Image capturing system, image capturing device, and image capturing method

• US 8,369,701 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2011
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kashiwa, Kotaro, Marukawa, Kazuyuki, Ohzeki, Yukihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Blackman, Rochelle-Ann J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith, Linda B
• Application Number:
  US13/194,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20110285864A1
• Time in Patent Office: 557 Days
• Field of Search: 396/325
• US Class Current: 396/325
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/662 by using master/slave camera arrangements for affecting the control of camera image capture, e.g. placing the camera in a desirable condition to capture a desired image
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/90 Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

To enable satisfactory simultaneous and widely varied pictures to be obtained, for example, by allowing a common user to obtain an overall picture while the common user performing desired image capturing, or the like. A first image capturing device image-captures a subject to record this image, and also transmits a trigger signal to a second image capturing device. The second image capturing device image-captures an image to record this image in accordance with the trigger signal. Thus, the first and second image capturing devices enable both of an overall image and a zoomed image to be obtained with simultaneous timing.

Claims

1. An image-capturing device comprising:

image-capturing recording means for performing image-capturing to record an image of an object in a zoomed-in state;

transmission means for transmitting a trigger signal for instructing an external device to record an image-captured image of a scene including the object; and

control means for controlling (a) recording of an image-captured image at said image-capturing recording means, and (b) automatic transmission of the trigger signal from said transmission means when a shutter is operated.

2. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, further comprising identifying information storing means for storing apparatus identifying information;

wherein said control means control said transmission means to transmit the apparatus identifying information stored in said identifying information storing means along with said trigger signal.

3. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, further comprising meta-data generating means for generating meta-data;

wherein said control means control said transmission means to transmit the meta-data generated in said meta-data generating means along with said trigger signal.

4. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein said control means control said image-capturing means to record the image-captured image,

and control said transmission means to transmit the trigger signal, following which control said transmission means to transmit the image-captured image recorded in said image-capturing recording means.

5. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, further comprising meta-data generating means for generating meta-data;

wherein said control means control, when controlling said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of the image-captured image, said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of the meta-data generated at said meta-data generating means by associating the meta-data with the image-captured image thereof;

and wherein said control means control said transmission means to transmit the image-captured image stored in said image-capturing recording means, and the meta-data recorded by being associated with the image-captured image thereof .

6. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record the image-captured images as still images;

and wherein said control means control said image-capturing recording means to perform still-image recording of the image-captured image, and control said transmission means to transmit the trigger signal, with a timing specified by a shutter operation or a shutter operation program.

7. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record the image-captured images as moving images;

wherein said control means control said image-capturing recording means to execute moving-image recording of the image-captured image during a period specified by a first operation, and also control said transmission means to execute transmission of the trigger signal with a timing specified by a second operation or an operation program.

8. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record the image-captured images as moving and still images;

wherein said control means control said image-capturing recording means to execute moving-image recording of the image-captured image during a period specified by a first operation, and also control said image-capturing recording means to perform still-image recording of the image-captured image, and said transmission means to execute transmission of the trigger signal, with a timing specified by a second operation or an operation program.

9. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record an image-captured image signal in a recording medium.

10. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record subject light as the image-captured image on a silver-salt film.

11. The image-capturing device according to claim 1, wherein said control means transmit a standby instruction for instructing the external device to perform preparation for recording the image-captured image prior to transmitting the trigger signal from said transmission means.

12. The image-capturing device according to claim 3, wherein said meta-data includes anyone of point-in-time information, positional information, and recording address information.

13. The image-capturing device according to claim 5, wherein said meta-data includes anyone of point-in-time information, positional information, and recording address information.

14. An image-capturing device comprising:

image-capturing recording means for performing image-capturing to record an image;

reception means for receiving a trigger signal to be transmitted from an external device when a shutter is operated at the external device to capture an image of an object in a zoomed-in state; and

control means for controlling said image-capturing recording means to execute at least recording of an image-captured image of a scene including the object in response to receiving the trigger signal at said reception means.

15. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said control means control, when controlling said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of the image-captured image based on the trigger signal received at said reception means, control said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of an apparatus identifying information, which was transmitted from the external device and received at said reception means, along with the image-captured image thereof.

16. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said control means control, when controlling said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of the image-captured image based on the trigger signal received at said reception means, control said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of meta-data, which was transmitted from the external device and received at said reception means, along with the image-captured image thereof.

17. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, further comprising meta-data generating means for generating meta-data;

wherein said control means control, when controlling said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of the image-captured image based on the trigger signal received at said reception means, control said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of meta-data, generated at said meta-data generating means, along with the image-captured image thereof.

18. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said control means control said image-capturing recording means to record the image-captured image transmitted from said external device, and received at said reception means.

19. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, further comprising meta-data generating means for generating meta-data;

wherein said control means, when controlling said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of the image-captured image, control said image-capturing recording means to execute recording of the meta-data generated at said meta-data generating means by associating the meta-data with the image-captured image thereof; and

wherein said control means, when said reception means receive the image-captured image and meta-data transmitted from said external device, collate the meta-data received along with the image-captured image with the meta-data recorded at said image-capturing recording means, and control said image-capturing recording means to record the image-captured image received at said reception means so as to be associated with a particular image-captured image recorded in said image-capturing recording means.

20. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record the image-captured images as still images;

wherein said control means, in response to receiving the trigger signal at said reception means, control said image-capturing recording means to execute still-image recording of the image-captured image.

21. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record the image-captured images as moving images;

wherein said control means, in response to receiving the trigger signal at said reception means, control said image-capturing recording means to execute moving-image recording of the image-captured image.

22. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record the image-captured images as still and moving images;

wherein said control means control said image-capturing recording means to execute moving-image recording of the image-captured image during a period specified by an operation, and also in response to receiving the trigger signal at said reception means, control said image-capturing recording means to execute still-image recording of the image-captured image.

23. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record the image-captured image signal in a recording medium.

24. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said image-capturing recording means are configured so as to record subject light as the image-captured image on a silver-salt film.

25. The image-capturing device according to claim 14, wherein said control means control said image-capturing recording means to stand by in a recordable state in response to receiving a standby instruction transmitted from said external device at said reception means.

26. The image-capturing device according to claim 17, wherein said meta-data includes anyone of point-in-time information, positional information, and recording address information.

27. The image-capturing device according to claim 19, wherein said meta-data includes anyone of point-in-time information, positional information, and recording address information.

28. An image-capturing method of an image-capturing device for recording still images or moving images as image-captured images of a subject, comprising:

an image-capturing step for executing image-capturing or recording of an image-captured image of an object in a zoomed-in state with a timing specified by a shutter operation or a shutter operation program; and

a trigger transmitting step for automatically transmitting a trigger signal when the shutter operation or shutter operation program is executed for instructing image-capturing or recording of an image-captured image of a scene including the object to an external device with said timing.

29. The image-capturing method according to claim 28, wherein in said trigger transmitting step, the apparatus identifying information of said image-capturing device is transmitted along with said trigger signal.

30. The image-capturing method according to claim 28, wherein in said trigger transmitting step, meta-data generated at said image-capturing device is transmitted along with said trigger signal.

31. The image-capturing method according to claim 28, further comprising:

an image transmitting step for transmitting the image-captured image recorded in said image-capturing recording step.

32. The image-capturing method according to claim 28, wherein in said image-capturing recording step, recording of meta-data generated at said image-capturing device is performed so as to associate the meta-data with the image-captured image;

and

wherein said method further comprises an image transmitting step for transmitting the image-captured image-recorded in said image-capturing recording step.

33. The image-capturing method according to claim 28, further comprising:

a standby instruction transmitting step for transmitting a standby instruction for instructing preparation for recording of an image-captured image as to the external device prior to said timing for executing said image-capturing recording step and said trigger transmitting step.

34. An image-capturing method of an image-capturing device for recording still images or moving images as image-captured images of a subject, comprising:

a trigger receiving step for receiving a trigger signal automatically transmitted from an external device when a shutter is operated at the external device to capture an image of an object in a zoomed-in state; and

an image-capturing recording step for executing image-capturing or recording of an image-captured image of a scene including the object in response to receiving the trigger signal in said receiving step.

35. The image-capturing method according to claim 34, wherein in said receiving step, apparatus identifying information transmitted from said external device is received along with the trigger signal;

and

wherein in said image-capturing recording step, the received apparatus identifying information is recorded along with the image-captured image.

36. The image-capturing method according to claim 34, wherein in said receiving step, meta-data transmitted from said external device is received along with the trigger signal;

and

wherein in said image-capturing recording step, the received meta-data is recorded along with the image-captured image.

37. The image-capturing method according to claim 34, wherein in said image-capturing recording step, recording of meta-data generated at said image-capturing device is executed so as to be associated with the image-captured image.

38. The image-capturing method according to claim 34, further comprising:

an image receiving step for receiving an image-captured image to be transmitted from said external device; and

a receiving image recording step for recording the image-captured image received in said image receiving step.

39. The image-capturing method according to claim 34, wherein in said image-capturing recording step, recording of meta-data generated at said image-capturing device is executed so as to be associated with the image-captured image, and said method also further comprising:

an image receiving step for receiving the image-captured image and meta-data to be transmitted from said external device;

a collating step for collating the meta-data received in said image-receiving step with the meta-data recorded in said image-capturing recording step; and

a received-image recording step for recording the image-captured image received in said receiving step so as to be associated with a particular image-captured image recorded in said image-capturing recording step based on a collation result in said collating step.

40. The image-capturing method according to claim 34, further comprising:

a standby-instruction receiving step for receiving a standby instruction to be transmitted from said external device; and

an image-capturing recording preparation step for performing image-capturing preparation or recording preparation of the image-captured image in response to receiving said standby instruction.