JP3533418B2 - Digital camera - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a digital camera,
In particular, a display means using a liquid crystal having a memory property is provided.
Regarding digital cameras .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the development of information electronic devices such as computers and digital cameras that require image display, and in response to a demand for low power consumption, liquid crystal having a memory property has been used. Various display devices having a display screen have been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-317324 discloses an example in which a ferroelectric liquid crystal is applied to an electronic camera. In addition, JP-A-10-1978
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 50 discloses an example in which a ferroelectric liquid crystal is used for a display device of a pen computer to save energy.

A display device using a liquid crystal having a memory property has an advantage that power is required for updating a display, but power for maintaining a display state is not required. However, if pressure is applied to the screen by being pressed with a finger while the display state of one piece of information is continued, the display state is disturbed. Since no electric power is required when continuing the display, such abnormal display also continues.

Conventionally, no consideration is given to disturbance during display continuation, and in actual use, display disturbance often occurs, and it is not possible to make full use of display memory and power saving. .

An object of the present invention is to provide a digital camera that can automatically repair, make use of the characteristics of the memory of the display means a sufficient disturbance of the display.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the digital camera according to the present invention comprises a display means having a display screen using a liquid crystal having a memory property, and a photographing mode.
Operating means for switching between the playback mode and the playback mode, and the operating means
When the playback mode is selected by
Storage means for storing the display contents of the column and the operation means.
If there is no changeover of the mode for a predetermined time, the above-mentioned
Control means for updating the display content of the display means based on the information stored in the storage means .

According to the present invention described above, the operation mode can be changed.
If the mode has not been switched for a predetermined time, it is recorded in the storage means.
The display content is updated based on the stored information . Therefore, even if pressure or the like acts on the screen during display to disturb the display, such an abnormal display does not continue and the original display state is restored.

The predetermined time in the present invention is something other than
This is the time when the display may be disturbed due to
If there is a switching operation of, the display contents will be updated accordingly.
Therefore, unnecessary update processing can be omitted.

Further, the display means may be provided on a data storage medium which is detachably attached to the main body of the digital camera . When the data storage medium is taken out from the main body of the system, the display is likely to be disturbed by the action of an external force, and the restoration of the display is effective for such a data storage medium. Further, for a removable data storage medium, it is preferable to update the display of the display means when the medium is mounted in the main body of the system.

[0010] Display of the digital camera unit, a live view of the camera body, for the thumbnail display of the captured image, or as storage contents display of the memory card, it is variously utilized. According to the present invention, it is extremely preferable that such display disorder of the display means can be restored to the original state.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The digital camera according to the present invention will be described below.
Embodiments of La will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(Structure of Memory Card with Memory Liquid Crystal)
First, a memory card with a liquid crystal with a memory used in an information display system such as a digital camera or a personal computer will be described. This memory card is PCMC
It is based on the IA type 2 standard and is used by mounting it in a PCMCIA card slot of a digital camera or a personal computer. A well-known flash memory is used for the memory section, and a liquid crystal composition having a memory property and exhibiting a cholesteric phase at room temperature (hereinafter referred to as cholesteric liquid crystal) is used for the display section.

(Display Principle of Memory Liquid Crystal) First, a liquid crystal display element used as a display unit will be described.
This liquid crystal display element is composed of a liquid crystal display element in which a cholesteric liquid crystal is sandwiched between substrates and a drive section thereof. FIG. 1 shows a sectional structure of a liquid crystal display element 10 as an example.

In FIG. 1, reference numerals 11, 12, 13, and 14 denote transparent substrates, and a plurality of transparent electrodes 15 and 16 are formed on the front and back surfaces of these transparent substrates in a strip shape and in a matrix shape orthogonal to each other. ing. A voltage is applied to the intersection of the electrodes 15 and 16 as described below, and this portion constitutes one pixel. 17 is a transparent substrate 11-14
It is a columnar structure that supports the spaces between the pixels, and is provided between the pixels at equal intervals (may be a random arrangement) over the entire surface of the transparent substrate (see FIG. 2). 18 is a cholesteric liquid crystal composition. Reference numeral 19 denotes a sealing material, which is used to seal the liquid crystal composition 18 between the transparent substrates. Each board 11 to
An insulating film and an orientation control film may be provided on the transparent electrode 15 and 16 on the transparent electrode 15, if necessary.

In this liquid crystal display element 10, a red layer R for displaying by switching between a red selective reflection state and a transparent state is arranged on a light absorber 20, and a green selective reflection state and a transparent state are provided thereon. A green layer G for displaying by switching between and, and further a blue layer B for displaying by switching between a blue selective reflection state and a transparent state.

In the liquid crystal display element 10, when the liquid crystal is in the planar arrangement, it is in the selective reflection state, and when it is in the focal conic reflection, it is in the transparent state, and this state is switched to perform display. That is, when the liquid crystal is in the planar state, if the helical pitch of the cholesteric liquid crystal is P and the average refractive index of the liquid crystal is n, light of wavelength λ = P · n is selectively reflected.

In the focal conic state, visible light is scattered when the selective reflection wavelength of the cholesteric liquid crystal is in the infrared light region, and visible light is transmitted when it is shorter than that. Therefore, the viewing side of the liquid crystal display element 10 (arrow A
By providing the light absorber 20 on the side opposite to (see) and setting the selective reflection wavelength in the visible light region, display in a specific color (planar state) and black (focal conic state) is possible. Further, if the selective reflection wavelength is set in the infrared light region, it is possible to display in black (planar state) and white due to scattering (focal conic state).

Letting Vth1 be the first threshold voltage for releasing the twist of the liquid crystal exhibiting the cholesteric phase, the voltage Vt is obtained.
After applying h1 for a sufficient time, the voltage is changed to the first threshold voltage V
When the voltage is lowered to the second threshold value Vth2 which is smaller than th1, the planar state is established. When a voltage of Vth2 or more and Vth1 or less is applied for a sufficient time, a focal conic state is set. These two states are maintained stable even after the voltage application is stopped. Further, it has been known that there is a mixed state of these two states, and it is known that halftone display (gradation display) is possible (US Pat. No. 5,384,067). reference).

The pixel configuration of the liquid crystal display element 10 is, as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of scanning electrodes R1, R2 to Rm.
And the signal electrodes C1 and C2 to Cn (m and n are natural numbers). The scan electrodes R1, R2 to Rm are connected to the output terminal of the scan drive circuit 21, and the signal electrodes C1, C
2 to Cn are connected to the output terminals of the signal drive circuit 22.

The scan drive circuit 21 includes scan electrodes R1 and R2.
A selection signal is output to a predetermined one of Rm to Rm to bring it into a selected state, while a non-selection signal is outputted to the other electrodes to bring it into a non-selected state. The scan drive circuit 21 sequentially switches the scan electrodes R1, R2 to Rm while switching the electrodes at predetermined time intervals.
The selection signal is applied to. On the other hand, the signal drive circuit 22
Outputs a signal corresponding to image data to each of the signal electrodes C1, C2 to Cn at the same time in order to rewrite each pixel on the scan electrodes R1, R2 to Rm in the selected state. For example, when the scan electrode Ra is selected (a is a natural number that satisfies a ≦ m), the scan electrode Ra and the signal electrodes C1 and C2 to Cn are selected.
The pixels LRa-C1 to LRa-Cn at the intersections with and are simultaneously rewritten. As a result, the voltage difference between the scanning electrode and the signal electrode in each pixel becomes the rewriting voltage of the pixel,
Each pixel is rewritten according to this rewriting voltage.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the image data to be displayed is represented by a matrix of m rows and n columns represented by [Pij], first, row vectors (P11, P12,
, P1n) is applied to the signal electrodes C1, C2, ..., Cn corresponding to the data of the first row, and R1 among the scan electrodes R1, R2, R3 ,.
To the predetermined potential. As a result, the pixel row L11,
, L1n are in the planar state or the focal conic state, and the display state of each pixel L11, L12, ..., L1n is maintained even when the voltage application to the scan electrode R1 is released.

