JPH10164498A - Image-recording controller and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To preserve a composite image obtained by synthesizing image data with memory data. SOLUTION: Image data and memo data stored in a memory 13 of an electronic camera 11 are inputted through interfaces 14 and 7 respectively to a data-inputting part 3a and a memo data inputting part 3b of a host computer 1, and supplied to a compositing part 3c. The composite image of the image data and the memo data is prepared by the compositing part 3c, supplied to a memory 4 by a composite image outputting part 3d, and stored in a prescribed area. The composite image is supplied to a file system 5, and stored in it. Further, the composite image is supplied to a video RAM(VDRAM) 6, and displayed at a display device 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording control device and a recording medium, for example, an image recording control device and a recording medium for superimposing and recording image data and line drawing data transferred from an electronic camera. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, instead of a camera using a film, an image of a subject is photographed using a CCD or the like, and the photographed image is converted into digital data and recorded in a built-in memory or a removable memory card. Electronic cameras are being used. An image captured using this electronic camera can be reproduced immediately without being developed and printed as in a conventional camera, and can be displayed on a screen such as an LCD.

[0003] In addition, there is a type in which a photographed image can be transferred to a personal computer and displayed on a screen of the personal computer, or stored in a hard disk or the like.

[0004]

In such an electronic camera, an LCD for displaying an image formed on a CCD and for displaying predetermined information, and an LCD for inputting line drawing information such as characters and figures are provided. Touch tablet made of transparent material,
It is conceivable to provide the touch tablet so as to overlap the LCD. The image displayed on the LCD can be observed via the touch tablet, and the line drawing information input by the touch tablet is displayed on the LCD. Therefore, the LCD and the touch tablet can be used as an electronic viewfinder. , Can be used as an input device for inputting line drawing information.

[0005] Then, the input line drawing information is transferred to a personal computer together with an image, and an image obtained by combining them is displayed on the screen of the personal computer.
It is conceivable that the line drawing information can be recorded in a memory, a hard disk, or the like in association with the image.

[0006]

However, if the image and the line drawing information are separately stored in a memory or a hard disk, it is necessary to associate them with each other, and the processing becomes complicated as compared with the case where only the image is stored. There was a problem.

Further, there is a problem that the memory and the hard disk need to have an extra capacity for storing the line drawing information separately from the image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has been made to be able to easily retrieve and display once stored images and related line drawing information, and to store them. In addition, the capacity of a memory or a hard disk can be saved.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image recording control apparatus for transferring and synthesizing a first image stored in an electronic camera and a second image related to the first image. A recording control device that supplies a predetermined control signal to an electronic camera and controls transfer of a first image and a second image from the electronic camera (for example, the control unit 2 in FIG. 1). ), First receiving means for receiving the first image transferred from the electronic camera (for example, the interface (I / F) 7 in FIG. 1), and the second image transferred from the electronic camera. Second receiving means for receiving (for example, the interface (I / F) 7 in FIG. 1) and synthesizing means for synthesizing the first image and the second image (for example, the synthesizing unit 3c in FIG. 1)
And an output unit (for example, the synthesized image output unit 3d in FIG. 1) that outputs a synthesized image synthesized by the synthesizing unit.

The first image may be an image captured by an electronic camera, and the second image may be a line drawing related to the first image.

Further, storage means (for example, the memory 4 and the file system 5 in FIG. 1) for storing the composite image output from the output means can be further provided.

[0012] The storage means may be a RAM.

Further, the storage means may be a hard disk.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium for transferring and synthesizing a first image stored in an electronic camera and a second image related to the first image, the program being used in an image recording control device. (For example, the transfer software 3 in FIG. 1) in which a predetermined control signal is supplied to the electronic camera to control the transfer of the first image and the second image from the electronic camera. And receiving a first image and a second image from the electronic camera, synthesizing the first image and the second image, and recording a program for controlling output of the synthesized image. Features.

In the image recording control apparatus according to the first aspect, the control means supplies a predetermined control signal to the electronic camera to transfer the first image and the second image from the electronic camera. Controlling, the first receiving means receives the first image transferred from the electronic camera, the second receiving means receives the second image transferred from the electronic camera, and the combining means , The first image and the second image are combined, and the output unit outputs the combined image combined by the combining unit.

In the recording medium according to the present invention, a predetermined control signal is supplied to the electronic camera to control the transfer of the first image and the second image from the electronic camera. Receiving a first image and a second image;
A program for controlling the first image and the second image to be synthesized and to output the synthesized image is recorded.

[0017]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an embodiment of a host computer to which an image recording control device of the present invention is applied. In the host computer 1, the control unit 2 includes a central processing unit (CPU).
t), a main memory, and the like, and the CPU operates according to the transfer software 3 loaded in the main memory.

