JP6252632B2 - Imaging apparatus and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus and a program for displaying a captured image.

  In general, using a compact camera, for example, when taking a telephoto shot of a landscape such as the open ocean or plain, it is easy to see from the viewfinder which part of the landscape you are currently aiming at. Since it is not possible to make a judgment, the user looks away from the viewfinder and takes a picture while visually checking the shooting location. In other words, when performing telephoto shooting, the actual landscape and the image seen through the viewfinder (through image: live view image) often have a large impression, and the shooting location is visually checked many times to obtain the actual landscape. We had to shoot while comparing it with the live view image. On the other hand, there are cases where the entire scene is shot in multiple places, such as 6 places and 7 places, etc., but in such cases, the same part may be taken twice or it may be missed. Sometimes happened. These are due to the inability to accurately grasp the current state of the landscape and the like.

  By the way, conventionally, for example, in an imaging apparatus such as a compact camera, as a technique for clearly indicating the current state of the whole, a photographed image including a photographing target is displayed as a whole image, and a part of the whole image is identified. A technique for displaying is proposed. That is, a technique has been proposed in which a part of an image of a subject that is enlarged by digital zoom is surrounded by a frame in a state where an image of the entire subject is displayed (see Patent Document 1).

JP 09-270942 A

  However, the above-described prior art is a technique related to identification display at the time of enlargement processing, even if a part of the subject subjected to enlargement processing can be grasped by identifying and displaying a part of the entire image. It wasn't a technique to clearly show the current state of the whole at the time of shooting.

  An object of the present invention is to realize appropriate imaging by image comparison.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, when super-telephoto shooting is instructed , an imaging control means for performing imaging by zooming in to the super telephoto by the imaging unit, and the captured image zoomed up to the super telephoto are captured before telephoto By comparing with the pre-telephoto image, it is determined that the captured image is a zoom image with a maximum zoom suitable for storage, and the determination unit determines that the image is not an appropriate zoom image. Until the captured image is determined to be an appropriate zoom image, the zoom magnification of the image capturing unit is lowered and the control is sequentially performed to zoom in and the captured image is sequentially zoomed in. And a storage control unit that controls to store the captured image as a maximum zoom image in the storage unit .

  According to the present invention, appropriate imaging can be realized by image comparison.

The block diagram which showed the basic component of the digital camera applied as an imaging device. (1)-(5) is the figure which showed the display state at the time of carrying out telephoto photography of the near scenery (Mt. Fuji). 6 is a flowchart that starts execution in response to switching to special shooting (shooting that clearly indicates the current state of an entire image including a shooting target) in the present embodiment. (1)-(5) is the figure which showed the display state at the time of telephotographing the moon.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing basic components of a digital camera applied as an imaging apparatus.
The digital camera is, for example, a compact camera equipped with a 10 × optical wide-angle and high-power zoom, and operates with the control unit 1 as a core. The control unit 1 operates by supplying power from the power source unit (secondary battery) 2 and controls the overall operation of the digital camera in accordance with various programs in the storage unit 3. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a memory (not shown) are provided. The storage unit 3 includes, for example, a ROM, a flash memory, and the like, and a program storage unit M1 that stores a program and various applications for realizing the present embodiment in accordance with the operation procedure illustrated in FIG. And an image storage unit M2 for storing captured images in a file format.

  The RAM 4 is a work area that temporarily stores various information necessary for the operation of the digital camera, such as flag information and screen information. The display unit 5 uses, for example, any one of a high-definition liquid crystal display, an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display, and an electrophoretic display (electronic paper) to display an image with high definition. For example, a capacitive touch screen (touch screen) is configured by laminating and arranging transparent touch panels for detecting finger contact on the surface. Although not shown, the operation unit 6 includes various function keys such as a shutter key and numeric keys for inputting numeric data as various push button type keys. The control unit 1 includes the operation unit. As processing corresponding to the input operation signal from 6, for example, photographing processing, storage processing, and the like are performed.

  The imaging unit 7 constitutes a digital camera, and includes an area image sensor such as a C-MOS or CCD imaging device, and is configured to be able to shoot moving images in addition to still image shooting. The imaging unit 7 includes an imaging lens 7a, an aperture mechanism 7b, an imaging element (area image sensor) 7c such as a C-MOS or CCD, an optical system driving unit 7d, and the like. A processing circuit, a signal processing circuit, a compression / decompression circuit, and the like are provided to control an autofocus function (AF function), a super-telephoto shooting function, a wide-angle shooting function, an exposure adjustment function (AE function), and the like.

