JP4708272B2 - Imaging device and portable terminal device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging device and a portable terminal device including the imaging device.

For example, Patent Document 1 below defines camera control information (such as use / non-use of flash, color adjustment, camera shake correction ON / OFF, etc.) during shooting when shooting fails. Information) and a method for improving this failure are registered in the database, and when the camera control information set in the actual shooting matches the camera control information registered in the database, the camera control information A technique for presenting a user with an improvement method corresponding to the above is disclosed. According to such a conventional technique, it is possible to effectively avoid a shooting failure.
JP 2004-128701 A

  However, the above prior art is used only when the camera control information set at the time of actual shooting matches the camera control information registered in advance in the database, that is, the camera control information when shooting failed in the past. The improvement method to the person. For this reason, when shooting is performed based on camera control information that is not registered in the database, no improvement method is presented. Therefore, there is room for improvement in avoiding shooting failures by presenting improvement methods.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to avoid shooting failures more accurately than in the past.

In order to solve the above-described problem, the imaging apparatus according to the present invention predicts whether there is a shooting failure based on device information indicating the state of the device, and if the shooting failure is predicted, alerts the user. An alarm means for outputting an alarm signal for the alarm, an informing means for informing an alarm to the outside based on the alarm signal, a storage means for storing setting information indicating whether or not to prompt the attention for a plurality of attention items, Selecting means for selecting any of the setting information, and the warning means predicts the presence or absence of imaging failure based on the setting information selected by the selection means.

The warning means predicts the presence or absence of a shooting failure for a caution item indicating that the setting information calls attention .

The device information is characterized by a setting information about the device takes in and image information or / and shooting of a subject.

The notification means is a display means and / or a sound generation means .

A mobile terminal device according to the present invention includes any one of the imaging devices described above .

  According to the present invention, the presence / absence of shooting failure is predicted based on the state of the apparatus, and a warning is notified when shooting failure is predicted, so the user can change the setting appropriately, Therefore, shooting failure can be avoided more accurately than in the past.

Hereinafter, a mobile phone which is an embodiment of an imaging apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a mobile phone according to the present embodiment.
The cellular phone includes an operation unit 1, a liquid crystal display panel 2, a display control unit 3, a telephone function unit 4, a camera unit 5, a storage unit 6 (storage unit), a control unit 7 (alarm unit), and a battery 8. The liquid crystal display panel 2 and the display control unit 3 constitute notification means in this embodiment.

The operation unit 1 includes operation keys that can be operated by the user, receives various operations from the user using the operation keys, and outputs a signal corresponding to the operation content of the user to the control unit 7.
The liquid crystal display panel 2 is provided in the casing of the mobile phone and displays various images based on image signals input from the display control unit 3. The display control unit 3 generates an image signal of an image to be displayed on the liquid crystal display plate 2 under the control of the control unit 7 and outputs the image signal to the liquid crystal display plate 2.
The telephone function unit 4 includes a microphone 4a, a speaker 4b (sound generation means), a wireless communication unit (not shown), and the like, and performs communication related to a call and the like with the base station under the control of the control unit 7.

The camera unit 5 includes, for example, an imaging device such as a CCD, an optical system such as a lens, an image processing processor, a light amount sensor 5a, and the like. Under the control of the control unit 7, an image of a subject (still image and moving image) Shoot. In moving image shooting, the control unit 7 collects sound with the microphone 4 a included in the telephone function unit 4. The light amount sensor 5 a measures the amount of light received by the lens of the camera unit 5 and outputs measurement data to the control unit 7 in accordance with the control of the control unit 7.
The control unit 7 sets operation states such as exposure and shutter speed in the camera unit 5 based on various parameter values that are set in advance or set by a user's operation. The values of various parameters are stored in the storage unit 6 described later. Various parameters correspond to various functions (shown in FIG. 2) stored in the storage unit 6.

The storage unit 6 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and a non-volatile memory. The storage unit 6 executes various programs such as a call program, a mail program, a camera program, and a browser executed by the control unit 7, and a ring tone. Data, phone book data, sent / received mail, image data, etc. are stored.
The storage unit 6 stores a camera function table, a caution function table (see FIG. 3), and a caution function setting table (see FIG. 4) as information necessary for the control of the camera unit 5.