Similarly, row vectors (Pi1, Pi2,
, Pin) is applied to the signal electrodes C1, C2, ..., Cn, and the scan electrodes R1, R2, R3 ,.
To the predetermined potential. As a result, the pixel row Li1,
, Lin becomes the planar state or the focal conic state, and the display state of each pixel Li1, Li2, ..., Lin is maintained even when the voltage application to the scan electrode Ri is released. By sequentially repeating this for all i where 1 ≦ i ≦ m, the display of one screen [Pij] is completed and the state is maintained.

Such a matrix drive is performed by each of the layers B,
A full-color image is displayed on the liquid crystal display element 10 by sequentially or simultaneously performing each of G and R. A moving image can be displayed by driving the liquid crystal while changing the data [Pij] corresponding to the screen in time series.

(Materials that can be used for liquid crystal display element and manufacturing method) As the transparent substrate, a colorless and transparent glass substrate or a polymer film such as polyether sulfone,
Resins such as polycarbonate and polyethylene terephthalate can be used.

As the electrode, a transparent electrode such as ITO or a NES film can be used, and it may be formed on the transparent substrate by a sputtering method or a vacuum evaporation method. As the lowermost electrode, a black electrode can be used including the role as a light absorber.

As the liquid crystal material, a material exhibiting a cholesteric phase at room temperature is particularly preferable. As such a liquid crystal material, a so-called chiral nematic liquid crystal in which a chiral material is added to nematic liquid crystal so as to exhibit a cholesteric phase at room temperature can be preferably used. Specific examples of suitable nematic liquid crystals include, but are not limited to, liquid crystal tolan compounds, liquid crystal pyrimidine compounds, liquid crystal ester compounds, liquid crystal cyanobiphenyl compounds,
Examples thereof include those containing a liquid crystal phenylcyclohexyl compound, a liquid crystal terphenyl compound, or a mixture thereof as a main component. A dye such as a dichroic dye may be added.

As the columnar structure, for example, a thermoplastic resin can be used. For this purpose, it is desired that the material be softened by heating and solidified by cooling so that it does not chemically change with the liquid crystal material and has appropriate elasticity. Although the columnar structure functions as a spacer between the substrates, a spherical spacer made of a conventionally used inorganic material may be used together.

(Structure of Memory Card with Memory Liquid Crystal)
There are two types of memory cards having a display section using a memory type liquid crystal as described above, that is, a memory section / display section integrated type and a display section / memory section separated type. is there.

(Memory / integrated display unit type) FIGS. 5 and 6
The memory card 40 shown in FIG. 1 corresponds to the PCMCIA type 2 standard, and includes flash memories 43 and 44, a drive circuit 45 including an address decoder on a substrate (not shown) in a metal card case 41, and the liquid crystal display. The element 10 and its drive circuits 21 and 22 are arranged. A transparent plastic window 42 is formed in a case 41 at a portion corresponding to the liquid crystal display element 10. In addition, a PCMCIA standard connector 46 is provided on one side of the case 41.
Is provided. This memory card 40 is used by being mounted in an information electronic device having a PCMCIA standard connector such as a digital camera or a personal computer in the direction of arrow X.

In this memory card 40, electric power is supplied from the information electronic device, but since the display section is composed of liquid crystal having a memory property, the memory card 40 is not taken out from the information electronic device. The display of the liquid crystal display element 10 can be continued even when the power is turned on. Details of the display form will be described later. Further, the connector 46 has a function of inputting / outputting electric power and signals to / from the memory portion and also having a function of inputting electric power / driving signals to the drive circuits 21 and 22 of the liquid crystal display element 10.

(Memory / separated display type) For facilitating replacement when the liquid crystal display element 10 is deteriorated and an adapter type for utilizing an existing memory card (one without the liquid crystal display element 10) There is a type where the display is attached to the housing of the memory card.

(Adapter type) As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the liquid crystal display device 10 is provided in a PC card adapter 52 for a compact flash memory card 50 widely used as a data storage medium of a digital camera. is there. The liquid crystal display element 10 can see the display through the transparent plastic window 53. The memory card 50 is mounted on the frame portion 54 of the adapter 52 in the direction of arrow X ₁ , and the connector 51 connected to the drive circuits 21 and 22 is coupled to the connector 55 provided on the adapter 52. The connector 55 is connected to the connector 46 provided on one side of the adapter 52. Note that FIG.
8 and FIG. 8, the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 5 and 6 indicate the same members.

(Display Attachment Type) As shown in FIG. 9B, a recess 58 for attaching the display is formed on the surface of a housing 57 of the compact flash memory card 56. Is provided with an electrode 59 for driving the display section. The liquid crystal display element 10 is integrally bonded to the support 25. The drive circuit 2 is provided on the back surface of the support 25.
Electrodes 26 electrically connected to the electrodes 1 and 22 are provided. By attaching the central portion of the back surface of the support 25 to the recess 58 with a double-sided tape or an adhesive, the electrodes 2
6, 59 are electrically joined.

A bulge 58a is formed in the recess 58, and a recess 25a is formed in the support 25. The liquid crystal display element 10 cannot be set in the recess 58 unless the recess 25a is aligned with the bulging portion 58a, and the liquid crystal display element 10 is not stuck in the wrong direction. Of course, the size of the support 25 is slightly smaller than the recess 58, and
With the liquid crystal display element 10 attached to the memory card 56, the surface of the display element 10 and the recess 5 of the memory card 56
Recess 5 so that the surface other than 8 is flush with the surface
The depth of 8, the thickness of the electrodes 26 and 59, and the thickness of the support 25 and the display element 10 are set. Therefore, the liquid crystal display element 10 is not peeled off when the memory type liquid crystal memory card 56 is attached to a digital camera or a personal computer, and the liquid crystal is deteriorated or damaged. Even if you want to replace the display with, you can easily work.

Further, the display unit may be mounted by providing a slot in the memory card, instead of attaching it. An example of this is shown in FIGS. That is, the connector 4 of the housing 61 of the compact flash memory card 60
6 is provided with a slot 62 for inserting a display portion formed of the liquid crystal display element 10 provided on the support 27, and the display portion is provided with a slot 62 in the direction of arrow X _1.
By mounting the electrode 26 of the liquid crystal display element 10 to the back, the electrode 26 of the liquid crystal display element 10 and the electrode 59 (see FIG. 12) provided inside the housing 61 are electrically connected.

Further, a transparent plastic window 63 corresponding to the insertion position of the liquid crystal display element 10 is provided on the surface of the housing 61, and in the state where the display portion is mounted in the memory card 60, the memory card with a memory type liquid crystal is provided. Can be used as. Further, the housing 61 is provided with a lever 64 for taking out the display portion from the slot 62. Regarding the take-out mechanism including the lever 64,
Since it is the same as the well-known PCMCIA slot, its explanation is omitted.

