JPH07170442A - Camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To observe the entire image pickup area with less power consumption by providing an image generating system obtaining a signal corresponding to the entire object area independently of scanning in addition to an image generating system scanning each division area of the object area. CONSTITUTION:A microcomputer 9 controls the rotation of a mirror scan motor 3, a mirror 2 makes an object light from a partial image pickup area sequentially incident onto an image pickup lens 5 and the image is formed to an image pickup element (CCD) 7. An electric picture signal obtained by the CCD 7 is subject to various processing such as sampling and holding at an image pickup control circuit 8 and sent to an exposure control circuit 10 and an AF (automatic focus) control circuit 11. On the other hand, an object image of an entire image pickup area formed on the CCD 23 via an image pickup lens 21 is converted into a picture signal and outputted to an electronic viewer frame system, the exposure control circuit 10 and the AF control circuit 11 via an image pickup processing circuit 24. Both the control circuits 10, 11 implement rough exposure and AF control based on picture information from the image pickup processing circuit 24 and fine exposure and AF control based on picture information from the image pickup control circuit 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera, and more particularly to a camera which divides a subject region into a plurality of partial regions for photographing and combines the divided region image pickup signals to obtain a high-definition image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Image pickup means for picking up an image of a two-dimensional object is widely used in flying spot scanners, facsimiles, copying machines and the like. These imaging means do not scan the subject area purely electronically but purely mechanically, or electronically scan one dimension using a line sensor and mechanically scan the other one dimension. To do.

By the way, in recent years, information such as characters and figures written on a whiteboard or a blackboard at a conference or a lecture is collectively photographed by a camera incorporating an image pickup device, which makes it possible to collect information very easily. Portable cameras called "cameras" and "blackboard cameras" have been developed.

In general, the information such as characters is fine, and
If an attempt is made to capture an image by purely electronic scanning using a three-dimensional image sensor, the number of pixels of the element will be extremely large in order to obtain a resolution at which the character information can be read, and it is difficult to manufacture. It becomes high.

Further, the above-described pure mechanical scanning or the combination of the line sensor and mechanical scanning not only complicates and enlarges the apparatus, but also causes an excessively long image capturing time.

Therefore, in the cameras such as the OA camera described above, an image pickup system (CCD or the like) which is easy to manufacture and relatively inexpensive and has a practical number of pixels constitutes an image pickup system, and a movable mirror or the like is provided in the image pickup optical system. It is constructed by providing a relatively simple scanning means. In this type of camera, a scanning means such as a movable mirror divides a subject region into a plurality (usually 2 to 10 or more) of partial regions and sequentially captures the images. After capturing, the plurality of partial regions obtained are captured. Image information is combined to obtain one subject image. As a result, it becomes possible to capture a high-definition image in a wide area within a relatively short time with a portable device.

[0007]

As described above, the camera such as the conventional OA camera sequentially photographs each divided area of the subject area by the practical image pickup device and the mechanical scanning means.
The obtained divided area image data is combined.

By the way, in the case of actually taking a picture using this type of camera, no specific proposal has been made yet regarding proper setting of focus and exposure, but a possible example will be described below. For example, as shown in FIG.
Consider a typical system in which the entire photographing area, which is a subject area, is divided into four partial photographing areas R1 to R4, and each partial photographing area is sequentially photographed by mechanical scanning using a movable mirror. At this time, the scanning order during actual shooting is R1, R
If it is 2, R3, R4, the position where the movable mirror is on standby before the actual shooting is the easiest to shift to the actual shooting, so the movable mirror position #
1 is the most natural.

On the other hand, since automatic focus (AF) control and automatic exposure (AE) control of the camera need to be performed prior to actual photographing, they are performed in the standby state, that is, at the mirror position # 1. . Therefore, when trying to realize AF control using the output of the image pickup device in the above-mentioned camera, only information on the partial image pickup region R1 is obtained in the standby state, and information such as characters is displayed on the blackboard or whiteboard. If it exists only in R2, R3, and R4 and there is no information in the region R1, AF control becomes impossible.

There is also a technical problem in the structure of the finder at the time of actual photographing with this type of camera. The finder is used to magnify the image (real image or virtual image) by the taking lens or the objective lens for the finder with the eyepiece lens, and is an optical finder in which an image frame for showing the entire photographing area is provided in the optical system. Is common.