In the camera function table, the setting state is registered for each of various functions related to photographing (see FIG. 2).
The attention function table is registered with information related to alarms provided to the user at the time of photographing a subject, and is used to determine whether or not to notify attention for each caution item name indicating various caution functions. A judgment condition (trigger and condition), a caution method, and a specific caution message content are registered.

For each caution item name, the caution function setting table includes setting information (function use flag) indicating use / non-use of the caution function, setting information (failure learning flag) indicating ON / OFF of the learning function related to shooting failure, and Is registered. The storage unit 6 stores the shooting failure cases in a database in order as part of the learning function under the control of the control unit 7.
And the memory | storage part 6 memorize | stores one or more user information, and memorize | stores the setting value of a "caution function setting table" (FIG. 4) according to user information, when the user information is memorize | stored multiplely. However, it is possible to use different setting values for each user.

  The control unit 7 controls the operation of the entire mobile phone based on the operation instruction input from the operation unit 1, the control program stored in the storage unit 6, and various control parameters. That is, the control unit 7 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that performs control calculation based on the control program, operation instructions, and various control parameters, and other units (that is, the operation unit 1, the display control unit 3, the telephone function unit 4, It comprises various input / output interface circuits that exchange data with the camera unit 5 and the storage unit 6), and controls the other units in a centralized manner.

  As a function of the camera program, the control unit 7 refers to the state of each table related to the control of the camera unit 5 and the other units, and performs predetermined image processing on the subject image captured by the camera unit 5 to perform the subject and By determining the surrounding situation, the presence or absence of photographing failure of the subject by the camera unit 5 is predicted and determined, and when the photographing failure is predicted, an alarm signal for alerting the user is displayed. / And output to the speaker 4b.

Further, the control unit 7 compares the user image captured by the camera unit 5 with the user image (user registration image) stored (registered) in advance in the storage unit 6 so that the user registers in advance. It is determined whether or not the user has been used.
Here, the control unit 7 is a selection unit in the present embodiment, and if the user is a registered user, the “attention function setting table” (in accordance with the user information matching the user) ( The set value of FIG. 4) is used for controlling the camera unit 5.

  The battery 8 is connected to the above-described units (that is, the operation unit 1, the liquid crystal display panel 2, the display control unit 3, the telephone function unit 4, the camera unit 5, the storage unit 6, and the control unit 7) by a power supply line (not shown). Power is supplied to each of the above parts. The remaining power of the battery 8 is grasped by the control unit 7.

Next, alarm processing (shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5) at the time of shooting in the mobile phone configured as described above will be described.
The control unit 7 determines the name of a caution item whose function use flag is set to “ON” in the caution function setting table (see FIG. 4) (step S1), and performs an alarm process only for this caution item name. That is, the control unit 7 recognizes an event in the trigger column of the attention function table of FIG. 3 for the attention item name whose function use flag is set to “ON” in the attention function setting table (Yes in step S2). Then, it is determined whether or not the attention determination condition in the condition column of the attention function setting table is satisfied (step S3). If the condition of step S3 is satisfied, an alarm signal is generated and the display control unit 3 and / or It outputs to the speaker 4b (step S4).

  For example, in the attention function setting table of FIG. 4, since the function use flag of the red eye attention function is set to “ON”, the control unit 7 causes the event in the trigger column corresponding to the red eye attention function in the attention function table. When recognizing (whether a person's face has been recognized and whether the amount of light in the subject image is less than or equal to a predetermined value) Is set).

  In the attention function table of FIG. 3, “display / speech” is registered as the attention method corresponding to the red-eye attention function. Therefore, the control unit 7 registers “red-eye” registered in the content of the attention message. The display telop data and the voice signal of the voice message are generated and the display telop data is output as an alarm signal to the display control unit 3 while the mitigation function is OFF. The voice signal of the message is output as an alarm signal to the speaker 4b. As a result, the display control unit 3 generates a display telop image signal based on the display telop data and outputs it to the liquid crystal display panel 2 (see FIG. 6). The speaker 4b generates a sound based on the voice signal of the voice message.

