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Imaging apparatus equipped with image enlarging display function

1. played on the display section from an image before enlarge ment to an image after the enlargement in accordance with the instruction operation by the user US 8 736 736 B2 21 6 Theimaging apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the enlargement display control section displays an image after enlargement by synthesizing a part ofthe image after enlarge ment with a part of the image before the enlargement 7 The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 further comprising a focus adjusting section to perform a focus adjustment by a manual operation and a frame display controlling section to display a frame showing an object region of enlargement on the display section wherein the enlargement display control section sequen tially displays the parts of the images sequentially gen erated by the imaging section in the frame displayed by the frame display controlling section on the display sec tion while enlarging the parts ofthe images sequentially generated by the imaging section by the enlargement factor 8 The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 further comprising a focus adjusting section to perform a focus adjustment automatically wherein the enlargement display control section sequentially displays images of a subject por tion on the display section the images of the subject portion being objects of automatic focus adjustment by the focus adjusting section while enlarging the images of the subject portion by the enl
2. Afterthe execution ofthe processing at Step S104 the CPU 11 displays an AF frame showing a subject region which is the object of the automatic focusing and executes the auto matic focusing processing by a contrast system by using a subject in this AF frame as the object Then at the time of the enlargement display at Step S107 the CPU 11 enlarges the image in the AF frame to display the enlarged image By such processing it becomes possible for a user to easily confirm the focus state of the subject portion which is the object of the automatic focusing Enlargement Factor Adjusting Processing Next the enlargement factor adjusting processing by the imaging apparatus 1b according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG 9 Because the processing other than that at Step S1085 is the processing similar to those of the enlargement factor adjust ing processing of the embodiment 2 here the descriptions of those Steps will be omitted When a part of an image is enlarged to be displayed on the display section 80 after the execution of the processing until Step S107 the CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjustment program to obtain a sharpness when a user per a 5 20 35 40 45 55 60 65 16 forms a focus adjustment by using the image from the high frequency component detecting section 1005 Step S1085 Then the CPU 11 performs the processing on and afte
3. OPTICAL ZOOM MAGNIFICATION DETERMINE TARGET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR 5106 DISPLAY WHOLE IMAGE 109 ARE SET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR AND TARGET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR SAME S111 DOES SET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR REACH JARGET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR y YES 114 PERFORM OTHER PROCESSING 115 1S IMAGING ENDED YES U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 5 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 IMAGING APPARATUS 10 CONTROL SECTION 20 IMAGING SECTION MEMORY SECTION 30 IMAGE PROCESSING 90 SECTION 40 STORAGE SECTION H DRIVING SECTION IMAGING DEVICE DRIVING SECTION LENS DRIVING SECTION 70 TIMER SECTION OPERATING SECTION 60 80 DISPLAY SECTION U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 6 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 FIG 6A EVALUATION VALUE DEFLECTION QUANTITY FIG 6B U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 7 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 START SET SET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR TO INITIAL VALUE FIG 7 IS IMAGING MODE SWITCHED TO MANUALLY FOCUSING MODE y YES IMAGE SUBJECT amp GENERATE IMAGE 3104 105 IS DISPLAY OF OCUS ADJUSTING CONFIRMATION SCREEN SELECTED YES S107 ENLARGE PART OF IMAGE BY SET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR TO DISPLAY IT OBTAIN DEFLECTION QUANTITY EXTRACT EVALUATION VALUE S106 110a DISPLAY WHOLE IMAGE NO 103 PERFORM AUTOMATIC FOCUSING PROCESSING 108a 9109a IS EVALUATION VALUE WITHI
4. according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section on the display section while further enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlargement factor and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge ment display control section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section Preferably the enlargement factor control section changes the enlargement factor of the enlargement display control section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section in such a way that the enlargement factor becomes smaller as the optical zoom magnification becomes larger That is the imaging apparatus can perform a focus adjust ment by a manual operation on the basis of an image sub jected to a live view display and can easily perform the focus adjustment Furthermore according to a third aspect of the present invention a recording medium records a control program of an imaging apparatus including an imaging section to gener ate images by imaging a subject a display section to sequen tially display each of the images generated by the imaging section and a detecting section to detect a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus the recording medium recording a program enabling a computer of the imaging apparatus to function as an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts of the images gene
5. more the CPU 11 performs the control of changing the enlargement factor over time in accordance with the time based increase decrease quantity of the enlargement factor until a previously determined set time or the like has elapsed The time based increase decrease quantity of the enlarge ment factor indicates a previously determined increase quan tity or a decrease quantity of the enlargement factor per unit time in order that the set enlargement factor may gradually increase or decrease over time and the time based increase decrease quantity is a constant value independent of the evaluation value Here the larger the value of the deflection quantity of an enlarged image in the state in which apart of the image is enlarged the larger a position change of a subject in the display screen of the display section 80 is and the more difficult the focus adjustment of a user in the manually focus ing mode becomes Accordingly the CPU 11 sets the set time in such away that the larger the value of the deflection quan tity the evaluation value corresponding to the deflection quantity of the enlarged image is the smaller the value ofthe enlargement factor after the change is that is the CPU 11 sets the set time to be shorter in the case of increasing the set time and to be longer in the case of decreasing the set time Enlargement Factor Adjusting Processing Next the enlargement factor adjusting processing by the imaging apparatus 1a ac
6. pixel interpolation processing and y correction processing of the digital data with a color process circuit the illustration thereof is omitted before generating a luminance signal Y and chrominance difference signals Cb and Cr each having a digital value The luminance signal Y and the chrominance difference signals Cb and Cr output from the color process circuit are subjected to direct memory access DMA transfer toamemory section 12 of the control section 10 with a DMA controller the illustration thereof is omitted The driving section 40 is composed of a motor and gears their illustration is omitted and performs driving according to a control signal output from the control section 10 Then the driving section 40 is composed of an imaging device driving section 41 to drive the imaging device at the time of imaging a subject with the imaging section 20 a lens driving US 8 736 736 B2 5 section 42 to move the zoom lens and the focus lens into an optical axis direction and the like The shake quantity detecting section 50 is composed of a not illustrated gyro sensor and an operation circuit Then the shake quantity detecting section 50 is configured to detect the angular velocity in each of two axial directions with the gyro sensor as a shake quantity detecting sensor and to perform the operation processing of calculating a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus 1 on the basis of a detected angular veloc ity with the operatio
7. a differ ence between the set enlargement factor and the target enlargement factor and wherein the enlargement factor control section performs time based variation of the set enlargement factor toward the target enlargement factor based on the time based variation quantity calculated by the calculating section 24
8. comprising an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by an enlargement factor such that the enlarged parts are overlaid on a region of the images displayed on the display section and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement of the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by the enlargement display control section to one of a plurality of different enlargement factors based on a level of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section among a plurality of levels of shake quantity while an enlargement factor of the images displayed on the display section is maintained 14 A control method of an imaging apparatus including an imaging section to sequentially generate images by imaging a subject a display section to display the images sequentially generated by the imaging section and a detecting section to detect a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus the control method comprising sequentially displaying parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by an enlargement factor such that the enlarged parts are overlaid on a region
