JPH06315106A - Image handling device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily handle an image without necessitating a special conversion processing by providing a sub-information recording means for recording sub- information for showing an image display mode related to image information in the mode capable of reproduction in accordance with the reproduction of this image information. CONSTITUTION:When writing in a frame memory is all finished, data is read out of the frame memory 6 by the control of a memory controller 5, a data conversion required for data compression is executed in a discrete cosine transformation circuit (DCT/1DCT) 7, and outputted to a coder/decoder 8. In a coder part of this coder/decoder 8, video data is subjected to compression processing, while referring to an auxiliary memory 9 in which various data and tables required for performing the compression processing are written. Thereafter, the compressed data passes through a data bus 20 and is written in an IC memory card 10 being an information recording means attached to an electronic still camera so as to be attachable and detachable.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image handling device, and more particularly, to an image handling device corresponding to a plurality of types of image display modes having different aspect ratios, the number of pixels and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as digitalization of electronic still cameras has progressed, demands for reproducing and processing photographed image data on a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as a personal computer) or the like have increased. Therefore, in consideration of the compatibility of data with such devices as a personal computer, the present applicant uses an IC memory card used in a personal computer as a recording medium of an electronic still camera, and We propose to record in file format. An image format of such an electronic still camera is generally considered to be useful if it corresponds to the data format (the number of effective pixels: 768 × 480) based on the NTSC standard. On the contrary,
The number of pixels of a personal computer is generally 640 × 400, 512 × 512, 640 × 480, or the like.

[0003]

Since the electronic still camera as described above is mainly compatible with the data formats complying with various television signal standards such as the NTSC standard and the PAL standard, There is an inconvenience that it is not possible to display the entire screen of the image data taken by the electronic still camera when the image is played back on a personal computer having a low pixel count.

Further, since the aspect ratio of the pixel of the display for personal computer is generally 1.2 times wider than that of the CCD of the electronic still camera, the picture is taken by the electronic still camera. When the image data is displayed on the display as it is, it sometimes becomes an image that is slightly collapsed vertically. It is possible to correct this by software on a personal computer, but it is not desirable because the speed of reproduction becomes slow because calculation for the correction is required.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and when an image is handled by using another image handling apparatus having a different recording mode, a special conversion process or the like is required in the other image handling apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image handling device that can easily handle an image without using it.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an image handling apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a plurality of types of images having different aspect ratios, number of pixels, etc. when recording supplied image information on a recording medium. Recording mode recognition means for recognizing which of the display modes the image is to be recorded in, and image information on the applied recording medium according to the recognition by the recording mode recognition means Sub-information recording for recording in the area for storing information related to the sub-information in association with the recorded image information, the sub-information indicating the image display mode related to the image information in a reproducible manner with the reproduction of the image information. And means.

[0007]

In the image handling apparatus according to the present invention, the recording mode recognizing means displays any one of a plurality of types of image display modes having different aspect ratios, pixel numbers, etc. when recording the supplied image information on the recording medium. The sub-information recording means recognizes whether to record so as to be suitable for the mode, and the sub-information recording means stores the information related to the image information on the recording medium to which the sub-information recording means is applied in accordance with the recognition by the recording mode recognition means. Sub-information indicating the image display mode related to the image information is recorded in association with the recorded image information in a reproducible mode along with the reproduction of the image information.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention.

The electronic still camera of this embodiment uses an IC memory card as a recording medium, and its configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 1 along the flow of signals. An optical image of a subject incident through the optical system 1 is converted into an analog electric signal by an image pickup system 2 formed of a CCD or the like arranged on the image plane. The image pickup signal output from the image pickup system 2 is maintained at a constant DC level by the clamp circuit 3, and then the analog / digital conversion circuit (hereinafter referred to as A / D).
Abbreviated as a conversion circuit. ) 4 converts it into a digital signal, writes it in the frame memory 6 and temporarily stores it.

When the writing to the frame memory 6 is completed, data is read from the frame memory 6 under the control of the memory controller 5 and a discrete cosine transform circuit (hereinafter abbreviated as DCT. , DCT / IDCT.) 7, the data conversion necessary for data compression is performed, and the coder / decoder 8
Output to. In the coder section of this coder / decoder 8,
The video data is compressed while referring to the auxiliary memory 9 in which various data and tables necessary for performing the compression processing are written. And the compressed data is
An IC memory card 1 as an information recording means detachably attached to the electronic still camera through a data bus 20.
Written to zero.

