Television – Camera – system and detail – Camera image stabilization
Utility Patent
1997-05-08
2001-01-02
Ho, Tuan (Department: 2712)
Television
Camera, system and detail
Camera image stabilization
C348S220100, C348S231900
Utility Patent
active
06169574
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image pickup apparatus such as a video camera, video recorder of the camera integrated type, or the like.
2. Related Background Art
In an image pickup apparatus having an image pickup device for converting an object image into an electric signal, for instance, in a video tape recorder of the camera integrated type which has been remarkably developed in recent years, various kinds of functions such as automatic focusing, automatic iris, zoom, and the like are equipped as standard functions. Further, functions to provide special effects such as fetch of a still image by a digital memory, strobe effect, multiplex of characters or image, wipe, scroll, fade, and the like are also equipped. The video tape recorder of the camera integrated type has an extremely high quality with respect to the functions and operating performance.
FIG. 1
shows a schematic constructional block diagram of a conventional example. An image pickup device
10
generates an electric signal of an object image. A camera signal processing circuit
12
converts the output signal of the image pickup device
10
into the video signal. An A/D converter
14
converts the analog video signal which is generated from the camera signal processing circuit
12
into the digital signal. The digital output signal is written into a memory
16
and is subjected to the above special effects. The image data stored in the memory
16
is read out and returned into the analog signal by a D/A converter
18
. A control circuit
20
supplies sampling clocks to the A/D converter
14
and D/A converter
18
in accordance with the operation of an operation switch
21
to instruct a special effect and also executes a digital signal process for the special effect using the memory
16
. That is, the control circuit
20
allows the video signal which is generated from the camera signal processing circuit
12
to be stored into the memory
16
in accordance with the operation switch
21
.
A switch
22
selects either the output of the camera signal processing circuit
12
or the output of the D/A converter
18
in accordance with a control signal from the control circuit
20
. That is, either the video signal which is not subjected to the special effect or the video signal which has been subjected to the special effect is selected. The video signal selected by the switch
22
is applied to a recording circuit
24
and a monitor
26
. The recording circuit
24
records the video signal onto a recording medium such as a magnetic tape or the like. The monitor
26
displays the image of the video signal.
By continuously connecting the switch
22
to the side of the D/A converter
18
to a certain degree, the display video image of the monitor
26
and the recording video image by the recording circuit
24
are set into a stationary state. The output video signal of the camera signal processing circuit
12
is intermittently stored into the memory
16
. By switching the switch
22
to either the output side of the camera signal processing circuit
12
or the output side of the D/A converter
18
in accordance with the data storage, the strobe effect is obtained.
However, the storage of the video signal which is generated from the camera signal processing circuit
12
into the memory
16
is performed by the control circuit
20
in accordance with the operation of the operation switch
21
by the photographer. Consequently, there are drawbacks such that the video signal of the vibrated image is stored into the memory
16
due to a shock, a hand vibration, or the like when the operation switch
21
is operated, so that the picture quality of the still image based on the still function, strobo function, or the like is lost.
On the other hand, generally, when the photographing by the video camera is considered, it must be considered that the camera vibration can obviously occur. The image stored in a state during the occurrence of the camera vibration becomes the image including the vibration even when it is stored as a still image into the memory. Such a drawback becomes a seriously large problem, particularly, in the video camera to continuously photograph moving images for a long time instead of a momentary photographing as in the case of the still camera.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is made to solve the above problems and it is the first object of the invention to provide a novel video camera in which the storage of an image having a vibration into a memory can be prevented and an always preferable image can be generated.
The second object of the invention is to provide a photographing apparatus in which when an operation to instruct the storage of an image into a memory is performed, the image is stored into the memory at a time point when an influence by a vibration is small, thereby enabling a still image of a high quality without a vibration to be always obtained from the memory.
To accomplish the above objects, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, there is disclosed an image pickup apparatus comprising an image pickup means; a memory to store an image signal generated from image pickup means; switching means for switching an output of the image pickup means and an output of the memory; vibration detecting means for detecting a vibration of an apparatus main body; and control means for allowing the image signal generated from the image pickup means to be stored into the memory when the vibration detected by the vibration detecting means is equal to or less than a predetermined value.
The third object of the invention is to provide an image pickup apparatus which has a function to correct a camera vibration even when such a vibration of the apparatus occurs and which can generate an image without a vibration even when a vibration such that it exceeds a correction limit and cannot be corrected occurs.
To accomplish the above object, according to a preferred embodiment in the invention, there is disclosed an image pickup apparatus comprising image pickup means for photoelectrically converting an object image and generating an image pickup signal; memory means for storing the image pickup signal generated from the image pickup means; switching means for switching an output of the image pickup means and an output of the memory means; vibration detecting means for detecting a vibration of an apparatus main body; and control means for controlling the switching means on the basis of an output of the vibration detecting means, for generating the image pickup signal generated from the image pickup means when the vibration detected by the vibration detecting means is less than the predetermined value, and for generating the image signal stored in the memory means when the vibration detected by the vibration detecting means is equal to or greater than the predetermined value.
The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5170255 (1992-12-01), Yamada et al.
patent: 5210620 (1993-05-01), Kim
patent: 5235427 (1993-08-01), Kim
patent: 5596366 (1997-01-01), Takashima et al.
Kobayashi Takashi
Noguchi Kazuhiro
Ogino Shigeru
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Ho Tuan
Robin Blecker & Daley
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