The optical viewfinder has many restrictions on the mechanical layout and design due to the optical system, and cannot be used for purposes other than the viewfinder, such as reproduction for confirming a recorded image. There is an increasing demand for a widespread electronic viewfinder (EVF) that is widely used in automobiles.

However, as described in the camera based on the above-mentioned typical system, since the entire photographing area is covered by the mechanical scanning, for example, when the movable mirror is at the standby position # 1, the partial photographing area R1. However, there is a problem in that the entire photographing area cannot be observed by the EVF because it can only be seen. Further, conventionally, when the angle of view is adjusted, mechanical scanning and image bonding are always performed, and the entire image capturing area is output to the EVF, which imposes a heavy burden on the mechanical scanning unit and increases power consumption.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to apply the present invention to a high-definition image pickup device of a type in which a subject region is divided and photographed, and the obtained divided region information is combined so that the applied power consumption is small and the entire photographing is performed. It is to provide a camera that can observe an area.

[0014]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the camera according to the present invention corresponds to the entire subject area by scanning each partial area obtained by dividing the subject area into a plurality of parts in a predetermined order. A first image generation system adapted to obtain an image signal and the first image generation system separately obtain an image signal substantially corresponding to the entire subject region without depending on the scanning, And a second image generation system for forming a visible image.

[0015]

According to the present invention, a first image generation system for obtaining an image signal corresponding to the entire subject area by scanning each partial area obtained by dividing the subject area into a plurality of parts in a predetermined order, and the first image generation system. Separately from the above, there is provided a second image generation system which obtains an image signal substantially corresponding to the entire subject region without depending on the above scanning or forms a visible image.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing an example of a camera related to the present invention. The subject light incident through the diaphragm 1 controlled by the motor 4 is reflected by the movable mirror 2 and is imaged on the CCD 7 which is an image pickup element via the taking lens 5. The rotation of the mirror 2 is controlled by the mirror scan motor 3 driven by the drive control signal from the microcomputer 9, and the partial photographing region R shown in FIG.
Object light from 1, R2, R3, and R4 is sequentially incident on the taking lens 5. The taking lens 5 is moved in the optical axis direction by a motor 6 driven by an AF control signal supplied from the microcomputer 9, and AF control is performed.

The electric image signal obtained by the CCD 7 is subjected to sampling and holding, amplification, AWB by the image pickup processing circuit 8.
After being subjected to various kinds of processing such as the above, it is sent to the exposure control circuit 10, the AF control circuit 11 and the memory 12.

Exposure control circuit 10 and AF control circuit 11
Sends information for performing well-known optimum exposure control and autofocusing control to the microcomputer 9 based on the image information received from the image pickup processing circuit 8. Based on the above information, the microcomputer 9 sends a control signal to the motor 4 and the motor 6 to perform the optimum exposure (AE) control and the autofocusing (AF) control, and adjusts the diaphragm 1 and the position of the taking lens 5. .

The memory 12 is controlled by the microcomputer 9,
The image information corresponding to each divided imaging area from the imaging processing circuit 8 is stored. The image information corresponding to the divided photographing area read from the memory 12 under the control of the microcomputer 9 is subjected to left-right inversion processing, bonding, and combining processing by the image bonding circuit 13 based on the information from the microcomputer 9, and a single object area is formed. It is sent to the recording system as an image.

The display unit 14 displays the operating state of the camera. The trigger switch 15 is a switch for starting a series of sequence operations of the camera, and a first trigger and a second trigger are output by operation. Settings such as AE and AF are performed by the first trigger, and actual shooting control is performed by the second trigger.

On the other hand, the subject image inputted through the photographing lens 17 is inputted into the optical finder 18 and the entire photographing region is visually observed.

In the above-described structure, in this example, the area selection switch 16 is provided, and the standby position of the mirror 2 can be arbitrarily selected by operating this switch. As a result, no matter where the pattern such as characters exists in the shooting area,
It is possible to set the standby position of the mirror in the existing area. Therefore, it is possible to set the mirror standby position in a highly probable area where a pattern such as characters on the whiteboard or blackboard exists, and effective AF or AE control is possible. The selected area (area) is displayed on the display unit 14.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a camera according to the present invention. The components designated by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 are components having the same function. This embodiment is shown in FIG.
The basic configuration is the same as the example shown in FIG. 1, and the EVF is adopted while the optical finder 18 is used as the finder in FIG.

