JPH07212657A - High speed image pickup device and recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain high speed image pickup without employment of a high speed horizontal transfer clock and to obtain a slow motion reproduction picture. CONSTITUTION:In the N-multiple high speed image pickup mode, a charge read pulse is generated once per 1/N field and M-sets of charges stored in M-sets of photo diodes 1 are read for N times per one field. A vertical transfer CCD 2 implements vertical transfer by a vertical transfer pulses being a multiple of N of the number of lines of a solid-state image pickup element for a period of 1/N of one field. Furthermore, the horizontal transfer CCD 4 transfers 1/ NXH-sets of charges among M-sets of charges for this period and the (1-1/N)XM-sets of charges are swept to a drain 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a high-speed photographing apparatus and a recording / reproducing apparatus capable of high-speed photographing of N times as high as usual.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the applicant of the present invention has previously proposed an image pickup apparatus capable of high-speed photographing without changing the recording means in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-51876.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional circuit, the horizontal transfer clock of the solid-state image pickup device needs to be N times as high as the normal one, so that the circuit configuration becomes complicated and the power consumption of the horizontal drive circuit becomes large.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a high-speed photographing apparatus capable of N-times high-speed photographing without increasing the horizontal transfer clock by N times. It is a thing.

The present invention also provides a recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing a video signal photographed by the high-speed photographing apparatus to obtain a slow motion image.

[0006]

According to the present invention, M charges accumulated in M photoelectric conversion elements are converted into N charges in one field period.
In addition to reading (N is an integer of 2 or more) times, the vertical transfer CCD that transfers the read charges in the vertical direction and the charges for one line transferred by the vertical transfer CCD in the horizontal direction in one horizontal scanning period. A solid-state image sensor including L horizontal transfer CCDs (L is an integer equal to or greater than 1) to be transferred to, and drains for sweeping out unnecessary charges arranged in parallel with the horizontal transfer CCDs; A vertical transfer pulse N times the number of lines of the solid-state image sensor is supplied to the vertical transfer CCD, and 1 / N × M of M charges are transferred by the horizontal transfer CCD.
This is a high-speed imaging device including a drive circuit for driving the solid-state imaging device so that (1-1 / N) × M charges are swept to the drain.

[0007]

According to the present invention, when performing N times high-speed photographing, the M charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element are read N times in one field period and vertically transferred by the vertical transfer CCD. The horizontal transfer CCD transfers 1 / N × M charges of M charges during 1 / N period of one field,
The (1-1 / N) × M charges are driven so as to be swept out to the drain. As a result, video signals for N screens are continuously output in one field period.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a 240-line solid-state image pickup device unit used in this embodiment. 1, 1 ... M photodiodes for photoelectric conversion, 2, 2 ... Vertical transfer CC
It is D. The vertical transfer CCD is driven by the vertical drive circuit 3. The horizontal transfer CCD 4 is driven by the horizontal drive circuit 5. Further, 6 is a drain for discharging electric charge, which is a feature of the present invention, and is arranged in parallel with the horizontal transfer CCD 4. Reference numeral 7 is a sweep control gate for controlling the sweep from the horizontal transfer CCD 4.

Although the above-mentioned solid-state image pickup device unit has 480 vertical pixels, the vertical transfer C from the photodiode is performed.
The number of lines is 240 because the charges of two vertical pixels are mixed and read when the charges are read to the CD.

Next, the operation of the solid-state image pickup device unit will be described. First, in the normal photographing mode, as shown in FIG. 2, it operates in the field accumulation mode. That is, 1
Vertical transfer CCD from the vertical drive circuit 3 once in the field
A charge read pulse is supplied to 2 and the charge accumulated in the photodiode 1 is read out to the vertical transfer CCD 2. Then, the vertical transfer CCD 2 transfers the charges for one line to the horizontal transfer CCD 4 once every 1H (H is a horizontal scanning period) according to the vertical transfer pulse. The horizontal transfer CCD 4 outputs electric charges for one line in a 1H period in accordance with a horizontal transfer clock of a predetermined frequency of the horizontal drive circuit 5.

