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Claims  |
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What is claimed is:
1. A monitor screen-integrated video camera comprising:
a camera portion having a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects;
a monitor portion having a monitor screen that displays the picture taken
by said camera portion;
a joint portion for joining said camera portion with said monitor portion
in a relatively rotatable manner such that said camera lens and said
monitor screen can both be oriented in the same direction toward an
identical object or, in a normal picture-taking state, in different
directions toward different objects;
a monitor driver circuit which, when said monitor screen is vertically
inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking state
and only when both said camera lens and said monitor screen are oriented
toward an identical object, inverts a scanning direction on said monitor
screen thereby allowing said monitor screen to display an horizontally
inverted mirror-image of the picture taken by said camera portion;
character code generating means for generating character codes for texts to
be superimposed over said monitor screen;
text memory for storing the character codes generated by said character
code generating means;
a character generator for generating character patterns corresponding to
character codes supplied from said text memory;
an inverting circuit for horizontally inverting a character pattern output
generated from said character generator, the inverted character pattern
being for superimposition on said monitor screen when said monitor screen
is vertically inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal
picture-taking state and both said camera lens and said monitor screen are
oriented toward an identical object; and
editing means for controlling the order of character codes generated by
said character code generating means, such that an horizontally inverted
order of arrayed character codes is supplied from said character code
generating means to said text memory only when both said camera lens and
said monitor screen are oriented toward the identical object, the arrayed
characters constituting text to be displayed on said monitor screen.
2. A monitor screen-integrated video camera comprising:
a camera portion having a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects
and producing a video picture signal corresponding to the picture;
a monitor portion having a monitor screen that displays the picture taken
by said camera portion;
a joint portion for joining said camera portion with said monitor portion
in a relatively rotatable manner such that said camera lens and said
monitor screen can both be oriented in the same direction toward an
identical object or, in a normal picture-taking state, in different
directions toward different objects;
a monitor driver circuit which, when said monitor screen is vertically
inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking state
and only when both said camera lens and said monitor screen are oriented
toward an identical object, inverts a scanning direction on said monitor
screen thereby allowing said monitor screen to display an horizontally
inverted mirror-image of the picture taken by said camera portion;
character code generating means for generating character codes for texts to
be superimposed over said monitor screen; and
a character generator for generating character patterns corresponding to
character codes supplied from said character code generating means, said
character generator providing a first character pattern output which is
horizontally inverted when said monitor screen is vertically inverted as
compared to its orientation of in the normal picture-taking state and
which can be superimposed over the video picture signal to be outputted to
said monitor screen, and a second character pattern output which can be
superimposed over the video picture signal to be recorded on a video tape.
3. A monitor screen-integrated video camera comprising:
a camera portion having a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects;
a monitor portion having a monitor screen that displays the picture taken
by said camera portion;
a joint portion for joining said camera portion with said monitor portion
in a relatively rotatable manner such that said camera lens and said
monitor screen can both be oriented in the same direction toward an
identical object or, in a normal picture-taking state, in different
directions toward different objects;
a monitor driver circuit which, when said monitor screen is vertically
inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking state
and only when both said camera lens and said monitor screen are oriented
toward an identical object, inverts a scanning direction on said monitor
screen thereby allowing said monitor screen to display an horizontally
inverted mirror-image of the picture taken by said camera portion; and
a superimposition controlling circuit which is able to switch a mode of
characters to be outputted to said monitor screen between a horizontally
inverted character output mode when said monitor screen is vertically
inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking
state, and a non-inverted character output mode and which, as the mode is
changed over, modifies the vertical display position of at least one of
the characters on said monitor screen.
