Image shooting apparatus and control method and program thereof

• US 8,174,584 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2009
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Sambonsugi, Hideaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Nhan T
• Application Number:
  US12/431,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20090273684A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,106 Days
• Field of Search: 348/220.1, 348/231.99, 348/231.2, 348152-155, 348/143, 348/169, 3482311-2316, 348/231.9
• US Class Current: 348/220.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/212 Motion video recording combined with still video recording television signal recording H04N5/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2145 of a sequence of images for selection of a single frame before final recording, e.g. from a continuous sequence captured before and after shutter-release
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2158 using a detachable storage unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/667 Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

An apparatus which concurrently shoots a movie and a still image, comprises an image sensing unit which generates movie data and still image data; a storage unit which stores the generated still image data in a temporary memory area at predetermined time intervals; a detection unit which detects at least one of feature information, audio information and operation information; an analyzing unit which analyzes the detected information; a control unit which outputs, based on an analysis result, an instruction used as a trigger for selecting still image data among the still image data stored in the temporary memory area; an image processing unit which performs image processing on the selected still image data selected in accordance with the instruction used as the trigger; and a recording unit which records the processed still image data.

Claims

1. An image shooting apparatus, comprising:

an image sensing unit configured to generate image data by performing photo-electric conversion on an object image;

an output unit configured to output a trigger for recording image data in a recording medium;

a storage unit configured to continuously store a plurality of image data generated by the image-sensing unit in a temporary memory area at predetermined time intervals from before said output unit outputs the trigger;

a selection unit configured to select image data that was shot at a track-back time that is a predetermined amount of time before the trigger output among the image data stored in the temporary memory area in response to said output unit outputting the trigger; and

a recording unit configured to record image data selected by said selection unit in the recording medium,

wherein said storage unit stores the plurality of image data at a first frame rate until the track-back time is a first amount of time before the trigger output and stores the plurality of image data at a second frame rate which is lower than the first frame rate until the track-back time is a second amount of time past the first amount of time,

wherein there exists a plurality of factors that causes said output unit to output the trigger,

said selection unit selects image data stored in the temporary memory area, of which the track back time before the trigger output and frame rate are different, on the basis of a type of the factor that causes said output unit to output the trigger.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the factor includes an analysis result of a feature of an object in the image data.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the feature of the object includes at least one of a tint of the object, a brightness of the object, and a shift amount of the object, and

the output unit outputs the trigger in response to when the analysis result is satisfied with a predetermined condition.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the factor includes an analysis result of audio data stored concurrently with the image data.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the factor includes a manual operation by a user.

6. A control method of an image shooting apparatus which has an image sensing unit configured to generate image data by performing photo-electric conversion on an object image, an output unit configured to output a trigger for recording image data in a recording medium, and a storage unit configured to continuously store a plurality of image data generated by the image-sensing unit in a temporary memory area at predetermined time intervals from before said output unit outputs the trigger, the method comprising:

a selecting step of selecting image data that was shot at a track-back time that is a predetermined amount of time before the trigger output among the image data stored in the temporary memory area in response to said output unit outputting the trigger; and

a recording step of recording image data selected by said selection unit in the recording medium,

wherein said storage unit stores the plurality of image data at a first frame rate until the track-back time is a first amount of time before the trigger output and stores the plurality of image data at a second frame rate which is lower than the first frame rate until the track-back time is a second amount of time past the first amount of time,

wherein there exists a plurality of factors that causes said output unit output the trigger,

in said selecting step image data stored in the temporary memory area, of which the track back time before the trigger output and frame rate are different, is selected on the basis of a type of the factor that causes said output unit to output the trigger.