9. the present invention a control method of an imaging apparatus includ ing an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom mag nification to an arbitrary magnification and a display section to sequentially display each of the images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section comprises the steps of sequentially displaying parts of the images generated by the imaging section on the display section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section while further enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlarge ment factor and changing the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement at the step of sequentially displaying the parts according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section That is the control method of an imaging apparatus can perform a focus adjustment by a manual operation on the basis of an image subjected by live view display and the control method can make the focus adjustment easy an 5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 20 Allofthe disclosures including the description the claims the drawings and the abstract of Japanese Patent Application No 2009 293577 filed on Dec 25 2009 are incorporated herein by reference Although various typical embodiments have been exem plified and described the scope ofthe present inv
10. time has elapsed or notonthe basis ofa signal pertaining to the time which signal is output from the timer section 70 Step S112a If the CPU 11 judges that the set time has not elapsed Step S112a No the CPU 11 repeats the processing on and after Step S111a On the other hand if the CPU 11 judges that the set time has elapsed Step S112a Yes the CPU 11 advances the process ing to that at Step S114 As described above according to the imaging apparatus 1a ofthe present embodiment it is needless to say that the effects similarto those ofthe imaging apparatus 1 ofthe embodiment 1 can be obtained Furthermore when the CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjustment program the CPU 11 determines whether to vary or keep the set enlargement factor to the enlargement factor set at that point of time on the basis of the obtained parameter and varies the set enlargement factor over time on the basis of the time based increase decrease quantity of the enlargement factor Consequently it is needless to calculate any target enlargement factors and the reduction of the processing load of the control section 10 can be expected in comparison with the imaging apparatus 1 Furthermore because the imaging apparatus la deter mines whether to vary or keep the set enlargement factor by using the deflection quantity of an image calculated at the time of the execution of the enlargement factor adjustment program by the CPU 11 as a camera shake quant
11. to the manually focusing mode with the operating section 60 the display section 80 displays live view display all of the images continuously on the display screen the images being based on a plurality of image frames imaged by the imaging section 20 according to the optical zoom magnification set 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 with the operating section 60 That is a user can uses the display screen of the display section 80 as viewfinder in the manually focusing mode The storage section 90 is composed of a nonvolatile memory or the like and stores an image output from the image processing section 30 as image data to be stored Then the storage section 90 is configured in such a way that when a switching operation to the reproducing mode is executed in the operating section 60 image data stored in the storage section 90 is read out by the control section 10 and the read out image data is displayed on the display screen of the display section 80 as a reproducing image The control section 10 is composed of a central processing unit CPU 11 and the memory section 12 and performs the integrated control of each section of the imaging apparatus 1 To put it concretely the control section 10 performs the drive control of the driving section 40 imaging device driving section 41 and lens driving section 42 according to an imag ing operation a setting operation of the optical zoom magni fication and an a
12. which the enlargement factor at the time of dis playing an image on the display section 80 is not suitable and a subject in the display screen performs a large position change to make a user s focus adjustment difficult can be prevented by configuring the imaging apparatus 1 to be able to change the enlargement factor as described above Consequently it can be said that the imaging apparatus 1 can perform a focus adjustment by a manual operation on the basis of an image displayed by a live view display and the focus adjustment can easily be performed Furthermore in the imaging apparatus 1 an optical zoom magnification can be set to an arbitrary magnification with the operating section 60 and the whole of an image generated by the imaging section 20 can be displayedon the display section 80 according to the optical zoom magnification set with the operating section 60 A part of the image generated by the imaging section 20 according to the set optical zoom magni fication can be displayed on the display section 80 while further enlarging the part by a predetermined enlargement factor That is the imaging apparatus 1 is separately equipped with the enlargement display function of a part of an image through trimming and enlargement processing in addition to an optical zooming function using a zoom lens Furthermore the imaging apparatus 1 changes a set enlargement factor in such a way that the larger the values of a shake quantity and an opti
13. 08 079124 A 4 2008 Korean Office Action dated Dec 28 2012 and English translation JP 2009 177345 8 2009 HOAN 5 225 thereof in counterpart Korean Application No 10 2010 0134676 JP 2009 177345 A 8 2009 Taiwanese Office Action dated Jun 19 2013 and English translation JP 2010 016613 A 1 2010 thereof in counterpart Taiwanese Application No 099145687 TW 200833087 A 8 2008 WO WO 2006 135107 A2 12 2006 cited by examiner U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 1 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 IMAGING APPARATUS 10 CONTROL SECTION 20 IMAGING SECTION MEMORY SECTION 3 IMAGE PROCESSING 90 SECTION 40 STORAGE SECTION DRIVING SECTION IMAGING DEVICE DRIVING SECTION LENS DRIVING SECTION 50 SHAKE QUANTITY IDETECTING SECTION OPERATING SECTION 70 TIMER SECTION DISPLAY SECTION F lt U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 2 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 500 FIG 2A U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 3 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 4 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 FIG 4 SET SET ENLARGEMENT 5101 FACTOR TO INITIAL VALUE 102 IS IMAGING MODE SWITCHED TO MANUALLY FOCUSING MODE No YES IMAGE SUBJECT amp GENERATE IMAGE 104 105 IS DISPLAY OF FOCUS ADJUSTING CONFIRMATION NO SCREEN SELECTED S103 YES 107 ENLARGE PART OF IMAGE BY SET PERFORM AUTOMATIC ENLARGEMENT FACTOR TO DISPLAY IT FOCUSING PROCESSING Y 3108 OBTAIN SHAKE QUANTITY AND
14. 1 the imaging apparatus 1 is composed ofa control section 10 an imaging section 20 an image process ing section 30 a driving section 40 a shake quantity detecting section 50 an operating section 60 a timer section 70 a display section 80 and a storage section 90 The imaging section 20 generates an image by imaging a subject To put it concretely the imaging section 20 is com posed of an image lens section an iris mechanism an elec tronic imaging section an imaging processing section and the like although their illustration is omitted The image lens section is equipped with a zoom lens a focus lens and the like and forms an image on an electronic imaging section on the basis of the light from a subject The iris mechanism narrows down the light output through the image lens section in accordance with an iris value con trolled by the control section 10 to adjust the exposure ofthe lens section The electronic imaging section is composed of an imaging device such as a charge coupled device CCD or a comple mentary metal oxide semiconductor CMOS and the elec tronic imaging section converts a subject image formed by the light that has passed through the various lenses and the iris mechanism of the image lens section into a two dimensional image signal The imaging processing section is equipped with for example a timing generator and a vertical driver although their illustration is omitted Then the imaging proces
15. GN PATENT DOCUMENTS CN 101132485 A 2 2008 CN 101444084 A 5 2009 JP 11 55560 A 2 1999 JP 11 341331 A 12 1999 Continued OTHER PUBLICATIONS Japanese Office Action dated Nov 29 2011 and English translation thereof in counterpart Japanese Application No 2009 293577 Continued Primary Examiner Paul Berardesca 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Holtz Holtz Goodman and Chick PC 57 ABSTRACT An imaging apparatus includes a display section to sequen tially display each of the images generated by the imaging section and an enlargement display control section to sequen tially display parts of the images generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlargement factor The imaging section changes the enlargement factor of the enlargement display control section according to a shake quantity detected by the detecting section or an optical zoom magnification of an optical zoom section 15 Claims 9 Drawing Sheets CALCULATE TIME BASED VARIATION QUANTITY OF ENLARGEMENT FACTOR US 8 736 736 B2 Page2 56 References Cited OTHER PUBLICATIONS Korean Office Action dated Jun 27 2012 and English translation thereof in counterpart Korean Application No 10 2010 0134676 Chinese Office Action dated Sep 26 2012 and English translation FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Ui eis pon thereof in counterpart Chinese Application No 201010625085 4 JP 20
16. IS IMAGING ENDED MO YES END US 8 736 736 B2 1 IMAGING APPARATUS EQUIPPED WITH IMAGE ENLARGING DISPLAY FUNCTION RECORDING MEDIUM RECORDING CONTROL PROGRAM OF THE IMAGING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD OF THE IMAGING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus equipped with an enlargement display function of performing an enlargement display of a part of an imaging image a recording medium recording a control program of the imag ing apparatus anda control method of the imaging apparatus 2 Description of the Related Art An imaging apparatus such as a digital camera which is equipped with a liquid crystal display monitor composed of a liquid crystal display LCD and uses the display screen of the liquid crystal display monitor as a viewfinder by the use of an image displayed as a live view has conventionally been known Because the resolution of the liquid crystal display monitor is lower than that of the imaging device of the imag ing apparatus the imaging apparatus has the problem in which it cannot be easily judged with the screen of the liquid crystal display monitor whether the focus of an image is correctly adjusted or not when a user performs a focus adjust ment by a manual operation An imaging apparatus is accordingly known that makes it possible to easily sight whether a focus is adjusted or not by displaying an image imaged by an im
