JPH0775022A - Camera apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce power consumption, to eliminate the irregularities of images and to switch the images by using only one display device. CONSTITUTION:This apparatus is provided with camera parts 1 and 2 provided with solid-state image pickup elements 11 and 21, horizontal/vertical timing circuits 12 and 22, electronic iris control circuits 13 and 23, shutter speed control parts 14 and 24 and sampling hold circuits 15 and 25, a switching circuit 3, a signal processing circuit 4 and a monitor 5. A voltage is supplied to the solid- state image pickup elements 11 and 21, the horizontal/vertical timing circuits 12 and 22, the electronic iris control circuits 13 and 23 and the shutter speed control parts 14 and 24 at all times during a period for using a camera and the voltage is supplied to the sampling hold circuits 15 and 25 only when the camera part provided with the sampling hold circuits 15 and 25 is selected by the switching circuit 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in the field of car electronics, an on-vehicle camera has been introduced to eliminate a blind spot as one means for improving vehicle safety. Here, the use of the conventional vehicle-mounted camera has been mainly used as one vehicle rear confirmation camera for one monitor and one camera.

FIG. 3A shows a structure of an in-vehicle camera which is provided with a circuit for controlling the camera in the camera and is integrated. FIG. 3B shows the configuration of the vehicle-mounted camera in which the camera section and the control section are separated.

In FIG. 3, 31 is a camera, and 32 is
Is a cable for transmitting a signal from the camera to the monitor 33. Reference numeral 34 is a power supply line for supplying a voltage to the monitor, and 35 is a ground line for grounding the monitor.
Reference numeral 36 is a back detection line for confirming the presence of an object behind when the vehicle moves backward.

Reference numeral 37 is a head section which mediates signal propagation between the camera section and the control section.

FIG. 4 shows the circuit configuration of such a vehicle-mounted camera. As shown in FIG. 4, the camera unit outputs a solid-state image sensor 11, a horizontal / vertical timing circuit 12 for driving the solid-state image sensor 11, and a signal for determining the light amount from the output of the solid-state image sensor 11 and controlling the electronic shutter. The electronic iris control circuit 13, the shutter speed control unit 14 that controls the shutter speed of the solid-state image sensor 11 with the output of the electronic iris control circuit, and the sampling that electrically holds the output signal of the solid-state image sensor 11.
It has a camera section composed of a hold circuit 15 and a monitor 16 which displays an output from the signal processing circuit 15 which processes an output signal of the camera section so that it can be displayed on a monitor which is a display device.

In the above in-vehicle camera, when it is attempted to provide a plurality of camera units, it is not economically desirable to provide monitors corresponding to the number of camera units, and the equipment itself becomes large, which is not preferable. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, a method has been adopted in which the outputs of a plurality of camera units are switched by a switch.

In FIG. 5, the camera section includes a first camera section 1 including a solid-state image sensor 11, a horizontal / vertical timing circuit 12, an electronic iris control circuit 13, a shutter speed control section 14 and a sampling and holding circuit 15. , A second camera having the same configuration as the first camera unit and including a solid-state imaging device 21, a horizontal / vertical timing circuit 22, an electronic iris control circuit 23, a shutter speed control unit 24, and a sampling / holding circuit 25.
Camera unit 2, first camera unit 1 and second camera unit 2
And a switching circuit 3 for supplying a voltage only to the selected camera section, a signal processing circuit 4 for processing the output signal of the switching circuit 3, and a signal processing circuit. Monitor 5 showing output from 4
And a power supply 6 for supplying a voltage to the camera section.

[0009]

However, in such a configuration, the image is disturbed when the cameras are switched because only the camera unit in use is energized.

That is, when the switch is switched from the camera unit in the driving state to the camera unit in which the power is not turned on, when an image is displayed almost at the same time as the switch is switched, the power is supplied to the camera unit at the same time as the switch is switched. Since the amount of reflected light of the subject, that is, the amount of light incident on the camera unit is not adjusted because the light is thrown in, the image screen is disturbed due to excessive incident light or excessive incident light amount.
Further, if all the cameras are energized, the image is not disturbed, but there is a problem that more power is consumed than necessary.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and is an on-vehicle system that displays images on a single monitor, reduces power consumption, eliminates image distortion, and switches images. The purpose is to provide a camera.

[0012]

In order to achieve this object, a camera driving device of the present invention provides a horizontal / vertical timing circuit for driving a solid-state image pickup device, and an output signal of the solid-state image pickup device to enable the solid-state image pickup device to operate. An electronic iris control circuit that determines the amount of incident light, a shutter speed control unit that controls the amount of light incident on the solid-state imaging device by controlling the shutter speed according to the output signal of the electronic iris control circuit, and the solid-state imaging device. A switching circuit that has a plurality of camera units each having a sampling and holding circuit that temporarily stores the output signal of the device, selects one of the output signals of the plurality of camera units, and an output signal of the switching circuit. A signal processing circuit for processing the display device so that it can be displayed, and a display device for displaying an output signal of the signal processing circuit. During the period in which the camera is used, a voltage is constantly supplied to the solid-state image sensor, the horizontal / vertical timing circuit, the electronic iris control circuit, and the shutter speed control unit, and Is configured to supply a voltage only when the camera unit including the sampling and holding circuit is selected by the switching circuit.

