JPH0612377B2 - Image detection method for optical device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention is applied to an optical device such as a reader printer having an autofocus mechanism, and an image suitable for autofocus is included in a selected focus zone. The present invention relates to an image detection method for determining whether or not a focus zone is present and finding a focus zone including an appropriate image.

(Technical background of the invention) Conventionally, there have been microphoto readers and printers for forming projection light (image projection light) of an original microphotograph on a screen or a photoconductor, or reader printers in which both are combined. In the case of providing an autofocus (hereinafter referred to as AF) mechanism for automatically focusing in this type of optical device, a region for performing AF, that is, a focus zone is selected, and the projection light in this region is projected onto a screen, a photoconductor, or the like. The optical system is controlled so as to form an accurate image on the projection plane of. However, at this time, when there is no image in the selected area, for example, when the selected area corresponds to the background area of the original image of a single color, it is not possible to connect the image on the projection surface. Therefore, there is a problem that the AF mechanism does not operate properly.

Also, prior to this AF control, it is necessary to perform exposure adjustment so as to determine the optimum exposure amount. A light amount detection element such as cadmium sulfide (CdS) has been widely used for this exposure adjustment. However, since this conventional method obtains the average amount of light in a wide photometric region, there is a problem that the amount of detected light varies depending on the area ratio of the background portion and the image portion, and accurate exposure amount adjustment cannot be performed.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and can always adjust to an appropriate exposure amount even when the average light amount in the photometric region changes, and also provides a sufficiently large contrast for the operation of the AF mechanism. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image detecting method in an optical device that can find an area (focus zone) including an image that the user has and can properly operate an AF mechanism.

(Structure of the Invention) According to the present invention, an object of the present invention is to form projection light of an image recorded on a film on a projection surface and perform autofocus control on a partial region selected from the projection image. In an optical device with an autofocus mechanism, the pulse voltage of the image sensor obtained by scanning the projection light of the selected area with the image sensor is compared with a reference voltage that changes stepwise for each scanning of the image sensor. Then, the number of pixels in which the pulse voltage is large with respect to each reference voltage is counted for each reference voltage, and the reference voltage when the count value suddenly changes is made to match the reference voltage corresponding to the appropriate exposure amount. After controlling the light amount of the light source, it is determined whether or not the image of the region is suitable for autofocus based on the characteristics of the distribution characteristic curve of the count value with respect to the reference voltage. This is achieved by an image detecting method for an optical device, which is characterized by changing the above-mentioned area and performing a similar judgment to select an appropriate area if the focus focusing is unsuitable.

That is, the exposure amount is determined by detecting the light amount of the background portion instead of the average light amount of the photometric region, comparing the pulse voltage of each pixel with the reference voltage, and determining the number of pixels that output a pulse voltage higher than each reference voltage. The distribution characteristic curve is obtained by counting, and the presence or absence of an image is determined by utilizing the characteristics such as the area change of the distribution characteristic curve and the inclination of the curve.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a microphotograph reader printer which is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an autofocus mechanism, FIG. 3 is a flow chart of operation, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the output of the D / A converter, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the exposure adjusting method, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the image detecting method.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 is an original image of a micro photograph such as a micro fish or a micro roll film. 1
2 is a light source, and the light from the light source 12 is the condenser lens 1
4, it is guided to the lower surface of the original image 10 through the heat insulating filter 16 and the reflecting mirror 18. In the reader mode, the transmitted light of the original image 10 is guided to the transmissive screen 28 as a projection surface by the projection lens 20 and the reflecting mirrors 22, 24 and 26,
An enlarged projection image of the original image 10 is formed on the screen 28. In the printer mode, the reflecting mirror 24 is rotated to the imaginary line position in FIG. 1, and the projection light is guided by the reflecting mirrors 22, 30, 32 to the PPC printer 34. Therefore, a latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 36 of the printer 34.
This latent image is visualized with toner charged to a predetermined polarity, and this toner image is transferred to the transfer paper 38.