In FIG. 2, C is taken through the taking lens 21.
The subject image of the entire photographing area formed on the CD 23 is converted into an image signal and sent to the image pickup processing circuit 24. The image pickup processing circuit 24 performs the same processing as the image pickup processing circuit 8 on the image signal, outputs the processed image signal to the EVF system, and outputs the image signal to the exposure control circuit 10 and the AF control circuit 11.

Similarly to the example shown in FIG. 1, the exposure control circuit 10 and the AF control circuit 11 are supplied with the image information from the image pickup processing circuit 8, and based on the image information from the image pickup processing circuit 24. , Coarse exposure and AF control are performed, and fine exposure and A are performed based on the image information from the imaging processing circuit 8.
F control is performed. The AF control of the EVF system is performed by adjusting the position of the taking lens 21 by the motor 22 driven by the drive signal from the microcomputer 9.

A reproduction monitor function can also be realized by reading recorded image information from a recording medium included in a recording system (not shown) and outputting and displaying it on a CRT such as an EVF system or a liquid crystal monitor.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of another embodiment of the camera according to the present invention, and the components designated by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 represent the components having the same function. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the image information supplied to the EVF system is obtained through an independent optical system other than the optical system for taking in the image to be actually recorded, whereas the embodiment shown in FIG. Then, the half mirror 31 is provided, and it is obtained through the same optical system. That is, the half mirror 31 is installed between the diaphragm 1 and the mirror 2, and the transmitted light of the half mirror 31 is made incident on the mirror 2 and the reflected light is made incident on the taking lens 21.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show examples of the structure of the finder display section and the area selection switch section. This example is an example in which the partial shooting area is divided into three, and a switch is provided corresponding to each area. In the finder display area, as shown in FIG.
There are two areas RA, RB, RC, and an area display LED for indicating the selected area at the top of each area.
Is provided. The area selection switch unit has three switches S1, S2, S3 corresponding to each area, and an area is selected by operating the corresponding switch.

FIG. 5 shows a configuration example in which the selection areas are sequentially switched by one switch, and the viewfinder display section in FIG. 5A is divided into three areas as in FIG. 4A. Has been. Further, the area selection switch section is composed of one switch having a slide switch configuration, as shown in FIG.

In this example, the position of the slide switch is divided into three, the left end shows the document 1 mode, the center shows the document 2 mode, and the right end shows the natural image mode. The document 1 mode is a mode in which the left end area is selected because there is a high possibility that the character information exists on the left side when the information such as the characters drawn on the blackboard or the whiteboard is written horizontally. Also, document 2
The mode is for vertical writing, and vertical writing is
Since it is likely to exist at the right end, this mode is for selecting the right end area. The natural image mode is a mode in which the central area is selected because there is a high possibility that the subject portion exists in the central portion of the finder for the natural image.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the stitching process of the image stitching circuit 13 in the above embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3A, the photographed image existing in the subject area is divided into areas RA, RB, and RC.
The divided images as shown in (C) and (D) are obtained.

By the way, when the divided images are obtained, the images may be displaced (staggered) due to variations in mirror rotation and camera shake. The stitching process is a process for eliminating this shift, and for this process to be performed, adjacent divided images are provided with overlapping regions, as indicated by the shaded portions in FIG. Therefore, the image data of the overlapping portions of the adjacent divided areas are used to perform the correlation processing of the both image data, specifically, the image data is read from the memory 12 by shifting the address, the matching data is searched, and the overlapping portions are matched. Process as you do. Of course, not only simple address shifting but also processing such as pixel interpolation is used depending on the way the shift occurs.

The processing procedure of the example shown in FIG. 1 will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The operation starts when the power is turned on, and first, the default (initial setting position)
Is set (step S101), the information of the area selection switch which is the mirror standby position switch designated by the user is acquired (step S102), and then it is determined whether or not the designated mirror standby position is the same as the current position. Yes (step S103). If it is determined that they are different, the mirror 2 is moved to the mirror standby position (step S1).
04) and when it is determined that they are the same again, the occurrence of the first trigger is subsequently determined (step S10).
5).

