CN1168023C - Laptop with camera - Google Patents

Abstract

A laptop computer provided with a camera, comprising: the system comprises a system bus, a CPU connected with the bus, a memory device connected with the CPU and an image controller; a display connected with the image controller; an upper cover with a display, a video camera fixed on the outer cover of the display; the camera has a fixed focal length and an imaging array; the camera is connected to the image controller through a special interface to directly provide output pixel data to the display; the program of the CPU is stored in the memory device and the program code is used to control the transfer of image data from the camera to the display in order to perform digital photography. The invention can realize shaking type and zooming photography.

Description

Laptop with camera

The present invention relates to a computer, in particular to a laptop computer provided with a camera, and the camera is a CMOS camera.

Along with the development of video letter, telephone and computer technology, improved to the demand of a kind of small video letter camera that can be used for computer. Especially for video conferencing, some real on-site records are needed. In response to this need, small portable cameras have been developed that can rest on top of a computer monitor. For example, Connectix Corporation of San Mateo, California sells a series of cameras in the form of QuickCams.

As laptop computers have evolved, improved video input has to be provided. An adjustable video (Zoomed Video, ZV) interface is defined to provide a dedicated video bus between a PC card slot and a VGA graphics controller. The ZV interface bypasses the system bus and allows direct transfer of digital video from a PC Card host adapter into the display memory associated with the graphics controller.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a laptop computer with high quality video capabilities allowing panning and zooming of images.

To achieve the above object, the present invention takes the following measures:

One embodiment of the laptop computer of the present invention includes a video camera fixed to the top cover, preferably embedded in the upper edge of the display. The video data is sent along a dedicated path from the camera output signal to a graphics controller in the display, allowing full frame, full data rate video to be displayed with minimal overall system performance. In one embodiment, the data is transferred using an associated zoom video (ZV) interface of the graphics controller.

The camera has an imaging array (preferably a CMOS sensor array) and a fixed focal length lens (may be wide-angle). Pan and zoom photography is accomplished with software controlled data transfer from the pixel array to the addresses of the associated display memory of the graphics controller.

The present invention can provide high-quality visual information without elaborate mechanical processes. Embodiments of the present invention can allow image panning and zooming.

The present invention takes following concrete structure:

The laptop computer provided with the camera of the present invention comprises:

a system bus;

A CPU, connected to the system bus;

a memory device and a graphics controller connected to the CPU;

a display connected to the image controller;

An upper cover has a display cover to fix the display in a normal vertical direction during use; it is characterized in that it also includes:

A video-signal camera, fixed on the display cover and located above the display, the video-signal camera has a fixed focal length and an imaging array;

The video camera is connected to the image controller via a dedicated interface to directly provide output pixel data to the display;

The program of the CPU is stored in the memory device, and the program code is used to control the transmission of image data from the video camera to the display, so as to implement digital photography.

Wherein, the imaging array is a CMOS sensor array.

Wherein, the dedicated interface is a zoom video interface.

In conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments, the specific structural features of the present invention are described in detail as follows:

A brief description of the attached drawings:

Fig. 1: the perspective view of a kind of laptop computer of the embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2: the circuit block diagram of laptop computer of the present invention;

Fig. 3: The present invention is used for the circuit block diagram of multimedia subsystem;

Fig. 4: schematic flow chart of the multimedia subsystem according to the present invention;

Fig. 5: exploded schematic view of camera accessories in the present invention;

Fig. 6: A schematic diagram of a screen window in the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1 , it is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of a laptop computer implementation of the present invention. In this embodiment, the laptop computer includes a horizontal base portion 20 and a hinged top cover 25 . Base portion 20 includes a keyboard 30, such as trackpad 32, a cursor control device, and electronics (not shown) located inside base portion 20 (under keyboard 30). The upper cover 25 includes a flat panel display (typically a liquid crystal display) 35 surrounded by an edge 37 . The CMOS camera 40 in the present invention is fixed or embedded in the edge 37 , and its lens 45 is arranged on the surface of the edge 37 . The laptop can use an Intel-compatible processor (such as Pentium II MMX) to execute Microsoft's Windows 98 or Windows NT operating system.

As shown in FIG. 2 , it is a circuit block diagram of a laptop computer. The circuit area is divided into two areas. The first area is “NOTEBOOK”, which includes the components in the base 20 and the upper cover 25 . The second area is the "mini-dock" 60, which provides additional connection options, mainly including keyboards and monitors. All components in the micro-dock 60 are prior art, and will not be described in detail.

The basic structure includes multiple buses through which the CPU 100 communicates with other system resources. The bus is arranged based on the consideration of speed and width. In particular, CPU 100 communicates with a memory subsystem and various input/output devices.

