Image input apparatus and method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTsuguhide Sakata
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image input apparatus is provided which is capable of taking a still image with high quality and with easy operations. The image input apparatus disclosed herein has a video camera and an expansion board mounted on a personal computer. The video camera has a lens, a shutter release switch, an image pickup device, a VIDS circuit, and the like. The expansion board connected via a camera cable to the video camera has a VIDS circuit, an A/D converter, a synchronous signal generator, and the like. As the shutter release switch of the video camera is depressed, the expansion board is controlled to read still image data and compress it. As the shutter release switch is released, it is controlled to resume the initial operations of reading moving image data and compressing it.
Claims18
An image input apparatus comprising:
- an image pickup unit including:
- an input unit for inputting a user's operation instruction;
- converting means for converting an object into an image signal;
- and transmitting means for transmitting an image signal output from said converting means;
- and
- an image processing unit including:
- receiving means for receiving a signal corresponding to said instruction input from said input unit;
- and processing means for processing the image signal transmitted from said transmitting signal in accordance with the signal corresponding to said instruction.
An image processing unit for receiving a signal corresponding to a user's instruction entered by a user of an image pickup unit and receiving an image signal converted from an object by converting means, the image processing unit comprising:
- receiving means for receiving a signal corresponding to said instruction entered by the user of the image pickup unit;
- and
- processing means for processing the received image signal in accordance with the signal corresponding to said instruction.
An image pickup unit used in combination with an image processing unit for processing a received image signal in accordance with an instruction, comprising:
- inputting means for inputting a user's operation instruction;
- converting means for converting an object into an image signal;
- and
- transmitting means for transmitting an image signal converted by said converting means to the image processing unit.
An image input apparatus comprising:
- image pickup means;
- and
- processing means for compressing an image signal transmitted from said image pickup means, wherein
- said image pickup means including switching means for switching an image pickup between a moving image and a still image and notification means for notifying said processing means of a state of said switching means, and
- said processing means including first compression means for executing compression suitable for the moving image, second compression means for executing compression suitable for the still image and selection means for selecting said first or second compression means in accordance with the notified state.
An image input method wherein an image signal transmitted from image pickup means is compressed by processing means, the image input method comprising the steps of:
- said image pickup means notifying said processing means of an on/off state of switching means for switching an image pickup between a moving image and a still image;
- and
- said processing means selecting first compression means suitable for compression of the moving image or second compression means suitable for compression of the still image, in accordance with the notified on/off state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.