JPH053073B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image recording and reproducing apparatus such as an electronic camera and a recording and reproducing home unit.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, electronic cameras that record captured image information on magnetic disks have used small disks in consideration of their portability. Therefore, directory tracks such as disks used as external storage devices for computers are generally deleted. For this reason, when monitoring the image information recorded on the disk, the image information is recalled sequentially, making it impossible to view any image at random, and information related to the image (e.g. title, date, shooting location). etc.) could not be monitored at the same time.

On the other hand, it is possible to suppress the idea of miniaturization and provide a directory track by making the disk larger, but when this is used in an electronic camera, there is a problem in terms of the life of the disk.

That is, generally, the service life of a disk is determined by the life of the directory track section, which is used most often. Therefore, it is clear that the provision of a directory track reduces its service life. Further, due to the nature of electronic cameras, they are expected to be used under various environments, which further worsens the durability conditions. Furthermore, the unique advantage of using a disk, which allows for re-editing, also contributes to the aforementioned reduction in service life. Therefore, this point is also a major reason why it is not possible to provide a directory track on the disk of an electronic camera.

The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an image recording and reproducing device that is capable of sometimes high-speed data transfer and also allows extremely diverse access to image storage files. There is a particular thing.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a non-volatile solid-state memory and a signal transfer means in a part of a disk pack, and uses the non-volatile solid-state memory as an information storage means for a directory, and at the same time transfers the information transfer means to the camera body. It is used as a means for exchanging data with the CPU installed in the disk pack, and at the same time records image information on the disk in the disk pack, it also transfers directory information from the CPU to the non-volatile solid-state memory in the disk pack. It is characterized by writing.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in Figures 1 to 4.
This will be explained with reference to the figures.

FIG. 1 shows a main body 1 of an electronic camera according to this embodiment,
3 is a perspective view showing a disk pack 2 and a home unit 3. FIG.

In FIG. 1, a main body 1 has a lens 4 and a viewfinder 5 on its front surface, and a shutter 6, a power switch 7, a strobe contact 8, etc. on its top surface.

The main body 1 has a structure in which a disk pack 2 can be inserted, and image information of a subject 9 can be recorded on this disk pack 2.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the disk pack 2 of FIG. 1 in more detail.

In FIG. 2, 10 is a disk, 11 is a drive hole, 12 is a disk cover, and 13 is a magnetic head insertion hole.

In addition, a solid-state memory 15 such as a non-volatile RAM is provided on the board 14 at the corner inside the disk pack 2.
, an LED driver 16, etc. are provided. The board 14 has a power terminal 17 and an LED/photodiode array 18 provided at the other corner.
and is connected by a flexible substrate 19.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the main body 1 of FIG. 1 seen from the back side. Note that the same parts as in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and detailed explanations will be omitted.

In FIG. 3, 20 is a viewfinder eyepiece;
1 is information about the photographed image (for example, title,
data input key 2 for entering date, etc.) into main unit 1;
Reference numeral 2 indicates a data display LCD that monitors the data input by the data input keys.

Further, inside the main body 1 with the back cover 23 opened, a disk drive shaft 24, a magnetic head 25, a magnetic head drive shaft 26, a power supply terminal 27, and an LED/photodiode array 28 are arranged.

Now, when the disk pack 2 is inserted into the main body 1, the power terminal 17 of the disk pack 2 is electrically connected to the power terminal 27 of the main body 1, and the LED/photodiode array 18 of the disk pack 2 is connected to the LED of the main body 1. - Mounted at positions facing the photodiode array 28, respectively. Further, the magnetic head 25 comes into contact with the disk 10 through the magnetic head insertion hole 13 of the disk pack 2. Movement of the magnetic head 25 is accomplished by rotation of a magnetic head drive shaft 26, which is a ball screw.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the electronic camera in this embodiment. In addition, Figure 1~
Components that are the same as those in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals and detailed explanations will be omitted.

In FIG. 4, the optical image of the subject 9 that has passed through the lens 29 and is formed on an image sensor 30 such as a CCD is turned into a photoelectric conversion signal by the image sensor 30 and sent to the image processing circuit 31. Image processing circuit 31
converts the photoelectric conversion signal into recordable image information and sends it to the data selector 32. This image information is selected by the disk controller 33 and becomes a magnetization output by the magnetic head 25. This magnetic head 25 records the image information on the disk 10 in the disk pack 2.