The image detecting apparatus of this embodiment includes a rotatable reflecting mirror 40,
A projection lens 42, a CCD line sensor 44 as an image sensor, a servo motor 46, etc. are provided. The projection light that has passed through the projection lens 20 is reflected by the reflecting mirror 40 to the projection lens 4
2 to the line sensor 44. The line sensor 44 can be moved in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis by a servo motor 46. Further, the projection lens 42 accurately forms an image on the light receiving surface of the line sensor 44 when the projection lens 20 is placed at a position where the projection light is focused on the projection surface of the screen 28 or the photosensitive drum 36. Its focal length is fixed.

During focus control, the servo motor 48 moves the projection lens 20 back and forth in the optical axis direction so that the projection light is properly imaged on the projection surface of the screen 28 or the photosensitive drum 36.

Reference numeral 50 denotes a control circuit, which sequentially performs exposure adjustment, image detection, and focus control based on the output of the line sensor 44.

The exposure amount adjustment is performed as follows. First, the CPU 52 outputs a signal to the output port 56 according to a program stored in advance in the ROM 54 when the power switch is turned on, and operates the driver 58 so that the reflecting mirror 40 is present in the projection optical path to direct the projection light to the line sensor 44. Lead. Also CPU
Reference numeral 52 controls the power supply 60 via the output port 56 so as to turn on the light source 12 with the most frequently used light quantity. Further, the CPU 52 controls the output voltage V _c of the multiplication D / A converter 62 to be, for example, the lowest voltage (0 volt). A command value n indicated by a 2-digit hexadecimal number (when the 8-bit CPU 52 is used) is input to the D / A converter 62 via the output port 64, and D / A
The A converter 62 multiplies the input command value n by the reference voltage V ₀ output from the reference voltage circuit 66 and outputs the product as a reference voltage V _c . The maximum value n of command value n = FF and V _c
= V ₀ · (255/256), and since V _c = 0 at n = 0, the reference voltage V _c can be _calculated based on the equation V _c = V ₀ · (n−1) / FF (1). You can ask. FIG. 5 shows changes in the reference voltage V _c with respect to the command value n. C
The PU 52 first outputs the command value n = 0 (FIG. 3, step 100), and inputs the reference voltage to the negative phase input terminal of the comparator 68 as V _c = 0.

The pulse voltage q of the line sensor 44 is input to the positive phase input terminal of the comparator 68 via the signal processing circuit 70. The output of the comparator 68 is input to the counter 72. The CPU 52 initializes the count value N of the counter 72 to 0 at the beginning of the operation (step 102).

Next, the CPU 52 activates the drive circuit of the line sensor 44. The line sensor 44 sequentially outputs a pulse voltage q corresponding to the amount of light incident on the pixel in synchronization with the drive pulse p in accordance with the pixel array. That is, the line sensor 4
The projection light on the light receiving surface of No. 4 is scanned. This pulse voltage q
Varies with each pixel even if the same amount of light is projected due to variations in the characteristics of each pixel. Signal processing circuit 70
Is to correct the variation in the characteristics of each pixel and shape the waveform to obtain a rectangular wave a as shown in FIG. In this figure, G indicates a reference black level voltage, and the pulse voltage V _a on the positive side of the reference black level voltage G indicates the amount of exposure incident on each pixel. The pulse on the negative side is the feedthrough of the reset clock.

This rectangular wave a is input to the positive phase input terminal of the comparator 68.
Further, the reference voltage V _c based on the equation (1) is input to the negative phase input terminal of the comparator 68 (step 104).
Therefore, this comparator 68 compares V _a and V _c (third
(Step 106 in the figure), when V _a > V _c , the pulse b shown in FIG. 4 (B) is output. This pulse b is input to the counter 72, 1 is added to the count value N of the counter 72 (step 108), and otherwise the count value N is not changed. Then, this operation is repeated for all pixels (steps 110 and 112). Therefore, this count value N is the light amount of the light source 12 at that time,
It indicates the number of pixels where V _a > V _c , in other words, the number of pixels onto which the background area (white) is projected in the case of a positive original image. The count value N is read by the CPU 52 via the input port 74 and further stored in the RAM 76. Since the command value n is initially set to 0 (step 100), the reference voltage V _c according to the equation (1) is also 0, and the count value N of the counter 72 is theoretically equal to the total number of pixels. .