FIG. 12 shows a memory / display separated type (FIG. 9,
(See FIG. 10). The reference numerals assigned to the circuit members are the same as those in FIG. 6, and the description thereof will be omitted.

(Driving Circuit) Here, with respect to the mechanism for displaying the content of the image data on the liquid crystal display element 10, particularly the details of the scanning driving circuit 21 and the signal driving circuit 22 are shown in FIG.
Will be described with reference to. Note that FIG. 13 illustrates a portion related to driving of the liquid crystal display element 10.
Actually, the flash memories 43 and 44 are mounted on the memory card as described above, but the drive circuit thereof is well known and will not be described.

A memory type liquid crystal memory card is a PCM controlled by a CPU of a digital camera or a personal computer via a card interface.
It is based on CIA specifications. Therefore, there are four types of terminals of the card (data bus, address bus, control bus, power supply line, and ground line, none of which are shown). When displaying an image on the liquid crystal display element 10, a CPU such as a digital camera or a personal computer issues a write command to the control bus, specifies an address, and outputs data.

Based on the output of the data, the timing controller 70 first stores the image data to be displayed on the first line in the line buffer 71, and when the storage is completed, the image data on the first line is stored in each line. Timing is controlled so that the columns are read out simultaneously and the 8-bit image data are converted into analog image signals by each D / A converter 72.

From the power source of the digital camera or personal computer, a voltage of +5 V is supplied to this drive circuit through the memory card interface. However, in order to drive the liquid crystal display element 10, it is necessary to set the potential difference between the electrodes to a predetermined value in order to bring the liquid crystal state into the focal conic state or the planar state. Therefore, the input voltage is boosted to a predetermined value by the DC / DC converter 73 and then supplied to the driving buffer 74. As a result, the driving buffer 74 is
The analog image signal output from the A converter 72 is amplified and applied to the electrode rows C1, C2, ..., Cn.

On the other hand, the timing controller 70
At the time when the image data of the line should be displayed,
Data is sent to the decoder 75 so that only the switching circuit 76-1 is turned on and the other switching circuits are turned off. When only the switching circuit 76-1 is turned on,
The output of the DC / DC converter 73 is applied only to the electrode row R1. As a result, only the first row of the electrodes is in a display state according to the image data, and even if the voltage application is stopped, the liquid crystal has a memory property, so that display state is maintained.

Similarly, regarding the display of the image data of the i-th row (1≤i≤m), the image data of the i-th row is stored in the line buffer 71 with reference to the timing signal (column direction). When the storage is completed, the image data of the i-th row is read out simultaneously in each column, the 8-bit image data is converted into an analog image signal by the D / A converter 72, and the driving buffer 74 is the D / A converter. The analog image signal output by 72 is amplified, and the electrode arrays C1, C2,
..., applied to Cn.

On the other hand, the timing controller 70
At the time when the image data of the line should be displayed,
Data is sent to the decoder 75 so that only the switching circuit 76-i is turned on and the other switching circuits are turned off. Therefore, the output of the DC / DC converter 73 is applied only to the electrode row Ri, only the i-th row in the electrode is in a display state according to the image data, and the display state is maintained even when the voltage application is stopped.

The above driving is repeated for one screen,
Whenever the screen is updated, the same procedure is used each time to rewrite from the first line.

As described above, the signal driving circuit 22 is composed of the line buffer 71, the D / A converter 72, and the driving buffer 74, and the scanning driving circuit 21 is composed of the timing controller 70, the DC / DC converter 73, the decoder 75, and the like. It is composed of switching circuits 76-1 to 76-m. The timing controller 70 and DC / DC
The converter 73 may be included in the signal drive circuit 22. Furthermore, it is not difficult to configure these circuits with one chip. Further, since the liquid crystal display element 10 is a full color display, the drive circuits 21 and 22 are required for RGB 3 channels. Therefore, actually, three sets of the signal drive circuit 22, the decoder 75, and the switching circuits 76-1 to 76-m are provided, and these are controlled by one timing controller 70.

By the way, in view of the nature of the memory card as a storage medium that can be exchanged with the information electronic equipment, the drive mode is such that the memory card itself has a built-in drive section or a common section in the drive circuit. There are two types, an external drive unit type, which is arranged outside the memory card.

(Drive unit built-in type) This is a liquid crystal display element 1.
All the drive circuits of 0 are built in the memory card, and the display of one screen is completed by sending RGB data for display from the outside. Therefore, there is an advantage that control is simple. Also, as in the example above, the PCMCIA
When using a general-purpose interface such as, it is necessary to adopt this method.

(External drive unit type) This is a device in which a part of the drive circuit of the liquid crystal display element 10 is provided in a device such as a digital camera or a personal computer to which a memory card is attached and used. Therefore, there are advantages that the memory card becomes compact and the cost is reduced.

In the drive circuit shown in FIG. 13, blocks enclosed by double lines are blocks that are preferably mounted on a memory card, and other blocks are blocks that can be mounted on a digital camera or a personal computer. Applicable By mounting at least the block surrounded by the double line on the memory card, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to increase the number of pins of the connector so much even if the number of electrodes increases as the number of display pixels increases.

(Digital Camera in Which Memory Card with Liquid Crystal with Memory is Usable) A digital camera in which the memory card with liquid crystal with memory described above can be used as a storage medium for imaged data will be described.

Since this digital camera is provided with the display unit on the memory card, it is conceivable that various displays of the digital camera may be displayed on the display unit on the memory card. However, first, a type in which the display unit of the digital camera and the display unit of the memory card are not combined will be described.

(Type not used for display section) (Structure of digital camera) As shown in FIGS. 14 to 17, the digital camera 100 is composed of a camera body section 102 and an image pickup section 103. The imaging unit 103 is attachable to and detachable from the right side surface of the camera body 102 when viewed from the front.

The image pickup section 103 is a well-known CCD 303 (FIG. 18) which functions as a color area sensor at a proper position behind the zoom lens 301 with a macro function which is a photographing lens.
See). Further, similar to a camera using a silver salt film, a dimming circuit 304 including a dimming sensor 305 for receiving reflected light of a flash light from a subject at a proper position in the image pickup unit 103, for measuring the distance of the subject. A distance measuring sensor 306 and an optical finder 307 are provided.

On the other hand, inside the image pickup section 103, a zoom motor M1 (FIG. 1) for changing the zoom ratio of the zoom lens 301 and for moving the lens between the accommodation position and the photographing position.
8) and a motor M2 for performing focusing.

A grip 104 and a built-in flash 105 are provided on the front surface of the camera body 102, and further,
An IRDA port 106 for performing infrared communication with the digital camera 100 and an external device (for example, another digital camera or a personal computer) is provided. Further, the shutter button 10 is provided on the upper surface of the camera body 102.
9 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 15, the camera body 102
An LCD display unit 110 for displaying a captured image on a monitor (corresponding to a viewfinder), playing back a stored image, and the like is provided at a substantially central portion on the back of the. Also, LC
The digital camera 100 is provided below the D display unit 110.
Key switch group 111 and power switch 11 for operating
Two are provided. Further, on the left side of the power switch 112, an LED 113 that lights up when the power is on and an LED 114 that displays a state that the memory card is being accessed are provided.