4. A monitor screen-integrated video camera comprising:
a camera portion having a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects;
a monitor portion having a monitor screen that displays the picture taken
by said camera portion;
a joint portion for joining said camera portion with said monitor portion
in a relatively rotatable manner such that said camera lens and said
monitor screen can both be oriented in the same direction toward an
identical object or, in a normal picture-taking state in different
directions toward different objects;
a monitor driver circuit which, when said camera portion is vertically
inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking state
and only when both said camera lens and said monitor screen are oriented
toward an identical object, inverts a scanning direction on said monitor
screen thereby allowing said monitor screen to display an horizontally
inverted mirror-image of the picture taken by said camera portion;
character code generating means for generating character codes for texts to
be superimposed over said monitor screen;
a character generator for generating character patterns corresponding to
character codes supplied from said character code generating means;
an inverting circuit for vertically inverting a character pattern output
generated from said character generator; and
a signal adding circuit for selectively superimposing the inverted
character pattern over the picture to be displayed on said monitor screen
when said camera portion is vertically inverted as compared to its
orientation in the normal picture-taking state.
5. A monitor screen-integrated video camera comprising:
a camera portion having a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects
and producing a video picture signal corresponding to the picture;
a monitor portion having a monitor screen that displays the picture taken
by said camera portion;
a joint portion for joining said camera portion with said monitor portion
in a relatively rotatable manner such that said camera lens and said
monitor screen can both be oriented in the same direction toward an
identical object or, in a normal picture-taking state, in different
directions toward different objects;
a monitor driver circuit which, when said camera portion is vertically
inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking state
and only when both said camera lens and said monitor screen are oriented
toward an identical object, inverts a scanning direction on said monitor
screen thereby allowing said monitor screen to display an horizontally
inverted mirror-image of the picture taken by said camera portion;
character code generating means for generating character codes for texts to
be superimposed over said monitor screen; and
a character generator for generating character patterns corresponding to
character codes supplied from said character code generating means, said
character generator providing a first character pattern output which is
vertically inverted when said camera portion is vertically inverted as
compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking state and which
can be superimposed over the video picture signal to be outputted to said
monitor screen, and a second character pattern output which can be
superimposed over the video picture signal to be recorded on a video tape.
6. A monitor screen-integrated video camera comprising:
a camera portion having a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects;
a monitor portion having a monitor screen that displays the picture taken
by said camera portion;
a joint portion for joining said camera portion with said monitor portion
in a relatively rotatable manner such that said camera lens and said
monitor screen can both be oriented in the same direction toward an
identical object or, in a normal picture-taking state, in different
directions toward different objects;
a monitor driver circuit which, when said camera portion is vertically
inverted as compared to its orientation in the normal picture-taking state
and only when both said camera lens and said monitor screen are oriented
toward an identical object, inverts a scanning direction on said monitor
screen thereby allowing said monitor screen to display an horizontally
inverted mirror-image of the picture taken by said camera portion; and
a superimposition controlling circuit which is able to switch a mode of
characters to be outputted to said monitor
screen between a vertically inverted character output mode when said camera
portion is vertically inverted as compared to its orientation in the
normal picture-taking state, and a non-inverted character output mode and
which, as the mode is changed over, modifies the vertical display
positions of characters on said monitor screen.
7. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 2, further
comprising a signal adding circuit for superimposing the first character
generator output over the video picture signal only when both said camera
lens and said monitor screen are oriented toward the identical object.
8. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 2, further
comprising a signal adding circuit for selectively superimposing the first
character pattern or a non-horizontally inverted character pattern over
the video picture signal provided to said monitor screen.
9. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 8, wherein said
signal adding circuit superimposes the first character generator output
only when both said camera lens and said monitor screen are oriented in
the same direction toward the identical object.
10. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 3, wherein said
superimposition controlling circuit switches the mode of characters to be
outputted to said monitor screen in response to the position of said
monitor portion relative to said camera portion.
11. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 10, wherein the
superimposition controlling circuit switches to the horizontally inverted
character output mode only when both said camera lens and said monitor
screen are oriented toward the identical object.
12. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 4, wherein said
signal adding circuit superimposes the inverted character pattern over the
picture to be displayed on said monitor screen only when there is a
predetermined orientation of the camera portion relative to the monitor
portion.
13. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 4, wherein said
signal adding circuit superimposes the inverted character pattern over the
picture to be displayed on said monitor screen only when both said camera
lens and said monitor screen are oriented toward the identical object.
14. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 4, wherein said
signal adding circuit superimposes the non-vertically inverted character
patterns generated by said character generator over the picture to be
displayed on said monitor when said camera lens and said monitor screen
are oriented toward different objects.
15. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 5, further
comprising,
a signal adding circuit for superimposing the first character pattern over
the video picture signal only when both said camera lens and said monitor
screen are oriented toward the identical object.
16. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 5, wherein the
second character generator output is non-vertically inverted, and further
comprising:
a signal adding circuit for selectively superimposing the first character
pattern or a non-vertically inverted character pattern over the video
picture signal provided to said monitor screen.
17. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 16, wherein said
signal adding circuit superimposes the first character pattern or the
non-vertically inverted character pattern over the video picture signal in
response to the orientation of the camera portion relative to said monitor
portion.
18. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 17, further
comprising:
detecting means for detecting the orientation of said camera portion
relative to said monitor portion and producing a detection signal; and
a controller responsive to the detection signal for controlling the signal
adding circuit to superimpose the first character pattern or the
non-vertically inverted character pattern over the video picture signal
provided to said monitor screen.
19. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 6, wherein said
superimposition controlling circuit switches the mode of characters to be
outputted to said monitor screen in response to the position of said
monitor portion relative to said camera portion.
20. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 19, wherein the
superimposition controlling circuit switches to the vertically inverted
character output mode only when both said camera lens and said monitor
screen are oriented toward the identical object.
21. A monitor screen-integrated video camera comprising:
a camera portion having a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects
and producing a picture signal corresponding to the picture;
a monitor portion having a monitor screen for displaying the picture
signal;
a joint portion for joining said camera portion and said monitor portion
such that said monitor portion can be adjustably positioned relative to
said camera portion;
character pattern generator means for generating a character pattern for
superimposition over the picture signal to be displayed on the monitor
screen;
first detecting means for detecting whether a position of the monitor
portion relative to the camera portion is within a predetermined range of
positions, and for producing a first position signal indicating that the
position of the monitor portion relative to the camera portion is within
the predetermined range;
a monitor driver circuit for controlling the direction of scanning on said
monitor screen based upon the first position signal such that the picture
signal is displayed on said monitor screen as an image or as an inverted
image;
second detecting means for detecting whether the orientation of the monitor
portion relative to gravity is within a second predetermined range of
positions, and for producing a second position signal indicating that the
orientation of the monitor relative to gravity is within the second
predetermined range;
inversion means, responsive to the first and second position signals, for
superimposing an inverted form of the character pattern generated by said
character generator means over the picture signal to be displayed on the
monitor screen.
22. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 21, wherein the
superimposed inverted form of the character pattern is an horizontally
inverted form of the character pattern generated by said character
generator means.
23. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 22, wherein said
inversion means includes:
a superimposition controlling circuit having a shift register for providing
the horizontally inverted character pattern; and
a microcomputer responsive to the first position signal for determining
whether the horizontally inverted character pattern is to be superimposed
over the picture signal, and, if so, for controlling said superimposition
controlling circuit to superimpose the horizontally inverted form of the
character pattern over the picture signal to be displayed on the monitor
screen.
24. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 21, wherein the
superimposed inverted form of the character pattern is a vertically
inverted form of the character pattern generated by said character
generator means.
25. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 24, wherein said
inversion means includes:
a superimposition controlling circuit having a shift register for providing
the vertically inverted character pattern; and
a microcomputer responsive to the first position signal for determining
whether the vertically inverted character pattern is to be superimposed
over the picture signal, and, if so, for controlling said superimposition
controlling circuit to superimpose the vertically inverted form of the
character pattern over the picture signal to be displayed on the monitor
screen.
26. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 21, wherein said
second detecting means includes a gravitational direction detecting means
for producing the second position signal.
27. The monitor screen-integrated video camera of claim 26, wherein the
first detecting means includes a position detecting switch which produces
the first position signal.
28. A method for controlling the superimposition of characters in a monitor
screen-integrated video camera having a camera portion and a monitor
portion, the orientation of the camera portion being adjustable relative
to the monitor portion, the monitor portion having a monitor screen, the
method comprising the steps of:
(a) producing a picture signal corresponding to a picture to be displayed
on the monitor screen;
(b) detecting whether the monitor screen is upright or upside down relative
to gravity;
(c) generating characters to be superimposed on the monitor screen and
storing the characters at addresses identifying locations in a text
memory, the addresses being dependent upon whether the monitor screen is
detected to be upright or upside down in said step (b);
(d) generating a character pattern corresponding to the generated
characters stored in the text memory for superimposition over the picture
signal to be displayed on the monitor screen;
(e) detecting whether the camera portion has been adjusted to an
orientation within a predetermined range of orientations relative to the
monitor portion;
(f) superimposing an inverted form of the character pattern of said step
(d) over the picture signal to be displayed on the monitor screen only
when the orientation of the camera portion relative to the monitor portion
is detected to be within the predetermined range of orientations; and
(g) inverting a scanning direction of the picture signal with superimposed
character pattern from said step (f) onto the monitor screen when the
monitor screen is detected in said step (b) to be upside down.
29. The method for controlling the superimposition of characters in a
monitor screen-integrated video camera according to claim 28, wherein said
step (f) further includes the step of:
(f') superimposing a non inverted form of the character pattern of said
step (d) over the picture signal to be displayed on the monitor screen
when the orientation of the camera portion relative to the monitor portion
is detected to be not within the predetermined range of orientations. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a home video camera equipped with a
monitor screen and in particular to a monitor screen-integrated video
camera which has a joint portion allowing a camera portion to rotate
relative to a monitor portion so that the camera lens can be oriented in
both the same and opposite directions with the face of the monitor screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Home video cameras are also called as a camera-integrated video
tape-recorder, and this type of products, that is, including a VTR portion
for allowing a video cassette tape to record pictures as well as a camera
for taking pictures, have now been becoming popular in the market.
Now, a typical conventional monitor screen-integrated video camera will be
explained with reference to drawings.
FIG.1 is an overall block diagram showing a prior art example of a monitor
screen-integrated video camera.
In FIG.1, the conventional video camera has a camera portion 1 for picking
up a picture of objects, a monitor portion 2 for displaying the picture of
the objects that have been taken, and a joint portion 3 for jointing
camera portion 1 and monitor portion 2 and allowing relative rotation of
one to another.
Camera portion 1 includes a camera lens 4 and a picture pickup circuit 5
which converts optical images of objects formed by camera lens 4 into
video picture signals to be outputted to monitor portion 2.
Monitor portion 2 includes: a monitor screen 6 such as of a liquid crystal
panel or the like for displaying the picture of objects taken; a display
driver circuit 7 for driving monitor screen 6; a VTR portion 8 for
recording video picture signals on an unillustrated video cassette tape
and reproducing video picture signals from a video cassette tape; a
superimposition controlling circuit 209 for superimposing a date,
operation information, caution notice and the like over the video pictures
to be displayed on monitor screen 6 and/or to be recorded on the video
cassette tape; and a microcomputer 210 for controlling the entire video
camera.
Joint portion 3 has a rotational angle detecting switch 11 that detects a
relative rotational angle of camera portion 1 to monitor portion 2. The
rotational angle detecting switch 11 outputs to microcomputer 210 a
self-image picture-taking mode signal that indicates that the camera is
set in a position for picking up self-image when both camera lens 4 and
monitor screen 6 are oriented to the same object.
Microcomputer 210 may instruct display driver circuit 7 to display a
horizontally inverted, mirror-image of the pickup picture with reference
to the self-image picture-taking mode signal.
