JP3009931B2 - Digital electronic still camera - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic still camera for converting an image into an electric signal, digitizing the image, and recording the digitized image on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk or a memory card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, an electronic camera for digitizing and recording an image includes an image pickup system, a signal processing system (speed, compression / decompression processing, etc.), and a recording / reproduction system. It is recorded on a recording medium such as a card and reproduced. The above-described recording medium is similar to a recording medium used in an auxiliary storage device such as a personal computer.

[0003] Editing (copying, deleting, and processing) a photographed image recorded on a recording medium requires a rather cumbersome operation. If such a troublesome operation is to be performed by the camera itself, the shape and structure of the momentum camera operation unit become complicated,
The entire camera becomes larger. As a result, the portability of the camera deteriorates. In order to avoid this, there is a system in which a dedicated adapter is used to connect to a dedicated editing device. However, even in the method using this adapter, the editing process itself often depends on hardware. For this reason, it is a fact that satisfactory editing cannot be performed.

Edit (copy, delete, modify) captured images
To do this, it is more efficient to use software. In particular, when filing an image using a large-capacity recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk, it is more convenient to use a personal computer or the like than to configure a dedicated system.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, it is necessary to provide the computer 1 with a functional unit 2 (communication port) for transferring image data. Therefore, a general-purpose communication function unit 4 (communication port) such as RS-232C must be provided on the camera 3 side. In this respect, the configuration of the camera becomes complicated.

Even if digital recording is performed, the data is not recorded in a format in which the auxiliary storage device of the computer 1 can read data.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, when the recording medium is a magnetic disk 5, a dedicated disk reader / writer 6 is required. Also, as shown in FIG.
If the recording medium is a memory card 7, a dedicated card reader / writer 8 is required. In FIGS. 4 and 5, 1A and 1B indicate personal computers. 3A and 3B show a disk camera and a card camera, respectively.

[0008]

As described above, conventionally, there has been a problem that various difficulties are involved when editing or filing a photographed image.

An object of the present invention is to edit a photographed image,
A digital electronic camera that can be easily performed using a personal computer, etc., can perform editing work quickly and accurately, and can directly input image data to a computer without using any adapter etc. To provide.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an optical system, an image pickup device for converting a subject image by the optical system into an electric signal, and a predetermined image information recordable by the image pickup device on the recording medium. Conversion means for converting the data into data in a format; and recording mode control means for recording the output data of the conversion means on the recording medium in the format specification of the auxiliary storage device in the operating system for a computer. .

[0011] Further, when a recording medium that has not been initialized is mounted, there is provided initialization means for initializing the recording medium according to the format specifications.

[0012]

The following effects are obtained by taking the above measures. The recorded image data is handled as a kind of data file on the operating system of the personal computer. Therefore, data can be directly accessed by setting a recording medium such as a magnetic disk or a card in an auxiliary storage device such as a personal computer. It is also possible to create an image with a computer, create a file with the same data sequence and file name as the camera, record it on a disk or card, and play it back using the camera's playback function. it can. No adapter is required.

[0013] Further, the recording mode control means for initializing allows recording on a recording medium which has not been initialized as purchased or recorded on other format specifications.

[0014]

【Example】

(First Embodiment)

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a disk camera. That is, it is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic camera that records and reproduces an image on a magnetic disk (recording medium) 23 such as a floppy disk.

In FIG. 1, a central processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated as CPU) 10 shown at a lower position in the center is a power supply unit.
It operates upon receiving power supply from 11 and receiving operation commands from the operation / display unit 12. The CPU 10 transmits the image data to a computer operating system (not shown).
Recording mode control means (ROM 10a) for recording on a recording medium in the format of an auxiliary storage device (not shown)
Etc.). The ROM 10a may also include initialization means. The control signal from the CPU 10 is
It is supplied to a lens drive circuit 13, a timing pulse generation circuit 14, and the like. The drive of the optical system 15 is controlled by the lens drive circuit 13, and the imaging system (16 to 19 etc.) is controlled by the timing pulse from the timing pulse generation circuit 14.

The subject image taken by the optical system 15 is a CCD.
Is converted into an electric signal by an image sensor, that is, an image sensor 16. The converted electric signal is supplied to an imaging circuit 17.
Is extracted as image information by the A / D converter 18
Digitized. Then, the data is temporarily stored in the frame buffer memory 19 and the speed conversion is performed. This speed conversion is performed by converting the data speed output from the A / D converter 18 into a data compression / expansion circuit 20 at the subsequent stage, a recording / reproduction circuit,
This is performed to match the operation speed of 21. The image data recorded in the frame buffer memory 19 is compressed by a compression / decompression circuit 20, converted into a signal for magnetic recording by a recording / reproduction circuit 21 via a switch 29, and supplied to a magnetic head 22. Thus, the image data is recorded on the magnetic disk 23 by the recording head 22.

