JP4865207B2 - Image recording / playback device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image recording / reproducing apparatus such as a video camera that records a moving image, a still image, or the like as a data file and appropriately divides it into a plurality of blocks and records it on a recording medium. This is a technique related to recording medium control.

  Conventionally, various recording / reproducing apparatuses for recording information such as moving images and sounds as data files on a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk, an optical disk, or a semiconductor memory card have been proposed. In such an apparatus, a phenomenon occurs in which the transfer rate to the recording medium decreases while recording and erasing are repeated many times using a rewritable and randomly accessible recording medium such as various disks and memory cards.

  This phenomenon is caused by the fact that the empty space from which the data has been erased and the valid data remaining without being erased are dispersed by erasing the data file recorded on the recording medium. is there. As a result of increasing the degree of dispersion according to the number of times of recording and erasing, there is less wide (long) space that can be continuously recorded on the recording medium, and therefore discretization when recording a new data file. This is considered to be a phenomenon that occurs because the operations such as seek on the recording medium become busy and complicated as a result of recording in pieces in the free space.

In order to solve this problem, the conventional apparatus secures a continuous recording space by rearranging data on the recording medium at various timings (see, for example, Patent Document 1). .
JP 2001-8165 A

  However, in the present day when the recording capacity of the recording medium has become enormous, the method of rearranging data as in the above prior art may require a lot of time for the rearrangement process, in which case to the user There was a risk of worsening the response.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and is transferred to a recording medium even when recording and erasing are repeatedly performed on the recording medium such as various disks and memory cards by a method different from the conventional technique. An object of the present invention is to provide an image recording / reproducing apparatus capable of avoiding or reducing a decrease in rate.

An image recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is an image recording / reproducing apparatus that divides an image data file into block units and records the data file on a recording medium. An instruction means; and a first determination means for determining whether or not a data file for which erasure prohibition has been set exists on the recording medium when the instruction to erase all is received from the erasure instruction means; If it is determined by the first determination means that there is a data file for which the erasure prohibition setting has been performed, each data file recorded on the recording medium other than the data file for which the erasure prohibition setting has been performed is stored. erased, when the first data file the erasure prohibition setting has been performed by the determining means determines that there is no, the image on the recording medium And a deletion control means for the entire region for recording performs initialization of the recording medium so that an unused area of the data file, the erase control means, when performing initialization of the recording medium Performs initialization of the logical address of the recording medium .

According to the present invention, depending on the total consumption Sayubi shown for recorded image file to the recording medium, by a row Ukoto the initialization of the recording medium, to prevent the progression of discretization of the recording area in advance, the transfer A decrease in rate can be avoided or reduced.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining all erasure processing of an image file recorded on a recording medium. FIG. 1A shows a state of the recording medium in which data recording and reproduction are repeated, and FIG. On the other hand, a diagram (B) showing the state of the recording medium when the all erasing process is executed using the conventional method, and the state of the recording medium when the all erasing process is executed using the control method of the present invention. The figure (C) showing is respectively shown.

  In FIG. 1- (A), from the initial state of the recording medium (initial time (1)), an additional image file is added to the state after additional recording (2), and then the desired image file is deleted. This indicates that the state after (3) after erasure and the additional writing of a new image file has been performed from the final writing position (broken arrow) to the state after (4) additional recording. The final writing position is cyclically moved in the empty area from the top to the bottom in the figure.

  In FIG. 1- (B), the conventional all erasing process is performed on the recording medium that has been in the state (4) after such additional recording, and the state becomes (5) after all erasing, and then a new state is created. This indicates that the image file is additionally written from the final writing position and the state after (6) has been reached. In the conventional all erasing process, the logical address is not initialized and the information on the use frequency (number of times of writing) of the block on the recording medium is taken over. Therefore, the final writing position after the all erasing process is the position after the all erasing (5). From there, additional writing is performed avoiding blocks where the number of times of writing is higher than other blocks, and the state is as shown in (6) after additional writing. That is, after the conventional all erasure process, blocks with a small number of write operations are preferentially used, so that the recording area gradually becomes discrete, and as a result, the response may be deteriorated.