Further, on the back surface of the camera body 102,
Shooting / switching between “shooting mode” and “playback mode”
A reproduction mode setting switch 120 is provided. The shooting mode is a mode for taking a picture, and the reproduction mode is for displaying the shot image recorded on the memory card on the LCD display unit 110.
This is the mode for playing and displaying on. The shooting / playback mode setting switch 120 is a two-contact slide switch. For example, sliding it down sets the playback mode, and sliding it up sets the shooting mode.

A quad switch is provided on the right side of the rear surface of the camera body 102, and buttons 121, 1
Pressing 22 drives the zoom motor M1 to perform zooming, and pressing buttons 123 and 124 performs exposure correction.

In FIG. 15, an LCD button 311 and a macro button 312 are provided on the back side of the image pickup section 103. Each time the LCD button 311 is pressed, LC
The on / off state of the D display unit 110 is switched. For example, when taking a picture using only the optical viewfinder 307, the LCD display unit 110 can be turned off for the purpose of power saving. When the macro button 312 is pressed during macro shooting, the focus motor M2 is driven and the shooting lens 301 is ready for macro shooting.

As shown in FIG. 16, the digital camera 10
On the side surface of 0, the DC input terminal 308 and the LCD display unit 1
A video output terminal 309 for outputting the image displayed on the screen 10 to an external video monitor is provided.

As shown in FIG. 17, the camera body 102
A battery loading chamber 131 and a card loading chamber 132 for a memory card are provided on the bottom surface of the device, and the loading chambers 131 and 132 are closed by a clamshell type lid 130. This digital camera 100 uses a power source battery 135 formed by connecting four AA dry batteries in series as a drive source. Further, a release lever 136 for releasing the engagement between the image pickup unit 103 and the main body unit 102, which are connected by the connector and the hook-shaped connector, is provided on the bottom surface.

(Control Circuit) Next, the control circuit of the image pickup unit 103 will be described with reference to FIG. CCD 303
Is an image signal of an object formed by the macro zoom lens 301, which is an image signal of color components of R (red), G (green), and B (blue) (from a signal sequence of pixel signals received by each pixel). Signal) and output it. The timing generator 314 generates various timing pulses for controlling the driving of the CCD 303.

Since the diaphragm is a fixed diaphragm, the exposure control in the image pickup section 103 is performed by adjusting the exposure amount of the CCD 303, that is, the charge accumulation time of the CCD 303 corresponding to the shutter speed. If the appropriate shutter speed cannot be set when the subject brightness is low, the CCD3
Improper exposure due to insufficient exposure is corrected by adjusting the level of the image signal output from 03. That is, when the brightness is low, exposure control is performed by combining shutter speed and gain adjustment. The level adjustment of the image signal is performed in the gain adjustment of the AGC circuit in the signal processing circuit 313.

The timing generator 314 generates a drive control signal for the CCD 303 based on the reference clock transmitted from the timing control circuit 202. For example,
Timing signal of integration start / end (exposure start / end),
Read-out control signal (horizontal synchronization signal,
A clock signal such as a vertical synchronizing signal or a transfer signal) is generated and output to the CCD 303.

The signal processing circuit 313 subjects the image signal (analog signal) output from the CCD 303 to predetermined analog signal processing. The signal processing circuit 313 is a CDS.
It has a (correlated double sampling) circuit and an AGC (auto gain control) circuit, the noise of the image signal is reduced by the CDS circuit, and the level of the image signal is adjusted by adjusting the gain of the AGC circuit.

The dimming circuit 304 controls the light emission amount of the built-in flash 105 during flash photography to a predetermined light emission amount set by the overall controller 211. In flash photography, the reflected light of the flash light from the subject is received by the sensor 305 at the same time when the exposure is started, and when the received light amount reaches a predetermined light emission amount, the dimming circuit 3
A light emission stop signal is output from 04. The flash drive circuit 216 forcibly stops the light emission of the built-in flash 105 in response to the light emission stop signal, and thereby the light emission amount of the built-in flash 105 is controlled to a predetermined light emission amount.

The image pickup section 103 and the main body section 102 have seven groups of connection terminal groups 334a, 334b, 334c, 334d, 33 provided on the mounting surface 334 of the image pickup section 103.
4e, 334f, 334g and the connecting surface 2 of the main body 102
7 groups of connection terminal groups 234a, 2
34b, 234c, 234d, 234e, 234f, 2
It is electrically connected by 34g.

Next, the control circuit of the camera body 102 will be described. In the camera body 102, the A / D
The converter 205 converts each pixel signal of the image signal into a 10-bit digital signal. That is, each pixel signal (analog signal) is converted into a 10-bit digital signal based on the clock for A / D conversion input from the timing control circuit 202.

The timing control circuit 202 includes a reference clock, a timing generator 314, and an A / D converter 20.
A clock for 5 is generated, and the overall control unit 21
Controlled by 1.

The black level correction circuit 206 corrects the black level of the A / D converted pixel signal (hereinafter referred to as pixel data) to a reference black level. The WB circuit 207 performs level conversion of pixel data of R, G, and B color components so that the white balance is also adjusted after γ correction. The WB circuit 207 converts the levels of pixel data of R, G, and B color components using the level conversion table input from the overall control unit 211. Note that the conversion coefficient (gradient of characteristics) of each color component of the level conversion table is set by the overall control unit 211 for each captured image.

The γ correction circuit 208 corrects the γ characteristic of pixel data. The image memory 209 is a memory that stores the pixel data output from the γ correction circuit 208. The image memory 209 has a storage capacity for one frame. That is, the image memory 209 is the CCD 303.
Has a pixel of n rows and m columns, it has a storage capacity of pixel data of n × m pixels, and each pixel data is stored at a corresponding pixel position.

The VRAM 210 is a buffer memory for image data reproduced and displayed on the LCD display section 110. The VRAM 210 has a storage capacity of image data corresponding to the number of pixels of the LCD display unit 110.

In the photographing standby state, each pixel data of the image picked up by the image pickup unit 103 at predetermined intervals is A
After being subjected to predetermined signal processing by the / D converter 205 to γ correction circuit 208, it is stored in the image memory 209, transferred to the VRAM 210 via the overall control unit 211, and displayed on the LCD display unit 110. (Live view display). As a result, the photographer can visually recognize the subject image from the image displayed on the LCD display unit 110. In the reproduction mode, the image read from the memory card is transferred to the VRAM 210 after being subjected to predetermined signal processing by the overall control unit 211, and the LCD display unit 110.
Is displayed on the screen.

The card I / F 212 is an interface for writing image data to and reading image data from the memory card.

The flash drive circuit 216 is a circuit for controlling the light emission of the built-in flash 105. The drive circuit 216 controls the presence / absence of light emission, the amount of light emission, the light emission timing, etc. of the built-in flash 105 based on the control signal of the overall control unit 211, and the built-in flash 105 of the built-in flash 105 based on the light emission stop signal input from the dimming circuit 304. Control the amount of light emission. The RTC 219 is a clock circuit for managing the shooting date and time, and is driven by another power source (not shown). Operation part 2
Reference numeral 50 represents the various keys, switches, and buttons described above.