Next, the description of the electronic still camera will be continued along the flow of signals when reproducing the video data recorded as described above. The IC memory card 10
The data read from is input to the coder / decoder 8 through the data bus 20 and is subjected to decompression processing to restore the compressed data in the decoder section of the coder / decoder 8. This decompressed data is DC
Inverse DCT processing is performed in the T circuit 7 and the frame memory 6
Written in. When the expansion processing of all the data is completed, the data is read from the frame memory 6 under the control of the memory controller 5, and the output is converted by the digital process 11 into, for example, an NTSC-compliant video signal. And D / A
After being converted into an analog signal by the (digital / analog) conversion circuit 12 and having a 75Ω impedance matching by the buffer 13, an image can be viewed by a photographer in an electronic viewfinder (hereinafter abbreviated as EVF) 14. Is played. At the same time, the video signal is output to the external image output terminal 15.

In addition to these constituent elements, the electronic still camera is a character generator 16 for generating character information such as date and time for on-screen display on the screen.
And a display unit 17 for displaying various operation modes described later.
And an operation unit 18 for performing various operations, and the above-described components are controlled by the system controller 19.

When recording on a recording medium such as the IC memory card 10 described above, the recording medium is converted into a format recognizable on a personal computer (for example, DOS format) and recorded.

Next, the operation of recording with the electronic still camera will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
When the recording operation is started, first, it is determined whether the electronic still camera is in a camera-compatible mode based on the state of a recording mode changeover switch 49 (see FIG. 4), which is a recording mode recognizing means (to be described later) provided in the operation unit 18. It is determined whether the corresponding mode is set (S1). In the personal computer compatible mode, vertical interpolation processing is performed in order to correspond to the aspect ratio of the personal computer display (S2). That is, when the image data written in the frame memory 6 is transferred to the DCT 7, the same data is sent, for example, one line for every 5 lines in accordance with a command from the memory controller 5, so that 1.2 lines in the vertical direction.
It can correspond to a display for a computer with a double aspect ratio. Further, when in the camera compatible mode, this interpolation processing is not performed because it is not necessary.

Then, the image data is compressed by the DCT 7 (S3), and the IC memory card 10 is processed as described above.
It is recorded on a recording medium such as (S4). At this time, since image data of two types of formats are mixed in the recording medium, a flag indicating the personal computer compatible mode or the camera compatible mode is added as header information to the head portion of the image data as an identifier. , It is used as a guide for classification recognition during playback.

In a personal computer, the file names used in the DOS (disk operating system) are, for example, PC when a file compatible with a personal computer, and CAM or the like when a file compatible with a camera are added to the data. You may classify. Further, a control file or the like for comprehensively managing various image data may be provided in the recording medium, and the files may be classified and managed.
In this case, the data can be classified by writing data in the control file.

Next, the operation at the time of reproducing with the electronic still camera will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
An example of the reproducing operation when the classification data is written in the header in the above recording operation will be described. In the reproduction mode, the data recorded on the recording medium such as the IC memory card 10 is read. At that time, first, the header at the beginning of the data is read (S11), and then the actual image data is read (S12). ). Then, the data is sent to the decoder section of the coder / decoder 8 for decompression processing (S13), and the DCT 7 performs necessary data inverse conversion. Then, the system controller 19 determines from the read flag of the header whether the data is image data for a camera or image data for a personal computer (S14).

If the read data is image data for a personal computer, the data is written in the frame memory 6 while performing the opposite processing (inverse interpolation processing) to the interpolation processing performed at the time of recording (S15). That is, since the interpolated one line is sent from the DCT 7 after the five lines are sent, the memory controller 5 controls the processing by omitting the one line by a command from the system controller 19. By such inverse interpolation processing, the data written in the IC memory card 10 in the format of the aspect ratio corresponding to the display for personal computer can be reproduced on the monitor conforming to the NTSC system without any problem. On the other hand, when the read data is data for the camera, the data is directly written in the frame memory 6 without performing the inverse interpolation process.

Next, the operation of the electronic still camera will be described with reference to an example of the operation section 18 shown in FIG. On the upper surface of the electronic still camera, there is provided an LCD 47 which constitutes the display unit 17 for displaying various states of the camera. On the left side of the LCD 47, there is a zoom tele switch (indicated as ZOOMT in the figure) 31 for performing a zoom tele operation on the front side, and a zoom wide switch for performing a wide zoom operation on the front side (indicated as ZOOMW in the figure). 32) is provided.