  On the other hand, in FIG. 1- (C), the entire erasing process according to the present invention is performed on the recording medium that has been in the state (4) after the additional recording, and the state becomes (7) after the entire erasing. This shows that the additional writing of the image file is performed from the final writing position and the state after the additional writing is (8). In the all erasing process according to the present invention, the logical address is initialized and the information on the use frequency (number of times of writing) of the block on the recording medium is not carried over, so the final writing position after the all erasing process is the position after the all erasing (7). From there, additional writing is performed continuously, and the state is as shown in (8) after the additional writing. That is, after the entire erasing process according to the present invention, since a continuous block of the recording medium can be used, the recording area is not discretized and a good response can be maintained.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital video camera as an example of an image recording / reproducing apparatus capable of executing the all erasing process as described with reference to FIG.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 200 denotes a recording / playback unit, and 201 denotes a video camera unit. Note that the entire system may be a video camcorder by integrally configuring the recording / reproducing unit 200 with the video camera unit 201.

  202 is a compression / decompression unit for image data (moving image data and / or still image data), 203 is an image memory for temporarily storing image data, 204 is an interface (I / F) with a recording medium 205, Reference numeral 205 denotes a recording medium capable of recording and reproducing compressed image data. In the present embodiment, the recording medium will be described as a hard disk. 206 is a microcomputer that controls the operation of each unit and executes a predetermined control program, 207 is a program memory in which the control program is stored and used to execute the program, and 208 is for a user to input various instructions. Operation keys, 209 is a captured image, a reproduced image, a display such as a liquid crystal display capable of displaying characters and menus, 210 is a switch for switching a display image to be output to the display 209 between the captured image and the reproduced image, and 211 is a displayed image An adder circuit that synthesizes a signal and a character signal, 212 is a character generator that generates the character signal and menu screen, and 213 is a control bus and a data bus. In addition, each part of 202-213 is the structure in the recording / reproducing part 200. FIG.

  In FIG. 2, the recording operation will be described first. An image signal obtained by photographing the subject with the video camera unit 201 is input to the addition circuit 211 through the switch 210 and also to the compression / decompression unit 202. The captured image signal sent to the adding circuit 211 is combined with the character signal generated as necessary by the character generator 212 and then displayed on the display 209.

  The compression / decompression unit 202 compresses the captured image signal using the image memory 203 in accordance with the compression rate and timing instructed from the microcomputer 206. The compressed image data compressed by the compression / decompression unit 202 is recorded as a file on a recording medium (hard disk) 205 via the interface 204. Recording on the recording medium 205 is performed via a file system (not shown). At this time, the file system determines a writing position based on a logical address. The logical address used by the file system may coincide with the physical address of the recording medium 205, but in general, the logical address does not coincide with the physical address in consideration of uniform use of defective sectors and the medium. FIG. 3 shows an image diagram in which a physical address and a logical address are converted using a conversion table and written on the recording medium when writing the image file to the recording medium 205 via the file system. Note that the physical address / logical address conversion table is arranged on the recording medium 205 in this embodiment, and this conversion table is used for writing to and reading from the recording medium 205.

  Next, a recorded image reproduction operation will be described. The compressed image data recorded from the recording medium (hard disk) 205 is read out and input to the compression / decompression unit 202 via the interface 204. The compression / decompression unit 202 decompresses the compressed image data using the image memory 203, and the decompressed reproduced image signal is displayed on the display 209 through the switch 210.

  The microcomputer 206 controls the recording or reproducing operation as described above and causes the character generator 212 that performs character generation to generate a necessary character. In addition, the microcomputer 206 performs an erasure prohibition setting for an arbitrary image file recorded on the recording medium 205 based on a user instruction input from the operation key 208, or selectively deletes an image file or all image files. Control processing such as erasure. The image file all erasing process for the recording medium 205 controlled by the microcomputer 206 is as described above with reference to FIG. For an image file for which deletion prohibition is set, that is, a protected image file, even if an instruction to select or delete the image file is received from the operation key 208, the image file is deleted from the recording medium 205. Not performed. In other words, when all erasure is instructed, only the image file set for erasure prohibition is left, and all erasure processing is performed for all the image files not set for erasure prohibition.

  Next, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing sequence of the image recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention when an instruction to erase all of the image files recorded on the recording medium 205 is given from the operation key 208. The flowchart in FIG. 4 is based on a predetermined control program stored in the program memory 204, and illustrates a control procedure executed by the microcomputer 206.

  In FIG. 4, when there is an instruction to delete all image files, the erasing process of all image files is started (step S400). Next, it is determined whether or not there is one or more image files set for erasure prohibition in the recording medium 205 (step S401), and if there are one or more image files set for erasure prohibition, the process proceeds to step S402. If there is no image file for which deletion prohibition is set, the process proceeds to step S406.