  The AF function is an automatic focusing function that measures the distance from the photographic lens 7a to the subject and performs focusing. The optical system driving unit 7d controls the position of the photographic lens 7a according to the measured distance and performs focusing. I do. The AF function is not limited to an active method that irradiates infrared rays, ultrasonic waves, or the like, but a phase difference detection method that detects a phase difference based on image data from the image sensor 7c, a contrast detection method that detects a contrast ratio, and the like. Any method may be used. The contrast detection method focuses on the lens position where the contrast is highest while adjusting the lens position. At this time, the distance to the subject is obtained according to the focused lens position. ing.

  The imaging unit 7 includes a bifocal lens and a zoom lens that can switch between telephoto and wide-angle according to the subject, and performs telephoto / wide-angle photography by operating the telephoto and wide-angle photography functions. The illumination unit 8 is an LED flash or the like that illuminates the imaging range. The acceleration sensor 9 is used at the time of photographing and measures the tilt of the digital camera. When performing image pattern matching, which will be described later, the control unit 1 considers the distance to the subject measured by the imaging unit 7 at the time of shooting and the inclination of the digital camera measured by the acceleration sensor 9, thereby comparing the comparison target image. I try to match each other. That is, the shooting magnifications of the images to be compared are matched and their directions are matched.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display state in the case where a landscape (Mt. Fuji) spreading in front of the user is photographed at a plurality of locations with super telephoto.
FIG. 2A shows the content displayed on the monitor screen (finder screen) of the display unit 5 when the entire landscape including the subject (Mt. Fuji) to be imaged is photographed. In the example shown in FIG. This shows a case where the whole image is taken at the same magnification, and the whole image is displayed on the entire monitor screen. Note that the entire image is not limited to the same-magnification image taken at the same magnification, but may be a wide-angle image taken at the wide angle or a telephoto image taken at the telephoto.

  FIG. 2 (2) shows the display content of the monitor screen when aiming at part of Mt. Fuji (top). On a part of the monitor screen, for example, the entire image (still image) of Mt. Fuji is reduced and displayed in a rectangular frame at the lower right corner in the figure. In such a state where the entire image of Mt. Fuji is fixedly displayed in a rectangular frame (entire image frame), a part of Mt. Fuji (for example, a part of the top of the mountain) is aimed at the portion for telephoto shooting. , The subject image (enlarged image) is displayed in other areas of the monitor screen (all areas except the entire image frame), and the position of the subject that is currently aimed at is clearly indicated in the entire image frame. A rectangular frame (aiming frame) is displayed. In this case, the control unit 1 identifies the position of the subject in the whole image by performing image matching that compares the subject image currently aimed at by the imaging unit 7 with the whole image. An identification display (aiming frame display) is made on the entire image to indicate that the position is the position of the subject that is currently aiming. As a result, the current state of the entire image including the shooting target (Mt. Fuji) is clearly indicated.

  In the state of FIG. 2 (2), when a shutter operation is performed to capture the top portion where the current aim is set, a subject image (a magnified image obtained by telephoto shooting) for which the current aim is set is stored in the image storage unit M2. At the same time, as shown in FIG. 2 (3), the entire aiming frame display is colored in a predetermined color (for example, green) to be changed to the photographing completion frame display. As a result, the subject that has been subjected to the predetermined processing (photographing processing, storage processing) is identified and displayed on the entire image. In this state, if the orientation of the imaging unit 7 is changed in order to aim at the other part (mountain) of Mt. Fuji, the subject image (enlarged image) and the aiming frame display are moved in that direction in real time. Become.

  Here, when aiming at a part of the foot of Mt. Fuji, as shown in FIG. 2 (3), the subject image (enlarged image) is the other area of the monitor screen (all areas excluding the whole image frame). ) And a rectangular frame (aiming frame) that clearly indicates the position of the subject that is currently aiming is displayed in the entire image frame. Even if the aim is moved in this way, the shooting completion frame is displayed as it is at the top of the last shot, so both the current aiming frame and the previous shooting completion frame are displayed in the entire image frame. It becomes a state.