17. N KEEPING RANGE S111a YES NO PERFORM TIME BASED VARIATION OF SET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR ACCORDING TO TIME BASED INCREASE DECREASE QUANTITY 112a NO DOES iT REACH SET TIME YES PERFORM OTHER PROCESSING fy 114 115 iS IMAGING ENDED NO y YES END U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 8 of 9 FIG 8 IMAGING APPARATUS US 8 736 736 B2 10 CONTROL SECTION MEMORY SECTION STORAGE SECTION OPERATING SECTION 80 7 DISPLAY SECTION j I IMAGE PROCESSING SECTION 2 0 IMAGING SECTION 30 40 DRIVING SECTION IMAGING DEVICE DRIVING SECTION LENS DRIVING SECTION 100b HIGH FREQUENCY COMPONENT DETECTING SECTION 70 TIMER SECTION U S Patent May 27 2014 Sheet 9 of 9 US 8 736 736 B2 FIG 9 IS IMAGING MODE SWITCHED TO MANUALLY FOCUSING MODE YES IMAGE SUBJECT amp GENERATE IMAGE S104 IS DISPLAY OF FOCUS ADJUSTING CONFIRMATION SCREEN SELECTED 103 107 ENLARGE PART OF IMAGE BY SET PERFORM AUTOMATIC ENLARGEMENT FACTOR TO DISPLAY IT FOCUSING PROCESSING I S108b OBTAIN SHARPNESS S109a EXTRACT EVALUATION VALUE S406 S110a DISPLAY WHOLE IMAGE IS EVALUATION N 9 VALUE WITHIN KEEPING RANGE S111a YES PERFORM TIME BASED VARIATION QF SET ENLARGEMENT FACTOR ACCORDING TO TIME BASED INCREASE DECREASE QUANTITY S112a DOES iT REACH SET TIME YES PERFORM OTHER PROCESSING 114 115
18. US008736736B2 a2 United States Patent Hoshino et al US 8 736 736 B2 May 27 2014 10 Patent No 45 Date of Patent 54 IMAGING APPARATUS EQUIPPED WITH IMAGE ENLARGING DISPLAY FUNCTION RECORDING MEDIUM RECORDING CONTROL PROGRAM OF THE IMAGING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD OF THE IMAGING APPARATUS 75 Inventors Hiroyuki Hoshino Ome JP Erina Ichikawa Sagamihara JP Hiroshi Shimizu Akishima JP Jun Muraki Hamura JP 73 Assignee Casio Computer Co Ltd Tokyo JP Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 521 days 21 22 Appl No 12 975 858 Filed Dec 22 2010 65 Prior Publication Data US 2011 0157385 Al Jun 30 2011 30 Foreign Application Priority Data Dec 25 2009 JP eet 2009 293577 51 Int CI H04N 5 222 U S CI USPG 3e 348 333 12 348 208 99 348 240 2 348 333 03 348 333 11 396 52 Field of Classification Search USPC ene 348 333 12 208 99 208 2 333 11 348 240 2 333 03 396 52 53 See application file for complete search history 2006 01 52 58 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 7 710 458 B2 5 2010 Yuyama et al 7 864 240 B2 1 2011 Ide et al 7 936 396 B2 5 2011 Okazaki 2002 0097325 Al 7 2002 Tanizoe et al 2005 0122402 Al 6 2005 Kumaki 348 208 1 2009 0231448 Al 9 2009 Yuyama et al 2010 0231748 Al 9 2010 Takeda FOREI
19. aging device by enlarg ing the image by a predetermined enlargement factor on the display screen ofa liquid crystal display monitor at the time of a manual operation in an imaging apparatus capable of per forming the manual operation of focus adjustment see for example Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publica tions Nos H 11 341331 and H 11 055560 The imaging apparatus described in Japanese Patent Appli cation Laid Open Publications Nos H 11 341331 and H 11 055560 however have the problem in which it is appre hended that the focus adjustment when the setting of an enlargement factor is not proper at the time of displaying an image on a liquid crystal display monitor by enlarging the image is made to be more difficult by the enlarged image For example if an enlargement factor is set to be high despite a state in which a camera shake has happened ora state in which the optical zoom magnification of an optical zoom is high then a subject in a display screen easily performs a large position change and consequently the subject is missed to makes the focus adjustment difficult SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An aspect of the present invention is an imaging apparatus equipped with an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject comprising a display section to sequentially display each ofthe images generated by the imaging section an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts ofthe images generat
20. although the integrated values of the optical zoom magnifications and the shake quantities are made as evaluation values in the evaluation value table in FIG 3 it is needless to say that for example the target enlargement factors themselves may be described as the evaluation values Enlargement Factor Adjusting Processing Next the enlargement factor adjusting processing by the imaging apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG 4 First when the power source is turned on by a user with the operating section 60 and the imaging apparatus 1 is switched to the imaging mode the CPU 11 sets the set enlargement factor to the initial value determined beforehand Step S101 Next the CPU 11 judges whether the user has operated the operating section 60 switching switch to switch the focus ing mode to the manually focusing mode or not whether the manually focusing mode is kept or not Step S102 Then if the CPU 11 judges that the focusing mode is not switched to the manually focusing mode at Step S102 Step 102 No the CPU 11 presumes that the focusing mode is switched to the automatic focusing mode and executes the automatic focusing processing Step S103 and the CPU 11 advances the processing to that at Step S114 In addition in the automatic focusing processing the CPU 11 performs an ordinary live view display for displaying the whole of an image according to an
21. apparatus 1 in the following description and the description of the similar configuration will be omitted As shown in FIG 5 the imaging apparatus 1a is composed of the control section 10 the imaging section 20 the image processing section 30 the driving section 40 the operating section 60 the timer section 70 the display section 80 and the storage section 90 A memory section 12a of the control section 10 is com posed of a buffer memory for temporarily storing the data to be processed by the CPU 11 and the like and a program memory for storing the various programs and data pertaining to the execution of the CPU 11 Then there are an enlarge ment display control program and an enlargement factor adjustment program as the programs stored in the memory section 12a and there are an evaluation value table and an evaluation value correspondence table pertaining to the execution of an enlargement factor adjustment program which will be described below and the like as the data stored in the memory region 12 Next the enlargement factor adjustment program stored in the memory section 12a will be described 30 40 45 55 60 65 12 The enlargement factor adjustment program is a program for enabling the CPU 11 to execute the function of changing the enlargement factor at the time of displaying a part of an image by enlarging the part at the time ofthe execution ofthe enlargement display control program on the basis of th
22. argement factor 9 The imaging apparatus according to claim 8 further comprising a frame display controlling section to display a frame showing a subject region of an object of the automatic focus adjustment by the focus adjusting section on the display section wherein the enlargement display control section sequen tially displays images in the frame displayed by the frame display controlling section on the display section while enlarging the images of the subject portion by the enlargement factor 10 The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the enlargement factor control section determines a target value of the enlargement factor from among the plurality of different enlargement factors based on the level of shake quantity detected by the detecting section among the plurality of levels of shake quantity wherein the enlargement display control section calculates atime based variation quantity of the enlargement factor such that the enlargement factor at the time of the enlargement of the parts of the images sequentially gen erated by the imaging section gradually approaches the determined target value and wherein the enlargement factor control section changes the enlargement factor at the time of the enlargement by the enlargement display control section based on the calcu lated time based variation quantity over time 11 The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the enlargement factor control section determi
23. ation screen has been selected Step S105 Yes the CPU 11 executes the enlargement dis play control program to display a part ofthe image generated US 8 736 736 B2 9 at Step S104 by enlarging by the set enlargement factor Step 107 Then the user sights the image enlarged at Step S107 on the display section 80 and performs the operation of the operating section 60 adjustment button for a focus adjust ment and the operation of the operating section 60 setting button for changing the optical zoom magnification as the occasion demands Next the CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjust ment program to obtain the shake quantity of the imaging apparatus 1 and the optical zoom magnification Step S108 Then the CPU 11 extracts the evaluation value corresponding to the parameters shake quantity and optical zoom magnifi cation obtained at Step S108 from the evaluation value table ofthe memory section 12 to determine the target enlargement factor Step S109 The CPU 11 judges whether the set enlargement factor and the target enlargement factor deter mined at Step S109 are the same or not here Step S110 and if the CPU 11 judges that the both are the same Step S110 Yes then the CPU 11 does not change the enlargement factor but advances the processing to that at Step S114 On the other hand if the CPU 11 judges that the both are not the same at Step S110 Step S110 No the CPU 11 calculates the time based variation quan