In the recording mode, the front side of these zoom switches 31 and 32 are used for changing the modes such as white balance, shutter speed, exposure correction value, power focus, etc., and adjusting each value. In the case of, an up switch (indicated by UP in the figure) 33 and a down switch (indicated by DOWN in the figure) 34, which are used for frame advancing or frame returning, are provided.

These up and down switches 33 and 34
On the right side of, 10 various switches are arranged in 2 rows and 5 columns. These will be described in order from the first column to the fifth column. In the first row of the first column, the white balance is adjusted in the recording mode. For example, a white balance switch for changing the white balance mode such as the auto mode, the sunny mode, the cloudy mode (in the figure, WB is displayed on the 1st column and the 2nd line. In the recording mode, a view switch (in the figure, that reproduces the image recorded immediately before the button is pressed and erases the frame in the reproduction mode). VIEW, ERASE
Is displayed. ) 36, in the 2nd column, 1st row, the exposure compensation switch (indicated as +/- in the figure) 37 for changing the exposure mode, for example, the auto iris mode or the manual iris mode in the recording mode, is 2 In the second row of the column, in the recording mode, the focus mode, that is, AF
Focus switch (indicated as FOCUS in the figure) 38 for switching between the mode and the power focus mode.
However, in the 3rd column and 1st row, a strobe switch (indicated as strobe in the drawing) 39 for changing the strobe mode, for example, the auto strobe mode, the strobe off mode, the external strobe mode, or the like in the recording mode, is 3. A compression mode switch (indicated as MODE in the figure) 40 for changing various compression modes to be described later in the recording mode is provided in the second row of the column and a recording mode switch 40 is provided in the first recording mode in the fourth row of the fourth column. Drive switch that changes the speed mode, that is, the self-timer mode, continuous shooting mode, interval shooting mode, etc., and changes the playback speed, that is, interval playback, continuous playback, etc. in playback mode (in the figure,
Display as DRIVE. ) 41 is in the 4th column, 2nd row, and the picture switch (indicated as PICTURE in the figure) 42 for mainly changing the hue and color depth in the recording mode is in 5th column, 1st row. Irrespective of which mode the electronic still video camera is in, for example, by pressing and holding for 3 seconds or more, the time switch enters the time setting mode and changes the date function settings of the camera such as the date, time, etc. In the figure, it is indicated as TIME.) 43 is ON / OF of the power of the electronic still video camera in the 5th column and the 2nd row.
A power switch (indicated as POWER in the drawing) 44 for switching F is provided.

More specifically, the time switch 43, in more detail, when the time setting mode is entered, the year number is first flashed and displayed on the frame number display portion 70 (see FIG. 5) on the LCD 47, and at the same time, the year, month, date and time are displayed. The electronic viewfinder 14 in which all are displayed blinks for the year portion. Then, this blinking portion is the up / down switch 33,
This is a portion that can be changed by operating 34. Similarly, each time the time switch 43 is pressed,
Since the month, date, time, etc. are sequentially displayed in blinking, these can be changed using the up / down switches 33, 34. Needless to say, at this time, the changed portion is also blinked in the electronic viewfinder 14. When the time switch 43 is pressed for a short time instead of 3 seconds or more, it can be used to turn on / off a timing sound at the start of recording and various warning sounds.

On the right side of these switches, a two-stage type trigger switch (indicated as “trigger” in the figure) 45 for instructing AF lock at the first stage and recording start at the second stage is provided. There is.

Next, on the front side surface of the electronic still camera, from the left side, in the recording mode, a fully automatic shooting mode in which all settings such as white balance, focus and exposure correction are automatically set, and these Manual changeover switch (in the figure, a slide switch to switch between manual shooting mode in which each setting can be adjusted by the photographer)
Displayed as AUTO / manual. ) 46, a two-stage recording / reproducing changeover switch (indicated as PLAY / CAM in the figure) 48 that switches to the right side thereof to the recording mode when slid to the left and to the reproduction mode when slid to the right. On the further right side, there are recording mode changeover switches (indicated as camera / PC in the figure) 49 which are slide switches for switching between photographing in the camera mode and shooting in the personal computer mode in the recording mode. An electronic viewfinder (displayed as EVF in the drawing) 14 is provided on the further right side of these.
Is provided.