  Next, the operation concept of the digital camera in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, each function described in the flowchart is stored in the form of a readable program code, and operations according to the program code are sequentially executed. Further, it is possible to sequentially execute the operation according to the above-described program code transmitted via a transmission medium such as a network. In other words, in addition to the recording medium, an operation unique to the present embodiment can be executed using a program / data supplied externally via a transmission medium.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart started to be executed in response to switching to special imaging (imaging that clearly indicates the current state of the entire image including the imaging target) in the present embodiment. That is, the outline of the operation of the characteristic part of the present embodiment of the overall operation of the digital camera is shown. When the flow of FIG. 3 is exited, the flow returns to the main flow (not shown) of the overall operation.
First, the control unit 1 checks whether the entire image including the object to be imaged (for example, Mt. Fuji) has been captured or whether the entire image is stored in the RAM 4 (step S1), and if the entire image has not been acquired (step S1). Whether or not the image including the subject to be photographed has been photographed as a whole image is checked (step S2). When the whole image is photographed (YES in step S2), the whole image is temporarily stored in the RAM 4 (step S2). S3). Then, the process proceeds to the next step S4, and the entire image read from the RAM 4 is displayed on the entire monitor screen of the display unit 5, as shown in FIG.

  In this state, in response to a user operation, the mode is switched to the super telephoto shooting mode, or the mode is switched to the super telephoto shooting mode after a predetermined time has elapsed (step S5). Then, in this super-telephoto shooting mode, an enlarged image by telephoto (subject image currently being aimed) is acquired (step S6), and this enlarged image is displayed on the monitor screen (step S7). The whole image is reduced and displayed on a part of the monitor screen (in the whole image frame in the lower right corner), and the above-mentioned enlarged image (all areas except the whole image frame) is displayed on the other part of the monitor screen. Subject image). Thereby, for example, as shown in FIG. 2B, the entire image and the enlarged image (subject image) are displayed in parallel on the monitor screen.

  In this state, the control unit 1 performs image pattern matching for comparing the entire image and the enlarged image (subject image) (step S8). At this time, the distance to the subject measured by the imaging unit 7 at the time of shooting is performed. And the inclination of the digital camera measured by the acceleration sensor 9 are taken into consideration, and the image pattern matching is performed after matching the photographing magnifications of the comparison target images (the whole image and the magnified image) or the direction thereof. Do. As a result, it is specified in which position in the entire image the subject currently aimed is located (step S9). Then, it is checked whether or not the position of the subject to be photographed can be identified (step S10). When the subject can be identified (YES in step S10), the subject (the top of the top) whose position is currently aimed is determined. The position is identified and displayed on the entire image (step S11). In this case, in the example illustrated in FIG. 2B, a rectangular aiming frame is displayed at the position (a part of the top) on the entire image.

  In this state, it is checked whether a shutter operation has been performed to instruct execution of the shooting process (step S12), or whether an operation to instruct the end of shooting has been performed (step S13). If no operation is performed (NO in step S13), the process returns to step S12 described above to enter the operation waiting state, but when a shutter operation is performed and shooting is instructed (YES in step S12). The captured subject image is acquired and stored in the image storage unit M2 (step S14).

  Then, as shown in FIG. 2 (3), the entire aiming frame display is colored in a predetermined color (for example, green) in the entire image display frame to change to the shooting completion frame display, and a predetermined process (shooting) The subject that has been processed is identified and displayed on the entire image (step S15). Note that the identification display in this case is not limited to the above-described colored display, and a character “completed” or a symbol indicating the completion of photographing may be displayed in an overlapping manner at the corresponding position on the entire image. Is optional. Thereafter, the process returns to step S6 described above, and after obtaining an enlarged image by telephoto, the enlarged image (subject image) is displayed on the monitor screen (step S7).

  On the other hand, when the position of the subject to be imaged cannot be specified by image pattern matching (NO in step S10), for example, as shown in FIG. In other words, since the outside of Mt. Fuji is magnified and photographed, the same subject is magnified and photographed after changing to a zoom magnification intermediate between the zoom magnification of the entire image and the zoom magnification of the magnified image (step S16). ). For example, if the entire image is taken at the same magnification and 10 times the enlarged image, the image is taken at an intermediate magnification of 5 times. That is, re-shooting is performed at a magnification lower than the magnification at the time of the previous enlarged image shooting. Then, image pattern matching is performed to compare the enlarged image (intermediate image) photographed at this intermediate magnification with the entire image (step S17), and it is checked whether or not they partially match (step S18).