On the other hand, in the double high-speed photographing mode, as shown in FIG. 3, the charge reading pulse is supplied to the vertical transfer CCD 2 once every 1/2 field. Then, the vertical transfer CCD 2 transfers the charges of 2 lines per 1H to the horizontal transfer CCD 4 by the vertical transfer pulse generated twice continuously in one horizontal blanking period. At this time, from the horizontal drive circuit 5. The sweep control gate 7 is released by the supplied unnecessary charge sweep pulse, and the charge for the first one line of two consecutive lines is swept to the drain 6, and the charge for the subsequent one line is normally transferred by the horizontal transfer CCD 4. It is transferred by the horizontal transfer clock having the same frequency as the mode. That is, an output every other line is obtained from the horizontal transfer CCD 4.

Therefore, two images accumulated at different timings in one field period can be obtained. However, since a video signal of two screens which are continuous in the vertical direction is formed in one field period, the reproduced image is a screen compressed in the vertical direction as shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of the apparatus of this embodiment, in which 8 is a timing generator for controlling the timing of the horizontal and vertical drive circuits, and 9 is the signal processing of an ordinary camera and the synchronizing signal of an ordinary cycle. This is an additional signal processing circuit, and its output is supplied to the recording circuit.

On the other hand, as described above, since the reproduced image as it is is compressed in the vertical direction, it becomes difficult to observe it with a viewfinder during photographing. Therefore, part of the output of the signal processing circuit 9 is part of the vertical expansion circuit 10.
Use the switch 11 to zoom in vertically in the high-speed shooting mode.
This output is used to supply this signal to the viewfinder.

Next, an embodiment at the time of 4 × high-speed shooting will be described. The solid-state image sensor unit used in this embodiment is the same as that shown in FIG. In the 4 × high-speed shooting mode, as shown in FIG. 6, only the upper left ¼ area shown by the diagonal lines in the CCD output during normal imaging is extracted and used.

Then, the CCD is driven as shown in FIG. That is, the charge read pulse is supplied to the vertical transfer CCD 2 once in 1/4 field. The vertical transfer CCDs 2 are driven by vertical transfer pulses that are output once for 1 / 2H and 120 for each horizontal blanking period for each 1/4 field. Therefore, the charges for one line are transferred to the horizontal transfer CCD 4 at 1 / 2H. Since this horizontal transfer CCD 4 is driven by the same horizontal transfer clock as in the normal mode, when the charges in the first half of one line have been transferred and the charges in the latter half are still remaining, the charges in the next line are transferred vertically. However, at this time, the charges in the latter half of one line are swept to the drain 6 by the unnecessary charge sweep pulse. Therefore, only the first half signal of one line is output from the horizontal transfer CCD 4. Then, the first half signal of the next line is continuously output.

Further, when the vertical transfer CCD finishes transferring 120 lines for 1/4 field, the remaining 1 is transferred by 120 vertical transfer pulses and unnecessary charge sweeping pulses.
The charges of 20 lines are swept out to the drain 6.

Therefore, the CCD output is as shown in FIG.
One screen is composed of eight images obtained by vertically compressing the image of the upper left quarter of the subject to half. Here, the left and right images are images composed of odd lines and even lines on the same time axis.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of the apparatus of this embodiment. 12 is a rearrangement circuit for rearranging the CCD output of FIG. 6a as shown in FIG. 6b in the 4 × high-speed photographing mode, and 13 is a 4 × in the normal mode This switch switches in the high-speed shooting mode, and this output is supplied to the recording circuit.

On the other hand, reference numeral 14 denotes a magnifying circuit for magnifying twice in the horizontal and vertical directions and supplying it to the viewfinder in the 4 × high-speed photographing mode. Next, the rearrangement circuit 12 will be described. This rearrangement circuit 12 has eight
Number of memories a1, a2, b1, b2, c1, c2, d
1, d2 and the memory control circuit 120. Each memory is a memory for 1/8 screen, and includes eight areas A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 of the CCD output of FIG. 6A.
The signals D1 and D2 are stored correspondingly. That is, at the time of writing, the first quarter field is set to 1 in the memories a1 and a2 by the write enable signal as shown in FIG.
The data is alternately written for every / 2H, and the next ¼ field is alternately written to the memories b1 and b2. After that, it is written in all the memories in the same manner.

At the time of reading, as shown in FIG. 11, a read enable signal is used to repeatedly read the memories a1, b1, a2, and b2 in the order of the first 1/2 field period, and the latter half fields are stored in the memory. c1, d
Reading is performed in the order of 1, c2, and d2. Therefore, the output as shown in FIG. 6b is obtained.

