JPH09307843A - Digital camera - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a digital camera capable of rearranging images captured and recorded on a recording medium. SOLUTION: When an image to be moved and an image to be moved are designated from a plurality of image data divided and displayed on the LCD 6, the header portion of the flash memory 27 corresponds to the image data designated as the subject to be moved. The address data (start address) to be read is read and the TEMP of the RAM 29 is read.
The image data is temporarily stored in the buffer area, the address data from the source to the destination is shifted, and the address data temporarily stored in the TEMP buffer area of the RAM 29 is stored in the empty destination. Make a move.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly to a digital camera equipped with a display device,
The present invention relates to a digital camera capable of rearranging images recorded on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital cameras (electronic cameras) that electronically store captured images instead of films have become widespread. In such a digital camera, when a photographer presses a shutter, an image of a subject passing through a lens is captured by a CCD element and written in an internal recording medium through a circuit inside the camera. Then, the image written in this recording medium is reproduced.

Recently, a digital camera which is integrally provided with a display device such as a liquid crystal and which can immediately reproduce a photographed image at a photographing site has been put into practical use.

[0004]

In order to organize the images, it is sometimes desired to change the order of recorded images or the order of reproduction. However, in the conventional digital camera, the order of the image data recorded in the storage medium is changed by transferring all the image data of a plurality of captured images to an external editing device such as a personal computer and storing the image data in the storage medium of the digital camera. After deleting all the image data stored in, while watching the image on the monitor from an external editing device such as a personal computer,
Since the image is transferred one by one to the digital camera one by one, there is a problem that the order of images cannot be rearranged without an external editing device such as a personal computer.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a digital camera capable of rearranging images photographed and recorded on a recording medium.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In a digital camera provided with a display means, an image pickup means for picking up an image of a subject, a storage means for storing image data picked up by the image pickup means, and image data stored in the storage means is reproduced and displayed on the display means. The above problem is solved by providing a reproducing means, a selecting means for selecting the image data reproduced by the reproducing means, and a rearranging means for rearranging the order of the image data selected by the selecting means. .

That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital camera having display means, wherein an image of the subject is picked up by the image pick-up means and the image data picked up by the image pick-up means is stored in the storage means and reproduced. The means reproduces the image data stored in the storage means and displays it on the display means, the selecting means selects the image data reproduced by the reproducing means, and the rearranging means is selected by the selecting means. Rearrange the order of image data.

Therefore, the order of the images can be rearranged while viewing the images displayed on the display means of the digital camera, which improves the usability for the operator.

Further, in this case, as in the invention described in claim 2, the storage means is provided with an address table for storing address data corresponding to the image data to be stored, and the rearrangement means is provided with an address of the address table. It is effective to rearrange the order of the image data by rearranging the data.

That is, according to the second aspect of the present invention, in the digital camera according to the first aspect, the storage means has an address table for storing the address data corresponding to the image data to be stored, and the rearrangement means has the address table. The order of the image data is rearranged by rearranging the address data of.

Therefore, the order of the images can be easily rearranged only by rearranging the address data stored corresponding to the image data.

Further, in this case, when the rearrangement source is selected by the selecting means, one image is displayed on the display means at a time, and the rearrangement destination is selected by the selecting means. At this time, it is effective to display a plurality of images on the display means at one time.

That is, according to the third aspect of the invention, one image is displayed on the display means at a time when the sorting means is selected by the selecting means, and once on the display means when the sorting destination is selected by the selecting means. Display multiple images on.

Therefore, the sorting destination displayed on the display means can be selected quickly and easily.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to FIGS. Figure 1
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a digital camera of the present invention.

First, the structure will be described. FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an external configuration of the digital camera according to the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the digital camera 1 includes two blocks divided into a main body 2 and a camera section 3.
An LCD (liquid crystal display) 6 is provided in the case 4 of the main body 2.
Is provided, and the LCD 6 faces the front side of the case 4.

An image pickup lens 7 is provided in the upper part of the case 5 of the camera section 3, and the image pickup lens 7 is provided.
Are directed to the back side of the case 5.