By the way, the shutter button 109 is a two-step switch capable of detecting the half-pressed state S1 and the pressed-in state S2 as employed in a camera using a silver salt film. When the shutter button 109 is set to the S1 state in the standby state, the distance information from the distance measuring sensor 306 is input to the overall control unit 211. The overall controller 211 drives the AF motor M2 based on this distance information to move the zoom lens 301 to the in-focus position.

The overall control unit 211 is composed of a CPU, and organically controls the driving of each member in the image pickup unit 103 and the camera body unit 102 to integrally control the photographing operation of the digital camera 100. Circuits and the like arranged in the periphery are connected by an address bus, a data bus, and a control bus. Note that, in FIG. 18, the arrows are shown for the sake of convenience to show the flow of signals and image data. In reality, image data is sent to each circuit via the overall control unit 211. Therefore, R for storing a work memory and a program (not shown)
Built-in OM.

Further, the overall control section 211 is provided with a brightness determining section for setting an exposure control value (shutter speed) and a shutter speed setting section. The brightness determination unit
1/30 by CCD 303 in the shooting standby state
The brightness of the subject is determined by using the image captured every (second). That is, the brightness determination unit determines the brightness of the subject using the image data that is updated and stored in the image memory 209. The shutter speed setting unit sets the shutter speed (the integration time of the CCD 303) based on the result of the brightness determination of the subject by the brightness determination unit.

Further, the overall control unit 211 is provided with a filter unit for performing a filtering process and a recorded image generation unit for generating a thumbnail image and a compressed image in order to perform the recording process of the photographed image, and further, a memory card is provided. In order to reproduce the recorded image on the LCD display unit 110, a reproduction image generation unit that generates a reproduction image is provided.

The filter section corrects the high frequency component of the image to be recorded by the digital filter to correct the image quality relating to the contour.

The recorded image generator reads pixel data from the image memory 209 and generates thumbnail images and compressed images to be recorded on the memory card. The recorded image generation unit scans the image memory 209 in the raster scanning direction, reads out pixel data for each 8 pixels in both the horizontal and vertical directions, and sequentially transfers the pixel data to the memory card to generate thumbnail images. Record on the memory card while generating.

Further, the recorded image generating section is composed of the image memory 20.
9. All pixel data are read from 9, and the pixel data are subjected to predetermined compression processing by the JPEG system such as two-dimensional DCT conversion and Huffman coding to generate image data of a compressed image, and the compressed image data is stored in a memory card. Record in the image area.

In the photographing mode, the general control section 211 receives a photographing instruction from the shutter button 109,
A thumbnail image of the image captured in the image memory 209 after the shooting instruction and a compressed image compressed by the JPEG method at the compression rate set by the compression rate setting switch are generated. Then, the generated compression is performed together with tag information (frame number, exposure value, shutter speed, compression rate, shooting date, flash on / off data at the time of shooting, scene information, image determination result, etc.) related to the shot image. Store the image on the memory card.

Each frame of the image recorded by the digital camera 100 includes a tag portion, high-resolution image data (1600 × 1200 pixels) compressed in JPEG format, and image data for thumbnail display (80 × 60 pixels). Is recorded. The capacity of image data for one frame is about 1 MB.

When the shooting / playback mode setting switch 120 is set to the playback mode, the image data with the largest frame number in the memory card is read out, the playback image generation unit decompresses the data, and this is transferred to the VRAM 210. As a result, the LCD display unit 110 displays the image with the largest frame number, that is, the image captured most recently. By operating the UP switch 111a, an image with a large frame number is displayed, and the DOWN switch 111a is displayed.
By pressing b, an image with a small frame number is displayed.

(Display Sequence of Liquid Crystal Display Element) Next,
An example of a sequence of data display on the liquid crystal display element 10 of the non-display unit type will be described.

(1) As an example of the image updating memory card on the card, the memory section / display section separated type and drive section built-in type memory card 56 shown in FIG. 9 is shown in FIG.
9 and FIG. 20 and will be described again. As described above, this memory card 56 is compatible with conventional general memory cards. The liquid crystal display element 10 is composed of 300 pixels in the column direction and 400 pixels in the row direction in FIG. 19, and electrodes 15 and 16 are also provided corresponding to the number of pixels.

Such a memory card 56 is provided to the user with the liquid crystal display element 10 in the non-display state (FIG. 19).
reference). In the control procedure described below, it is assumed that the thumbnail of the captured image is updated on the liquid crystal display element 10 every time after the user attaches the memory card 56 to the digital camera 100 and then captures the image.

That is, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 21, when the digital camera 100 is activated, first, in step S10, the presence or absence of a memory card is determined. If there is no card, a warning message indicating no card is displayed in step S11. If there is a card, step S1
In step 2, it is determined whether or not a memory card with a liquid crystal with a memory function is inserted. The type of memory card is determined by the attribute (data preset at a predetermined address) given to the card. When the card is not inserted or when the conventional memory card is inserted (NO in step S12), the conventional normal digital camera process is performed in step S13. If a memory type liquid crystal memory card is inserted, it is determined in step S14 whether or not a digital camera format is required.

If formatting is required, step S
Formatting is performed at 15. In the formatting process in step S15, the formatting process is started after user confirmation, and during the formatting process, the overall control unit 211 controls the liquid crystal display element 10 via the card I / F 212.
Write processing to. Figure 2
As shown in FIG. 0, the liquid crystal display element 10 includes a frame 80 for displaying thumbnails, the number of shot frames 82, and a free space of 8 cards.
3 is displayed. The size of the thumbnail image of one frame is 8
Since the size is 0 × 60 mm, and there is a margin for displaying information around, a thumbnail image of 16 frames can be displayed. Depending on the image size of the digital camera and the capacity of the memory card, it may be possible to shoot 16 or more frames. At that time, the size of the thumbnail image is reduced to display all the frames, or only the 16 most recently captured frames are displayed based on the shooting time.

If no format is required (step S
14), the digital camera 100 in step S16.
It is determined by a flag (not shown) whether or not the state is a state immediately after the memory card with the liquid crystal with memory is attached. This flag is reset to 0 when there is no memory card and is set to 1 when the memory card is installed. Therefore, it can be determined by detecting the change in this flag.

Immediately after the card is mounted, the display of the liquid crystal display element may be disturbed by the pressure applied when the card is mounted. Therefore, the display of the liquid crystal display element is updated in step S17 even if no image is taken. Specifically, the thumbnail image recorded on the memory card is read and displayed. Then, in step S18, the liquid crystal display element is controlled.

Next, the control procedure of the liquid crystal display element in step S18 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S21, the mode of the camera is determined. If it is the photographing mode, steps S22 to S24
Process. That is, it is determined whether or not the shutter button 109 has been pressed in step S22, that is, whether or not the state is the S2 state. If the shutter button 109 is pressed, the image processing of the captured image data and the recording processing to the flash memory in the memory card 56 are performed in step S23. Further, in step S24, the thumbnail image of the liquid crystal display element 10 is updated. That is, as shown in FIG. 23, the thumbnail image 85 of the captured image and the frame number 81 are displayed at the display position of each frame. At the same time, the number of shot frames 82 and the free space display 83 of the memory card 56 are also updated. Next, in step S25, other processing in the shooting mode is performed, and the process proceeds to step S33.