The rotation of the magnetic disk 23 is controlled by a disk drive control circuit 24 controlled by the CPU 10, a disk drive 25 controlled by the circuit 24, and the like.

The image data recorded on the magnetic disk 23 is transferred to a magnetic head 22, a recording / reproducing circuit 21,
The signal passes through the switch 29, the compression / decompression circuit 20, and the frame buffer memory 19 in the direction opposite to the recording direction, and is further taken out as a reproduction output via the D / A converter 26 and the reproduction circuit 27.

The recording tracks formed on the magnetic disk are usually formed concentrically on the disk. That is, each track is formed in a separate and independent state. Then, for example, a recording method of recording one image on one track is adopted. Further, one track may be divided into several sectors, and the number of tracks and the number of sectors may be appropriately combined to form a recording area for one image.

In the magnetic disk 23 of the present embodiment, the format specifications such as the number of tracks, the number of sectors / track, the number of clusters / sector, the sector size, the cluster size, and the file allocation table (hereinafter abbreviated as FAT) are all in a predetermined format. It is determined by the thing. That is, all of these are determined in the same format as that of the auxiliary storage device managed by the operating system (hereinafter abbreviated as OS; for example, MS-DOS: registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation) used in the personal computer. . Image data is recorded on this. On the camera side, as shown in FIG.
These format specifications are stored in the OM 10a.

When writing the disk management information such as FAT, the CPU 10 outputs the management information in accordance with the data stored in the ROM 10a. At this time, CPU10
Controls the switch 29 so as to send the data from the CPU 10 to the recording / reproducing circuit 20 and switches to the b side. When writing data obtained by compressing an image, the switch 29 is switched to the “a” side, and the output of the compression / decompression circuit 20 is input to the recording / reproduction circuit 21.

When the magnetic disk 23 which is new or recorded in another format is set in the camera, disk management information such as FAT is written on the magnetic disk 23 in accordance with the data stored in the ROM 10a. Then, the magnetic disk 23 is initialized. At this time, C
The PU 10 switches the switch 29 to the b side.

The CPU 10 automatically generates a file name for each image to be recorded, and records the file name in the directory area of the magnetic disk 23 together with the photographing date, photographing time, and the like. The photographed image data is recorded in the data area.
The CPU 10 has a ROM 10a as shown in FIG.
Some are built-in, while others are external. In the case of an external connection, the ROM 10a includes a CPU, an address bus, a data bus,
Connected by control signal line.

According to this embodiment, the recorded image data is handled as a kind of data file on the OS of the personal computer. Therefore, the data can be directly accessed by setting the magnetic disk 23 in an auxiliary storage device such as a personal computer. Also, by generating an image with a computer, creating a file having the same data arrangement and file name as the camera, and recording it on the disk 23, the image can be reproduced using the reproduction function of the camera. . Also, by using OS commands (for example, copy, delete, etc.), copying and deletion can be easily performed. Further, even when an image file is constructed using a large-capacity recording medium, it can be implemented under the management of a data file system of a computer, that is, an OS.

(Second embodiment)

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a card camera. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. As shown in the figure, when the recording medium is the memory card 28, the memory card 28 itself can be regarded as one semiconductor memory. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, an address signal AS is directly supplied from the CPU 10 to the memory card 28, and the image data is written into the memory. The initialization of the card through the control line L is performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment. The second embodiment has the same operation and effect as the first embodiment.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, an arbitrary file name may be set as the file name by performing a key operation on the operation / display unit 12 or a separate dedicated operation unit without using the automatic generation unit. In addition, various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily edit a photographed image using a personal computer or the like, to perform editing work quickly and accurately, and to use an adapter or the like. A digital electronic camera capable of directly inputting image data to a computer without using any digital camera can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a disk camera.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a card camera.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 CPU (including recording mode control means) 10a ROM 23 Magnetic disk 28 Memory card L Control line

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optical system, an image sensor for converting a subject image by the optical system into an electric signal, and a converter for converting image information obtained by the image sensor into data of a predetermined format recordable on the recording medium. And a recording mode control unit for recording output data of the conversion unit on the above-mentioned recording medium in a format specification of an auxiliary storage device in an operating system for a computer. camera. 2. The digital electronic still camera according to claim 1, wherein said recording mode control means includes means for initializing said recording medium.