The main body 2 is provided on the upper surface of the case 4,
Power switch 8, "Shutter" key 9, "DEL" key 10, "+" key 11, "-" key 12, "DIP"
(Display) key 14 and "ZOOM" key 1
5, the opening / closing lid 17 is provided with an external power supply terminal, a video output terminal, and a digital terminal, which are not shown. Further, a function switching key 18 is provided on the front surface of the case 4, and an openable battery lid (not shown) is provided on the lower surface of the case 4.

The camera section 3 is arranged on the side surface of the main body section 2 on the left hand operation side by the photographer, and is attached to the main body section 2 so as to be rotatable 90 ° forward and 180 ° rearward. ing.

FIG. 2 shows the digital camera 1 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the digital camera according to the embodiment of the present invention. The digital camera 1 shown in FIG. 2 has a CCD (Charge
Coupled Divice) 20, A / D converter 22, drive circuit 23, timing generator 24, DRAM 25, compression / expansion circuit 26, flash memory 27, ROM 2
8, RAM 29, key input unit 30, CPU 31, signal generator 32, VRAM (Video RAM) 33, D
/ A converter 34, LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
6 and I / O port 36 and the like.

The CCD 20 receives the image signal of the object formed by the image pickup lens 7, accumulates electric charges proportional to the amount of received light for each transfer electrode arranged on the light receiving surface, and supplies the electric charge by the drive circuit 23. In response to the drive signal, the accumulated charge accumulated in each transfer electrode is sequentially output to the A / D converter 22 via the buffer 21 as an electric signal (analog signal), one electrode at a time.

The A / D converter 22 converts the electric signal output from the CCD 20 into a digital signal, and supplies the obtained digital image data to the timing generator 24.

The drive circuit 23 uses the timing signal supplied from the timing generator 24 to drive the CCD 2
The exposure and readout timing of 0 is drive-controlled.

The timing generator 24 generates a timing signal for controlling the drive circuit 23.

The DRAM 25 is a semiconductor memory for temporarily storing the captured image data.

The compression / expansion circuit 26 compresses the image data stored in the DRAM 25 by encoding, and decodes the compressed image data stored in the flash memory to perform expansion processing.

The flash memory 27 stores the image data compressed by the compression / expansion circuit 26 from the image data stored in the DRAM 25, and can store 96 image data. FIG. 3 shows a flash memory 2
7 shows an example of the data structure of No. 7. As shown in FIG.
The flash memory 27 is composed of a header section (address table) for managing the order of arrangement of image data and an actual image data section in which the image data is actually stored. Order data indicating the number of sheets) and the start address (address data) of the image data in the actual image data section are stored in association with each other. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the first image has image data 1, the second image has image data 3, the third has image data 4, the fourth has image data 5, and the fifth has image data 7. The image data 6 corresponds to the 9th sheet, the image data 2 to the 10th sheet, and the image data 96 corresponds to the 96th sheet.

The ROM 28 stores programs and data used in the digital camera 1. Also, RAM
The reference numeral 29 forms a work memory for various processes executed by the CPU 31, and has a TEMP buffer area for temporarily storing address data of a header part stored in the flash memory 27 in an image moving process described later. There is.

The key input section 30 includes a "+" key 11, a "-" key 12, a "DEL" key 10 and a "DS" shown in FIG.
A "P" key 14, a "ZOOM" key 15 and the like are included, and are used by the operator to instruct various processes in the electronic camera 1.

Based on various programs stored in the ROM 28, the CPU 31 uses a predetermined area of the RAM 29 as a work area and executes processing according to the operation of each key of the key input unit 30 to execute the digital camera 1 Control each part of.

When the "shutter" key 9 of the key input unit 30 is operated, the CPU 31 executes image data storage processing to generate an image capture signal to the timing generator 24 and capture the image from the CCD 20. Once stored in the DRAM 25. Color calculation processing is performed on the image data stored in the DRAM 25 to create a luminance signal and a color signal from the video signal, and the luminance signal and the color signal are transferred to the compression / expansion circuit 26 to obtain the luminance. The signal and color signal data are compressed, and the compressed image data is stored in the flash memory 27.

When the "DIP" key 14 of the key input unit 30 is operated, the CPU 31 executes an image reproduction process and a predetermined compressed image data (compressed luminance signal and color signal) from the flash memory 27. Read and compress /
The signal generator 3 transfers the luminance signal and the color signal transferred to the expansion circuit 26 and expanded by the compression / expansion circuit 26.
2, and the signal is converted to a video signal by the signal generator 32, and then displayed on the LCD 6.