24. cal zoom magnification as param eters are the smaller the value of a target enlargement factor is That is the larger the values of the shake quantity and the optical zoom magnification are the larger the position change of a subject in a display screen is and the more a focus adjustment becomes difficult Consequently a user s focus adjustment can be made easy by changing the target enlarge ment factor to be a smaller value Furthermore the imaging apparatus 1 determines a target enlargement factor on the basis of obtained parameters and calculates a time based variation quantity of an enlargement factor in order that the set enlargement factor may gradually approach the target enlargement factor The imaging appara tus 1 can thus change the set enlargement factor overtime on the basis ofthe calculated time based variation quantity That is the enlargement factor is not instantaneously changed from a set enlargement factor to a target enlargement factor but can gradually be changed Consequently no feeling of wrongness is given to a user sighting the display section 80 Furthermore the imaging apparatus 1 is configured to determine a target enlargement factor by the means of a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus 1 detected by the shake quantity detecting section 50 as a camera shake quantity together with an optical zoom magnification That is because the target enlargement factor is determined on the basis of both of the shake q
25. configuration of the principal part of an image apparatus according to an embodi ment 2 of the present invention FIG 6A is a diagram illustrating an evaluation value table for describing the determination processing of variations or keep of a set enlargement factor in the embodiment 2 of the present invention FIG 6B is a diagram illustrating an evaluation value cor respondence table for describing the determination process ing of variations or keep of a set enlargement factor in the embodiment 2 of the present invention FIG 7 is a flow chart for describing enlargement factor adjusting processing of the imaging apparatus of the embodi ment 2 of the present invention FIG 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the principal part of an image apparatus according to an embodi ment 3 of the present invention and FIG 9 is a flow chart for describing enlargement factor adjusting processing of the imaging apparatus of the embodi ment 3 of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the following concrete aspects of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying draw ings The scope ofthe invention is however not limited to the shown examples Embodiment 1 An imaging apparatus 1 according to the present embodi ment is a digital camera imaging a subject or the like Then 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 as shown in FIG
26. cording to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG 7 Because the processing at Steps S101 S107 and Steps 8114 5115 are the processing similar to those of the enlarge ment factor adjusting processing of the embodiment 1 here the descriptions of those Steps will be omitted The CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjustment program to obtain calculate the deflection quantity of the image enlarged at Step S107 Step S108a Then the CPU 11 extracts the evaluation value corresponding to the parameter deflection quantity obtained at Step S108a from the evalu US 8 736 736 B2 13 ation value table of the memory section 12a Step S109a The CPU 11 judges whether the extracted evaluation value is within the keeping range within the range of evaluation values of 5 15 shown in FIG 6B in the evaluation value correspondence table or not here Step S110a and if the CPU 11 judges that the evaluation value is within the keeping range Step S110a Yes then the CPU 11 does not change the enlargement factor but advances the processing to that at Step S114 On the other hand if the CPU 11 judges that the extracted evaluation value is not within the keeping range at Step S110a Step S110a No the CPU 11 sets a settime and performs the time based variation of the set enlargement factor according to the time based increase decrease quantity Step S111a Then the CPU 11 judges whether the set
27. ction 80 is regarded by a user and the larger the difficulty of the focus adjustment of the user in the manually focusing mode becomes Accordingly the CPU 11 sets the set time in such a way that the smaller the value of the sharpness is the smaller the value of the enlargement factor after a change is Modification A display of enlarging apart of an image is performed in the aforesaid embodiments in order to improve the operability in the case where a user performs a focus adjustment by a manual operation at the time of manually focusing mode That is only in the case of judging that the user has changed the focusing mode to the manually focusing mode at Step S102 the processing from Step S104 to Step S113 is made to be performed Apart of an image may however be displayed by being enlarged in order to improve the visibility when a user con firms the focus adjustment state in automatic focusing at the time of the automatic focusing mode not only at the time of the manually focusing mode Inthis case a part ofthe aforesaid embodiment is modified as follows That is if the CPU 11 judges that the focusing mode is changed to the automatic focusing mode at Step S102 the CPU 11 performs the processing similar to that from Step S104 to Step S113 In the automatic focusing mode however the following processing pertaining to the automatic focusing is executed in the series of the pieces of the processing from Step S104 to Step S113
28. djustment operation of a focus position by a user with the operating section 60 automatic exposure pro cessing AE processing of automatically adjusting the expo sure conditions the conditions of for example a shutter speed and an iris value at the time of imaging of an subject by the imaging section 20 automatic focusing processing of automatically adjusting the focus lens to a focus position of a subject when the operating section 60 is switched to the automatic focusing mode and the like That is the control section 10 functions as an enlargement display control section to sequentially display parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section 20 on the display section 80 while enlarging the parts by a prede termined enlargement factor an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor according to the shake quantity detected by the shake quantity detecting sec tion 50 a focus adjusting section to perform a focus adjust ment by a manual operation or a focus adjustment by an automatic focus adjustment a frame display controlling sec tion to display a frame showing an object region of enlarge ment or an subject region which is an object of the automatic focus adjustment by the focus adjusting section on the dis play section 80 The CPU 11 performs various control operations in accor dance with various processing programs for the imaging apparatus 1 stored in the memory section 12 The memo
29. e deflection quantity when the part of the image is displayed on the display section 80 by being enlarged To put it concretely when a part of an image is displayed on the display section 80 by being enlarged as a focus adjusting confirmation screen by the execution ofthe enlargement dis play control program the CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjustment program to compare the image displayed on the focus adjusting confirmation screen at the time of the execution of the enlargement display control program and an image based on the image frame preceding the aforesaid image by one Then the CPU 11 calculates the deflection quantity moved quantity ofthe enlarged image The CPU 11 then reads out the evaluation value table shown in FIG 6A from the memory section 12a and extracts an evaluation value corresponding to the obtained parameter deflection quantity from the evaluation table on the basis of the calculated deflec tion quantity Next the CPU 11 reads out the evaluation value correspondence table shown in FIG 6B from the memory section 12a and determines whether to vary or keep the set enlargement factor to the enlargement factor set at that point of time according to the extracted evaluation value Furthermore if the CPU 11 determines to vary the set enlargement factor for example the case where the evalua tion value in the evaluation value correspondence table shown in FIG 6B is within the range of 1 4 or the range of 16 or
30. e control of display ing the parts of the images on the display section 80 as focus adjusting confirmation screens 500 while further enlarging the parts by the predetermined enlargement factor the enlargement factor set beforehand as an initial value or the enlargement factor to be changed at the time of the execution of the enlargement factor adjustment program described below As shown in FIG 2A one of the focus adjusting confirmation screens 500 may be configured to perform a display over the whole of the display screen of the display section 80 or as shown in FIG 2B the focus adjusting con firmation screen 500 may be configured to perform the dis play only in a part of the display screen of the display section 80 in which an ordinary live view display is performed that is the live view display to which the aforesaid enlargement processing and the like are not performed here Furthermore it is needless to say that the imaging apparatus 1 may be configured in such a way that the CPU 11 performs the control ofa display by switching a pattern in which the focus adjust ing confirmation screen 500 is displayed over the whole dis play screen and a pattern in which the focus adjusting confir mation screen 500 is displayed only in a part of the display screen by the operation of the operating section 60 by a user The enlargement factor adjustment program is a program for enabling the CPU 11 to execute the function of changing the enlarge
31. e in which a part of the image displayed on the display section 80 is enlarged here the larger the values of the shake quantity and the optical zoom magnification are the more the subject in the display screen easily performs a large position change and is easily missed Then in the state in which the optical zoom magnification is large the focus adjustment of a user becomes difficult in the manually focus ing mode Consequently the CPU 11 determines the target enlargement factor in such a way that the largerthe evaluation value corresponding to the integrated value of an optical zoom magnification and a shake quantity in the evaluation value table is the smaller the value of the target enlargement factor is 0 a 5 20 40 45 8 Furthermore the CPU 11 calculates the time based varia tion quantity of the enlargement factor by dividing the differ ence quantity between the set enlargement factor and the target enlargement factor by the total sum of the time neces sary for changing the enlargement factor in order that the enlargement factor set enlargement factor at the time of displaying a part of an image by enlarging it at the time of the execution of the enlargement display control program may gradually approach the determined target enlargement factor Then the CPU 11 performs the processing of changing the enlargement factor over time on the basis of the calculated time based variation quantity In addition