Next, another embodiment of 4 times high speed photographing will be described. As shown in FIG. 12, the solid-state imaging device unit used in this embodiment has two horizontal transfer CCDs 4 in parallel, and reads out signals with the same number of lines as the number of vertical pixels 480. That is, the resolution can be improved by reading the data of all pixels without mixing the charges of two vertical pixels. The applicant of the present invention has previously proposed such a CCD in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-12578.

Then, the CCD is driven as shown in FIG. The difference from FIG. 7 is that two vertical transfer pulses are output at 1 / 2H, and 240 vertical transfer pulses are output during the horizontal blanking period for each 1/4 field, and the unnecessary charge sweep pulse is similarly set at 1 / 2H. This is a point where 240 pieces are output for each 1/4 field. As a result, signals of odd lines 1 to 239 are obtained at the CCD output 1 and signals of even lines 2 to 240 are obtained at the CCD output 2 at the same time.

In the above embodiment, the example of high-speed shooting of 2x and 4x is shown, but it goes without saying that high-speed shooting of other magnifications is also possible. Next, FIG. 14 shows a recording / reproducing apparatus for obtaining a slow motion image from a high-speed image signal picked up by the image pickup apparatus. That is, the imaging output is recorded on the timing tape via the recording circuit 15 and the recording / reproducing switch 16. During reproduction, the magnetic tape is intermittently driven at a speed 1 / N times that during recording. This gives the same signal as in FIG. 6b. This signal is written in the frame memory 18 controlled by the memory control circuit 17. Then, by controlling the reading, an N times smooth slow-reproduced image which is N times enlarged and time-axis processed is obtained.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the horizontal transfer clock can perform high-speed shooting at the same frequency as in the normal shooting mode, which is N times as high as the normal shooting mode. Therefore, the power consumption of the horizontal drive circuit is not increased. High-speed shooting and slow-motion playback can be realized with a simple circuit configuration.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a solid-state imaging device unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart during normal shooting.

FIG. 3 is a time chart at the time of 2 × high-speed shooting.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a 2 × high-speed captured image.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram in the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram at the time of 4 × high-speed shooting.

FIG. 7 is a time chart at the time of 4 × high-speed shooting.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a rearrangement circuit.

FIG. 10 is a time chart of memory write control.

FIG. 11 is a time chart of memory read control.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a solid-state imaging device unit according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a time chart of 4 × high-speed shooting in another example.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a recording / reproducing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Photodiode 2 Vertical transfer CCD 3 Vertical drive circuit 4 Horizontal transfer CCD 5 Horizontal drive circuit 6 Drain 7 Sweeping control gate 10 Vertical expansion circuit 12 Sorting circuit 14 Expansion circuit 17 Memory control circuit 18 Frame memory

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vertical line for reading M charges accumulated in M photoelectric conversion elements N times (N is an integer of 2 or more) in one field period and transferring the read charges in a vertical direction. A transfer CCD and L horizontal transfer CCDs (L is an integer of 1 or more) for horizontally transferring the electric charges for one line transferred by the vertical transfer CCD in one horizontal scanning period.
And a drain for discharging unnecessary charges arranged in parallel to the horizontal transfer CCD and a vertical transfer pulse N times as many as the number of lines of the solid-state image sensor in the one field period. While supplying to the vertical transfer CCD, 1 / N × M of M charges are transferred by the horizontal transfer CCD, and (1-1 / N) × M charges are swept out to the drain. A high-speed imaging device comprising a drive circuit for driving the solid-state image sensor. 2. A solid-state image pickup device which outputs a charge accumulated at a cycle of 1 / N times one field (N is an integer of 2 or more) and which is provided with a drain for discharging unnecessary charges in parallel with a horizontal transfer CCD. Then, N vertical transfer pulses are output within one horizontal blanking period, and charges for one line of the N lines are transferred by the horizontal transfer CCD, and charges for the remaining (N-1) lines are Is a high-speed imaging device including a drive circuit that drives the solid-state imaging device so that the solid-state imaging device is swept out to the drain. 3. A means for obtaining a video signal for N screens reduced in one field period, a recording means for recording the video signal on a recording medium, and a speed of 1 / N at the time of recording on the recording medium. A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: a driving unit that drives and a reproducing unit that reproduces a 1 / N times slow motion image from the recording medium.