Then, the CPU 31 executes an image rearrangement process which will be described in detail later, and rearranges the address data in the header portion of the flash memory 27 (see FIG. 4).

The signal generator 32 adds a synchronizing signal to the digital image data to create a digital video signal.

The VRAM 33 is a signal generator 3
2 is a memory for storing the video signal generated in Step 2.

The D / A converter 34 converts the digital video signal output from the signal generator 32 into an analog video signal.

The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 6 is
The liquid crystal is driven based on the input video signal to display a video signal.

The I / O port 36 is an interface for inputting / outputting image data converted into a serial signal by the CPU 31, and can be connected to an external device such as an FDD device or a personal computer.

Next, the operation of the digital camera of this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 4 shows the CP of the digital camera 1.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the image rearrangement process executed by the control of U31, and FIGS.
It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the display screen of D6. Hereinafter, based on the flowchart of FIG. 4, the image moving process will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, when the "DEL" key 10 of the key input unit 30 is pressed while the power of the digital camera is turned on, the LCD 6 displays a menu screen "+: DELETE" as shown in FIG. A screen of "(Delete) /-: MOVE" is displayed (step S1).

Next, the CPU 31 moves (MOVE).
It is determined whether or not the "-" key 12 for selecting is pressed (step S2). If the "-" key 12 is not pressed, a deletion process for deleting the image data is executed (step S11).

On the other hand, when the "-" key 12 is pressed in step S2, the moving source image selection screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 6, and the "+""-" keys 11 and 12 are operated to move. When the original image is selected (step S3), the "image" of the selected moving original image is displayed as shown in the display screen example of FIG.

Next, the CPU 31 determines whether or not the "shutter" key 9 for confirming the source image has been pressed (step S4). If the "shutter" key 9 has not been pressed, the CPU 31 proceeds to step S3. On the other hand, when the “shutter” key 9 is pressed, the selected image is confirmed as the movement source image (movement target image), and the CPU 31
The data of the start address of the source image is read from the header part of the flash memory 27, and TEMP of the RAM 29 is read.
It is temporarily stored in the buffer area (step S5).

Then, as shown in FIG. 7, a 9-division screen "image 1"
~ Image 9 "is displayed, and white painting is moved to the bottom of the image by operating the" + "and"-"keys 11 and 12, and the destination image is selected (step S7). In the display example shown in FIG. 7, white painting moves to the bottom of the image 1 and the image 1 is selected.

Next, the CPU 31 determines whether or not the "shutter" key 9 for confirming the destination image has been pressed (step S8). If the "shutter" key 9 has not been pressed, the CPU 31 proceeds to step S6. On the other hand, when the "shutter" key 9 is pressed, the selected image is determined as the destination image, and the process proceeds to step S9.

In step S9, the head address data of the header part of the flash memory 27 from the source to the destination is shifted, and the RAM 29 is set to the address of the header of the destination.
The address data temporarily stored in is stored (step S10), and the image rearrangement process ends. still,
The movement can be stopped by the "DEL" key 10 during each of the above operations.

Then, an example of moving the image data by the image moving processing will be described with reference to FIGS. It is assumed that the flash memory 27 stores the data having the structure shown in FIG.