32. ed by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts by a predeter mined enlargement factor a detecting section to detect a shake quantity ofthe imaging apparatus and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge 40 45 50 55 65 2 ment display control section according to the shake quantity detected by the detecting section Moreover another aspect of the present invention is an imaging apparatus equipped with an imaging section to gen erate images by imaging a subject comprising an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom magnifica tion to an arbitrary magnification a display section to sequentially display each ofthe images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts of the images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section on the display section while further enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlargement factor and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge ment display control section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section Moreover another aspect of the present invention is an recording medium recording a contr
33. ention is not limited to the matters of the embodiments described above Consequently the scope of the present invention is limited only by the following claims The invention claimed is 1 An imaging apparatus including an imaging section to sequentially generate images by imaging a subject the imag ing apparatus comprising a display section to display the images sequentially gener ated by the imaging section an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by an enlargement factor such that the enlarged parts are overlaid on a region of the images displayed on the display section a detecting section to detect a shake quantity ofthe imaging apparatus and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement of the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by the enlargement display control section to one of a plurality of different enlargement factors based on a level of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section among a plurality of levels of shake quantity while an enlargement factor of the images displayed on the display section is maintained 2 The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the enlargement factor control section changes the enlargemen
34. ing section on the display section according to the optical zoom magnifica tion set by the optical zoom section while further enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlargement factor and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge ment display control section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section Furthermore another aspect of the present invention is a control method ofan imaging apparatus including an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject a display section to sequentially display each of the images generated by the imaging section and a detecting section to detect a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus the control method comprising the steps of sequentially displaying parts of the images generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlargement factor and changing the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement at the step of sequentially displaying the parts according to the shake quantity detected by the detecting section US 8 736 736 B2 3 Furthermore according to the other aspect of the present invention is a control method of an imaging apparatus includ ing an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom mag nification to an arbitrary magnification and a display section to sequentia
35. ion starts enlargement displays in conformity with an instruction operation by a user while each of the images generated by the imaging section are being displayed on the display section Preferably the enlargement display control section switches an image displayed on the display section from an image before enlargement to an image after the enlargement in conformity with an instruction operation by the user Preferably the enlargement display control section dis plays an image after enlargement by synthesizing the image with a part of an image before the enlargement Preferably the imaging apparatus further comprises a focus adjusting section to perform a focus adjustment by a manual operation and a frame display controlling section to display a frame showing an object region of enlargement on the display sec tion wherein the enlargement display control section sequentially dis plays images in the frame displayed by the frame display controlling section on the display section while enlarging the images by the predetermined enlargement factor Preferably the imaging apparatus further comprises a focus adjusting section to perform a focus adjustment auto matically wherein the enlargement display control section sequentially dis plays the images of a subject portion on the display section the images being objects of the automatic focus adjustment by the focus adjusting section while enlarging the images by the predetermined en
36. isplay control section to sequentially dis play parts of the images generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts by a predeter mined enlargement factor a detecting section to detect a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge ment display control section according to the shake quantity detected by the detecting section US 8 736 736 B2 17 Preferably the enlargement factor control section changes the enlargement factor at the time of the enlargement by the enlargement display control section according to the shake quantity detected by the detecting section in such a way that the enlargement factor becomes smaller as the shake quantity becomes larger Preferably the imaging apparatus further comprises an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom magnification to an arbitrary magnification wherein the display section displays each of the images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magni fication set by the optical zoom section and the enlargement display control section displays the parts of the images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom sec tionon the display section while further enlarging the parts by the predetermined enlargement factor Preferably the enlargement display control sect
37. ity the configuration for detecting a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus 1a with a sensor or the like for shake quantity detection is not needed Consequently the reduction of the manufacturing cost of the imaging apparatus la can be achieved Embodiment 3 Next an imaging apparatus 15 according to an embodi ment 3 will be described with reference to FIGS 8 9 Although the imaging apparatus la according to the embodiment 2 is configured to determine whether to vary or keep a set enlargement factor to the enlargement factor set at that point of time on the basis of a deflection quantity by using the deflection quantity of an enlarged image as a camera shake quantity without determining a target enlargement fac tor here the imaging apparatus 15 according to the embodi ment 3 obtains a sharpness on the basis of the imaging pro cessing detecting the high frequency components of an image generated by the imaging section 20 The imaging apparatus 16 is different from the imaging apparatus 1a in the point of being configured to determine whether to vary or keep a set enlargement factor on the basis of a sharpness by using the sharpness as a parameter similar to the aforesaid camera shake quantity without determining any target enlargement factors 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 In addition the configuration similar to those of the imag ing apparatus 1 according to the embodiment 1 and the imag ing a
38. largement factor Preferably the imaging apparatus further comprises a frame display controlling section to display a frame showing a subject region of an object of the automatic focus adjustment by the focus adjusting section on the display sec tion wherein the enlargement display control section sequentially dis plays images in the frame displayed by the frame display controlling section on the display section while enlarging the images by the predetermined enlargement factor Preferably the enlargement factor control section deter mines a target value of the enlargement factor after a change based on a shake quantity detected by the detecting section the enlargement display control section calculates a time based variation quantity of the enlargement factor in order that the enlargement factor at the time of enlarging the parts of the images to display them may gradually approach the deter mined target value and the enlargement factor control section changes the enlarge ment factor at the time of the enlargement by the enlargement display control section based on the calculated time based variation quantity over time 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 18 Preferably the enlargement factor control section deter mines whether to vary or keep the enlargement factor when the enlargement display control section enlarges the parts of the images to display the enlarged images to an enlargement factor set a
39. lly display each of the images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section the control method compris ing the steps of sequentially displaying parts of the images generated by the imaging section on the display section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section while further enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlarge ment factor and changing the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement at the step of sequentially displaying the parts according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1is a block diagram showing the configuration of the principal part of an imaging apparatus according to an embodiment 1 of the present invention FIG 2A is a view ofa screen ofa display section displaying the live view display of an image and shows a state in which anenlarged image is displayed over the whole display screen FIG 2B is a view ofa screen ofa display section displaying the live view display of an image and displays an enlarged image only in a part of the display screen FIG 3 is a schematic diagram for describing an evaluation value table of the embodiment 1 of the present invention FIG 4 is a flow chart for describing enlargement factor adjusting processing of the imaging apparatus of the embodi ment 1 of the present invention FIG 5 is a block diagram showing the