Next, FIG.2 is an overall block diagram showing a superimposition
controlling circuit 209 as a part of monitor portion 2.
Superimpose controlling circuit 209 comprises a command register 101, a
data register 102, a command decoder 303, a text memory 110, a row-counter
111, a column-counter 112, a row-address selector 113, a column-address
selector 114, a character code register 120, a character generator ROM
121, a ROM address counter 322, a left-shift register 123, AND-gates 126,
127, video picture signal adding circuits 128, 129, a clock oscillator
(OSC) 130, a 1/m-divider 131 and a 1/n-divider 132.
Next, each component of the superimposition controlling circuit will be now
described in further detail.
Command register 101 and data register 102 are each composed of a series
input/parallel output shift register and receive command and display
character data associated with the command, respectively, both of which
are serially transmitted from microcomputer 210, and output parallel
command and data, respectively.
Command decoder 303 decodes the command accepted by command register 101
and generates a control timing signal.
Text memory 110 consists of memory sections arranged in a
12-row.times.24-column matrix form for filling one full-frame region of
the screen. Each of the memory sections can store a character code for one
character and information associated with the character. Information to be
written in text memory 110 is display character data consisting of
character codes and associated information with characters held in data
resistor 102, and is written in memory sections designated by
corresponding commands.
An address in text memory 110 is designated by a two-way selector, that is,
consisting of a row-address selector 113 and a column-address selector
114. Upon writing data into text memory 110, selectors 113 and 114 are
designated by a writing address associated with the data to be written in
and stored in the command register, to thereby form a text memory address.
When data in text memory 110 is to be read out, an address in the text
memory is generated by selecting row and column addresses with the help of
a row-counter 111 and a column-counter 112 that count cyclically.
Column-counter 112 for providing a column-address (or a
horizontal-direction address) in text memory 110 is reset by a horizontal
synchronizing signal (HSYNC) and counts signals .phi..sub.1 that are
formed by dividing an output signal .phi..sub.0 from clock oscillator
(OCS) 130 by means of 1/n-divider circuit 132. Here, a period of
.phi..sub.0 is a time corresponding to a horizontal length of one pixel in
forming character patterns that are read out from the character generator
ROM and `n` is a number in the horizontal direction of the pixels
constituting one character.
Row-counter 111 for providing a row-address (or a vertical-direction
address) in text memory 110 is reset by a vertical synchronizing signal
(VSYNC) and counts signals that are formed by dividing the horizontal
synchronizing signal (HSYNC) by means of 1/m-divider circuit 131. Here,
`m` is a number in the vertical direction of the pixels constituting one
character.
Character code register 120 stores the character codes and associated
modifying information therewith which are read out from text memory 110.
Character generator ROM 121 converts a character code into a display
pattern of m dots.times.n dots. A readout address in character generator
ROM 121 consists of an upper bit portion indicating a character code in
character code register 120 and a lower bit portion which is provided from
ROM address counter 322.
ROM address counter 322 counts horizontal synchronizing signals to provide
a lower bit portion for the readout address in character generator ROM 121
and the thus formed addresses are successively used for reading out one
character pattern in the vertical direction.
Left-shift register 123 is a readout register for character generator ROM
121. After read-out data sets have been set in parallel in the left-shift
register 123, the data sets are shifted based on clock signal .phi..sub.0
to be converted into serial data.
Character pattern data delivered serially from left-shift register 123 is
supplied to both AND-gates 126 and 127 on their one input side. Output
indicating bits 120-2, 120-3 for the modifying information in character
code register 120 are connected to respective other input terminals of
AND-gates 126 and 127. In accordance with ON/OFF state in output
indicating bits 120-2 and 120-3, the output from AND-gate 126 and/or 127
is allowed or inhibited so as to control character pattern data to be
added or not in the video picture signal adding circuits in the next
stage.
