JP2000013725A - Picture display device and electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a picture display device and an electronic camera capable of quickly displaying a picture based on picture data and capable of displaying a necessary picture as a high quality picture. SOLUTION: The picture display device is provided with a nonvolatile memory 6 for storing both of high quality picture data and thumbnail picture data for the same picture and a liquid crystal monitor 9 for displaying a picture based on picture data inputted from the memory 6. Since the monitor 9 is constituted so as to display a picture on the whole screen based on the thumbnail picture data when frame feeding buttons 11a, 11b are depressed, the picture can be displayed on the whole screen based on the thumbnail picture data when the picture is intended to be displayed like an index, so that picture processing time can be shortened and the picture can be quickly displayed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image display device, and more particularly to an image display device used for an electronic camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the improvement of electronic technology, an electronic camera that converts a captured image into digital data and stores it has been developed and is already on the market. A user can display an image captured by an electronic camera on, for example, a display of his / her personal computer, and can print the image via a printer, so that the application range is wide.

[0003]

For example, image data obtained by taking an image with an electronic camera is temporarily stored in a recording medium such as a memory card, but can be called up as an image at any time via a built-in liquid crystal monitor. Has become. The memory card generally has a storage capacity large enough to store image data of 20 or more images. Therefore, the user normally accumulates image data of a plurality of images on one memory card.

A general electronic camera records image data having a relatively small data amount together with image data having a relatively large data amount for the same image. Here, the user may want to check the captured image in an index manner via the liquid crystal monitor. In such a case, in the related art, a high-quality image based on image data having a relatively large data amount, which is displayed on the entire surface of the liquid crystal monitor, is superimposed on the image, and the images before and after the image in the imaging order are relatively compared with each other. Based on the small image data, a small display is provided below the liquid crystal monitor. An image displayed in such a small size is called a thumbnail image.

Further, according to an electronic camera of the prior art,
In the normal display mode, a thumbnail image is enlarged and displayed on the entire screen, and the thumbnail image and the thumbnail images before and after the thumbnail image are displayed side by side below the thumbnail image. On the other hand, in such an electronic camera, when switching to the high image quality display mode, a thumbnail image enlarged and displayed on the entire screen is replaced with a high image quality image.

However, according to such an electronic camera, a thumbnail image is always displayed below regardless of the display mode, so that there is a problem that an image on the entire screen is difficult to see. Further, there is also a problem that there is no particular advantage for the user even when the original thumbnail image and the enlarged thumbnail image are simultaneously displayed on the same screen in the normal display mode. Furthermore, in the high-quality mode, the three thumbnail images hide the high-quality image in a relatively large area, and thus there is a problem that the high-quality image hinders the user from viewing the high-quality image.

In addition, an enlarged image may be displayed on a liquid crystal monitor. In this case, it may not be possible to immediately understand which part of the image is enlarged from the enlarged image. In such a case, a method of scrolling the enlarged image, moving to a target portion in the image, and estimating a position of the enlarged image with respect to the entire image based on the movement amount is used. And
There is a problem that it takes time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and provides an image display device and an electronic camera capable of quickly displaying an image based on image data and displaying a required image with high image quality. With the goal.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an image display apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a storage unit for storing image data for the same image with at least two types of data amounts; A display unit that displays an image on a display unit based on the input image data; and an image search member that, when operated, causes the display unit to sequentially display images based on image data with a small data amount. The display means is configured to display an image on the entire surface of the display unit based on image data having a large data amount after a lapse of a predetermined time since the operation of the image search member is stopped.

[0010] The image display device of the present invention has display means capable of displaying a plurality of images in a superimposed manner, and one of the images displayed on the display means displays an area where another image is displayed. It is characterized by showing.

[0011]

According to the image display device of the present invention, at least 2
Storage means for storing image data with respect to the same image with different amounts of data; display means for displaying an image on a display unit based on the image data input from the storage means; Means having an image search member for sequentially displaying images based on image data having a small amount of data, wherein the display means has a function of displaying image data having a large amount of data after a predetermined time has elapsed after the image search member is no longer operated. , The image is displayed on the entire surface of the display unit. For example, when the image search member is operated, it is considered that the user is searching for the image. , The image can be quickly displayed through a short-time image processing. On the other hand, if a predetermined time has elapsed after the image search member is no longer operated, it is considered that the user has finished searching for a specific image, so that a high-quality image can be displayed based on image data having a large data amount. It has become.