40. ment factor and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge ment display control section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section That is the recording medium records a control program of an imaging apparatus capable of performing a focus adjust ment by a manual operation on the basis of an image sub jected to a live view display and of performing the focus adjustment easily Furthermore according to a fifth aspect of the present invention a control method of an imaging apparatus includ ing an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject a display section to sequentially display each of the images generated by the imaging section and a detecting section to detect a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus comprises the steps of sequentially displaying parts of the images generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlargement factor and changing the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement at the step of sequentially displaying the parts according to the shake quantity detected by the detecting section That is the control method of an imaging apparatus can perform a focus adjustment by a manual operation on the basis of an image subjected by live view display and the control method makes the focus adjustment easy Furthermore according to a sixth aspect of
41. ment factor at the time of displaying a part of an image by enlarging the part at the time ofthe execution of the enlargement display control program on the basis ofthe shake quantity and the optical zoom magnification when the part of the image is displayed on the display section 80 by being enlarged To put it concretely when a part ofan image is displayed by being enlarged as a focus adjusting confirmation screen by the execution of the enlargement display control program the CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjustment program to input a shake quantity camera shake quantity of the imaging apparatus 1 from the shake quantity detecting sec tion 50 and obtains an optical zoom magnification on the basis of a drive control signal output to the lens driving section 42 That is the CPU 11 obtains the camera shake quantity and the optical zoom magnification as parameters when a part of an image is displayed on the display section 80 by being enlarged and a user performs a focus adjustment in the manually focusing mode Then the CPU 11 reads out an evaluation value table shown in FIG 3 from the memory section 12 and extracts an evaluation value corresponding to the obtained parameters shake quantity and optical zoom magnification Then the CPU 11 determines a target enlargement factor the target value ofthe enlargement factor after a change when the enlargement factor is changed according to the extracted evaluation value In the stat
42. n circuit and further to output the calcu lated shake quantity to the control section 10 The operating section 60 is equipped with a switching button for switching an imaging mode for performing imag ing by the imaging section 20 to a reproducing mode for reproducing displaying the imaged image on the display section 80 and vice versa a shutter button for executing imaging processing by the imaging section 20 a switching switch for switching between a focus adjustment mode by a user s manual operation manually focusing mode and a focus adjustment mode by automatic operation automatic focusing mode an adjustment button for performing a focus adjustment in a state of being switched into the manually focusing mode a display button for displaying a focus adjust ing confirmation screen a setting button for setting an optical zoom magnification the magnification of an optical zoom by a zoom lens to an arbitrary magnification and the like Then the operating section 60 is configured to output operation signals according to the contents of operations to the control section 10 when the user operates a button or a switch Con sequently various kinds of control processing according to the contents of the operations are executed by the control section 10 to which the operation signals have been input In addition the display button may be made to function as a button the depressed period of which the control section 10 judges as a peri
43. nes whether to vary or maintain the enlargement factor when the enlarge ment display control section enlarges the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section to an enlarge ment factor set at that point in time based on the shake quan tity detected by the detecting section and wherein if the enlargement factor control section deter mines to vary the enlargement factor the enlargement factor control section changes the enlargement factor at the time of the enlargement by the enlargement display control section based on a time based increase or decrease quantity of the enlargement factor over time 20 40 45 50 60 22 12 The imaging apparatus according to claim 3 wherein the enlargement factor control section changes the enlarge ment factor at the time of the enlargement by the enlargement display control section based on a combination of the level of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section and an optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section 13 A non transitory computer readable recording medium recording a control program of an imaging apparatus includ ing an imaging section to sequentially generate images by imaging a subject a display section to display the images sequentially generated by the imaging section and a detect ing section to detect a shake quantity of the imaging appara tus the program enabling a computer of the imaging appara tus to function as elements
44. od indicating that a user has determined that a focus adjusting confirmation screen should be displayed only during the period Furthermore the display button may be a button capable of performing a toggle operation for making the control section 10 perform the toggle operation in which when a user once depresses the display button the control section 10 executes the operation mode at the time when a display of the focus adjusting confirmation screen is selected and when the user again depresses the display button the control section 10 releases the operation mode Furthermore the operation section 60 may be configured in such a way that a user can set the functions of the display button in advance with a menu operation The timer section 70 is configured to time a time and output a signal pertaining to the timed time to the control section 10 The display section 80 reads out an image stored in the memory section 12 to display the imaged image imaged by the imaging section 20 on the display screen To put it con cretely the display section 80 is equipped with a digital video encoder or the like although the illustration thereof is omit ted and performs the encoding processing of an input image to generate a video signal under the control of the image control section 10 Then the display section 80 displays the image on the display screen thereof on the basis of the video signal Furthermore when a user performs a switching operation
45. of the images displayed on the display section and changing the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement of the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section to one ofa plurality of different enlarge ment factors based on a level of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section among a plurality of levels of shake quantity while an enlargement factor of the images displayed on the display section is main tained 15 The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the enlargement display control section sequentially displays the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by a set enlargement factor which is set at that point of time wherein the enlargement factor control section changes the set enlargement factor at the time of the enlargement of the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by the enlargement display control sec tion based on the level of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section US 8 736 736 B2 23 wherein the imaging apparatus further comprises atarget enlargement factor determining section to deter mine a target enlargement factor based on the level of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section and a calculating section to calculate a time based variation quantity of the enlargement factor based on
46. ol program of an imaging apparatus including an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject a display section to sequentially display each of the images generated by the imaging section and a detecting section to detect a shake quantity of the imaging apparatus the recording medium recording a program enabling a computer of the imaging apparatus to function as an enlargement display control section to display parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts by a predeter mined enlargement factor and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge ment display control section according to the shake quantity detected by the detecting section Furthermore another aspect of the present invention is a recording medium recording a control program of an imaging apparatus including an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom magnification to an arbitrary magnification and a dis play section to sequentially display each of the images gen erated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section the recording medium recording a program enabling a computer of the imaging apparatus to function as an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts ofthe images generated by the imag