Further, in the case of a device that handles images digitally, such as the present camera, it becomes possible to transmit images using a telephone line. At this time, in the configuration of the switches as described above, a plurality of functions as described below may be assigned to one switch in order to improve operability. That is, the recording / reproducing changeover switch 48 for switching the reproduction / recording in the camera compatible mode.
Is a trigger switch 4 that switches between transmission and reception in the transmission mode and indicates the start of shooting in the camera compatible mode.
A time switch 43, which starts transmission / reception in the transmission mode, sets the date and time in the camera compatible mode, sets the telephone number of the transfer destination in the transmission mode, and changes the compression mode in the recording mode. The mode switch 40 switches between reproduction / transmission / reception each time it is pressed in the reproduction mode, and the drive switch 41 for changing the shooting mode such as continuous shooting in the camera compatible mode is
In the transmission mode, various transmission modes such as one image transmission, all image transmission, and program transmission in which only a specific frame is continuously transmitted may be switched.

Also, some telephone numbers of the other party are stored, and if there is no particular operation, the first party is automatically dialed, and if a different party is desired to be dialed, an operating means is provided. By making it possible to change with, the operability can be further improved by storing the first party to call frequently.

By thus allocating a plurality of functions to the limited switches, it is possible to obtain high operability with a neat switch arrangement without unnecessarily increasing the number of switches and deteriorating the operability. It should be noted that, as described above, the assignment of a plurality of functions to the same switch is distributed so as to be intuitively understood from the function of each switch, so that the operator is not confused.

Next, an example of the display on the LCD 47 will be described with reference to FIG. The display 61 indicated by the telephone mark and the display 62 indicated by "TRANSMIT" and the reverse character are transmission mode indications indicating the transmission mode when the light is turned on, and the normal camera compatible mode when the light is not turned on. Is shown.

The arrow mark display 64 arranged near the lower side of the display 62 has a bar-shaped display at the center and a triangular mark on the left side at the same time in the transmission mode in which the displays 61 and 62 are turned on. Illuminates to form a left-pointing arrow, indicating an image of transmitting data from the electronic still camera to the telephone to indicate the transmission mode, while a bar-shaped display in the center and a triangular mark on the right side When lights up at the same time and forms an arrow pointing to the right, the image of receiving data from the telephone is shown to indicate the reception mode. Since the direction of the arrow on the display 64 is the same as the sliding direction of the recording / reproducing changeover switch 48 that slides and switches between transmission and reception in the transmission mode, the display is intuitively understandable to the operator. ing.

The reproduction mode display 63 indicated by "PLAY" and reverse characters is turned on to indicate that the electronic still camera is in the reproduction mode.

The display 65 indicated by the battery mark below that is
It is a battery warning display that shows the degree of consumption of the main battery of the electronic still camera, and when it is exhausted, the large part on the right side of the display turns off and it is easy to understand visually that the battery level is low, When the battery is exhausted, the small portion on the left side of the display is turned off to indicate that the battery is empty.

A display 66 indicated by a note on the right side thereof is a buzzer display showing ON / OFF of a timing sound at the start of recording and various warning sounds.

The indications 67 indicated by "N, E, S, F" on the lower side of the display 67 indicate the compression modes set by the compression mode switch 40.
"N" means normal compression, which is a normal compression mode,
"E" is the economy compression that can increase the compression rate and record more images than the normal compression mode.
“S” indicates studio compression, which is a mode for recording a finer image with a lower compression rate than the normal compression.
“F” indicates fine non-compression, which is a mode in which an image is recorded as it is without performing compression processing.

Display of the three 7-segments below it 68
Is a remaining frame number display for displaying the remaining amount that can be recorded on a recording medium such as the IC memory card 10 by the number of shots.

A display 69 "FULL-AUTO" on the lower side of the display 69 indicates that the recording mode is the full auto mode.

The display below that is a flash mode display 77. The display 77a represented by "AUTO" is the auto flash mode, the display 77b represented by "SS" is the slow shutter flash mode, and the display is "OFF". The display is the strobe off mode, the display 77d represented by "EXT" is the external strobe mode, [FILL-
The display 77e represented by "INN" indicates the forced strobe light emission mode.

Returning to the center left side of the display on the LCD 47, the three large seven-segment displays 70 surrounded by a frame indicate the number of frames to be photographed next in the recording mode, and are reproduced in the reproducing mode. The number of remaining frames is displayed.

An erase display 71 indicated by "ERASE" and reverse characters on the lower side thereof indicates that the erase mode is an erase mode such as erasing every frame or erasing all frames.

An interval mode display 72 indicated by "INT" on the lower left side thereof indicates interval shooting in the recording mode and interval reproduction in the reproducing mode.

A program mode display 73 indicated by "PROG" on the right side thereof indicates that program recording is performed in the recording mode and program reproduction is performed in the reproducing mode.

A continuous shooting mode display 74 shown by an overlapping rectangle on the lower left side thereof indicates that the continuous shooting mode is such that, for example, 5 frames are recorded per second in the recording mode.