  The user of this cellular phone is alerted by such an alarm display on the liquid crystal display panel 2 and an alarm sound from the speaker 4b. When the user performs an operation for answering the telop using the operation unit 1, the operation unit 1 outputs a signal corresponding to the operation content of the user to the control unit 7. When the user's operation selects “YES” on the screen of FIG. 6, the control unit 7 sets the flash function setting in the camera function table based on the signal input from the operation unit 1 to “ Set to “Auto (Red-eye reduction)” and change the setting of the red-eye correction function to “Automatic correction”.

Further, for example, when the function use flag of the photographing size recommendation function is set to “ON” in the attention function setting table of FIG. 4, the control unit 7 triggers corresponding to the red-eye attention function in the attention function table. When an event in the column (the remaining memory capacity is 20% or less) is recognized, a caution determination condition (whether the imaging size is large (2592 × 1944)) in the condition column is determined.
Then, if the imaging size is large, in the attention function table of FIG. 3, “display only” is registered in the attention method corresponding to the shooting size recommendation function. The display telop data that is registered in the contents of "Remaining memory is low. Do you want to reduce the imaging size?" And output the display telop data to the display controller 3 as an alarm signal. To do. As a result, the display control unit 3 generates a display telop image signal based on the display telop data and outputs the image signal to the liquid crystal display panel 2.

  The user of this cellular phone is alerted by such a warning display on the liquid crystal display panel 2. When the user performs an operation for answering the telop using the operation unit 1, the operation unit 1 outputs a signal corresponding to the content of the user's selection operation to the control unit 7. When the user's operation selects “YES”, the control unit 7 sets the imaging size setting in the camera function table based on the signal input from the operation unit 1 to “small (640 × 480)”. Change to

  In mobile phones, in general, the screen for changing the settings of various functions relating to shooting is located after the hierarchy of various menus displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 2, so the number of operations for changing the settings However, according to the present embodiment, the user can easily change the setting according to the shooting situation simply by performing an operation of answering the telop.

Further, when the function use flag of the batch setting function of the attention function setting table of FIG. 4 is set to “ON”, the control unit 7 determines that all the attention functions registered in the attention function table are used, When “OFF” is set, it is determined that all caution functions registered in the caution function table are not used.
Further, when the function use flag of the collective setting function is set to “OFF”, the control unit 7 controls the display control unit 3 when the camera program is started, as shown in FIG. A telop is displayed on the board 2 to confirm to the user whether or not to perform batch setting.

  When the user performs an operation for answering the telop using the operation unit 1, the operation unit 1 outputs a signal corresponding to the operation content of the user to the control unit 7. When the user's operation is to select “YES” in FIG. 7, the control unit 7 uses the function input flag of the collective setting function in the attention function setting table based on the signal input from the operation unit 1. To “ON”.

  Further, the control unit 7 controls the display control unit 3 when the camera program is activated when the function use flag of the pre-shooting setting confirmation function of the attention function setting table of FIG. 4 is set to “ON”. As shown in FIG. 8, a current setting confirmation screen for confirming the state of setting of various functions relating to photographing (for example, photographing mode setting, photographing size setting, flash use / non-use, etc.) on the liquid crystal display panel 2. Is displayed.

  When there is an item whose setting is to be changed on the current setting confirmation screen, the user operates the operation unit 1 to select the item. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when “date / clock” is currently “not set” and the date and time are to be set, “not set” is selected and displayed next. Set the date and time on the setting screen.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for automatically accumulating shooting failure cases.
The control unit 7 determines whether or not the captured image includes a human face (step S11). If it is determined that the photographed image includes a human face (Yes in step S11), the control unit 7 determines whether the light amount is equal to or less than a predetermined value (step S12). When the amount of light is less than or equal to the predetermined value (Yes in step S12), the control unit 7 determines that the flash function setting is other than “flash emission prohibited”, “auto (red-eye reduction)”, and “always-on light emission (red-eye reduction)”. It is determined whether there has been (step S13). If the flash function setting is other than the above (Yes in step S13), the control unit 7 may have failed to shoot due to a red-eye phenomenon, possibly due to the flash function setting being other than the above. Are automatically registered in the database of the storage unit 6 (step S14).