Video signal adding circuits 128 and 129 add character pattern data
delivered from respective AND-gates 126 and 127 to the video picture
signal supplied from picture pickup circuit 5 so as to superimpose
character patterns on the video picture signal. The video picture signals
overlaid with character patterns in video picture signal adding circuits
128 and 129 are sent out to VTR portion 8 and monitor screen driver
circuit 7, respectively.
Next, the operation of the thus constructed superimposition controlling
circuit will be described.
Microcomputer 210 for controlling the entire video camera performs
edit-control of the text to be superimposed on both the video picture
signal displayed on monitor screen 6 and the video picture signal recorded
on the video tape (not shown).
Composition of the text is effected on text memory 110 of 12-row.times.24
column matrix. That is, microcomputer 210 designates positions of memory
sections on text memory 110 so as to write characters one by one onto the
text memory.
An instruction of writing onto text memory 110 is effected by a control
command containing a four-bit row address and a five-bit column address
and the data associated with the control command. The control command and
the associated data therewith are serially transmitted from microcomputer
210 to superimposition controlling circuit 209 and accepted therein by a
pair of shift-registers combined, namely command register 101 and data
register 102.
Command decoder 303 decodes the command accepted by command register 101
and if the command indicates the data to be written in, the row and column
designated by the command is selected by row-address selector 113 and
column-address selector 114 so that a writing pulse is generated for text
memory 110.
When the writing pulse is launched from command decoder 303, the data held
in data register 102 is written onto text memory 110.
The data to be written onto text memory 110 comprises a character code and
modifying information associated therewith. The character code may be
constructed of one-byte or two-byte character code system selected
depending upon the text content to be displayed. Examples of one-byte
character code for representing alphanumeric include ISO code and ANSI
code, etc. On the other hand, inclusion of Japanese characters such as
`kana` and `kanji` (Japanese phonogram and Chinese characters,
respectively) requires a two-byte character code containing the JIS
first-level kanji and the JIS one-byte code.
Associated information with character code is composed of one bit allotted
for designating the monitor screen as an output means, another bit
allotted for designating the VTR portion as another output means, a field
for designating a color to be displayed. The two bits for designating
output means enable the monitor screen and/or the VTR portion to be
designated independently of one another.
Character information to be outputted to the VTR portion is typically a
date indication while character information to be outputted on the monitor
screen includes: in addition to the date indication, operation indication
which is displayed for a period of time in accordance with the operation
of a video camera switch as the switch is operated; and cautions relating
to the operation State of the video camera such as a remaining amount of
tape and a remaining amount of battery power, etc.
Next, FIG.3 is a diagram showing an example Of texts to be stored in the
aforementioned text memory 110.
Text memory 110 is a readable and writable memory for storing display data
for one full-frame of the screen consisting of, as shown in FIG.3, in
total, 288 (12 rows.times.24 columns) character sections for display
character data.
Each display character data consists of, as described above, a character
code and associated information with character. The associated information
with character includes a field for designating a display color, which
consists of three bits and indicates red by [100], green by [010], blue by
[001] and white by [111]. This color information is outputted commonly to
the two output means.
Detail of controlling the character display color is not the subject matter
of the present invention and is considered to be unnecessary so that no
further description will be made.
In accordance with the character display example shown in FIG.3, display
character data stored at an address (row `0`, column `0`) in text memory
110 indicates that the character is "1", the output means is "monitor
screen and VTR portion", and the display color is "white". Display
character data held at another address (row `8`, column `1`) designates
that the character is "B", the output means is "monitor screen", and the
display color is "red". Display character data held at still another
address (row `10`, column `18`) designates that the character is "F", the
output means is "monitor screen", and the display color is "green".
Here, addresses with no display character data held are stored with blank
data.
The procedure of address counting in text memory 110 is performed such that
the column address is successively increased one by one from column `0` to
column `23` in synchronization with the scanning of the video picture
signal in horizontal direction. Then, every time the horizontal
synchronization signals are counted `m` times, the row address is
successively increased one by one, counting up from row `0` to row `11`
within a span of one field.