By the way, in the liquid crystal display element 10, since the signal drive circuit 22 drives the signal electrodes arranged in the column direction as described above, data is written row by row. Therefore, the thumbnail images are added in the row direction as shown by the arrow Y in FIG. If thumbnail images are added in the column direction (the direction orthogonal to the arrow)
If this is done, for example, when adding the thumbnail image of the second frame, it is necessary to rewrite the image of the first frame again, and it takes time to display.

If the signal drive circuit 22 is configured to drive the electrodes arranged in the row direction, the thumbnail images are added in the column direction. That is,
The additional direction of the thumbnail image is made to coincide with the array direction of the electrodes driven by the scan drive circuit 21.

On the other hand, in the playback mode, the camera L
On the CD display unit 110, it is possible to display a list of photographed images, format a memory card, and delete a specific image. FIG. 24 shows the main part of screen transition in the reproduction mode. Immediately after switching from the shooting mode to the reproduction mode, the taken image with the largest frame number is displayed, and the menu selection screen D1 is displayed by a predetermined operation of the operation key 111.

On the screen D1, the four modes shown in the figure can be selected, and these four keys 123, 12 are used.
It becomes possible to select cyclically by pressing 4. When the execute key 111d is pressed with the memory card format selected on the screen D1, the screen D
When the display transitions to 2 and the display state is "Formatting" and the formatting of the memory card is completed, the screen returns to the screen D1.

Further, when the user selects the image data deletion and presses the execute key 111d, the screen is changed to the screen D3, and a list of imaged images is displayed. At this time, four consecutive keys 121 to 12
A specific frame image is selected by the operation of 4, and a frame 90 is displayed around the selected image. When the delete key 111d is pressed on the screen D3, the image data of the specific frame in the memory card is deleted. When the return key 111f is pressed, the screen returns to the screen D1.

Returning to FIG. 22, the above operation will be described with a flowchart. In step S26, it is determined whether the format of the memory card is designated. If the format is designated and the execution of the format is instructed, the memory card is formatted in step S27. Next, in step S28, the liquid crystal display element 1
The display state of 0 is updated so that all thumbnail images are erased.

If the deletion of the image pickup data is designated (YES in step S29), the image pickup data of the frame designated in step S30 is deleted, and the thumbnail image is updated in step S31. That is, if the data of the nth frame is deleted, the imaged image data of the (n + 1) th frame is re-registered as the image of the nth frame, and the thumbnail image of the imaged image data of the (n + 1) th frame is set to the nth image. Display again in the frame. These processes are performed on all image data of the (n + 1) th frame and thereafter. In step S32, other processing in the reproduction mode is executed, and the process proceeds to step S33.

In steps S33 to S35, a power shutoff process is executed. In step S33, it is determined whether or not there is a power-off instruction by operating the power switch 112. If there is no power off operation, the process returns to the main routine. If the power is turned off, the completion of drawing the thumbnail image is waited in step S34, and then step S35 is performed.
Power-off processing is executed with. This can prevent the inconvenience that the power is turned off during the updating of the thumbnail image.

(Type for Display Unit) Since the memory card according to the present invention is provided with the liquid crystal display unit, the liquid crystal display unit can be used as both the display contents of the memory card and the operation display of the digital camera. Conceivable. Less than,
The digital camera that also serves as the display unit will be described. The front view and side view of this camera 100 'are as shown in FIGS. 14 and 16, and the rear view is shown in FIG.
FIG. 26 is a bottom view. The reference numerals are given in common with FIGS. 14 to 17, and duplicate explanations are omitted. Although the memory card is represented by the one shown in FIG. 9, it goes without saying that another memory card can be used.

25 and 26, the camera body 1
02, a card slot 141 for the memory card 56 and a connector 142 are provided on the display support 140 provided on the back surface of the 02.
Has been installed. The memory card 56 is the display support 14
It can be attached to the camera 100 'from the lower end surface of 0. The window 14 is provided on the rear side of the display unit support 140 and corresponding to the liquid crystal display element 10 of the memory card 56.
3 is formed. Therefore, when the memory card 56 is attached, the screen of the liquid crystal display element 10 can be visually recognized, and in this state, it can be used as a display unit of the camera 100 ′.

Furthermore, in the present digital camera 100 ',
A conventional T that illuminates the main body 102 with a backlight
An LCD display unit 110 using FT liquid crystal is also provided. Since the cholesteric liquid crystal used in the liquid crystal display element 10 has a relatively slow response, the LCD display unit 110 is used exclusively when displaying a moving image. LC
By pressing the D button 311 the LCD display unit 110
The display state of can be switched on / off. In addition,
If you don't mind the slow screen update of the movie display, LCD
The display unit 110 does not necessarily have to be provided. If the LCD display unit 110 is not provided, the LCD button 311 is unnecessary.

Next, a memory card 56 with a liquid crystal having a memory effect
Will be described regarding an operation sequence in the case where is also used as the display unit of the camera.

(1) When the LCD display section 110 is not provided. In this case, in the control circuit shown in FIG.
RAM 210, LCD display unit 110 and backlight 1
60 becomes unnecessary. In particular, the life of the battery is extended by reducing the power consumption by eliminating the need for the backlight 160.

The processing after the power is turned on is the same as the flowchart shown in FIG. 21, but since there is no display section when the memory card is not inserted, step S
In the warning display without a card processed in 11, LE
A warning is issued by blinking D114. Further, the display state of the display portion of the card after the formatting is as shown in FIG. 27, and the thumbnail display frame 80 (see FIG.
0) is not displayed. In the display combined type,
This is because, in addition to thumbnail images, various other camera information is displayed on the liquid crystal display element 10 of the memory card 56, so it is not desirable to uniformly display the thumbnail frame 80 during formatting.

Further, the control of the liquid crystal display element in step S18 is performed according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. First, in step S51,
The state of the mode selector switch 120 at that time is determined, and shooting mode processing (step S52) is performed in the shooting mode, and playback mode processing (step S53) is performed in the playback mode. Note that the power-off processing in steps S54 to S56 is performed in steps S33 to S35 shown in FIG.
The process is the same as in.

Next, the photographing mode processing executed in step S52 will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step S61, the screen of the liquid crystal display element 10 is updated to the shooting mode screen shown in FIG. In FIG. 30, the dotted line portion indicates the memory card 5 loaded in the camera body 102.
6 is represented. Also, 82 is the number of frames already taken,
Reference numeral 83 indicates the free capacity of the memory card. A status line 87 displays various warnings such as insufficient illuminance.
Reference numerals 88, 89, and 90 are labels representing the states of the camera 100 'corresponding to the keys directly below, respectively. By pressing the key 111d immediately below the label 88, one frame shooting, continuous shooting, and interval shooting are possible. Also, the label 89
Flash 1 by pressing the key 111e directly below
The mode of 05 can be switched. The key 111f immediately below the label 90 is the live view display area 91, 92.
To switch between large and small.

The live view display areas 91 and 92 are
It is possible to switch between a small size indicated by 1 and a large size indicated by 92. When the size is small, since the number of pixels used for display is small, it is not necessary to rewrite a wide area of the screen, and the screen update interval of the liquid crystal display element 10 can be shortened. On the other hand, when the size is large, the screen update interval is slightly long, but the details of the subject can be confirmed because the number of pixels used for display is large. As described above, by appropriately using the size of the live view display area depending on the purpose, it is possible to achieve both operability and visibility.