"Hi" display 75a and "L" on the right side
The display 75 indicated by “o” display 75b is the above-mentioned display 7
4 shows the speed of the continuous shooting mode shown by No. 4 or the interval mode shown by the above display 72. When the speed is fast, the "Hi" display 75a is turned on, and when it is slow, the "Lo" display 75b is turned on. is there.

On the right side, a self-timer mode display 76 indicating that the self-timer mode is in effect.
Is provided.

Also, as a whole, the segments that light up in the recording mode are below the display surface, the segments that light up in the playback mode are above the display surface, and so on. It is easy to understand.

According to such an embodiment, the photographer shoots in the camera-compatible mode when the purpose is to reproduce on a television, and in the PC-compatible mode when the purpose is to capture an image on the personal computer. By doing so, an image with a corresponding aspect ratio can be immediately reproduced without any special processing on a personal computer. Even if the image data was shot in the PC compatible mode, it can be played back on the TV without the photographer being aware of it, and the data link between the electronic still camera and the PC can be easily performed. it can. In this way, the electronic still camera, which was mainly considered as a device for displaying on a television monitor, can be positioned as a general-purpose image input device that supplies image data corresponding to various image processing devices in a wider field.

In the above embodiment, the interpolation processing is performed in the vertical direction of the image data in order to match the aspect ratio. However, even if the data thinning processing is performed in the horizontal direction of the image data, By the operation similar to that described above, almost the same effect can be obtained.

Further, in the above embodiment, the aspect ratio of the CCD and the personal computer display is made to correspond, but it is of course possible to make the number of pixels to correspond, and in this case, the above-mentioned Instead of performing interpolation processing, this is done by changing the number of pixel data transfers. That is, when data is transferred from the frame memory 6 to the DCT 7 according to a command from the memory controller 5, if it is in the personal computer compatible mode, for example, 640 × 40.
Only the data for 0 pixels should be transferred.
As a result, the compressed data itself is performed with the number of pixels corresponding to the display mode of the personal computer of 640 × 400, so that the image data can be displayed or processed as it is without any special processing on the personal computer. At this time,
Although there is a portion of the regular screen 768 × 480 that has not been transferred, nothing is displayed in this portion, so that it is black on the electronic viewfinder 14 observed during shooting.
At this time, for example, the character generator 16 may generate a character or the like that can be recognized as personal computer data, and the character or the like may be displayed so as to be superimposed on the portion where nothing is displayed so that the operator can understand. In addition to this, it goes without saying that almost any number of pixels such as 512 × 512 and 640 × 480 can be easily handled with almost the same configuration. Furthermore, not only the number of pixels for a personal computer but also the number of pixels for PAL or high-definition can be supported.

On the other hand, in the above embodiment, the normal image data and some other image formats such as image data for a personal computer are mixed in one recording medium. By attaching a header to the tip, the system controller 19 discriminates the format and switches the operation of camera processing. However, this header sometimes becomes an obstacle to the processing on the personal computer when the image is processed or reproduced. Therefore, a mode with and without this header is provided so that the photographer can switch as necessary, so that when the header is not added, selection can be made to maintain high data compatibility with the personal computer. Is also good. In addition, the data processing on the personal computer is
In general, since it is often performed from the beginning of the data and ends at the end of the image data, instead of adding the header to the beginning of the image data, a mode of adding to the end of the image data may be provided. This makes it possible for the personal computer to discriminate the format of the image data without disturbing the personal computer.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an image is handled by using another image handling apparatus having a different recording mode, a special conversion process or the like is required in the other image handling apparatus. The image can be easily handled without using.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of an electronic still camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation when recording is performed by the electronic still camera of the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation when reproducing with the electronic still camera according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an operation unit of the electronic still camera of the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display of an LCD, which is a display unit in the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 ... Memory controller 6 ... Frame memory 7 ... Discrete cosine transform circuit (DCT / IDCT) 8 ... Coder / decoder 10 ... IC memory card 19 ... System controller 49 ... Recording mode selector switch

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When recording the supplied image information on a recording medium, it is recognized which image display mode of a plurality of types of image display modes having different aspect ratios, number of pixels, etc. is suitable for recording. And a recording mode recognizing unit for storing the image information in association with the recorded image information in an area for storing information related to the image information on the applied recording medium according to the recognition by the recording mode recognizing unit. An image handling device, comprising: sub-information recording means for recording sub-information representing the image display mode according to the above in a reproducible manner along with the reproduction of the image information.