Next, FIGS.4 to 6 show relations between positions of a prior art video
camera and display states of its monitor screen in the normal picture
taking use and in the self-image taking use.
FIG.4 shows a manner in which a video image of an object A is displayed on
monitor screen 6 when the normal picture taking operation is effected.
The video camera shown in FIG.4 is composed of a camera portion 1
accommodating a camera lens 4 and a picture pickup circuit 5; a monitor
portion 2 accommodating a liquid crystal display monitor screen 6, a VTR
portion 8 and operation switches 18; and a joint portion 3 which allows
camera portion 1 to rotate relative to monitor portion 2.
Here, it will be assumed that displayed simultaneously on monitor screen 6
shown in FIG.4 are a date indication (e.g., 1993.4.1) 19 to be recorded on
a video tape, a caution indication (e.g., BATTERY) 20 which indicates the
battery power of the video camera runs short and an operation indication
(e.g., FOCUS) 21 which indicates an operation type of operation switches
18.
At the time of the normal picture-taking operation, monitor screen 6 is
scanned from the upper left to the lower right, or in the same direction
as is done on a typical TV screen.
FIG.5 is a self-image picture-taking state of the video camera in which
both camera lens 4 and monitor screen 6 are oriented toward an identical
objects B. For effecting the self-image taking, with camera portion 1
fixed, monitor portion 2 is rotated upside down or 180 degrees on joint
portion 3 so that monitor screen 6 may be oriented in the same direction
with the picture-taking direction of camera lens 4 (hereinafter, this
state is called self-image picture-taking state I).
In the self-image picture-taking state I, monitor screen 6 is scanned with
the scanning direction turned right-side left in opposition to the case of
the normal picture taking, from the upper right to the lower left. As a
result, the picture of an object B is displayed on monitor screen 6,
right-side left or as a horizontally inverted mirror-image.
FIG.6 shows another self-image picture-taking state. For effecting the
self-image taking, with monitor portion 2 fixed, camera portion 1 is
rotated upside down or 180 degrees on joint portion 3 so that monitor
screen 6 may be oriented in the same direction with the picture-taking
direction of camera lens 4 (hereinafter, this state is called self-image
taking state II).
In the self-image picture-taking state II, monitor screen 6 is scanned with
the scanning direction turned upside down in opposition to the case of the
normal picture taking, from the lower left to the upper right. As a
result, the picture of an object C is displayed on monitor screen 6,
right-side left or as a horizontally inverted mirror-image.
However, in the above prior art self-image picture-taking states, since the
scanning direction of the monitor screen is turned right-side left or
up-side down to display the mirror-image picture, if display characters
are tried to be displayed on the monitor screen as is performed in the
normal picture taking state, characters turned right-side left or up-side
down are displayed on the monitor screen. Therefore, the text
superimposition on the monitor screen in the self-image picture-taking
states was inhibited. Accordingly, the prior art apparatus suffered from a
problem that the date and/or time to be recorded on the video tape could
not be confirmed on the monitor screen.
In addition, in the self-image picture-taking state I, since monitor
portion 2 is turned down-side up as compared to the normal taking state,
the operation switches are positioned on the top of the monitor screen, if
the operation indication is tried to be displayed on the monitor screen as
is performed in the normal picture taking state, the indication on the
monitor screen is displayed away from the position of the operation
switches and the display character is turned right-side left on the
monitor screen. Therefore, the operation indication on the monitor screen
in the self-image picture-taking state was inhibited. Accordingly, the
prior art apparatus suffered from inconvenience that the operation of the
video camera could not be confirmed on the monitor screen.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above problems of the prior art video camera, the present
invention is to allow proper character display on the monitor screen
without characters horizontally or vertically inverted.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a monitor
screen-integrated video camera (to be referred to as a video camera
hereinafter) which includes a camera portion having a camera lens for
picking up a picture of objects, a monitor portion having a monitor screen
such as of LCD (liquid crystal display), etc., for displaying a video
picture taken by the camera portion or a video picture reproduced from a
video tape and a joint structure for rotatably jointing the camera portion
with the monitor portion, and which can be used both for normal picture
taking in which the lens face of the camera lens is opposed to the face of
the monitor screen and for self-image picture taking in which the lens
face of the camera lens and the face of the monitor screen are oriented in
the same direction.