Returning to FIG. 29, it is determined in step S62 whether the shutter button 109 is in the S1 (half pressed) state. If not in the S1 state, it is determined in step S63 whether or not the screen of the liquid crystal display element 10 is being drawn. If the screen is not being drawn, it is determined in step S71 whether or not there is another key operation. If there is no other key operation, the overall control unit 211 determines in step S73 the imaging unit 10
3 is energized, and an instruction to capture an image for live view is issued in step S74. After that, in step S75, the image data is loaded into the image memory 209, and after the completion of loading the image data, the power supply to the imaging unit 103 is cut off in step S76. Next, in step S77, drawing of live view image data on the liquid crystal display element 10 is started using the image data in the image memory 209, and the process returns to step S62.

On the other hand, at the stage where drawing is completed, unless there is another key operation (NO in step S71), the next live view image is picked up in step S74. In this way, by triggering the screen update of the liquid crystal display element 10 to instruct the image capturing unit 103 to capture a live view image, C is displayed during the drawing of the live view image.
It is possible to turn off the power supply of the CD 303, and it is possible to further save power. The trigger for capturing the next live view image may be a timing slightly earlier than the completion of drawing, without waiting for the completion of drawing in step S63.

In the control procedure, NO in step S63.
If so, the process proceeds to step S71. That is, the key operation is not accepted while the image is being drawn on the liquid crystal display element 10. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a situation in which a key operation is accepted each time and drawing is restarted from each time, that is, it takes time to update the display, resulting in extremely high operability.

When the shutter button 109 is in the S1 state (YES in step S62), the image pickup unit 103 is energized in step S64, and the AF process and the AE process are executed in step S65. Thereafter, when it is determined in step S66 that the shutter button 109 is in the S2 (pressed) state, the image data captured by the CCD 303 is loaded in step S68, and then the image data is written in the flash memory of the memory card 56 in step S69.
In step S70, the power supply to the image pickup unit 103 is turned off, and the process proceeds to step S71.

On the other hand, when the shutter button 109 does not enter the S2 state (NO in step S66), the step S
In S67, it is determined whether the state is the S1 state. If it is the S1 state, the process returns to step S65 again. If it is not the S1 state, the energization to the image pickup unit 103 is turned off in step S70, and the step S7
Move to 1.

As described above, the key operation is not accepted during the image drawing on the liquid crystal display element 10, but is accepted only in the S1 state, so that a photo opportunity is provided. Never miss it.

If it is determined in step S71 that another key has been operated, a process corresponding to the operated key is executed in step S72. For example, if the switching process to the reproduction mode is performed, the reproduction mode process described below is executed.

Now, the control procedure of the reproduction mode process will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step S81, it is determined whether or not the shooting mode has been changed. If there is such a change, the timer T1 used to determine whether or not there has been an operation for a predetermined time is reset in step S82, and in steps S83 to S85, the screen is rewritten to the screen in the reproduction mode.

That is, in step S83, the image data having the largest frame number is fetched from the flash memory of the memory card 56, and in step S84, the display state of the liquid crystal display element 10 is updated. The update screen here is as shown in FIG. 32, and those given the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 30 in FIG. 32 show the same contents. As a new display, 94 is a delete label, and the key 111d immediately below this label 94 is displayed.
Is a delete key. Reference numeral 95 denotes a one-frame display label, and the key 111e immediately below the label 95 is a one-frame display / thumbnail display switching key. Further, although 87 is a status display, the file name of the displayed image and the shooting date and time may be displayed if necessary. Reference numerals 91 and 92 denote areas in which captured images are displayed, and the display size can be changed by pressing the key 111f immediately below the label 90 as in the shooting mode.

As described above, even if there is a transition in the display state between the shooting mode and the playback mode, some of the display contents (number of shot frames 82, free space 83, etc.) are shared, so that the screen The display update time can be shortened because it is not necessary to rewrite the entire surface.

Returning to FIG. 31, in step S85, the display state of the liquid crystal display element 10 is temporarily stored in the work memory in the overall control section 211. The reason will be described later. The format of the temporary storage is as follows.

Code displayed on the status line: file name, shooting date and time, and other display frame number: display state corresponding to the number key of the displayed frame: contents of 88, 89, 90

Next, in step S86, it is determined whether or not there is a display frame switching process, and in step S87, the timer T1 is reset. To switch the display frame, press the quad switch 121 to load and display the image data of the previous frame number on the liquid crystal display device 10, and press the switch 122 to load and display the image data of the next frame number. To do. That is, in steps S88 and S89, image data acquisition and display update are processed, and step S90
Then, the display state is overwritten and stored in the work memory described above.

Next, in step S91, it is determined whether the image display size has been switched. When the image display size is switched, the timer T is set in step S92.
1 is reset, the display frame image data is fetched again in step S93, and is displayed in the size designated in step S94. Next, in step S95, the liquid crystal display element 10
The display state of is overwritten and stored in the work memory described above.

Further, if another key operation is confirmed in step S96, the timer T1 is reset in step S97, and each processing corresponding to the key operation is executed in step S98. If necessary, the display state of the liquid crystal display element 10 is updated and stored, and the original routine is returned to.

On the other hand, if NO in step S96, that is, if no key operation is performed, step S9
In step 9, the timer T1 is counted up, and step S1
After confirming that there is no operation for a predetermined time (for example, 5 minutes) on the basis of the count value of the timer T1 at 00, the current display state of the liquid crystal display element 10 is read from the work memory at step S101, and step S10 is performed accordingly.
In step 2, the display state of the liquid crystal display element 10 is updated, and step S
At 103, the timer T1 is reset.

The reason why the display state of the liquid crystal display element 10 is updated in step S102 is as follows. The cholesteric liquid crystal used in the present embodiment has an advantage that it does not consume power when the display is continued, and therefore, the same display state continues for a long time if no operation is performed. . In the meantime, when external pressure is applied to the display screen, the state of the liquid crystal in that portion may partially change, and the displayed image may be unsightly.
Such a situation is repaired by updating the display at regular intervals of, for example, 5 minutes.

The operations in steps S96 and S100 include an operation of switching from the reproduction mode to the photographing mode. The change from the reproduction mode to the shooting mode is performed in step S98, but at this time, the work memory is cleared.

(2) When the display unit 110 is provided In this case, only the live view display in the photographing mode is performed by the display unit 110 using the conventional TFT liquid crystal and the backlight. FIG. 31 shows the control procedure in the reproduction mode.
33, and the control procedure in the shooting mode is shown in FIG.

When the reproduction mode is switched to the photographing mode, first, in step S111, the liquid crystal display element 1
The display of 0 is updated to the thumbnail display as shown in FIG. This thumbnail display adds thumbnail images of photographed images to the liquid crystal screen each time a photograph is taken, as in FIG. In FIG. 34, portions having the same functions as those in FIGS. 23 and 30 are given the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

In this photographing mode, since the live view image is displayed on the display section 110 composed of the TFT liquid crystal with a backlight, the image pickup section 103 is turned on in step S112 to display the live view image at predetermined intervals. Take an image. That is, in step S113, it is determined whether the shutter button 109 is in the S1 (half pressed) state. S
If it is not in the 1 state, if it is confirmed in step S119 that there is another key operation (for example, switching to the reproduction mode), a process corresponding to the key operation is executed in step S120, and the process returns to the main routine.

If there is no other key operation (step S
(NO in 119), instructing live view imaging in step S121, loading live view image data into the image memory 209 in step S122, and L in step S123.
The CD is displayed on the CD display unit 110, and the process returns to step S113.