On the other hand, various information related to the image information such as title, date, shooting location, etc. can be entered by the photographer using the data input key 2.
1 via I/O50 by inputting
These various information are written to RAM34, and the CPU
35, the data is stored in the solid-state memory 15 together with data regarding the recording position such as the track number. At this time, information is exchanged using the LED/photodiode arrays 18 and 2 in FIGS. 2 and 3.
8.

In addition, information such as the image number necessary for searching the image information in the track is processed by the CPU 35.
The data becomes serial data and is sent to the data selector 32 via the serial I/O 36. CPU3
The disk controller 33 that received the command No. 5,
This serial data is written at the beginning of the image information recording section on the disk. In this way, various types of information related to the image information in the solid-state memory 15 have a perfect correspondence with the image information on the disk 10, making it possible to create a disk directory.

Note that the drive of the disk 10 and the magnetic head 25 are
The disk controller 33 moves the CPU.
The operation is performed according to a predetermined program in the ROM 37 in accordance with the operation command from the ROM 35. The disk drive command from the disk controller 33 is sent to the servo circuit 3.
The rotation command signal from the servo circuit 38 drives the motor 39 at a constant speed. Further, the magnetic head position control command from the disk controller 33 is sent to the step motor drive circuit 40.
The pulse signal from the step motor drive circuit 40 causes the step motor 41 to rotate the magnetic head drive shaft 26 formed by a ball screw, thereby determining the position of the magnetic head.

Therefore, for example, if data is input into the solid-state memory 15 for images or tracks that can be deleted when newly taken,
The CPU 35 reads this data and provides the disk controller 33 with information regarding the tracks that must be protected. Upon receiving this information, the disk controller 33 will drive the step motor 41 for the track to be skipped.

As described above, the disk pack 2 in which information regarding the directory is stored in the solid-state memory 15 is
By inserting it into the insertion hole 42 of the home unit 3 shown in the figure, the recorded image information can be transferred to the display 4.
Monitored on 3. This home unit 3 is used not only for monitoring but also for image editing and recording. At this time, the user may operate the keyboard 44 to retrieve any image information from the disk 10. The edited image information is then stored in a large capacity memory within the home unit 3, making the disk pack 2 reusable.

Further, by providing a color copying function as needed, images can be output as a hard copy 45.

In the electronic camera according to this embodiment having the above configuration, a part of the disk pack 2 includes a solid-state memory 15 and
Equipped with 18 LED/photodiode arrays, etc.
Directory information is stored in this solid-state memory 15, and data is electrically exchanged with the CPU 35 in the main body 1 using the LED/photodiode array 18 to perform directory operations. Therefore, the service life of the disk 10 is not affected in any way, and it is possible to add a directory function that has not been provided in the past.

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be expected.

(a) Since each device has independent address buses and data buses, high-speed data transfer is sometimes possible.

(b) Since information is directly exchanged with respect to the directory, an extremely wide variety of accesses can be made to image recording files.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 4 are diagrams showing one embodiment of an electronic camera according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an overview of a system composed of a main body, a disk pack, and a home unit, and FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the disk pack of FIG. 1 in more detail, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the back side of the main body of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the electronic camera according to the present embodiment. 1... Main unit, 2... Disk pack, 3... Home unit, 4, 29... Lens, 5... Viewfinder, 6... Shutter, 7... Power switch,
8... Contact for strobe, 10... Disk, 11
... Drive hole, 12 ... Disc cover, 13 ...
Magnetic head insertion hole, 14... Board, 15... Solid memory, 16... LED driver, 17, 27...
...Power terminal, 18, 28...LED/photodiode array, 19...Flexible board, 20
...Finder eyepiece, 21...Data input key, 22...Data display LCD, 23...Back cover,
24...Disk drive shaft, 25...Magnetic head,
26...Magnetic head drive shaft, 39...Motor, 4
0...Step motor, 42...Insertion hole, 43...
...Display, 44...Keyboard, 45...
hard copy.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When an information recording body including a non-volatile solid-state memory section that holds a directory is loaded, each section is used to directly exchange information regarding the directory between the non-volatile solid-state memory section and its own CPU. An image recording and reproducing device characterized by comprising an independent address bus and a data bus.