Imaging device, announcing method, and recording medium for indicating whether or not a main subject is only within a first area of an image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9894277-B2
Application number	US-201314092374-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 27, 2013
Priority date	Dec 17, 2012
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

An imaging device sets a first area and a second area other than the first area on a captured image; sets a main subject based on the captured image or another image; periodically detects the position of the main subject on the captured image; and performs control depending on a detection result so that it is indicated that the main subject exists only in the first area when the main subject does not exist in the second area, and it is indicated that the main subject does not exist only in the first area when the main subject exists in the second area.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging device, comprising:
an imaging unit which captures a subject and acquires a captured image;
a display unit which displays the captured image acquired by the imaging unit;
an area setting unit which sets a first area and a second area other than the first area on the captured image acquired by the imaging unit;
a main subject setting unit which sets a main subject based on the captured image acquired by the imaging unit or another image;
an announcement unit which automatically announces whether or not the main subject exists only in the first area; and
an ASIC which (1) automatically and periodically detects a position of the main subject on the captured image acquired by the imaging unit, (2) performs control depending on a detected position of the main subject on the captured image so that the announcement unit turns off the display unit as an announcement that the main subject exists only in the first area when the main subject does not exist in the second area, and the announcement unit turns on the display unit as an announcement that the main subject does not exist only in the first area when the main subject exists in the second area, and (3) causes the imaging device to continuously record a sequence of captured images acquired by the imaging unit until receipt of a recording stop instruction when the main subject does not exist in the second area.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein
the first area is an area including the center of the captured image acquired by the imaging unit.

3. The device according to claim 2 , further comprising
an operation mode setting unit which sets at least a normal mode or a low power consumption mode as an operation mode, wherein
when the operation mode setting unit sets the low power consumption mode, the ASIC performs control depending on a detected position of the main subject on the captured image so that the announcement unit announces that the main subject exists only in the first area when the main subject does not exist in the second area, and the announcement unit announces that the main subject does not exist only in the first area when the main subject exists in the second area.

4. The device according to claim 3 , further comprising
a temperature sensor which detects an ambience temperature of the imaging device, wherein
the operation mode setting unit sets the low power consumption mode as an operation mode when the ambience temperature detected by the temperature sensor is lower than a specified temperature.

5. The device according to claim 2 , wherein
depending on a detected position of the main subject on the captured image, the ASIC detects the position of the main subject in a first period when the main subject does not exist in the second area, and detects the position of the main subject in a second period shorter than the first period when the main subject exist in the second area.

6. The device according to claim 2 , further comprising
a speed detection unit which obtains an amount of position change per unit time of the main subject from information about a position of the main subject periodically detected by the ASIC, wherein
the ASIC detects a position of the main subject in a first period when the amount of position change detected by the speed detection unit is smaller than a specified amount, and detects the position of the main subject in a second period shorter than the first period when the amount of position change detected by the speed detection unit is not less than the specified amount.

7. The device according to claim 2 , further comprising
a variable power unit which zooms on a zoom-up side or a wide angle side, wherein
the control unit directs the variable power unit to zoom on a wide angle side when a zoom state of the variable power unit is on a zoom-up side and the main subject exists in the second area; and
the variable power unit zooms according to the direction of the control unit.

8. The device according to claim 7 , wherein
the variable power unit zooms by optical variable power.

9. The device according to claim 7 , wherein
the variable power unit zooms by electronic variable power by a variation of a segmented area of the captured image acquired by the imaging unit.

10. An announcing method used by a computer, comprising:
setting a first area and a second area other than the first area in a captured image by shooting and acquiring a subject;
setting a main subject based on the captured image acquired by shooting a subject or another image;
periodically and automatically detecting a position of the main subject on the captured image acquired by shooting the subject;
based on a result of detecting the position of the main subject, turning off a display unit that displays the captured image as an announcement that the main subject exists only in the first area when the main subject does not exist in the second area of the captured image, and turning on a display unit as an announcement that the main subject does not exist only in the first area when the main subject exists in the second area of the captured image; and
causing, when the main subject does not exist in the second area, the computer to continuously record a sequence of captured images acquired until receipt of a recording stop instruction.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program used to direct a computer to perform the processes comprising:
setting a first area and a second area other than the first area in a captured image by shooting and acquiring a subject;
setting a main subject based on the captured image acquired by shooting a subject or another image;
periodically and automatically detecting a position of the main subject on the captured image acquired by shooting the subject;
based on a result of detecting the position of the main subject, turning off a display unit that displays the captured image as an announcement that the main subject exists only in the first area when the main subject does not exist in the second area of the captured image, and turning on a display unit as an announcement that the main subject does not exist only in the first area when the main subject exists in the second area of the captured image; and
causing, when the main subject does not exist in the second area, the computer to continuously record a sequence of captured images acquired until receipt of a recording stop instruction.

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• Ozawa Kazuhiro

Classifications

• H04N23/6811

  based on the image signal · CPC title

• G06V40/103 Primary

  Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition · CPC title

• H04N23/635

  Region indicators; Field of view indicators · CPC title

• H04N23/69

  Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming · CPC title

• H04N23/611

  where the recognised objects include parts of the human body · CPC title