If the first trigger is not generated in step S105, the process returns to step S102, and if it is generated, the AE operation is executed (step S1).
06) and after the AF operation is performed (step S107), it is determined whether the operation state is confirmed (step S10).
8). Here, if it is not confirmed, step S106
Returning to the processing of (1), if it has been confirmed, the display unit 14 displays the confirmation (step S109), and then waits for the occurrence of a second trigger (step S110). When a second trigger occurs, shooting is performed (step S11).
1), the image information is written in the memory 12 (step S112). In the above photographing, the other divided areas are sequentially photographed from the divided area selected by the AF control, or the area RA,
Of course, it is possible to shoot in the order of RB and RC.

After that, it is determined whether the photographing process is finished (step S113). If it is not finished, the process returns to step S111. If it is finished, the mirror 2 is driven (step S114) and the mirror is returned (step S114). S11
5). For this return, return to the default position,
It is possible to return to the position specified by the area selection switch. After that, the image combining process including the inversion process is performed (step S116), the recording process in the recording system is executed (step S117), and the process is ended.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the operation processing procedure of the embodiment shown in FIGS. In this embodiment, an image pickup system 1 (recording system) of a subject image using the taking lens 5,
Imaging system 2 (EVF) of a subject image using the imaging lens 21
The system is controlled based on the information obtained with.
Note that the imaging systems 1 and 2 do not necessarily have to be in a synchronous relationship, but always capture information at the field rate.

Referring to FIG. 8, first, the AF information from the image pickup system 2 is fetched (step S201), and so-called climbing AF control is performed based on this AF information (step S202). Next, the lens position of the taking lens 5 required for focusing is calculated from the lens position of the taking lens 21 of the imaging system 2 that is AF-controlled (step S203),
The taking lens 5 is moved to the calculated lens position (step S204). Subsequently, the area having the maximum contrast is detected from the image information of the imaging system 2 (step S20).
5) In order to capture the image from the area where the detected contrast is the maximum, the mirror is driven and rotated (step S206). After that, the AF information about the area with the maximum contrast from the image pickup system 1 is fetched (step S207), the mountain climbing AF control of the image pickup system 1 is performed based on the fetched AF information (step S208), and the process is ended.

Although the AF control is described in FIG. 8, it is obvious that the AE control is also performed in the same manner. Further, particularly in the AF control, the mirror drive is not performed and the “AE information of the imaging system 1” and the “AE information of the area of the imaging system 2 corresponding to the current imaging area of the imaging system 1” are compared (correlation). The correlation coefficient (correction coefficient) of both image pickup systems including the optical system is obtained by (discrimination), and the actual AE control is based on the AE information of the image pickup system 2 and the information (and the correlation coefficient) of the entire subject area.
The method based on is also a very preferable modified example.

[0039]

As described above, according to the camera of the present invention, the power consumption can be reduced by applying it to a high-definition image pickup device of a type in which a subject region is divided and photographed, and the obtained divided region information is combined. It is possible to observe the whole shooting area.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing an example of a camera related to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of an embodiment of a camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of another embodiment of the camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a finder display section and an area selection switch section.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example in which selection areas are sequentially switched by one switch.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a stitching process of the image stitching circuit 13 in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the example shown in FIG.

8 is a flowchart showing an operation processing procedure of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the operation of a conventional high definition camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Aperture 2 Mirror 3 Mirror Scan Motor 4,6,22 Motor 5,17,21 Photographic Lens 7,23 CCD 8,24 Imaging Processing Circuit 9 Microcomputer 10 Exposure Control Circuit 11 AF Control Circuit 12 Memory 13 Image Bonding Circuit 14 Display 15 Trigger switch 16 Area selection switch 18 Optical viewfinder 31 Half mirror

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Hideaki Yoshida 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kazuya Kobayashi 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first image generation system configured to obtain an image signal corresponding to the entire subject region by scanning each partial region obtained by dividing the subject region into a plurality of parts in a predetermined order, In addition to the first image generation system, a second image generation system for obtaining an image signal substantially corresponding to the entire subject region without depending on the scanning and forming a visible image, A camera characterized by being provided.