  In step S401, if there is one or more image files on the recording medium 205 that are set to be erase-prohibited, whether or not the image file on the recording medium 205 is an image file that is set to be erase-prohibited. (Step S402), if the image file is set to be erase-prohibited, the process proceeds to Step S405 (in this case, the erasure process is not performed and the area where the image file is stored is left as it is), and the erasure prohibition setting is set. If it is not the processed image file, the process proceeds to step S403. If the image file is not set to be erase-prohibited, the area for storing the image file is changed to an unused area (step S403), and the connection path on the file system to the image file storage area is deleted (step S404). ), The process proceeds to step S405. Subsequently, it is determined whether there is an image file to be erased next (step S405). If there is, the same image file is repeated from step S402, and if there is no image file, the entire erase process is terminated (step S405). S409). As a result, when there is one or more image files that are set to be erase-prohibited in the recording medium 205, the process between steps S402 to S405 is repeated for each image file, and all the images are processed. All erasure processing is completed only for image files that are not set to be erasable.

  On the other hand, if there is no image file for which erasure prohibition is set in step S401, all areas on the recording medium 205 are converted to unused areas (step S406), and the physical address / logical address conversion table is set to the start address of the logical address. Initialization is performed so that the top addresses of the physical addresses match and the number of times of writing to all access units in the recording medium 205 is equal (step S407). When initializing the conversion table, the logical address may be addressed so as to skip a part of the physical address in consideration of a defective sector of the recording medium 205 or the like. Thereafter, the file system is reconstructed on the recording medium 205 (step S408), and the all erasure process is completed (step S409). As a result, the entire erasure process is completed when there is no image file that is erasure-prohibited in the recording medium 205.

  By following the above procedure, the image recording / playback apparatus can execute the entire erasing process of the recording medium 205, and further, an appropriate all process can be performed depending on whether or not there is an image file in the recording medium 205 that is set to be erasable. The erasing process can be executed, and as a result, a continuous recording space can be easily and quickly secured on the recording medium without using a method such as rearrangement that does not have a good response. Problems can be avoided or reduced.

(Second Embodiment)
In the first embodiment described above, the initialization for matching the physical address and the logical address has been described. In the present embodiment, an example in which the initialization is performed in consideration of equal use of the medium will be described.

  Since the configuration of the image recording / reproducing apparatus and the recording / reproducing operation are the same as those in the first embodiment, a description thereof will be omitted. However, in the second embodiment, the physical address on the recording medium 205 to which writing was performed last is recorded. It is set as a structure. The recording destination may be on the recording medium 205 or a memory (not shown) in the image recording / reproducing apparatus. Note that the last written physical address may be the last written physical address or the last written data for all data including system data. The physical address at which the image data is written in is used as the final write address.

  A specific operation will be described. In response to an instruction from the operation key 208 to erase all of the image files on the recording medium 205, if there are one or more image files that are set to be prohibited from being erased, they are erased in the same sequence as in the first embodiment. On the other hand, if there is no image file that is set to be erasure-prohibited, the processing in step S406 in FIG. The conversion table is initialized to coincide with the beginning of the next writing unit. That is, in this embodiment, since the recording medium 205 is a hard disk, the conversion table is initialized so that the sector next to the last written sector becomes the initial value of the logical address. Then, as in the first embodiment, taking into account defective sectors and the like, the logical address and the physical address are sequentially incremented and associated with each other. When the final physical address is reached, the physical address is returned to the beginning and continues. Increment and associate. The conversion table is completed when the physical address immediately preceding the physical address as the initial value of the logical address is reached, and the following is the same as in the first embodiment.

  Thereby, the operation of all erasure processing explained in the first embodiment can be realized in a form more suitable for the hard disk.

(Third embodiment)
In the first and second embodiments described above, the description has been made assuming that the recording medium 205 is a hard disk. However, in the present embodiment, the recording medium 205 is attached to the image recording / reproducing apparatus in a removable SD memory card (Secure). The operation will be described below assuming that it is a digital memory card).

  The configuration of the image recording / reproducing apparatus is the same as that shown in FIG. 2, except that a removable SD memory card is used as the recording medium 205. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing sequence of the image recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention when an instruction to erase all image files recorded on the recording medium (SD memory card) 205 is issued from the operation key 208. The flowchart in FIG. 5 is based on a predetermined control program stored in the program memory 204, and illustrates the control procedure executed by the microcomputer 206.