  If the intermediate image and the whole image do not partially match as a result of taking a picture with a reduced magnification in this way (NO in step S18), the process returns to step S16 described above, and the zoom magnification of the whole image and the current enlarged image are further returned. After changing to an intermediate magnification with the zoom magnification, the same subject is enlarged and photographed, and then the operation of performing image pattern matching is repeated (step S17). As a result, when the enlarged image and the whole image partially match (YES in step S18), for example, as shown in FIG. 2 (4), the upper left part of the whole image and the right side of the intermediate image When the lower part matches (when they overlap), an arrow pointing in the opposite direction to the part-matching direction in the whole image is displayed in the enlarged image (intermediate image) to move in the shooting direction. Prompt (step S19). For example, as shown in FIG. 2 (5), in the display area of the enlarged image (intermediate image) on the monitor screen, the direction in which the entire image is partially matched (upper left direction) is 180 ° opposite (lower right direction). By displaying an arrow directed to, the movement in the shooting direction is urged. Thereafter, the process returns to the above-described step S6, and after obtaining an enlarged image by telephoto (a subject image that is currently aimed), the above-described operation is repeated.

  Here, when an operation for instructing the end of shooting is performed (YES in step S13), processing for saving the entire image is performed (step S20). In this case, an identification display (shooting completion frame display) indicating the completion of shooting is performed. Is displayed on the entire image, it is stored together with the entire image including this identification display. Thereafter, the flow of FIG. 3 is exited.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the control unit 1 determines the current aim by the imaging unit 7 in a state in which an image including the imaging target is displayed as a whole image captured by the imaging unit 7. By comparing the subject image to be photographed with the whole image, the position of the subject in the whole image is specified, and it is determined on the whole image that the position is the subject currently aiming. Since the identification display is made, appropriate shooting can be realized by clearly indicating the current state of the entire image including the shooting target. For example, it is possible to easily know which area is currently aimed at the entire landscape at hand, and it is possible to perform shooting efficiently and accurately by realizing appropriate shooting.

  The subject image that is currently aimed by the imaging unit 7 is a magnified image that has been telephotographed. After matching the magnifications of the whole image and the subject image, image pattern matching is performed to compare the whole image and the subject image. Since it did in this way, image comparison can be performed appropriately.

  Since the subject image and the entire image are displayed in parallel on the same monitor screen, the user can shoot while comparing both images, and can immediately set the aim for the shooting target. Become.

  When the imaging unit 7 cannot identify the position in the entire image of the subject image that is currently aimed at, the target image is compared with the entire image while reducing the zoom magnification. As a result of repeating this operation, when the subject image partially matches the entire image, the direction in which the current aiming direction deviates from the entire image is identified and displayed on the entire image. Therefore, the user can take a picture while looking at the identification display, and can immediately set the aim for the photographing target.

  In the state in which the entire image is displayed, the imaging unit 7 identifies the position of the subject in the entire image by comparing the subject image of the subject to be photographed and the entire image, When a predetermined process has been completed for the position, the subject that has completed the predetermined process is identified and displayed on the entire image, so that the part where the process has been completed so far is known. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the same portion from being processed repeatedly or an unprocessed portion from remaining, and the processing can be performed efficiently and accurately.

  The predetermined process is a shooting process for shooting and saving a subject image that is currently aimed by the imaging unit 7, and the shooting process is completed when the shooting process for shooting and saving the image is completed. Since the subject is discriminated and displayed on the entire image, it is possible to prevent duplicate shooting or omission of the same part.

  Since the entire image that is identified and displayed as a subject for which the predetermined processing has been completed is stored, the processing status can be confirmed at any time.

  In the above-described embodiment, when the subject that has undergone the predetermined process is identified and displayed on the entire image, the entire aiming frame display is colored in a predetermined color (for example, green). Although it has been changed to a complete frame display, before starting shooting, in order to indicate that the whole is an unprocessed area, for example, a light gray shading is overlaid on the entire area of the entire image, When the predetermined process is completed, the overlay display displayed in the completion area may be deleted to identify and display on the entire image that the subject has been subjected to the predetermined process. Thus, even if the overlay display of the completed area is deleted each time the processing is completed, the same effect as the above-described embodiment can be obtained, and the completion and clarification of the completion of the processing can be realized. Furthermore, the display indicating the completion of processing is arbitrary, such as displaying a graphic with “x” in the frame superimposed.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the sequential shooting is performed while aiming at each subject. However, the entire image may be divided into a plurality of blocks, and each block may be sequentially captured. In this case, it is only necessary to identify and display a block that is currently aiming, or to identify and display a block for which photographing has been completed.

