Electronic still camera and image recording method thereof

• US 5,018,017 A
• Filed: 12/08/1989
• Issued: 05/21/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 12/25/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Sugikawa, Akihiko, Umeda, Masafumi, Sasaki, Minoru, Tagami, Yoshitomo
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Tommy P.
• Application Number:
  US07/447,858
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• Field of Search: 358/909, 358/209, 358/213.16, 358/213.25, 358/41, 358/12, 358/13, 358/133, 358/105, 358/906, 358/335
• US Class Current: 348/231.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2112 using still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2137 with temporary storage before final recording, e.g. in a frame buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2158 using a detachable storage unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/646 Transmitting or storing colour television type signals, e.g. PAL, Lab; Their conversion into additive or subtractive colour signals or vice versa therefor H04N1/642, H04N1/644 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras

Abstract

An electronic still camera has a memory card, which is detachably provided, for recording photographed image data. The electronic still camera comprises a data compression unit for compressing image data to be recorded, a mode selection unit provided in association with the data compression unit to select a recording mode or compression mode, a buffer memory for once storing the image data compressed in the compression mode selected by the mode selection unit, and a determination unit for determining whether or not the image data stored in the buffer memory can be recorded on the recording medium. In the electronic still camera, when the image data was determined to be unrecordable by the determination unit, the image data stored in the memory is stored in the buffer memory till the recording medias assumes a recordable state.

Claims

1. An electronic still camera comprising:

photographing processing means for obtaining image data by photographing;

recording mode setting means for establishing a recording mode and for varying an amount of the image data to be obtained by said photographing processing means, in accordance with the recording mode;

a buffer memory for storing the image data obtained from said photographing processing means in accordance with the recording mode set by said recording mode setting means;

a recording medium detachably coupled said buffer memory, for apropriately recording the image data stored in said buffer memory;

determination means for determining whether or not the image data stored in said buffer memory can be recorded on said recording medium by comparing the amount of the image data with recordable capacity of the recording medium; and

recording control means for recording the image data stored in said buffer memory on said recording medium when said determination means determines that said image data can be recorded.

2. An electronic still camera comprising:

photographing processing means for obtaining image data by photographing;

recording mode setting means for establishing a recording mode and for varying an amount of the image data to be obtained by said photographing processing means, in accordance with an established recording mode;

a buffer memory for storing the image data obtained from said photographing processing means in accordance with the recording mode set by said recording mode setting means;

a recording medium detachably coupled to said buffer memory, for appropriately recording the image data stored in said buffer memory;

determination means for determining whether or not the image data stored in said buffer memory can be recorded on said recording medium by comparing the amount of the image data with recordable capacity of the recording medium;

recording control means for recording the image data stored in said buffer memory on said recording medium when said determination means determines that said image data can be recorded; and

means by which, when said determination means determines that the image data cannot be recorded, the stored content of said buffer memory is maintained until the image data stored in said buffer memory is determined to be recordable by said determination means.

3. The camera according to claim 2, wherein said photographing processing means includes compression processing means for compressing the image data at a predetermined compression rate.

4. The camera according to claim 2, wherein said recording mode setting means includes compression rate changing means, in order to enable a compression ratio of the image data amount set by said photographing processing means to be externally determined.

5. The camera according to claim 2, further comprising alarm means for issuing an alarm when the image data is determined to be unrecordable by said determination means.

6. An electronic still camera comprising:

photographing processing means for obtaining image data in a plurality of recording modes different in data amount for one frame;

recording mode selection means provided in correspondence to said photographing processing means to select one of the recording modes;

coupling means for detachably coupling a recording medium;

residual amount detection means for detecting the recordable capacity of the recording medium coupled to said coupling means through said coupling means;

calculation means for obtaining the image data amount for one frame in the selected recording mode in response to the selection of said recording mode selection means and obtaining the number of frames capable of being recorded by said recording mode of the recording medium coupled to said coupling means from the image data amount for one frame and the recordable capacity detected by said residual amount detection means;

display means for displaying the frame number obtained by said calculation means; and

recording means for recording the image data obtained by said photographing processing means on the recording medium coupled to said coupling means in accordance with the recording mode selected by said recording mode selection means.

7. The camera according to claim 6, wherein said photographing processing means includes compression processing means for compressing the image data at a predetermined compression rate.

8. The camera according to claim 6, wherein said calculation means includes means for obtaining the frame number capable of being recorded in the recording mode whenever the change in selection is effected by said recording mode selection means.

9. An electronic still camera comprising:

photographing processing means for photographing a subject to obtain an image data of a still image;

coupling means for detachably coupling a memory card with a semiconductor memory mounted thereon;

memory information reading means for reading the type of semiconductor memory of said memory card coupled to said coupling means and information of access time from said memory card through said coupling means;

associated mode setting means provided operative to said photographing processing means to set an associated mode for continuously obtaining the image data of still image of plural frames at a plurality of different associated speeds in said photographing processing means;

upper limit speed determination means for obtaining an upper limit of the associated speed from the type of a semiconductor memory of said memory card read by said memory information reading means and information of written access time; and

recording means for recording the image data obtained from said photographing processing means on the memory card coupled to said coupling means.

10. The camera according to claim 9, wherein said photographing processing means includes compression processing means for compressing the image data at a predetermined compression rate.

11. The camera according to claim 9, further comprising display means for displaying the upper limit of the associated speed obtained by said upper limit speed determination means.

12. The camera according to claim 9, further comprising alarm means for issuing an alarm when set to the associated mode in excess of the upper limit of the associated speed obtained by said upper limit speed determination means in response to the setting of said associated mode setting means.

13. The camera according to claim 12, further comprising means for inhibiting writing to said memory card by said recording means when photographing is effected setting to the associated mode in excess of the upper limit of the associated speed obtained by said upper limit speed determination means in response to the setting of said associated mode setting means.

14. An image recording method in an electronic still camera comprising the steps of:

setting a desired recording mode by selecting an arbitrary data amount for one frame of image data;

obtaining the image data in accordance with the recording mode set by said recording mode setting step;

storing the image data obtained by said image data obtaining step in a buffer memory;

determining whether or not the image data stored in said buffer memory can be recorded on a recording medium set to the camera;

recording the image data stored in said buffer memory on said recording medium when the image data is determined to be recordable by said determination step; and

maintaining the image data stored in said buffer memory therein until the image data stored in said buffer memory is determined to be recordable by said determination step.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said image data obtaining step includes the step of compressing the image data at a predetermined compression rate.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the alarm step of issuing an alarm when the image data is determined to be unrecordable by said determination step.

17. An image recording method in an electronic still camera comprising the steps of:

selecting a desired recording mode from a plurality of recording modes which are each different in specifying a data amount for comprising one frame of image data;

obtaining the image data according to the recording mode selected by said recording mode selection step;

detecting an available recordable capacity of a recording medium set to the camera;

calculating the image data amount for one frame in the recording mode selected by said recording mode selection step;

calculating a number of frames capable of being recorded on the recording medium in the recording mode selected from an image data amount for one frame and the recordable capacity detected by said detection step;

displaying the frame number obtained by said calculation step; and

recording, on said recording medium, the image data obtained by said image data obtaining step in accordance with the recording mode selected by said recording mode selection step.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein said image data obtaining step includes the step of compressing and processing the image data at a predetermined compression rate.