced images in order. However, when the preview key is input in the preview determination step ST7, the preview step ST8 is performed to sequentially display the image frames edited from the work memory on the screen. When the preview step ST8 is completed, an editing completion determination step ST9 for determining whether to continue image editing is performed. If it is desired to continue editing the image in the editing completion determination step ST9, the display proceeds to the reduction image display step ST3. However, when the editing completion is determined in the editing completion determination step ST9, the edited image storage step ST10 of storing the video edited in the preview step ST8 in an editing memory is performed. End video search.

As described above, the image search apparatus of the digital camcorder according to the present invention stores the reduced image data for editing in the built-in memory of the cassette tape together with the first index data and uses the reduced image frame at the time of editing. There is an advantage that the image frame can be easily found.

Second, by displaying all the thumbnail frames to be edited on one screen in the form of icons, the user can practice various screen configurations when editing the video.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated concretely by the above-mentioned Example, this invention is not limited to this, The deformation | transformation and improvement are possible within the range of common knowledge of a person skilled in the art.

Claims (2)

An image input unit for processing an image signal applied from a camera so as to be recorded on a predetermined recording medium; A frame memory for recording image data input from the image input unit in units of frames; A controller configured to store the image data input from the image input unit in the frame memory in units of frames; A reduced image generating unit which reduces the edited image at a predetermined ratio according to a control signal of the controller; Reduced image storing means for storing the edited image generated by the reduced image generating unit; And a display unit for reading an edited image from the reduced image storing unit and displaying the edited image on the screen in accordance with a control signal of the controller. An editing mode checking step of confirming whether an image editing mode is selected; A reduced image reading step of reading a reduced image from the reduced image storing means when the editing mode is selected in the editing mode checking step; A display step of displaying the reduced images read in the reduced image reading step in the form of an icon; A working memory setting step of designating a working memory address for temporarily storing an index of the edited image frames; An image selecting step of selecting an image to be edited among the reduced images displayed on the screen; An index storing step of storing an index of an image selected in the image selecting step in the working memory; A preview determination step of determining whether to display the edited image frames on a screen; A preview step of displaying images edited from the work memory in order on the screen when the preview is selected in the preview determination step; An editing completion determining step of determining whether to continue image editing; And an edited image storing step of storing the edited image in the preview step in an editing memory.