The CPU 100 communicates with a memory subsystem including a system memory 105 and a second-level cache memory 110. It communicates with the system memory 105 through a combination bridge and the memory controller 115, which is called the North Bridge. Northbridge 115 connects the CPU and memory subsystem to a high-speed peripheral bus of PCI bus 120 . A south bridge 125 connects the PCI bus to a low speed peripheral bus 130 . The low-speed peripheral bus can be an industrial standard expansion bus, such as ISA bus, ESIA bus or MCA bus.

In general, the data transfer speed of the PCI bus is fast, and it is wider than the same form of bus that can be connected to the expansion bus. For example, PCI bus 120 is a 32-bit bus operating at 33 MHz, while ISA bus 130 is a 16-bit bus operating at 8 MHz. The main purpose of the PCI bus is to be compatible with past 8-bit and 16-bit peripheral devices, and its functions can still be fully implemented in a modem system.

In this embodiment, the devices connected to the PCI bus 120 include a graphics controller 140 and a PC-card host adapter 145 . Image controller 140 has an associated display memory, and in this embodiment image controller 140 is embedded in the multimedia accelerator chip of transformable media MagicMedia ^™ (NM2200) 256AV256 bits, and it is by NeoMagic Corporation (3260 JayStreet, Santa Clara, CA 95054). This is a single chip that includes graphics controller logic and video memory. In addition to controlling graphics capabilities, this special chip also has high-performance voice, video and DVD playback capabilities. For this reason, the image controller 140 will be referred to as a media processor 140 .

For some purposes, the related functionality is provided by the graphics controller portion of the chip. In addition to being connected to the PCI bus as described above, the media processor 140 is also directly connected to the north bridge 115 via an enhanced graphics port (AGP), thus providing a bypass path so that some data can be directly transmitted without having to via the PCI bus. The display 35 is connected to the media processor 140 .

The media processor 140 includes two video interfaces (zoom video or ZV). The camera 40 is connected to the media processor 140 through a ZV interface. Additionally, the PC card host adapter 145 is connected to the media processor 140 via another ZV interface to provide a dedicated video bus for PC cards (such as video pickup cards) that may be inserted into a laptop computer expansion slot for PC cards.

Hard disk drive 170 is connected to south bridge 125 . In this embodiment, the devices connected to the ISA bus 130 include a modem 180, voice subsystem 190, and a logic chip 200 (PC87570 from National Semiconductor), which provide the controllers for the keyboard and pointing devices, a battery management controller, an interface to the BIOS memory 210, and a clock.

As shown in FIG. 3 , it is a circuit block diagram for a multimedia system of the present invention; it constitutes a multimedia subsystem in the computer system 10 . The multimedia subsystem includes a camera 40, a speech coding tone subsystem 190, a media processor 140, a high-capacity fast storage device, and high-bandwidth communication modules. When describing the actual hardware of these modules in detail, various embodiments can be changed accordingly according to the differences of specific platforms.

In addition to the aforementioned lens 45 , the embedded CMOS camera 40 includes an imaging array 220 (called a camera chip) for generating pixel data corresponding to the image formed by the lens 45 . The camera 40 will be described in more detail below.

The voice subsystem 190 includes a microphone 225 connected to a CMOS voice amplifier 230 . The analog voice signal from the amplifier 230 is sent to a voice codec/decoder (codec) 235 , which provides a digital voice data stream to the media processor 140 . The data connection is bi-directional, so that the codec 235 can receive a digital voice data stream from the media processor 140 and convert it into an analog voice signal and output it to a set of speakers 240 .

As shown in Figure 4, it is a software block diagram of the multimedia subsystem. From top to bottom, the multimedia subsystem includes: including OEM specific application (OEM specific application) 250 and general application (generic application) 255, human body interactive user interface connected with special application 250 and general application 255, operating system 260 (implementation Windows 98/NT in the example), a set of OEM enhanced user interface WDM driver control panel and a platform-specific HLA/BIOS service layer. The drivers include a camera driver 265 , a voice mixer driver 267 and a communication driver 268 . Because the implementation of these modules can vary according to platform-specific differences, the OEM's custom HAL/BIOS service layer must be added to the OEM's specific WDM driver. Also, to maintain compatibility with common user applications, all OEM-specific enhancement calls (shown at 270 ) must be implemented on top of standard operating system function (WDM) calls. Therefore, when the OEM effectively applies these additional enhancements, all "general applications" 225 can also operate accordingly.

As shown in Figure 5, it is the exploded schematic diagram of camera accessory among the present invention; The embodiment of CMOS camera 40 comprises camera wafer 220, a circuit board 280, a lens holder 285 that is fixed on the circuit board 280 and is fixed on lens holder The lens 45 on the device 285, while the camera chip 220 and additional circuitry are mounted on the circuit board 280. In this embodiment, the camera chip 220 adopts a CMOS color digital imaging integrated circuit model OV7620BD, which is provided by "OmmiVision Technologies Inc." (930 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale, CA 94086).