In the above-described embodiment, the image pattern matching for comparing the subject image and the entire image is performed to identify the position of the area in the entire image, but as a matching method, Not only image pattern matching but also a statistical identification method, a structure identification method or the like may be used.
In the above-described embodiment, the subject image as a still image is compared with the entire image. However, the present invention is not limited to a still image, and moving image frames may be compared with each other. In this case, the subject image and the entire image may be displayed as a moving image.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a digital camera (compact camera) as an imaging device has been described. For example, the present invention is applied to an astronomical telescope equipped with an optical system (lens barrel) 500 times optical and an imaging device. May be. 4 (1) and 4 (2) are diagrams showing display examples when the crater of the moon is telephotographed with the astronomical telescope, and FIG. 4 (1) is a photograph of a part of the moon (crater) with the astronomical telescope. In order to do this, the contents of the monitor screen when the part is aimed is shown, and the entire image of the moon is reduced and displayed on a part of the monitor screen (in the rectangular frame in the lower right corner in the figure). In this state where the entire image of the moon is fixedly displayed in the rectangular frame (entire image frame), when aiming at that part in order to photograph a part of the moon (crater) with astronomical telephoto, The subject image (enlarged image) of the crater is displayed in another area of the monitor screen (all areas except the entire image frame), and a rectangle that clearly indicates the position of the subject that is currently aimed in the entire image frame A frame (sighting frame) is displayed.

  In this case, by performing image matching that compares the subject image and the entire image, the position of the subject in the entire image is specified, and this position is the position of the subject that is currently aiming. Identification display (sighting frame display) is made on the entire image. When a shutter operation is performed to take a telephoto image of a crater that is currently aiming, the subject image that is currently aiming is saved, and the entire aiming frame display is displayed as shown in FIG. 4 (2). By changing to a predetermined color (for example, green), the display is changed to the photographing completion frame display. As a result, the subject that has undergone the photographing process is identified and displayed on the entire image. In this state, if the orientation of the imaging unit 7 is changed to aim at another crater (subject), the subject image (enlarged image) and the aiming frame display will move in real time accordingly. When aiming at a new crater (subject), as shown in FIG. 4 (2), the current aiming frame and the previous photographing completion frame are displayed in the entire image frame.

The imaging device is not limited to a digital camera or an astronomical telescope, and may be, for example, a mobile phone with an imaging device (camera), a PDA, a music player, or the like.
Moreover, the digital camera and the astronomical telescope shown in the above-described embodiments may be separated into a plurality of cases according to function, and are not limited to a single case. In addition, each step described in the above-described flowchart is not limited to time-series processing, and a plurality of steps may be processed in parallel or separately.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 3 Memory | storage part 5 Display part 6 Operation part 7 Imaging part 7a Shooting lens 7b Aperture mechanism 7c Image pick-up element 7d Optical system drive part M1 Program memory | storage part M2 Image memory | storage part

Claims (5)

When super-telephoto shooting is instructed , an imaging control unit that performs imaging by zooming in to the super-telephoto by the imaging unit;
Determining means for determining whether or not the captured image is a zoom image of a maximum zoom suitable as a storage target by comparing the captured image zoomed up to the super telephoto with a pre-telephoto image captured before telephoto ;
If it is determined by the determination means that the zoom image is not an appropriate zoom image, the control is repeatedly executed to reduce the zoom magnification of the imaging unit and sequentially zoom in until the captured image is determined to be an appropriate zoom image. Storage control means for controlling to store the captured image as the maximum zoom image in the storage means at the stage when the captured images sequentially zoomed down are determined to be the zoom image of the appropriate maximum zoom ;
An imaging apparatus comprising: The determining means determines whether or not the zoom image is an appropriate maximum zoom depending on whether or not the captured image is capable of specifying the position in the entire image of the pre-telephoto image.
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1. If the determination means can determine where the captured image is in the entire image, display control means for identifying and displaying where the captured image is in the entire image;
The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: The imaging control means captures and temporarily stores an entire image before the imaging unit is set to the super telephoto prior to zoom-up imaging of the super telephoto by the imaging unit,
The imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A program for controlling a computer of an imaging device,
The computer,
When super-telephoto shooting is instructed, an imaging control means for performing imaging by zooming in to the super-telephoto by the imaging unit,
Determining means for determining whether or not the captured image is a zoom image of a maximum zoom suitable as a storage target by comparing the captured image zoomed up to the super telephoto with a pre-telephoto image captured before telephoto ;
If it is determined by the determination means that the zoom image is not an appropriate zoom image, the control is repeatedly executed to reduce the zoom magnification of the imaging unit and sequentially zoom in until the captured image is determined to be an appropriate zoom image. A storage control unit that controls to store the captured image as a maximum zoom image in the storage unit when the captured images that are sequentially zoomed down are determined to be a zoom image of an appropriate maximum zoom ;
A program designed to function as

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