  In FIG. 5, there is an instruction to erase all image files, and the erasure process of all image files is started (step S400). Next, it is determined whether or not there is one or more image files set for erasure prohibition in the recording medium 205 (step S401), and if there are one or more image files set for erasure prohibition, the process proceeds to step S402. If there is no image file for which deletion prohibition is set, the process proceeds to step S506.

  The processing between steps S402 to S405 is the same as that described with reference to FIG. If the processing from step S402 to S405 is repeated for each image file and it is determined in step S405 that there is no image file to be erased next (that is, if all the images have been processed), all the images are erased. The processing ends (step S508), and all erasure processing of only the image file for which erasure prohibition is not set is completed.

  On the other hand, if there is no image file for which deletion is prohibited in step S401, an erase command is issued to the entire area of the SD memory card as the recording medium 205 (step S506). The erase command is a command for initializing the entire area including the logical address / physical address conversion table that the SD memory card has internally. Thus, after the erase operation of the recording medium 205 is completed, the file system is reconstructed on the recording medium 205 (step S507), and the all erasing process is completed (step S508). As a result, the entire erasure process is completed when there is no image file that is erasure-prohibited in the recording medium 205.

  By following the above procedure, even if the recording medium 205 is an SD memory card (or a similar memory card), the entire erasure process can be executed as in the first embodiment. As a result, the SD memory Since a continuous recording space can be easily and quickly secured on the card, the problem of a decrease in transfer rate can be avoided or reduced.

  As described above, in each embodiment, a digital video camera has been described as an example of the image recording / playback apparatus of the present invention, and an example of a hard disk and an example of an SD memory card have been described as recording media to be used. It is not limited to. For example, the present invention can also be applied to an apparatus that records and reproduces image data and / or audio data using other built-in recording media that can be written in block units or removable recording media.

(Other embodiments)
Another object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) in which a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or Needless to say, this can also be achieved by the MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included. Examples of the storage medium for storing the program code include a flexible disk, hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD, Blu-ray disk, optical disk, and magneto-optical disk. And so on.

  Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the CPU or the like provided in the card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  When the present invention is applied to the above-described storage medium, the program code corresponding to the flowchart described above is stored in the storage medium.

It is a figure for demonstrating about the all deletion process of the image file recorded on the recording medium. It is a block diagram of the digital video camera in this embodiment. FIG. 3 is an image diagram of writing to a recording medium via a file system. It is a flowchart figure showing the sequence of the all erasure | elimination process in 1st, 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart figure showing the sequence of the all erasure | elimination process in 3rd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

200 Recording / playback unit 201 Video camera unit 202 Compression / decompression unit 203 Image memory 204 Interface (I / F)
205 Recording Medium 206 Microcomputer 207 Program Memory 208 Operation Key 209 Display 210 Switch 211 Adder Circuit 212 Character Generator 213 Control Bus and Data Bus

Claims (4)

In an image recording / reproducing apparatus that divides an image data file into blocks and records them on a recording medium,
Erasure instruction means for instructing erasure of all data files recorded on the recording medium;
First determination means for determining whether or not a data file for which erasure prohibition has been set exists on the recording medium when the instruction to erase all is received from the erasure instruction means;
If it is determined by the first determination means that there is a data file for which the erasure prohibition setting has been performed, each data file recorded on the recording medium other than the data file for which the erasure prohibition setting has been performed is stored. If it is determined that there is no data file for which the deletion prohibition setting has been made by the first determination means, the entire area for recording the image data file on the recording medium is not yet stored. An erasing control means for initializing the recording medium so as to be a use area;
Equipped with a,
The image recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the erasing control means initializes a logical address of the recording medium when the recording medium is initialized .   2. The erasure control unit, when performing initialization of the recording medium, initializes the information on the number of times of writing so that the number of times of writing on the block of the recording medium becomes equal. The image recording / reproducing apparatus described. When the logical address is initialized, the erasure control means determines an initial value of the logical address based on a physical address of the recording medium which was last written before the all erasure instruction. The image recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1 . Whether the data file set with the erasure prohibition is set for each data file recorded on the recording medium when the first determination means determines that the data file with the erasure prohibition set exists. A second judging means for judging whether or not,
Said erasure control means, wherein the data file determined to be a data file said erasure prohibition setting has been performed by the second determination means, not an unused area of the region where the data files are stored and remaining in, the the data file determined not to be a data file said erasure prohibition setting has been performed by the second determination means, characterized in that the region where the data files are stored in the unused area The image recording / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 .

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