[0013]

With such a structure, even if a plurality of camera units are connected to one monitor, it is possible to prevent the image from being disturbed due to the poor adjustment of the light amount when the camera units are switched.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The same components as those of the conventional example are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 1, solid-state image pickup devices 11 and 21, horizontal / vertical timing circuits 12 and 22, electronic iris control circuits 13 and 23, shutter speed control unit 1
A voltage is constantly supplied to 4 and 24.

Further, the switching circuit 3 is configured to select the output signal of either one of the sampling and holding circuits 15 and 25 and supply the voltage only to the selected sampling and holding circuit. The operation of the above configuration will be described below.

First, the horizontal / vertical timing circuits 12, 2
The solid-state image pickup devices 11 and 21 take in the reflected light of the object by the output signal of No. 2 and convert it into the amount of electric charge corresponding to this amount of light and use it as the output signal. The electronic iris control circuits 13 and 23 convert the converted charge amount into a voltage, and the reflected light amount of the subject is determined based on the voltage. When the electronic iris control circuits 13 and 23 determine that the light amount of the subject is large, the excess charges are discarded so that the accumulated charges of the solid-state image pickup devices 11 and 21 become the optimum amount, and this is used as an output signal.
This discarded charge is transferred to the electronic iris control circuits 13 and 23.
Is input to the shutter speed control units 14 and 24 as a signal for determining the light amount, and the electronic shutter speed is changed to achieve the optimum light amount state.

As described above, the electronic iris control circuit adjusts the reflected light amount of the subject to obtain a normal image.

Since the horizontal / vertical timing circuit for driving the solid-state image pickup device of the camera, the electronic iris control circuit, and the shutter speed control section are energized, the amount of light incident on the camera section is constantly adjusted. It is possible to prevent the image from being disturbed due to insufficient adjustment of the amount of light that occurs when the camera is switched.

If there are a plurality of cameras, for example, two cameras, the solid-state image pickup devices 11 and 21 of the first camera unit 1 and the second camera unit 2, and the solid-state image pickup device 11, respectively.
Horizontal / vertical timing circuits 12 and 22 for driving 21
And an electronic iris control circuit 13, 23 for determining a light amount from the outputs of the solid-state image pickup devices 11, 21 and outputting a signal for controlling the electronic shutter, and an electronic iris control circuit 13, 23.
Shutter speed control section including a shutter speed control circuit for controlling the shutter speed of the solid-state image sensor 11, 21 by the output of
Since the incident light amount of the first camera unit 1 and the second camera unit 2 is constantly adjusted by always turning on the power of the switch 4, switching or switching the power of the power source to output the camera image Disturbance is eliminated, and an image distortion prevention device for a vehicle-mounted camera can be obtained.

As shown in FIG. 2, instead of the electronic iris control circuit, a mechanical iris control circuit 13 for judging the light quantity from the output of the solid-state image pickup device 11 and outputting a signal for controlling the mechanical shutter, and a shutter speed control section. Instead of the above, the same effect can be obtained as a mechanical iris driving unit that controls the shutter speed of the solid-state image pickup device 11 by the output of the mechanical iris control circuit.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, the first camera is switched to the second camera even when the power of the vehicle-mounted camera system is turned on, such as when confirming the rear of the vehicle. Even when it is turned on, the image is not disturbed due to the incident light quantity adjustment failure.

Therefore, the next action can be taken immediately by eliminating the discomfort caused by the image and displaying the image immediately. Moreover, since power is supplied only to a part of the vehicle-mounted camera system, power consumption can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a camera device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional vehicle-mounted camera

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional camera device.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a conventional camera device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 1st camera section 2 2nd camera section 3 Switching circuit 4 Signal processing circuit 5 Monitor 11, 21 Solid-state image sensor 12, 22 Horizontal / vertical timing circuit 13, 23 Electronic iris control circuit 14, 24 Shutter speed control section 15 , 25 sampling and holding circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A horizontal / vertical timing circuit for driving a solid-state image sensor, an electronic iris control circuit for determining the amount of light incident on the solid-state image sensor based on an output signal of the solid-state image sensor, and an output of the electronic iris control circuit. A plurality of camera units having a shutter speed control unit for controlling the amount of light incident on the solid-state image sensor by controlling the shutter speed according to a signal, and a sampling and holding circuit for temporarily storing the output signal of the solid-state image sensor. A switching circuit for selecting one of the output signals of the plurality of camera sections, a signal processing circuit for processing the output signal of the switching circuit so as to be displayed on a display device, and an output of the signal processing circuit. A display device for displaying a signal, the solid-state imaging device during a period of using a camera,
A voltage is always supplied to the horizontal / vertical timing circuit, the electronic iris control circuit, and the shutter speed control unit, and the sampling / hold circuit includes the camera unit having the sampling / hold circuit. A camera device configured to supply a voltage only when selected by a switching circuit. 2. A mechanical iris control circuit that determines the amount of light incident on the solid-state image sensor based on the output signal of the solid-state image sensor instead of the electronic iris control circuit, and uses the output signal of the mechanical iris control circuit instead of the shutter speed control section. The camera device according to claim 1, wherein the mechanical iris drive unit controls the amount of light incident on the solid-state image sensor by controlling the shutter speed accordingly.