When the above steps are completed for all pixels,
The CPU 52 increments the command value n by 1 (step 114) until the command value n reaches the maximum value FF (step 114).
6) Repeat each step operation. The operation of increasing the command value n by 1 is performed by changing the reference voltage V _c shown in FIG.
It corresponds to the stepwise increase by ₀ / FF.

By the above operation, the pulse voltage V _a at the light quantity of the initially set the light source 12, the reference voltage V determined by command value n
The distribution state of the number N of pixels which is equal to or _larger than c is obtained as shown in FIG. 6c.

Generally, in a micro-sized negative manuscript such as text, the image portion is much smaller than the background area.
Therefore, the number of pulses that become the pulse voltage V _{a of} each pixel corresponding to the background region is very large. Therefore, the distribution characteristic curve c sharply drops when the reference voltage V _c approaches the pulse voltage V _a corresponding to this background.

Since the number N of pixels of this distribution characteristic curve c decreases sharply in the CPU 52, the background pulse voltage V _a (n ₁ )
Ask for. For example, the slope k of this curve c = | dN / dn |
Is calculated (step 118), and the command value n ₁ that maximizes this k is detected (step 120). On the other hand, in the ROM 54, the command value n ₀ (or V
_a (n ₀ )) (FIG. 6) is stored in advance, and the CPU 5
2 calculates the deviation Δ between the two command values n ₀ and n ₁ , that is, the light amount difference between the current light amount and the appropriate light amount (step 12).
2). The CPU 52 then powers the power supply 6 via the output port 56.
A signal is sent to 0 to change the light quantity of the light source 12 by this light quantity difference (step 124). That is, the light amount of the light source 12 is controlled so that the reference voltage V _c (n ₁ ) where the count value N of the characteristic curve c suddenly changes matches the reference voltage V _c (n ₀ ) corresponding to the appropriate exposure amount. In this way, the proper exposure amount adjustment is completed. The CPU 52 uses the characteristic curve c as the deviation Δ =
A characteristic curve (referred to as a characteristic curve after correction) d (FIG. 6) at the time of proper exposure, which is obtained by translating by n ₀ −n _1, is obtained and R is obtained.
It is stored in AM76.

Next, the control circuit 50 determines whether or not the projection light including the image is incident on the line sensor 44, that is, performs the image detection operation. This image detection is judged based on the characteristics of the characteristic curve d after the correction. That is, an image suitable for the AF operation is one in which a large number of black and white images frequently appear, and in this case, the characteristic curve d has a command value n as shown in FIG. 7 (A).
It decreases smoothly with the increase of. On the other hand, when the corrected characteristic curve d decreases remarkably sharply at n ₀ or more as shown in FIG. 7 (B), the image (white) is excessively small and most of it is occupied by the background (black). In many cases, the corrected characteristic curve d as shown in FIG.
In the case where a flat portion occurs at n ₀ or more, there is a high possibility that the image has a solid portion.

The image detection is to detect such a characteristic of the characteristic curve d, and for example, an area S of n ₀ or more (hatched portion in FIG. 7).
Can be determined by. In this case, the CPU
52 calculates this area S (step 126), and determines whether this area S is larger than the area S _{1 in} the case of FIG. 7 (B) and smaller than the area S _{2 in} the case of FIG. 7 (C). If it is not within this range, the line sensor 44 is moved by the servomotor 46 or the original image 10 is moved (step 130), another region is guided to the line sensor 44, and the step 100 is performed. Repeat a series of operations from. In this case, since the exposure amount adjustment has already been completed, steps 118 to 124 can be omitted. If the area S is between S ₁ and S ₂ (step 128), it is determined that there is an image having a sufficient contrast in which the black-and-white change of the image is focus controllable.

The CPU performs the exposure amount adjustment (step 100
~ 124) and image detection (steps 126-130).
After that, focus control is performed. Various algorithms for this focus control are possible, and for example, the in-focus position of the projection lens 20 can be obtained by the so-called "mountain climbing method".
In this method, first, the projection lens 20 is moved to the nearest or farthest focal position (here, x = 0) (step 13).
2), the pulse voltage V _a output by the signal processing circuit 70
Is set as the exposure amount signal I of each pixel, and the maximum value I (M) and the minimum value I (m) of this exposure amount signal I are obtained (step 134). For example, the exposure amount signal I of a pixel in the line sensor 44 is set to R
The value is temporarily stored in AM76, the magnitude is compared with the exposure amount signal I of the next pixel, the larger one is stored as I (M), the smaller one is stored as I (m), and this operation is sequentially performed for all pixels. By repeating this, I (M) and I (m) can be stored in the RAM 76. The CPU 52 then calculates the visibility V (x) represented by the following equation, for example, as a reference of the contrast of the image, and the RAM 7
6 (step 138).