According to the image display apparatus of the present invention, there is provided a display means capable of displaying a plurality of images in a superimposed manner, and one of the images displayed on the display means is displayed with another image. Since the region is indicated, the user can immediately confirm which region of the other image is displayed by looking at the one image.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the electronic camera according to the present embodiment. FIG.
In C, the optical image was formed by the taking lens 1
The photoelectric conversion unit 2 which is a CD performs so-called photoelectric conversion for converting an optical image of a subject into a corresponding charge amount, and the A / D conversion device 3 converts an analog signal input from the photoelectric conversion unit 2 into an analog signal. They are converted into digital signals and output. The A / D conversion circuit 3 according to the present embodiment
In the above, it is assumed that the higher the intensity of the light incident on the photoelectric conversion means 2, the higher the value of the light is converted to a digital signal. The image data obtained via the A / D conversion circuit 3 is temporarily stored in the image memory 4.

The image data stored in the image memory 4 is subjected to various types of image processing by the MPU 5 and is finally stored in a non-volatile memory 6 such as a memory card connected to the MPU 5. The MPU 5 receives power from a power supply 7 such as a built-in battery, and can communicate with the outside using IrDA (infrared communication) or serial communication via an interface device 8. Also, MPU5
Receives a release signal from the release button 10 and drives a shutter device (not shown). Further, the MPU 5 has an image display device 9 such as a liquid crystal monitor.
Is driven to display an image. Further, the MPU 5 causes the image displayed on the image display device 9 to be advanced by the frame in response to the pressing of the frame advance buttons 11a and 11b.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an electronic camera provided with the image display device of the present embodiment. The electronic camera 100
A release button 10 is provided on the top, and an LCD monitor 9 is
Has been arranged. Below the liquid crystal monitor 9, there are provided frame feed buttons 11a and 11b as image search members.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9. The operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. When an image is taken using an electronic camera, the image data is created in the non-volatile memory 6 by thinning out image data of the taken image (high-quality image data) and data of the image data under predetermined conditions. Image data (thumbnail image data) is stored in advance. That is, the data amount of the high-quality image data is considerably larger than the data amount of the thumbnail image data. It is assumed that the nonvolatile memory 6 stores image data of a plurality of images in advance.

FIG. 3A shows an arbitrary image on the liquid crystal monitor 9 based on the stored high-quality image data. Here, the user moves the frame forward button 1 in the forward direction.
When 1b is pressed, according to the related art, the next image is displayed on the entire screen of the liquid crystal monitor 9 based on the high-quality image data. However, since the high-quality image data has a relatively large data amount, there is a disadvantage that it takes a relatively long time to read out from the non-volatile memory 6, expand it, and display it on the liquid crystal monitor 9.

On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, when the user presses the frame forward button 11a in the forward direction in order to find a desired image, the MPU 5 responds to this, and FIG.
As shown in (b), the original image 9b, the next image 9a, and the next image 9c are displayed on top of each other based on the thumbnail image data. The image is displayed on the entire screen of the monitor 9, and the images 9b and 9c are displayed below the image. Since the thumbnail image data has a relatively small amount of data, there is an advantage that the time from reading out from the nonvolatile memory 6 to decompression and display on the liquid crystal monitor 9 is relatively short.

On the other hand, since the thumbnail image data has a relatively small data amount, when displayed on the entire screen of the liquid crystal monitor 9, compared to an image based on high quality image data,
There is a risk that the image quality will be reduced. However, FIG.
In the state shown in (b), since the user is searching for an image (image search), the image quality of the image is not so much required, and it is considered sufficient to be able to grasp the subject. If the user determines that the image displayed on the entire screen of the liquid crystal monitor 9 is not the desired image,
The frame advance button 11b is further pressed, and the next image 9c is quickly displayed on the full screen of the liquid crystal monitor 9 based on the thumbnail image data.

Here, the image desired by the user is shown in FIG.
If it is the image 9a shown in (b), the user does not press the frame feed button 11a or 11b and maintains this state. Therefore, the frame advance button 11a,
If the state where 11b is not pressed continues, it is considered that the image desired by the user is likely to be 9a.

The MPU 5 counts the time during which the user frame advance buttons 11a and 11b are not depressed, and responds to the appropriate time (2 seconds in the present embodiment). While the image 9a based on the thumbnail image data is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9, the high-quality image data corresponding to the image 9a is stored in the nonvolatile memory 6.
And decompress it. When the decompression is completed, the MPU 5 replaces the image 9a currently displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9 with an image based on the decompressed high quality image data. Since the replaced images are the same as each other, the user is less likely to feel discomfort due to such replacement.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, by pressing the frame feed button, an image based on the thumbnail image data having a relatively small data amount is displayed on the entire screen of the liquid crystal monitor 9. Therefore, the time required for image processing can be reduced as much as possible, thereby shortening the time required for searching for an image, thereby achieving a user-friendly configuration.

Further, according to the present embodiment, when a predetermined time elapses after the frame feed button is no longer pressed, the image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9 is automatically replaced with a high-quality image. In response to the stop of the search, a high-quality image is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9 so that the user can enjoy the image.

