Apparatus and method for processing video signal

• US 20040056880A1
• Filed: 09/11/2003
• Published: 03/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Matsuoka, Masaaki, Honma, Yoshihiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,023,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/716
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3611 Control of matrices with row and column drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/391 Resolution modifying circuits, e.g. variable screen formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming

Abstract

To improve image quality, to shorten a processing time, and to reduce power consumption during zooming operation, or to display an enlarged image with high definition, an image signal processing apparatus of the present invention includes: an image pickup element for picking up an image; a recording unit for recording the picked-up image in a recording medium; a memory area in which the picked-up image read out from the recording medium is temporarily stored; a re-size circuit for reading out image from the memory area and re-sizing the read-out image; an image display memory area in which the image re-sized by the re-size circuit is temporarily stored to be displayed; and a re-size display circuit for reading out image of a desired area from the image display memory area to re-size and display the read-out image of the desired area.

Claims

1. An image display device, comprising:

first re-size means for reading out image data from a first memory that stores therein image data, and re-sizing the read-out image data;

a second memory for storing the image data re-sized by the first re-size means;

display control means for reading out image data from the second memory and re-sizing the read-out image data in accordance with a variable magnification manipulation for an image to make display means display thereon an image of the re-sized image data; and

re-size control means for, while the variable magnification manipulation is carried out, instructing the display control means to make the display means display thereon the image re-sized by the display control means without newly reading out the image data from the first memory, and after the variable magnification manipulation is fixed, instructing the first re-size means to re-size image data newly read out from the first memory, in accordance with contents of the fixed variable magnification manipulation.

2. An image display device according to claim 1, wherein when the contents of the fixed variable magnification manipulation correspond to a predetermined condition, the re-size control means stores image data which is newly read out from the first memory, into the second memory without re-sizing.

3. An image displaying method, comprising:

a first re-size step of reading out image data from a first memory that stores therein image data, and re-sizing the read-out image data;

a storing step of storing the image data re-sized in the first re-size step in a second memory; and

a display control step of reading out image data from the second memory and re-sizing the read-out image data in accordance with a variable magnification manipulation for an image to make a display device display thereon an image of the re-sized image data,

wherein while the variable magnification manipulation is carried out, the display control step re-sizes and displays the image data read out from the second memory without newly reading out the image data from the first memory, and after the variable magnification manipulation is fixed, the display control step makes the first re-size step re-size image data newly read out from the first memory, in accordance with contents of the fixed variable magnification manipulation.

4. An image displaying method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of, when the contents of the fixed variable magnification manipulation correspond to a predetermined condition, storing image data which is newly read out from the first memory after the variable magnification manipulation is fixed, without re-sizing.

5. A program for making a computer execute an image displaying method, comprising:

a first re-size module for reading out image data from a first memory that stores therein image data, and re-sizing the read-out image data;

a storing module for storing the image data re-sized in the first re-size module in a second memory; and

a display control module for reading out image data from the second memory and re-sizing the read-out image data in accordance with a variable magnification manipulation for an image to make a display device display thereon an image of the re-sized image data,

wherein the variable magnification manipulation is carried out, the display control module re-sizes and displays the image data read out from the second memory without newly reading out the image data from the first memory, and after the variable magnification manipulation is fixed, the display control module makes the first re-size module re-size an image of image data newly read out from the first memory and displays the re-sized image data, in accordance with contents determined through the variable magnification manipulation.

6. A video signal processing apparatus, comprising:

image pickup means for picking up an image;

recording means for recording the picked-up image on a recording medium;

a memory for reading out the picked-up image from the recording medium and temporarily storing therein the read-out image data;

re-size means for reading out the image from the memory and re-sizing the read-out image;

an image display memory for temporarily storing therein the image re-sized by the re-size means, in order to display the image; and

re-size display means for reading out an image in a desired area from the image display memory to re-size and display the read-out image in the desired area,

wherein while a desired variable magnification manipulation is carried out, the re-size display means reads out the image in the desired area to re-size and display the image read out, and after the variable magnification manipulation is fixed, an original image is read out from the memory and is re-sized by the re-size means to be stored in the image display memory, and the desired area of the re-sized image is displayed without re-sizing.

7. A video signal processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein when resolution of the original image becomes insufficient in enlarged image display, after the variable magnification manipulation is fixed out, the original image is stored in the image display memory without being re-sized and the image in the desired area is read out from the image display memory by the re-size display means to be re-sized displayed.

8. A video signal processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

compression means for compressing the picked-up image; and

expansion means for expanding the compressed image.

9. A video signal processing apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

raster-to-block conversion means for inputting raster-sequentially an image signal and generating block-sequentially an image signal of a desired block size; and

block compression means for receiving the image signal generated block-sequentially by the raster-to-block conversion means and compressing the received image signal.

10. A video signal processing apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

block expansion means for expanding the image signal which is received block-sequentially and compressed by compression means; and

block-to-raster conversion means for receiving block-sequentially an image signal and generating an image signal raster-sequentially.

11. A video signal processing method, comprising:

a first storing step of reading out image data from a recording medium and storing the read-out image data in a first memory;

a re-size step of reading out image data from the first memory and re-sizing the image data read out from the first memory;

a second storing step of temporarily storing the image data re-sized in the re-size step in an image display memory to display the image data; and

a re-size display step of reading out image data in a desired area from the image display memory to re-size and display the image data in the desired area,

wherein while a variable magnification manipulation is carried out, the image data in the desired area of the image display memory is read out to re-size and display the image data in the desired area, and after the variable magnification manipulation is fixed, image data is read out from the first memory and is re-sized in the re-size step to be stored in the image display memory, and the image data in the desired area in the image display memory is displayed without being re-sized.

12. A video signal processing method, comprising:

a first display step of, when contents of a variable magnification manipulation is within a range of resolution of an original image stored in a memory, reading out the original image from the memory to re-size the read-out image data in accordance with the contents and store the re-sized image data in an image display memory, and displaying a designated range of the image to be stored in the image display memory; and

a second display step of, when the contents of the variable magnification manipulation is beyond the range of the resolution of the original image stored in the memory, reading out the original image from the memory to store the read-out image data in the image display memory without re-sizing, and displaying the designated range of the image of the image data to be stored in the image display memory, by re-sizing the designated range in accordance with the contents.

13. A video signal processing method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of, while the variable magnification manipulation is carried out, re-sizing the designated range of the image to be stored in the image display memory, with magnification during the manipulation and displaying the re-sizing range.