V (x) = {I (M) -I (m)} / {I (M) + I (m)} The projection lens 20 is moved by Δx to obtain the visibility V (x + Δx) in the same manner, and V (x The projection lens 20 is moved by Δx until the increase rate of x) becomes 0 or negative (step 140) (step 142). In this way, the projection lens 20
Find the in-focus position of.

At this in-focus position, the projection lens is moved once so that it crosses the in-focus point, and the in-focus point is obtained from the half-value width of the change characteristic curve of the visibility V (x) at that time (half-value width method). It is also possible to move the projection lens over the range and obtain the position where the visibility V (x) at that time is maximum as the focus (full scan method).

The CPU 52 then causes the reflecting mirror 40 to exit the projection optical path,
Operates as a normal reader or printer.

In the above embodiment, the distribution characteristic curve c corrects the distribution characteristic curve d at the proper exposure and the reference voltage V _c is the area S of the reference voltage V _{c (n 0)} is greater than the area of rapid decrease of the characteristic curve d
If the area S falls within a predetermined range, it is determined that there is an image, and if it is not within this range, it is determined that there is no image. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention also includes a case where the presence or absence of an image is discriminated by using other characteristics of this characteristic curve.

Generally, the larger the area S, the higher the probability of including an image, and the larger the decrease rate of the count value N with respect to the increase of the reference voltage V _c , the higher the probability of including an image. Therefore, it is also possible to determine the presence or absence of an image based on one or more of such features.

(Effect of the Invention) As described above, the present invention compares the pulse voltage of the image sensor obtained by scanning the projection light of the focus zone selected from the film image by the image sensor with the reference voltage which changes every scanning. Then, the number of pixels for which the pulse voltage is large for each reference voltage is counted for each reference voltage, and the reference voltage when the count value suddenly changes is made to match the reference voltage corresponding to the appropriate exposure amount. The exposure amount is adjusted by controlling the light amount of the light source. Therefore, the exposure amount is adjusted by the pulse voltage output from the pixels in the background region, and the average light amount in a partial region is not detected, so that the amount of the image contained does not affect the exposure amount.
It is possible to always adjust the exposure amount accurately.

The AF mechanism operates correctly because it detects the presence or absence of an image based on the characteristics of the distribution characteristic curve that shows the distribution of the pulse voltage of each pixel with respect to the reference voltage, and finds the area (focus zone) that contains the appropriate image. A proper AF operation can be performed by selecting a region (focus zone) having a contrast suitable for the above.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of a microphotograph reader / printer which is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the image detecting device, FIG. 3 is a flow chart of operation, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the output of the D / A converter, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the exposure adjusting method, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the image detecting method. 12 ...... light source, 44 ...... line sensor as an image sensor, _{V a} ...... pulse voltage, _{V c} ...... reference voltage, N ...... number of pixels, c ...... distribution characteristic curve.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location G03B 27/32 C 9017-2K

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical device with an autofocus mechanism for forming an image of projection light of an image recorded on a film on a projection surface and performing autofocus control on a partial area selected from the projection image. , Comparing the pulse voltage of the image sensor obtained by scanning the projection light of the selected area by the image sensor with a reference voltage that changes stepwise for each scan of the image sensor, The number of pixels having a large pulse voltage is counted for each reference voltage, and the light source light amount is controlled so that the reference voltage when the count value suddenly changes coincides with the reference voltage corresponding to the appropriate exposure amount. It is determined whether or not the image of the region is suitable for autofocus based on the characteristics of the distribution characteristic curve with respect to the numerical reference voltage, and if the image is not suitable for autofocus. An image detecting method for an optical device, characterized in that the region is changed and similar discrimination is performed to select an appropriate region.