Electric Camera
View Patent ↗An electric camera includes an image sensing device with a light receiving surface having N vertically arranged pixels and an arbitrary number of pixels arranged horizontally, N being equal to or more than three times the number of effective scanning lines M of a display screen of a television system, a driver to drive the image sensing device to vertically mix or cull signal charges accumulated in individual pixels of K pixels to produce, during a vertical effective scanning period of the television system, a number of lines of output signals which corresponds to 1/K the number of vertically arranged pixels N of the image sensing device, K being an integer equal to or less than an integral part of a quotient of N divided by M, and a signal processing unit having a function of generating image signals by using the output signals of the image sensing device.
1. A camera comprising:
an image sensing device having an array of pixels arranged vertically and horizontally in a grid pattern;
an image-instability detector, configured to detect an amount of image-instability of the camera;
a signal processing unit configured to form image signals with a predetermined view angle by using effective pixels of the image sensing device, and:
during monitoring in a static image mode, to form image signals with a first view angle by using a first effective set of pixels of the image sensing device,
during recording in the static image mode, to form image signals by using all effective pixels of the image sensing device, and
during recording in a moving video mode, to form image signals with a second view angle, different from the first view angle, by using a second effective set of pixels which is a portion of the array of pixels of the image sensing device, and to change a position of the second effective set of pixels according to the amount of image-instability detected by the image-instability detector, in order to correct the image-instability; and
a display unit configured to display an image corresponding to the image signals formed by the signal processing unit.
2. A camera according to the claim 1 , wherein the first view angle is larger than the second view angle.
3. A method for operating a camera, the camera including an image sensing device having an array of pixels arranged vertically and horizontally in a grid pattern, a signal processing unit configured to form image signals at a predetermined view angle by using effective pixels of the image sensing device, a display unit configured to display an image corresponding to the image signals formed by the signal processing unit, and an image-instability detector configured to detect an amount of image-instability of the camera, the method for operating the camera comprising the steps of:
selecting between a static image mode and a moving video mode; and
selecting an operation from a list of operations, as follows:
when in the static image mode, selecting an operation from a list of operations including: a monitoring of an image in the static image mode, and a recording of an image in the static image mode, and
when in the moving video mode, selecting an operation from a list of operations including: a recording of an image in the moving video mode;
wherein when the selected operation is the monitoring of an image in the static image mode, the signal processing unit forms image signals with a first view angle, by using a first effective set of pixels of the image sensing device;
wherein when the selected operation is the recording of an image in the static image mode, the signal processing unit forms image signals by using all effective pixels of the image sensing device; and
wherein when the selected operation is the recording of an image in the moving video mode, the signal processing unit forms image signals with a second view angle, different from the first view angle, by using a second effective set of pixels which is a portion of the array of pixels of the image sensing device, a position of the second effective set of pixels being changed according to the amount of image-instability detected by the image-instability detector, in order to correct the image-instability.
4. A method for operating a camera of claim 3 , wherein the first view angle is larger than the second view angle.