47. ontrol for displaying the focus adjusting confirmation screen 500 only in apart of the display screen of the display section 80 That is because a user can perform a focus adjustment in the part of the display screen and can parallely perform the other operations such as the confirmation of a subject in the angle of view through the part ofthe display screen other than the aforesaid part for the focus adjustment the convenience of the imaging apparatus 1 is improved Embodiment 2 Next an imaging apparatus 1a according to an embodi ment 2 will be described with reference to FIGS 5 7 Here although the imaging apparatus 1 according to the embodiment 1 is configured to determine a target enlarge ment factor on the basis of a shake quantity and an optical zoom magnification by using the shake quantity of the imag ing apparatus 1 detected by the shake quantity detecting sec tion 50 as a camera shake quantity the imaging apparatus 1a is different from the imaging apparatus 1 of the embodiment 1 in the point of determining whether to vary or keep a set enlargement factor on the basis ofa deflection quantity with out determining the target enlargement factor by using the deflection quantity of an image enlarged by a set enlargement factor as a camera shake quantity In addition the configuration of the imaging apparatus la similar to that of the imaging apparatus 1 of the embodiment 1 will be denoted by the mark same as that of the imaging
48. operating section 60 or not and image recording processing into the memory section 12 the storage section 90 and the like when the shutter button is depressed Step S114 Then the CPU 11 judges whether the imaging by the user has ended or not on the basis of whether the mode of the imaging apparatus 1 is switched to the reproducing mode by the user with the operating section 60 or not Step 115 If the CPU 11 judges that the imaging does not end Step S115 No the CPU 11 repeats the processing on and after Step 102 On the other hand if the CPU 11 judges that the imaging has ended at Step S115 Step S115 Yes the CPU 11 ends the present processing As described above the imaging apparatus 1 of the present embodiment canobtain the following effects by the execution ofthe enlargement factor adjustment program by the CPU 11 and by the cooperative operations of the respective sections including the CPU 11 0 40 45 50 55 65 10 The imaging apparatus 1 obtains the parameters when a part of an image is displayed on the display section 80 by being enlarged when a user performs a focus adjustment or an adjustment of an optical zoom magnification in the manu ally focusing mode and can change the enlargement factor at the time of displaying the part of the image by enlarging it at the time of the execution of the enlargement display control program on the basis of the obtained parameters That is the situation in
49. optical zoom magnification on the display screen of the display section 80 without performing any focus confirming enlargement display unlike the execu tion processing of the enlargement display control program by the CPU 11 in the manually focusing mode which will be described below Then in a live view display in the automatic focusing processing an automatic focusing AF frame showing the subject region of an object of the focus adjust ment in automatic focusing is displayed in place of perform ing the focus confirming enlargement display On the other hand if the CPU 11 judges that the focusing mode is switched to the manually focusing mode at Step 102 Step S102 Yes the CPU 11 images a subject with the imaging section 20 to generate an image Step S104 Next the CPU 11 judges whether the user operates the operating section 60 display button to select the display ofa focus adjusting confirmation screen or not Step S105 Then if the CPU 11 judges that the display of the focus adjusting confirmation screen is not selected at Step S105 Step S105 No the CPU 11 makes the display section 80 display the whole image that is the image itselfthat has not been subjected to enlargement processing generated at Step S104 Step S106 and advances the processing to that at Step S114 the processing of an ordinary live view display is performed On the other hand if the CPU 11 judges that the display of the focus adjusting confirm
50. pparatus 1a according to the embodiment 2 is denoted by the same mark as those of the imaging apparatus 1 and 1a and the description thereof will be omitted in the following description of the imaging apparatus 15 As shown in FIG 8 the imaging apparatus 15 is composed of the control section 10 the imaging section 20 the image processing section 30 the driving section 40 the display section 80 the timer section 70 the operating section 60 the storage section 90 and a high frequency component detect ing section 1008 The high frequency component detecting section 1005 obtains a sharpness on the basis of imaging processing for detecting high frequency components of an image generated by the imaging section 20 To put it concretely the high frequency component detecting section 1005 performs a two dimensional Fourier transform to a generated image to con vert the image into a function ofa frequency region Then the high frequency component detecting section 1005 calculates the rate of the components of a predetermined frequency or more among all ofthe frequency components by for example performing the processing of calculating the product of the converted function and a filter function of a high pass filter and outputs the calculation result to the control section 10 as the sharpness A memory section 125 of the control section 10 is com posed of a buffer memory for temporarily storing the data to be processed by the CPU 11 and
51. r Step S109a on the basis of the sharpness obtained at Step S1082 As described above according to the imaging apparatus 15 ofthe present embodiment it is needless to say that the effects similar to those of the imaging apparatus 1a of the embodi ment 2 can be obtained Furthermore when the CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjustment program and determines whether to vary or keep the set enlargement factor on the basis of the obtained parameter it is necessary to calculate the deflection quantity of the image enlarged by the set enlargement factor as a parameter in the embodiment 2 However it is only necessary to input a sharpness output from the high frequency component detecting section 1005 as a parameter in the imaging apparatus 15 and consequently the reduction of the processing load of the control section 10 can be achieved In addition the embodiments described above are only examples of the suitable image forming apparatus according to the present invention and the scope ofthe present invention is not limited to those embodiments Furthermore the minute configuration and the minute operation of each section of the image forming apparatus of the embodiments described above can suitably be changed without departing from the subject matter of the present invention For example it is needless to say that the high frequency component detecting section 1005 of the embodiment 3 is provided to the imaging apparatus 1 according
52. rated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts by a predeter mined enlargement factor and an enlargement factor control section to change the enlargement factor at a time of enlargement by the enlarge ment display control section according to the shake quantity detected by the detecting section US 8 736 736 B2 19 That is the recording medium records a control program of an imaging apparatus capable of performing a focus adjust ment by a manual operation on the basis of an image sub jected to a live view display and of performing the focus adjustment easily Furthermore according to a fourth aspect of the present invention a recording medium records a control program of an imaging apparatus including an imaging section to gener ate images by imaging a subject an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom magnification to an arbitrary magnifica tion and a display section to sequentially display each of the images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section the recording medium recording a program enabling a com puter of the imaging apparatus to function as an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts of the images generated by the imaging section on the display section according to the optical zoom magnifica tion set by the optical zoom section while further enlarging the parts by a predetermined enlarge
53. rpness expresses the degree ofa focus adjust ment the degree of a sharpness of an image grasped by the sense of sight ofa user as a sharp image of a subject here the smaller a value of the sharpness is the larger an assigned evaluation value is adversely to the evaluation table of the deflection quantities shown in FIG 6A Next the CPU 11 reads outthe evaluation value correspon dence table same as that of FIG 6B from the memory section 125 and determines whether to vary or keep the set enlarge ment factor according to the extracted evaluation value Furthermore if the CPU 11 determines to vary the set enlargement factor for example the case where the evalua US 8 736 736 B2 15 tion valuein the evaluation value correspondence table shown in FIG 6B is within the range of 1 4 or the range of 16 or more the CPU 11 performs the processing of changing the enlargement factor over time in accordance with the time based increase decrease quantity of the enlargement factor an increase quantity or a decrease quantity of the enlarge ment factor per unit time determined in advance in order that the set enlargement factor may gradually increase or decrease over time until a previously determined set time or the like has elapsed Here the smaller the value of the sharpness of an enlarged image is in the state in which a part of the image is enlarged the more an unfocused state of the subject in the display screen of the display se
54. ry section 12 is composed of a buffer memory for temporarily storing the data to be processed by the CPU 11 and the like and a program memory for storing the various programs and data pertaining to the execution of the CPU 11 Then as the programs stored in the memory section 12 an enlargement display control program and an enlargement factor adjustment program are given and as the data stored in the memory section 12 an evaluation value table described below pertaining to the execution of the enlargement factor adjustment program is given Next the various programs stored in the memory section 12 will be described The enlargement display control program is a program for enabling the CPU 11 to execute the function of controlling the display of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section 20 on the display section 80 while enlarging the parts of the images by a predetermined enlargement factor To put it concretely when a user perform the switching to the manually focusing mode with the switching switch of the operating section 60 and depresses the display button in the manually focusing mode the CPU 11 performs the trimming and enlargement processing of the images sequentially US 8 736 736 B2 7 imaged by the imaging section 20 as the objects of live view displays that is the images imaged by the imaging section 20 according to the optical zoom magnification set by the oper ating section 60 and thereby performs th