An image data input section 3a constituting the transfer software 3 is adapted to input image data transferred from the electronic camera 11 via an interface (I / F) 7. The memo data input section 3b
The memo data which is line drawing information transferred from the electronic camera 11 is input via the interface 7. The combining unit 3c combines the image data supplied from the image data input unit 3a and the memo data supplied from the memo data input unit 3b, and outputs the combined data. Then, the synthesized image output unit 3d outputs the synthesized image
A composite image of the image data and the memo data combined by the above is output.

The interface 7 controls transmission and reception of control signals (commands) with the electronic camera 11 and transfer of image data and memo data.

The memory 4 is composed of, for example, an SRAM or the like, and stores a composite image output from the composite image output unit 3d. The file system 5 is composed of, for example, a hard disk or another recording medium, and stores the composite image output from the composite image output unit 3d.

The VRAM (video RAM) 6 stores bitmap data corresponding to the composite image output from the composite image output unit 3d, and outputs a control signal corresponding thereto. The display device 8 operates according to a control signal supplied from the VRAM 6 and displays an image corresponding to the bitmap data stored in the VRAM 6.

On the other hand, the electronic camera 11 includes a control unit 12 including a CPU and a main memory, a memory 13 for separately storing image data corresponding to a captured image and memo data corresponding to an inputted memo, and a host computer 1. And an interface 14 for controlling transmission and reception of commands and transfer of image data and memo data to and from the interface 7.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
A procedure for transferring image data and memo data stored in the memory 13 of the electronic camera 11 to the host computer 1 and storing them in the memory 4 or the file system 5 will be described.

First, in step S1, the control unit 2
Supplies the display data corresponding to the browser window as shown in FIG. 3 to the VRAM 6 and causes the display device 8 to display it. A plurality of thumbnail images (reduced images) are displayed in the browser window, and an information button 28, a sound button 29, and an overlay button 30 are displayed above the area where the thumbnail images are displayed. The image name assigned in the electronic camera 11 is displayed below the area where the thumbnail image is displayed. The area where these buttons, thumbnail images, and image names are displayed is called a thumbnail area.

The information button 28 is operated when displaying information corresponding to an image. The sound button 29 is displayed when this image has sound data. By operating this sound button, the sound data can be saved or reproduced. Overlay button 30
Is displayed when the image has overlay data, that is, line drawing information such as memo data.
By operating, the memo data can be superimposed on the image and displayed.

The shutter button 21 is connected to the electronic camera 11
Is operated when the shutter (not shown) is released. The capture button 22 is operated when the electronic camera 11 captures an image stored in the memory 13. At this time, the image is captured with the original number of pixels (for example, 640 × 480 pixels). The delete button 23 is used to copy an image to the electronic camera 11.
Is operated when data is erased from the memory 13. The save button 24 is operated when saving an image. The name order check box 25 is a check box. When this check box is checked, the thumbnail images are sorted in alphabetical order using the character strings of the image names, and are displayed in the sorted order.

The order control button is composed of two buttons, “normal order” and “reverse order”, and is activated only when the name order check box 25 is checked. An operation is performed to specify whether to display the thumbnail images in the normal order of the image names (A to Z in the case of the alphabet) or the reverse order.

The thumbnail on / off button 27 is operated when a thumbnail image is turned on or off. When OFF is selected, the thumbnail image is deleted, and a list of image names is displayed instead.

The user operates a pointing device such as a mouse to move a cursor on a desired thumbnail image and clicks a mouse button to specify the thumbnail image, and an overlay displayed on the upper portion of the thumbnail image. By pressing the button 30, memo data which is overlay data related to the thumbnail image is designated.

Next, the process proceeds to step S2, in which the cursor is moved to the capture button 22 and the mouse button is clicked to instruct the capture of the image and memo specified in step S1.

In step S3, the control unit 2 supplies a command to output image data corresponding to the thumbnail image specified in step S1 to the electronic camera 11 via the interface 7 in step S3. . When receiving the command from the control unit 2 of the host computer 1, the interface 14 of the electronic camera 11 supplies the command to the control unit 12. The control unit 12 responds to a command from the control unit 2 of the host computer 1 according to a command.
The image data corresponding to the designated thumbnail image is read from the memory 13 and transmitted to the host computer 1 via the interface 14.

In step S4, the interface 7 of the host computer 1 receives the image data transmitted from the interface 14 of the electronic camera 11,
It is supplied to the image data input unit 3a.

Next, in step S5, the control section 2 supplies a command to output memo data related to the thumbnail image specified in step S1 to the electronic camera 11 via the interface 7. .
When receiving the command from the control unit 2 of the host computer 1, the interface 14 of the electronic camera 11 supplies the command to the control unit 12. The control unit 12 reads the designated memo data from the memory 13 according to a command from the control unit 2 of the host computer 1 and transmits the memo data to the host computer 1 via the interface 14.