The camera chip 220 includes a 640*480 pixel array and associated circuitry. This circuit is not part of the present invention and will therefore only be briefly described. This circuit includes a video signal timing generator, a set of programmable temporary registers connected to an internal IC bus (I ² C) interface, an analog processing circuit for determining column pixel data, and providing Analog/Digital Converter for digital pixels. The camera chip 220 can operate at up to 60 Hz interlaced or 30 Hz progressive, and can output color data in red-green-blue (RGB) or YUV.

The CMOS camera chip 220 allows access to individual pixels, as opposed to a charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor that accesses data from columns in a pixel array. Thus, the die 220 can provide an option for the portion of the data output that will be required from the pixel array. This is done by loading the vertical and horizontal start and end positions into these registers.

In one embodiment, the lens 45 can be a fixed focal length lens, which can provide a viewing angle of 65-70 degrees. Therefore, pan and zoom photography can be done within the software. With panning photography, a fixed-size window (typically half the size of the screen) pans across the pixel array in response to user input. For example, the user may manipulate an on-screen control, such as a slider, or use the cursor device 32 to designate movement in this manner. These user actions are converted into signals that cause the values of the start and end positions within the camera chip 220 to change accordingly. Obviously, for a fixed window size, the difference between the start and end values must remain constant. Also, with respect to zoom photography, the same center position is maintained as the size of the viewport changes.

As shown in FIG. 6 , it is a schematic diagram of a screen window in the present invention, which provides a human-computer interactive image control panel to realize a special control mechanism of the camera module. The camera module control mechanism is through the I ² C bus protocol. Either by imitation or by substitution, all Windows 98 special function calls are also supported to meet PC98's multimedia voice-video requirements.

In one implementation, the user's control panel provides the following controls:

1. Camera ON/OFF/STANDBY (camera, on/off/waiting);

2. ViewFinder ENABLE/DISABLE (viewfinder, start/stop);

3. Remote controller ENABLE/DISABLE (remote controller, start/stop);

4. ICONization ENABLE/DISABLE; (allows the control panel to be placed in the window);

5. ZOOM slider/selector (digital zoom slider/selector);

6. PAN slider/selector (shaking photography, sliding/selector);

7. RGB color compensation slider/selector (red, green and blue color compensation selector);

8. Aperture/gain control slider/selector (aperture/gain control, slide/selector);

9. Sutter/frame control slider/selector (video, snapshot photography/picture control, sliding/selector);

10. Microphone input gain control slider/selector) microphone input signal gain control, slide/selector);

11. "Sub-title" message encoder and decoder text bars (title information encoding/decoding file control bar).

In one embodiment, digital or software pan and zoom photography is implemented with sliders or other on-screen controls displayed along with an image representing the camera window positioned to represent the largest window (entire pixel array) within a possibly larger image frame. When the user uses these on-screen controls, the smaller image frame moves and resizes within the larger image frame.

In another embodiment, pan and zoom photography is performed by direct manipulation of smaller frames. For panning photography, the user can place the cursor at an appropriate position within the smaller frame and drag the smaller frame to a desired position within the larger frame. For zoom photography, the user can drag the cursor on the corner of the smaller frame to resize. The smaller image frame changes size from its center position. When zooming in, the user will drag outward. When one side of the smaller image frame touches one edge of the larger image frame, if you continue to drag, the other edges of the smaller image frame will continue to move outward. Therefore, panning photography can be added to zoom photography.

For the remote user, all Windows 98 specific function calls and the functions of the local user control panel of all the camera modules specified above can be used as OEM extended function calls.

Regarding the I ² C bus interface, the camera module driver uses the I ² C bus interface controller on the PIIX4 peripheral control chip to program the camera chip 220 . Regarding the ZV interface, the camera module uses the second ZV interface located on the media processor 140 to obtain the digital video stream from the camera chip 220 .

Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following effects:

Since the laptop computer of the present invention is provided with a CMOS camera, the computer has a high-quality video capability to allow images to be panned and zoomed. The present invention can provide high-quality visual information without fine mechanical processes.

The above description is to illustrate the structural features of the present invention by means of embodiments, and is not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims (3)

1. A laptop computer provided with a camera, comprising: a system bus; A CPU, connected to the system bus; a memory device connected to the CPU; An image controller connected to the CPU; a display connected to the image controller; a cover with a display cover to hold the display in a normally vertical orientation during use; A video-signal camera, fixed on the display cover, and located above the display, the video-signal camera has a fixed focal length and an imaging array; it is characterized in that: The video camera is connected to the image controller via a dedicated interface to directly provide output pixel data to the display; The program of the CPU is stored in the memory device, and the program code is used to control the transmission of image data from the video camera to the display, so as to implement digital photography. 2. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the imaging array is a CMOS sensor array. 3. The computer according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the dedicated interface is a zoom video interface.

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