55. sing section drives the electronic imaging section to perform scan ning with the timing generator and the vertical driver and makes the electronic imaging section convert a subject image into a two dimensional image signal every predetermined period Then the imaging processing section reads out an image frame for every one screen from the image region ofthe electronic imaging section to output the read out image frame to the image processing section 30 The image processing section 30 performs image quality adjusting processing resolution converting processing image compressing processing and the like on the basis of an image frame transferred from the imaging section 20 imag ing processing section to perform the processing of convert ing an image generated by the imaging section 20 into an image for displaying or an image for recording To put it concretely the image processing section 30 suitably adjusts the gain of each color component of red R green G and blue B of the signal of an analog value of the image frame transferred from the image processing section before per forming the sample hold of the each color component with a sample hold circuit the illustration thereof is omitted to convert the color component subjected to the sample hold into digital data with an analog to digital A D converter the illustration thereof is omitted Then the image processing section 30 performs the color process processing including
56. t factor at the time of the enlargement of the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by the enlarge ment display control section based on the level of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section such that the enlargement factor is smaller as the level of the shake quantity is larger 3 The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 further comprising an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom magnification to an arbitrary magnification wherein the display section displays the images sequen tially generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom sec tion and wherein the enlargement display control section displays the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section on the display section while enlarging the parts of the images sequentially generated by the imaging section by the enlargement factor determined by the enlargement factor control section while the opti cal zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section is maintained 4 The imaging apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the enlargement display control section starts enlargement dis play in accordance with an instruction operation by a user while the images sequentially generated by the imaging sec tion are being displayed on the display section 5 The imaging apparatus according to claim 4 wherein the enlargement display control section switches an image dis
57. t that point of time based on the shake quantity detected by the detecting section and ifthe enlargement factor control section determines to vary the enlargement factor the enlargement factor control section changes the enlargement factor at the time ofthe enlargement by the enlargement display control section based on a time based increase decrease quantity of the predetermined enlargement factor over time Preferably the enlargement factor control section changes enlargement factor at the time of the enlargement by the enlargement display control section according to a combina tion of the shake quantity detected by the detecting section and an optical zoom magnification set by an optical zoom section That is the imaging apparatus can perform a focus adjust ment by a manual operation on the basis of an image sub jected to a live view display and can easily perform the focus adjustment Furthermore according to a second aspect of the present invention an imaging apparatus equipped with an imaging section to generate images by imaging a subject comprises an optical zoom section to set an optical zoom magnifica tion to an arbitrary magnification a display section to sequentially display each ofthe images generated by the imaging section according to the optical zoom magnification set by the optical zoom section an enlargement display control section to sequentially dis play parts of the images generated by the imaging section
58. the like and a program memory for storing the various programs and data pertaining to the execution of the CPU 11 Then there are an enlarge ment display control program and an enlargement factor adjustment program as the programs stored in the memory section 125 and there are an evaluation value table and an evaluation value correspondence table pertaining to the execution of an enlargement factor adjustment program which will be described below and the like as the data stored in the memory region 12b Next the enlargement factor adjustment program stored in the memory section 12b will be described The enlargement factor adjustment program is a program for enabling the CPU 11 to execute the function of changing the enlargement factor at the time of displaying a part of an image by enlarging the part at the time ofthe execution ofthe enlargement display control program on the basis of a sharp ness output from the high frequency component detecting section 1005 To put it concretely when a part of an image is displayed by being enlarged as a focus adjusting confirmation screen by the execution of the enlargement display control program the CPU 11 obtains a sharpness output from the high frequency component detecting section 1005 Then the CPU 11 reads out the evaluation value table from the memory section 125 and extracts an evaluation value corresponding to the obtained parameter sharpness from the evaluation table Because the sha
59. tity the variation quantity per unit time of the enlargement factor from the difference quantity between the set enlargement factor and the target enlargement factor Step S111 Next the CPU 11 performs the time based variation changes a predetermined quantity every unit time of the set enlargement factor toward the target enlargement factor on the basis of the time based variation quantity calculated at Step S111 Step S112 Then the CPU 11 judges whether the set enlargement factor has reached the target enlargement factor or not on the basis of whether time has reached a predetermined time from the starting point of time of the processing at Step S112 or not on the basis of a signal per taining to the time which signal is output from the timer section 70 Step S113 If the CPU 11 judges that the set enlargement factor has not reached the target enlargement factor Step S113 No the CPU 11 repeats the processing on and after Step S112 On the other hand if the CPU 11 judges that the set enlarge ment factor has reached the target enlargement factor at Step 113 Step 113 Yes the CPU 11 performs the other pieces of processing such as focus adjusting processing optical zoom magnification adjusting processing according to a focus adjusting operation optical zoom magnification setting operation respectively by the user with the operating section 60 AE processing judgment processing whether the shutter button is depressed in the
60. to the embodi ment 1 and the imaging apparatus 1a of the embodiment 2 and that when the CPU 11 executes the enlargement factor adjustment program the CPU 11 may use a sharpness output from the high frequency component detecting section 1005 together with a camera shake quantity and an optical zoom magnification as the parameters for determining an evalua tion value in this case the larger the value ofthe sharpness is the smaller the evaluation value to be determined becomes Thereby because the CPU 11 results in determining the evaluation value compositively by means of a plurality of parameters a more appropriate evaluation value can be deter mined Furthermore although the embodiments 1 3 are config ured to repeat the enlargement factor adjusting processing by the imaging apparatus 1 15 at the timing of the imaging of a subject by the imaging section 20 to adjust an enlargement factor as shown at Steps S104 S115 of FIGS 4 7 and 9 it is needless to say that the embodiments 1 3 may be configured to repeat the enlargement factor adjusting processing at the timing when the time timed by the timer section 70 reaches a predetermined time to perform the adjustment According to a fist aspect of the present invention an imaging apparatus equipped with an imaging section to gen erate images by imaging a subject comprises a display section to sequentially display each of the images generated by the imaging section an enlargement d
61. uantity and the optical zoom magnifica tion the set enlargement factor can be changed to a more appropriate enlargement factor Furthermore the imaging apparatus 1 is configured to switch the focusing mode thereof between the manually focusing mode and the automatic focusing mode with the operating section 60 and performs the control of a display of a focus adjusting confirmation screen on the display section 80inthe case of the switching to the manually focusing mode US 8 736 736 B2 11 That is because the imaging apparatus 1 displays a focus adjusting confirmation screen only in the case of the switch ing to the manually focusing mode it can be prevented to cause a user selecting the automatic focusing mode unneces sary confusion Furthermore the imaging apparatus 1 is configured to allow a user to select whether to display the focus adjusting confirmation screen 500 or not in the case of the switching to the manually focusing mode with the operating section 60 and performs the control of displaying the focus adjusting confirmation screen 500 in the case of the selection of the display of the focus adjusting confirmation screen 500 That is because the user can freely select whether to display the focus adjusting confirmation screen 500 or not in the state of the switching to the manually focusing mode the conve nience of the imaging apparatus 1 for the user is improved Furthermore the imaging apparatus 1 can perform the c

Imaging apparatus equipped with image enlarging display function

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