Sewing machine

A sewing machine, comprising:

• a needle bar that has a sewing needle attached in a lower end thereof;
• a needle-bar vertical drive mechanism that vertically moves the needle bar by a sewing machine motor via a sewing machine motor main shaft;
• an imaging unit that captures image data of at least the sewing needle and a moving object that is in close proximity of the sewing needle;
• a distance calculating portion that calculates a distance between the sewing needle and the moving object based on the image data captured by the imaging unit;
• a judging portion that makes a judgment whether the distance calculated by the distance calculating portion is equal to or less than a predetermined distance;
• and
• a control portion that controls execution of a predetermined safety operation based on the judgment of the judging portion;
• wherein the moving object comprises a user's fingers.

A sewing machine, comprising:

• a needle bar that has a sewing needle attached in a lower end thereof;
• a needle-bar vertical drive mechanism that vertically moves the needle bar by a sewing machine motor via a sewing machine main shaft;
• an imaging unit that captures image data of at least the sewing needle and a moving object that is in close proximity of the sewing needle;
• a distance calculating portion that calculates a distance between the sewing needle and the moving object based on the image data captured by the imaging unit;
• a judging portion that makes a judgment whether the distance calculated by the distance calculating portion is equal to or less than a predetermined distance;
• a control portion that controls execution of a predetermined safety operation based on the judgment of the judging portion;
• and
• an alarming portion capable of issuing a warning,
• wherein the moving object is other than the needle, and
• wherein the control portion controls the alarming portion to issue the warning as the predetermined safety operation.