In step S6, the interface 7 of the host computer 1 receives the memo data transmitted from the interface 14 of the electronic camera 11,
It is supplied to the memo data input unit 3b.

Next, in step S7, the image data input by the image data input unit 3a and the memo data input by the memo data input unit 3b are combined with the synthesizing unit 3c.
And synthesized. For example, the image data input unit 3
4A is supplied with image data corresponding to an actual image as shown in FIG.
When the memo data corresponding to the overlay image as shown in (B) is supplied, the synthesizing unit 3c generates a synthesized image as shown in FIG. 4 (C).

Image data corresponding to the composite image is supplied to a composite image output unit 3d. Then, the composite image output unit 3d transfers the image data corresponding to the composite image to a predetermined area managed by another software on the memory 4 and stores the image data, or transfers the image data to a file system 5 including a hard disk. And memorize it. Or VR
The image is transferred to the AM 6 and the display device 8 displays the composite image.

As described above, the image data and the memo data which are separately managed and stored in the electronic camera 11 are generated on the host computer 1, and a composite image is generated by combining them. The user can easily acquire or display an image (synthesized image) in which the image and the memo have already been superimposed. Incidentally, an image and memo data (line drawing information) related to the image are often referred to or viewed in a superimposed state. Therefore, it seems that there is not much inconvenience even if only the composite image is stored.

Further, by storing only the synthesized image, the file system 5 such as a hard disk can be stored.
It is possible to save disk space and memory space.

A program (transfer software) for causing the control unit 2 to execute the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is stored in the memory 4 or the file system 5 in the host computer 1. The program may be supplied to the user in a state stored in advance in the memory 4 or the file system 5, or may be copied to the memory 4 or the file system 5.
It may be supplied to the user in a state stored in a CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory) or the like.

When the program is supplied to the user while being stored in a CD-ROM or the like, the program is temporarily copied to the memory 4 or the file system 5 and then loaded into the main memory incorporated in the control unit 2. . Or,
The data may be directly loaded from the CD-ROM into the main memory.

In the above embodiment, the composite image is stored in the memory or the hard disk. However, the composite image may be stored in another recording medium such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk.

The transfer software 3 in the above embodiment is a CD-ROM (compact disc read only).
memory), a floppy disk, or another recording medium.

[0043]

According to the image recording control device of the first aspect, the synthesizing means includes the first image data transferred from the electronic camera.
And the second image are synthesized, and the output unit outputs the synthesized image synthesized by the synthesis unit.
A composite image in which the first image and the second image have already been superimposed can be stored on a hard disk or the like, so that a desired composite image can be easily extracted and disk space can be saved.

According to the recording medium of the present invention, a predetermined control signal is supplied to the electronic camera to control the transfer of the first image and the second image from the electronic camera. Since the first image and the second image are received, the first image and the second image are combined, and the program for controlling to output the combined image is recorded. And a composite image obtained by superimposing the second image and the second image can be stored in a hard disk or the like.
A desired synthesized image can be easily taken out, and the disk space can be saved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an embodiment of a host computer to which an image recording control device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 shows an electronic camera 11 which is a host computer 1 of FIG.
10 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for reading out image data and memo data from the image data and generating a composite image.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display example of a browser window.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a real image, an overlay image, and a composite image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host computer 2 Control part 3 Transfer software 3a Image data input part 3b Memo data input part 3c Synthesizing part 3d Synthetic image output part 4 Memory 5 File system 6 VRAM 7 Interface 8 Display device 11 Electronic camera 12 Control part 13 Memory 14 Interface 30 overlay buttons

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image recording control device for transferring and combining a first image stored in an electronic camera and a second image related to the first image, wherein a predetermined image is transmitted to the electronic camera. And control means for controlling the transfer of the first image and the second image from the electronic camera, and the first means for receiving the first image transferred from the electronic camera. Receiving means for receiving the second image transferred from the electronic camera; synthesizing means for synthesizing the first image and the second image; and synthesizing means. An output unit that outputs a synthesized image that has been synthesized. 2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the first image is an image captured by the electronic camera, and the second image is a line drawing related to the first image. Recording control device. 3. The image recording control device according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit that stores the composite image output from the output unit. 4. The image recording control device according to claim 3, wherein said storage means is a RAM. 5. The image recording control device according to claim 3, wherein said storage means is a hard disk. 6. A recording medium storing a program used in an image recording control device for transferring and combining a first image stored in an electronic camera and a second image related to the first image. Supplying a predetermined control signal to the electronic camera, controlling the transfer of the first image and the second image from the electronic camera, and controlling the transfer of the first image and the second image from the electronic camera. A recording medium recording a program for receiving a second image, synthesizing the first image and the second image, and controlling to output a synthesized image.