On-screen device for subject of interest in portable electronic device, and method of controlling same

• US 20020176011A1
• Filed: 05/14/2002
• Published: 11/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kuwayama, Akiko
• Granted Patent: US 7,184,087 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/239
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/10 Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/125 wherein one of the images is motion video
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/391 Resolution modifying circuits, e.g. variable screen formats
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/395 Arrangements specially adapted for transferring the contents of the bit-mapped memory to the screen G09G5/399 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2621 Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/272 Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/01 Conversion of standards , e.g. involving analogue television standards or digital television standards processed at pixel level

Abstract

Data representing a bitmap image of 320 pixels horizontally by 480 lines vertically is stored in an SDRAM. The amount of this bitmap image data is adjusted by a data adjustment circuit so as to obtain a bitmap image of 640 pixels horizontally by 480 lines vertically. The image of a subject is sensed by an image sensing device and sensed-image data representing a subject image of 640 pixels horizontally by 480 lines vertically is obtained. The bitmap image data whose amount of data has been adjusted and the sensed-image data are applied to an on-screen processing circuit, which proceeds to execute on-screen processing so as to superimpose the bitmap image on the sensed image. The image that is the result of superimposing the bitmap image on the sensed image is displayed on a display device. In another aspect, the image of a subject is sensed using an image sensing device, whereby YC data is obtained. The YC data is recorded on an SDRAM. The YC data is then read from the SDRAM and converted to bitmap image data in a table RAM. The bitmap image data obtained by the conversion is recorded on the SDRAM. Thus the image of a subject obtained by imaging can be converted to data representing a bitmap image superimposed on the image of the subject.

Claims

1. An on-screen device for an image of interest in a portable electronic device, comprising:

an input device for inputting image-of-interest data representing an image of interest having a prescribed size equivalent to one frame of an image;

a reading device for reading on-screen bitmap image data out of a storage medium that stores the on-screen bitmap image data, said on-screen bitmap image data representing an on-screen image, which has an amount of data less than that of reference bitmap image data representing the one frame of the image and which is superimposed on the image of interest represented by the image-of-interest data that has been input from said input device;

an adjustment device for adjusting the amount of the on-screen bitmap image data in such a manner that the size of the on-screen image represented by the on-screen bitmap image data that has been read by said reading device will take on said prescribed size equivalent to one frame of an image; and

a device for applying on-screen processing to the image-of-interest data and the adjusted on-screen bitmap image data in such a manner that the on-screen image, which is represented by the on-screen bitmap image data that has been adjusted by said adjustment device, will be superimposed on the image of interest represented by the image-of-interest data that has been input from said input device.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the format of the image of interest represented by the image-of-interest data is based upon the PAL color television system and, moreover, the format of the on-screen image represented by the on-screen bitmap image data that has been stored on said storage medium is an image format based upon the NTSC system;

and

the amount of on-screen bitmap image data is adjusted in such a manner that the size of the on-screen image represented by the on-screen bitmap image data that has been read by said reading device takes on the size of the image based upon the PAL system.

3. A method of controlling an on-screen device for an image of interest in a portable electronic device, comprising the steps of:

inputting image-of-interest data representing an image of interest having a prescribed size equivalent to one frame of an image;

reading on-screen bitmap image data out of a storage medium that stores the on-screen bitmap image data, the on-screen bitmap image data representing an on-screen image, which has an amount of data less than that of reference bitmap image data representing the one frame of the image and which is superimposed on the image of interest represented by the image-of-interest data that has been input;

adjusting the amount of data of the on-screen bitmap image data in such a manner that the size of the on-screen image represented by the read on-screen bitmap image data will take on the prescribed size equivalent to one frame of an image; and

applying on-screen processing to the image-of-interest data and the adjusted on-screen bitmap image data in such a manner that the on-screen image, which is represented by the adjusted on-screen bitmap image data that has been adjusted, will be superimposed on the image of interest represented by the image-of-interest data that has been input.

4. A digital camera equipped with an on-screen function, comprising:

an image sensing device for sensing images of different subjects and successively outputting subject image data representing two frames of the subject images;

a first recording controller for storing, on a recording medium, the subject image data representing the two frames of the subject images output from said image sensing device;

a first converter for converting the subject image data representing one subject image, from the subject image data representing the two frames of the subject images stored on the recording medium, to bitmap image data representing a bitmap image, which is to be superimposed on the other subject image, and having attached control data that indicates transparency of this bitmap image;

a composite-image generating device for generating a composite image, which is obtained by superimposing the bitmap image on said other subject image at the transparency indicated by the control data; and

an output device for outputting data representing the composite image that has been generated by said composite-image generating device.

5. The digital camera according to claim 4, wherein said output device is a display device for displaying the composite image represented by the composite-image data.

6. The digital camera according to claim 4, further comprising an out-of-focus area extraction device for extracting an area in which said other image is not in focus;

said composite-image generating device generating a composite image in which the bitmap image is superimposed on the area extracted by said out-of-focus area extraction device;

7. The digital camera according to claim 4, further comprising a second converter for re-converting bitmap image data, which has been obtained by the conversion performed by said first converter, to subject image data representing said one subject image.

8. The digital camera according to claim 4, further comprising a second recording-medium control device for recording, on the recording medium, bitmap image data, which has been obtained by the conversion performed by said first converter, and control data.

9. The digital camera according to claim 4, further comprising:

a reading device for reading bitmap image data that has been recorded on the recording medium;

two line memories capable of writing the bitmap image data, which has been read by said reading device, alternately one line of said bitmap image data at a time, and of alternately outputting the bitmap image data that has been written;

a switching circuit for performing switching in such a manner that said two line memories are cascade connected; and

a weighting circuit for weighting the one line of bitmap image data that has been read by said reading device and bitmap image data output from each of said line memories of the two cascade-connected line memories.

10. A method of controlling operation of a digital camera equipped with an on-screen function, comprising the steps of:

sensing the images of different subjects and successively obtaining subject image data representing two frames of the subject images;

storing, on a recording medium, the subject image data representing the two frames of the subject images that have been obtained;

converting the subject image data representing one subject image, from the subject image data representing the two frames of the subject images stored on the recording medium, to bitmap image data representing a bitmap image, which is to be superimposed on the other subject image, and having attached control data that indicates transparency of this bitmap image;

generating a composite image, which is obtained by superimposing the bitmap image on said other subject image at the transparency indicated by the control data; and

outputting data representing the composite image that has been generated.