  Moreover, the control part 7 determines whether the influence of camera shake has appeared in the picked-up image (step S15). When it is determined that the influence of camera shake has appeared (Yes in step S15), the control unit 7 determines whether the camera shake correction function setting is “not corrected” (step S16). If the camera shake correction function setting is “do not correct” (Yes in step S16), the control unit 7 may have caused camera shake because the camera shake correction function setting is probably “do not correct”. It is automatically registered in the database of the storage unit 6 that shooting would have failed (step S17).

  Further, the control unit 7 determines whether or not the influence of the movement of the subject appears in the captured image (step S18). If it is determined that the effect of moving the subject appears (Yes in step S18), the control unit 7 determines whether the ISO sensitivity setting is not a high sensitivity setting (step S19). If the ISO sensitivity setting is not a high sensitivity setting (Yes in step S19), the control unit 7 may indicate that the subject blurring occurred due to the ISO sensitivity setting not being a high sensitivity setting, and that the shooting would have failed. Is automatically registered (step S20).

  And the control part 7 determines whether the flash function was not used at the time of imaging | photography (step S21). When the flash function is not used at the time of shooting (Yes in Step S21), the control unit 7 determines whether or not the light amount is equal to or less than a predetermined value (Step S22). If the amount of light is less than or equal to the predetermined value (Yes in step S22), the control unit 7 automatically registers in the database that the photographing has probably failed due to an inappropriate amount of light (step S23).

  Based on the database stored in the storage unit 6, the control unit 7 adds a shooting failure case that is not in the attention function table (see FIG. 3) to the attention function table. In addition, when the failure learning flag in the attention function setting table (see FIG. 4) that matches the shooting failure case is OFF, the control unit 7 updates the failure learning flag to ON.

  According to the present embodiment, the user presents a setting that can avoid a shooting failure depending on the shooting situation and answers a question asking for intention, thereby avoiding the shooting failure depending on the shooting situation. Can be changed to settings.

In this embodiment, when sounding the alarm from the speaker 4b in the alarm notification, a sentence to be displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 2 is read out. However, in practice, the speaker 4b is made to sound a warning sound. May be.
Further, in the present embodiment, the user is described as responding to the alarm notification by the mobile phone by operating the operation unit 1, but in implementation, the user may reply by other means. For example, the user responds by voice to the microphone 4a included in the mobile phone, outputs a signal corresponding to the voice collected by the microphone 4a to the control unit 7, and the control unit 7 analyzes the signal. You may make it accept a reply by.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, biometric authentication for identifying a user by analyzing an image acquired by the camera unit 5 is performed. However, in implementation, the user is identified by other biometric authentication such as fingerprint authentication. May be.
In the present embodiment, the imaging apparatus has been described by taking a mobile phone as an example. However, in the implementation, the present invention may be applied not only to the imaging apparatus that is a mobile phone but also to a digital camera, for example.

It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a table | surface which shows the various functions which the memory | storage part of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention memorize | stores. It is a table | surface which shows the "attention function table" which the memory | storage part of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention memorize | stores. It is a table | surface which shows the "attention function setting table" which the memory | storage part of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention memorize | stores. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the alarm process at the time of imaging | photography of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of a display of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of a display of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of a display of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process which accumulate | stores automatically the imaging | photography failure example of the mobile telephone in one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Operation part, 2 ... Liquid crystal display board, 3 ... Display control part, 4 ... Telephone function part, 4a ... Microphone, 4b ... Speaker, 5 ... Camera part, 5a ... Light quantity sensor, 6 ... Memory | storage part, 7 ... Control part , 8 ... Battery

Claims (5)

Predicting the presence or absence of shooting failure based on the device information indicating the state of the device, if shooting failure is predicted, alarm means for outputting a warning signal to alert the user,
Informing means for informing the outside of the alarm based on the alarm signal ,
Storage means for storing setting information indicating whether or not to call attention to a plurality of attention items;
Selecting means for selecting any of the setting information;
With
An alarming device predicts the presence or absence of photographing failure based on the setting information selected by the selecting device. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the alarm unit predicts whether or not there is a shooting failure for a caution item indicating that the setting information calls attention. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus information is image information of a subject captured by the apparatus and / or setting information relating to photographing. The notification means, the imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a display means or / and the sound generator. Portable terminal device characterized by comprising an imaging device according to any one of claims 1-4.

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