8 and 9 show an example in which the third image is moved to the front of the tenth image. First, while the menu screen is selected, the image 3 is selected as the moving source image by operating the "+" and "-" keys 11 and 12 (step S3), and the "shutter" key 9 is pressed to move. When the original image is confirmed (step S4), as shown in FIG. 8, the address data of the third sheet is temporarily stored in the TEMP buffer area of the RAM 29 (step S5), and the destination 1
When the 0th image is selected (steps S7 and S8), 4
The address data of up to 9 sheets is moved to 3 to 8 respectively (step S9), and then the address data of the third sheet stored in the TEMP buffer area of the RAM 29 is stored at the position of the ninth sheet (step S10). As a result of such movement, the correspondence between the header portion and the data portion is as shown in FIG. 9, the first image is image data 1, the second image is image data 3, the third image is image data 5, and the fourth image is image data. Data 7, 5th is image data 8, 6th is image data 9, 7th is image data 10,
The 8th image is image data 6, the 9th is image data 2, the 10th is image data 2, the 11th is image data 11, ...
Image data 96 corresponds to the 96th image, and the third image is moved in front of the 10th image.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show the tenth image as 3
An example of moving to the front of the first sheet will be shown. First, while the menu screen is selected, the image 10 is selected as the source image by operating the "+" and "-" keys 11 and 12 (step S3), and the "shutter" key 9 is pressed to move. When the original image is confirmed (step S4), the tenth address is temporarily stored in the TEMP buffer of the RAM 29 (step S5) as shown in FIG.
When the first image is selected (steps S7 and S8), 3 to
The address data of up to 9 sheets are moved to 4 to 10 respectively (step S9), and then the address data of the 10th sheet stored in the RAM 29 is stored in the position of the 3rd sheet (step S10). As a result of the movement, the correspondence between the header part and the data part is as shown in FIG.
Image data 3 is the third, image data 2 is the third, image data 4 is the fourth, image data 5 is the fifth, image data 7 is the sixth, image data 8 is the eighth Is the image data 9, the 9th image is the image data 10, the 10th image is the image data 6, the 11th image is the image data 11, ... The 96th image is the image data 96, and the 10th image Is moved to the front of the third image.

As described above, in the present embodiment,
From a plurality of image data that are divided and displayed on the LCD 6,
When the image to be moved and the image to be moved are specified, the address data corresponding to the image data specified as the object to be moved is read from the header portion of the flash memory 27, and R is read.
The address data temporarily stored in the TEMP buffer area of the RAM 29 is stored in the TEMP buffer area of the RAM 29 while temporarily storing it in the TEMP buffer area of the AM 29 and shifting the start address data from the source to the destination. The image data can be rearranged in the digital camera because the image data is moved by using the digital camera.

In the above embodiment, the header portion (address table) is stored in the flash memory 27, but the header portion may be stored in the RAM 29.

[0053]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the order of images can be rearranged while looking at the image displayed on the display means of the digital camera.
Operator convenience is improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the order of the images can be easily rearranged only by rearranging the address data stored corresponding to the image data.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the sorting destination displayed on the display means can be selected quickly and easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of a digital camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the digital camera shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of data stored in the flash memory of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an image rearrangement process executed by the CPU of FIG.

5 is a diagram showing a display example 1 of a screen displayed on the LCD in the image rearrangement process of FIG.

6 is a diagram showing a second display example of a screen displayed on the LCD in the image rearrangement process of FIG.

7 is a diagram showing a display example 3 of a screen displayed on the LCD in the image rearrangement process of FIG.

8A and 8B are views for explaining an example of moving image data by the image rearrangement process of FIG.

9 is a diagram for explaining an example of moving image data by the image rearranging process of FIG.

10 is a diagram for explaining an example of moving image data by the image rearranging process of FIG.

11 is a diagram for explaining an example of moving image data by the image rearranging process of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Digital Camera 4, 5 Case 6 LCD 7 Imaging Lens 8 “Power” Key 9 “Shutter” Key 10 “DEL” Key 11 “+” Key 12 “-” Key 13 “MODE” Key 14 “DIS” Key 15 “ZOOM” Key 16 “PROTECT” key 17 Open / close lid 18 Function switching key 20 CCD 22 A / D converter 23 Drive circuit 24 Timing generator 25 DRAM 26 Compression / expansion circuit 27 Flash memory 28 ROM 29 RAM 30 Key input section 31 CPU 32 Signal Generator 33 VRAM 34 D / A converter 35 Amplifier 36 I / O port

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A digital camera provided with a display means, an image pickup means for picking up an image of a subject, a storage means for storing image data picked up by the image pickup means, and image data stored in the storage means is reproduced, A reproducing means for displaying on the display means; a selecting means for selecting the image data reproduced by the reproducing means; and a rearranging means for rearranging the order of the image data selected by the selecting means. Characteristic digital camera. 2. The storage means comprises an address table for storing address data corresponding to the image data to be stored, and the rearrangement means rearranges the address data in the address table to set the order of the image data. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the digital cameras are rearranged. 3. When the selecting means selects a rearrangement source, the display means displays one image at a time, and when the selecting means selects a rearrangement destination, the display means displays a plurality of images at a time. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the digital camera is a digital camera.