According to the present embodiment, the reading of high-quality image data is started when two seconds have elapsed since the frame feed button was no longer pressed.
After displaying the image based on the thumbnail image data, the reading of the high-quality image data may be started immediately. In such a case, it is possible to further reduce the time until an image based on the high-quality image data is displayed.
If the frame advance button is pressed again before the image processing on the image based on the high-quality image data is completed, the image processing is stopped, and reading of new thumbnail image data and high-quality image data is started. The Rukoto.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image displayed on a liquid crystal monitor according to another embodiment. The MPU 5 (FIG. 1) has a function of enlarging an image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9. However, if the magnification is too high, it is not possible to determine what portion of the image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9 corresponds to the original image, and in which direction the desired image portion is displayed. In some cases, it is not clear whether to move the image.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the MPU 5
When an image is enlarged in response to an image enlargement button (not shown), a small screen 29 is displayed at the lower right of the entire screen 19 of the liquid crystal monitor 9. Furthermore, MPU5
In such a small screen 29, a section 2 showing which part of the original image the image 9a currently displayed on the entire screen 19 of the liquid crystal monitor 9 is displayed together with the thumbnail image 9b.
9a is indicated by a line. Therefore, for example, when the user only looks at the small screen 29, the image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 9 in FIG. 4 is the rear quarter panel of the image 9a of the car. You can immediately grasp that you have to move diagonally to the upper right.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the enlargement ratio of the image is too high, and just looking at the image displayed on the entire screen of the liquid crystal monitor 9 corresponds to any part of the original image. Even when it is not possible to determine whether or not to perform the determination, the determination can be easily performed by looking at the small screen related to the thumbnail image. If the illuminance of the area 29b other than the section 29a displayed on the small screen 19 is reduced and displayed,
The section 29a can be grasped more clearly.

As described above, the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments. However, the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the above embodiments, and it is needless to say that modifications and improvements can be made as appropriate. is there. For example, the nonvolatile memory 6 may be a removable memory card.

[0029]

According to the image display device of the present invention, a storage means for storing image data for the same image with at least two types of data amounts, and a display unit based on the image data input from the storage means A display means for displaying an image on the display means, and an image search member for sequentially displaying images based on image data having a small data amount when the display means is operated, wherein the display means comprises the image search member. After a predetermined time has passed since the operation of is stopped, the image is displayed on the entire surface of the display unit based on the image data having a large data amount. Since it is considered that an image is being searched, the image can be quickly displayed through a short-time image processing based on image data having a small data amount. On the other hand, if a predetermined time has elapsed after the image search member is no longer operated, it is considered that the user has finished searching for a specific image, so that a high-quality image can be displayed based on image data having a large data amount. It has become.

According to the image display apparatus of the present invention, there is provided a display means capable of displaying a plurality of images in a superimposed manner, and one of the images displayed on the display means is displayed with another image. Since the region is indicated, the user can immediately confirm which region of the other image is displayed by looking at the one image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic camera according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an electronic camera including the image display device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a view showing an image displayed on a liquid crystal monitor 9;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image displayed on a liquid crystal monitor according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 shooting lens 2 photoelectric conversion means 3 A / D conversion device 4 image memory 5 MPU 6 nonvolatile memory 7 power supply 8 interface device 9 image display device (liquid crystal monitor) 10 release buttons 11a, 11b frame feed button 29 small screen 100 electronic camera

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] September 4, 1998 (1998.9.4)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Brief description of drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic camera according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an electronic camera including the image display device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a view showing an image displayed on a liquid crystal monitor 9;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image displayed on a liquid crystal monitor according to another embodiment.

[Description of Signs] 1 shooting lens 2 photoelectric conversion means 3 A / D conversion device 4 image memory 5 MPU 6 nonvolatile memory 7 power supply 8 interface device 9 image display device (liquid crystal monitor) 10 release buttons 11a, 11b frame feed buttons 29 Small screen 100 Electronic camera

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing image data for the same image with at least two types of data amounts, a display unit for displaying an image on a display unit based on the image data input from the storage unit, The display means has an image search member for sequentially displaying images based on image data having a small data amount, and the display means is provided after a lapse of a predetermined time after the image search member is no longer operated. An image display device configured to display an image on the entire surface of a display unit based on image data having a large data amount. 2. The image display device according to claim 1, wherein said display means displays a plurality of images. 3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays an image on the entire surface of the display unit based on image data having a small data amount while the image search member is operated. 3. The image display device according to 2. 4. The display means displays one image on the entire surface of the display unit, and displays images before and after in the order of imaging.
4. The image is displayed so as to be superimposed on two images, and the one image and the preceding and following images are switched according to an operation of the image search member. 5. The image display device according to any one of the above. 5. A display device comprising a display unit capable of displaying a plurality of images in an overlapping manner, wherein one of the images displayed on the display unit indicates a region where another image is displayed. Image display device. 6. An electronic camera comprising the image display device according to claim 1.