If YES in step S113, that is, if the shutter button 109 is in the S1 state, step S114.
In step S115, the AF and AE processes are executed. After waiting for the shutter button 109 to be in the S2 (push-in) state, the image data captured in step S116 is captured and the image process is executed. It is stored in the flash memory of the memory card 56 in step S117. Next, the thumbnail image of the image data taken in step S118 is displayed on the liquid crystal display element 10.

(Error Processing) Error List When using a memory-equipped memory card with a liquid crystal, writing or reading data to the flash memory may be impossible for some reason as in the case of the conventional memory card. . The main errors and their causes are listed in the table below.

Since the memory card of this embodiment is provided with the liquid crystal display section having a memory property, it is possible to display an error code on the display section and show the cause to the user. Further, not only the error code but also the cause and countermeasure can be displayed.

[0137]

[Table 1]

In order to deal with the above-mentioned error processing, the timing controller 70 of the memory card according to the present invention.
25, as shown in FIG.
1, error detection unit 702, error display data 703, capacitor 704, and memory management unit 705.

(Memory Card Writing Error 1) The timing signal generator 701 executes the display of the liquid crystal display element 10 and the writing process to the flash memory according to the instruction of the overall controller 211. When actually writing data in the flash memory, the overall control unit 211 surely checks whether or not predetermined data has been written. If a mismatch occurs in the confirmation work, the occurrence of write error 1 to the flash memory is notified to the error detection unit 702 via the timing signal generation unit 701. As a result, the error detection unit 702
Display data corresponding to error 1 in the error display data 703 is returned to the timing signal generator 701, and the display data is displayed at an appropriate location on the liquid crystal display element 10.

(Error 2 in Writing to Memory Card) The memory management unit 705 is provided with a flash memory in which data of the current free space and the number of frames taken has been stored. The overall control unit 211 writes data in 1024-bit units when actually writing data in the flash memory, but when the remaining capacity is less than 1024 bits, error detection is performed via the timing signal generation unit 701. Write error 2 to flash memory in section 702
The occurrence of. As a result, the error detection unit 702
Returns the display data corresponding to error 2 in the error display data 703 to the timing signal generator 701, and the display data is displayed at an appropriate location on the liquid crystal display element 10.

(Error reading from memory card 1)
Next, when reading the data from the flash memory, the overall control unit 211 specifies the address of the flash memory from which the data is read, and the timing signal generation unit 701.
The data is read based on the read timing signal output by the. At this time, if the specific address of the memory cannot be read, the error detection unit 702 returns the display data corresponding to error 3 in the error display data 703 to the timing signal generation unit 701, and the display data is displayed on the liquid crystal display. It is displayed at an appropriate place on the element 10.

(Error reading from memory card 2)
As described above, when reading data from the flash memory, the overall control unit 211 specifies the address of the flash memory from which the data is read, and the data is read based on the read timing signal output from the timing signal generation unit 701. At this time, if the data is inconsistent by looking at the checksum, it is considered that some data inconsistency occurred at the time of writing. Therefore, the error detecting unit 70
2 returns the display data corresponding to the error 4 in the error display data 703 to the timing signal generator 701, and the display data is displayed at an appropriate place on the liquid crystal display element 10.

(Inoperative 1) The above error check processing is incorporated in the internal routine of the overall control unit 211, and if the overall control unit 211 itself runs out of control (depending on the error, the system The power may be cut off for protection of)). The same applies when the memory card is removed during access.

Therefore, the memory card is provided with the capacitor 704 having a capacity of about 300 microfarads, and when the overall control unit 211 runs out of control, the error is displayed by the electric power stored in the capacitor 704.

The error detector 702 monitors the signals on the control bus exchanged between the overall controller 211 and the timing signal generator 701. If the timing clock stops or the timing clock is operating but the memory access signal on the control bus suddenly stops, the overall control unit 211 has runaway.
Alternatively, it is determined that the memory card has been removed during access, and display data corresponding to error 5 in the error display data 703 is returned to the timing signal generator 701, and the display data is displayed at an appropriate location on the liquid crystal display element 10. To be done.

As described above, by utilizing the memory property of the liquid crystal display element 10, the error display can be continued even when the power supply is cut off. Therefore, it is possible to achieve both the protection of the system and the easy response to the error. is there.

[0147] (Other Embodiments) The digital camera according to the present invention is not limited to the embodiments can be modified in various ways within the scope of the invention.

For example, although the memory card is illustrated as the storage medium in the above embodiment, the liquid crystal display element may be attached to the surface of the magneto-optical disk or the floppy disk. It is also possible to attach a plurality of liquid crystal display elements on one medium.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a liquid crystal display element attached to a data storage medium.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a state in which a columnar structure and a sealing material are formed on a substrate of a liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a drive circuit of a liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a driving method of a liquid crystal display element.

Figure 5 is a perspective view showing a first example of the memory card.

6 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the memory card shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a second example of a memory card.

8 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the memory card shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a third example of a memory card.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a fourth example of a memory card.

11 is a sectional view of the memory card shown in FIG.

12 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the memory card shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. FIG.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a drive circuit of a liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 14 is a front view showing a first example of a digital camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a rear view of the digital camera.

FIG. 16 is a side view of the digital camera.

FIG. 17 is a bottom view of the digital camera.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the digital camera.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing a liquid crystal display element before a formatting process.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a formatting process of a liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing a control procedure at startup in the digital camera.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram showing a thumbnail display of a liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 24 is an LCD installed in the digital camera
Explanatory drawing which shows the example of a display of a display part.

FIG. 25 is a rear view showing a second example of the digital camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a bottom view of the digital camera shown in FIG. 25.

FIG. 27 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the formatting process of the liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the liquid crystal display element in the digital camera of the second example.

FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of shooting mode processing in the digital camera of the second example.

FIG. 30 is an explanatory diagram showing another display example of the liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 31 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of reproduction mode processing in the digital camera of the second example.

FIG. 32 is an explanatory diagram showing another display example of the liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing another control procedure of shooting mode processing in the digital camera of the second example.

FIG. 34 is an explanatory diagram showing another display example of the liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a timing controller.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Liquid crystal display element 21 ... Scan drive circuit 22 ... Signal drive circuit 40, 50, 56, 60 ... Memory card 70 ... Timing controller 100, 100 '... Digital camera 111 ... Key switch group 211 ... Overall control unit 704 ... Capacitor ( Power supply)

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Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] And 1. A display means to constitute a display screen using a liquid crystal having a memory characteristic, and operating means for switching the reproduction mode and the imaging mode,-out <br/> the reproduction mode is selected by said operation means A storage unit for storing the display content of the display unit, and updating the display content of the display unit based on the information stored in the storage unit when the mode is not switched by the operation unit for a predetermined time. A digital camera characterized by having control means for controlling. Wherein said display means is a digital camera according to claim 1, characterized in that provided on the movable data storage medium detachable from the main body of the digital camera. 3. A storage medium that have a display unit configured to display screen using a liquid crystal having a memory property is a freely digital camera attached to and detached from the camera body, wherein the storage medium is a power supply for supplying power to the display means And the above
Power from the power supply when removed from the camera body
Control means for updating the display contents of the display means by
Digital camera, characterized in that, where provided and.