Television – Camera – system and detail – Remote control
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-10
2001-03-13
Garber, Wendy (Department: 2612)
Television
Camera, system and detail
Remote control
C348S223100, C348S239000, C348S026000, C348S592000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06201570
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a television camera apparatus of digital type provided with a camera head and a camera control unit independently, or more in particular to signal transmission between the camera head unit and the camera control unit of a digital television camera apparatus having the image processing function such as flesh tone contour processing, the highlight processing and the chroma key processing.
A high-quality television camera apparatus used for professional use in broadcast stations and the like is generally configured of a camera head unit (hereinafter referred to as the head unit) and a camera control unit (hereinafter referred to as the CCU) independent of each other and coupled to each other through a cable.
In this conventional television camera, the image information obtained by imaging an object is generally processed by an analog method. In recent years, however, a camera system of digital processing type has come to be widely used. In such a camera system, a television camera in which the transmission between the head unit and the CCU is digitally processed has begun to find applications.
A typical example of the image processing in such a television camera is what is called the flesh tone contour processing (hereinafter referred to as the FTC processing) in which the degree of contour emphasis of only a specific hue portion of the picture such as the flesh tone portion of the human being, for example, is controlled independently.
The FTC processing is the processing for controlling the degree of contour emphasis correction of the image portion of the human flesh color. Since an excessive degree of contour emphasis correction would highlight wrinkles, the process is executed normally for weakening the contour emphasis degree.
This FTC processing is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-7-143510, U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,293, etc. (prior art (1)).
It is desirable to display a processed image on a monitor screen or the like to check whether the FTC process designated by the operator is correctly performed as to the image portion intended by the operator, i.e., the hue portion intended by the operator. For this purpose, the video signal that has been subjected to the FTC processing is transmitted from the head unit to the CCU and displayed on a color monitor screen or the like. In this case, when the video signal subjected to the FTC processing is displayed as it is on the color monitor screen or the like, however, it is difficult to check which image portion has been subjected to the FTC processing. In view of this, the brightness of the image subjected to the FTC processing is replaced by a predetermined level of brightness to obtain a video signal indicating an image range subjected to the FTC processing. The FTC processed image portion of the original video signal is replaced by this video signal to obtain a video signal for checking the FTC processing range, that is, an FTC processing range check video signal. Alternatively, the image portion subjected to the FTC processing (FTC processed image portion) is superimposed by a signal representing a white or black frame which surrounds the image portion subjected to the FTC processing (i.e., the video signal indicating an image range subjected to the FTC processing) to obtain the FTC processing range check video signal. Such a FTC processing range check video signal is displayed on a screen in order to facilitate such a checking of an image portion subjected to the FTC processing.
FIG. 1
shows an example of the FTC processing range check video signal displayed on a monitor screen
100
in which the portion of a human image
102
subjected to the FTC processing is surrounded by a black frame
104
. In this case, the image portion of the black frame represents the image produced by the video signal indicating the FTC processed image range, while the entire image added with the black frame represents the image produced by the FTC processing range check video signal.
The prior art (1) described above discloses no method of transmitting the video signal for checking the FTC processing range (FTC processing range check video signal) to the CCU.
In the prior art, at the time of checking the FTC processing image, the video signal added with the video signal indicating the FTC processing range (i.e., the FTC processing range check video signal) is transmitted through a main video line from the head unit to the CCU, in which case the FTC processing range check video signal is transmitted in place of the normal video signal added with no indication signal.
FIG. 2
shows an example configuration of a conventional television camera apparatus using such a transmission method, which is realized by SK-2000 of Hitachi Denshi Ltd. (prior art (2)), for example.
Such an apparatus has a general configuration including a head unit
1
, a transmission unit
2
and a CCU
3
.
The head unit
1
includes a head processing unit
4
with a TV camera and a pixel data replacing unit
11
. The whole head unit is held by a pedestal or a dolly not shown through a table and constitutes a body of the TV camera.
The transmission unit
2
, on the other hand, includes two parts coupled through a transmission cable having a main video line
2
x
and data lines
2
a
,
2
b
. One of the parts is included in the head unit
1
and the other part included in the CCU
3
, both of which are responsible for data transmission between the head unit
1
and the CCU
3
.
Further, the CCU
3
is configured of a CCU processing unit
7
, a controller
10
and the other part of the transmission unit
2
.
The controller
10
outputs a processing variable control signal A and a processing range indication control signal B making up a video processing control signal. These signals are transmitted to the head unit
1
through the transmission unit
2
.
The processing variable control signal A is formed by two kinds of signals having variable values, that is, a signal A
1
for setting the hue to be subjected to the FTC processing and a signal A
2
indicating the degree of flesh tone contour correction (hereinafter referred to as the contour level), i.e. the degree of the FTC processing. The processing range indication control signal B is an on/off signal for controlling whether or not a video signal indicating the position and the range of the hue subjected to the FTC processing (FTC processing range) on the image is to be added to the original video signal.
The operation relating to the control signals for the FTC processing according to the above-mentioned prior art will be described below.
The controller
10
includes at least two volume knobs
10
a
1
,
10
a
2
for generating a hue setting signal A
1
and a contour level setting signal A
2
, respectively, making up the processing variable control signal A, and a range indication switch
10
b
for turning on/off the processing range indication control signal B.
These signals A, B are both generated by human operation, and therefore are signals substantially similar to a DC signal exhibiting a considerable temporal delay. The hue setting signal A
1
and the contour level setting signal A
2
are voltage signals continuously variable from 0 to 5 V, for example. The processing range indication control signal B, on the other hand, is a binary signal assuming values of a low level of 0 V and a high level of 5 V, for example. These control signals A, B are transmitted to the head unit
1
through the transmission unit
2
. The processing variable control signal A is input to the head processing unit
4
, and the range indication control signal B is input to the pixel data replacing unit
11
.
First, the head processing unit
4
determines a hue to be subjected to the FTC processing in accordance with the voltage value of the hue setting signal A
1
. Then, in accordance with the voltage value of the contour level setting signal A
2
, the contour level of the particular hue is determined. These signals are used to subject the video signal to a predetermined flesh tone contour processing, a
Miyashita Atsushi
Murata Nobuo
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Garber Wendy
Hitachi Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha
Wilson Jacqueline
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