Further, it is another object of the present invention to provide a video
camera having the above configuration, which has a function allowing the
scanning direction on the monitor screen to be inverted in order to
horizontally invert the video picture that is taken by the camera portion
in the self-image picture taking state to thereby display a mirror-image
of the taken picture on the monitor screen. (Here, this function will be
refereed to as a mirror-image display function.)
In order to achieve the above object, the present 10 invention provides a
superimposition controlling circuit which generally allows character
display such as a date, operation indication and caution indication
relating to the operation state of the video camera to be displayed on the
monitor screen of the video camera and which generally allows character
display such as a date, time and the like to be recorded on a video tape,
and which, when the monitor screen is scanned in an opposite direction
because of the aforementioned mirror-image display function, makes it
possible to display properly readable character patterns on the monitor
screen by horizontally or vertically inverting the text display signals of
the characters to be superimposed on the monitor screen.
Moreover, the present invention is to superimpose inverted character
pattern signals on the monitor signals of a video picture to be displayed
on the monitor screen, and at the same time, to superimpose non-inverted
character pattern signals onto the recording signals of the video picture
to be recorded on a video tape.
To achieve the above objects the present invention is constructed as
follows.
That is, in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, a
monitor screen-integrated video camera comprises: a camera portion having
a camera lens for picking up a picture of objects; a monitor portion
having a monitor screen that displays the picture taken by the camera
portion; a joint portion for jointing the camera portion with the monitor
portion in a relatively rotatable manner; a monitor driver circuit which,
when both the camera lens and the monitor screen are oriented toward an
identical object, allows the monitor screen to display an horizontally
inverted mirror-image of the picture taken by the camera portion; a
character code generating means for generating character codes for texts
to be superimposed over the monitor screen; a character generator for
generating character patterns in association with character codes supplied
from the character code generating means; an inverting circuit for
horizontally inverting a character pattern output generated from the
character generator; and an editing means for horizontally replacing the
order of arrayed characters constituting each row to be displayed on the
monitor screen.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, a monitor
screen-integrated video camera comprises: a camera portion having a camera
lens for picking up a picture of objects; a monitor portion having a
monitor screen that displays the picture taken by the camera portion; a
joint portion for jointing the camera portion with the monitor portion in
a relatively rotatable manner; a monitor driver circuit which, when both
the camera lens and the monitor screen are oriented toward an identical
object, allows the monitor screen to display an horizontally inverted
mirror-image of the picture taken by the camera portion; a character code
generating means for generating character codes for texts' to be
superimposed over the monitor screen; and a character generator for
generating character patterns in association with character codes supplied
from the character code generating means, wherein the character generator
provides a first character generator output which can be horizontally
inverted and can be superimposed over the video picture signal to be
outputted to the monitor screen and a second character generator output
which can be superimposed over the video picture signal to be recorded on
a video tape.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, a monitor
screen-integrated video camera comprises: a camera portion having a camera
lens for picking up a picture of objects; a monitor portion having a
monitor screen that displays the picture taken by the camera portion; a
joint portion for jointing the camera portion with the monitor portion in
a relatively rotatable manner; a monitor driver circuit which, when both
the camera lens and the monitor screen are oriented toward an identical
object, allows the monitor screen to display an horizontally inverted
mirror-image of the picture taken by the camera portion; and a
superimposition controlling circuit which is able to switch the mode of
characters to be outputted to the monitor screen between a horizontally
inverted character output mode and a non-inverted character output mode
and which, as the modes are changed over, allows the display positions of
characters to be modified.
In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention, a monitor
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