Electric camera
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. An electric camera comprising:
an image sensing device with a light receiving surface having an array of vertically and horizontally arranged pixels including N vertically arranged pixels, where N is an integer greater than or equal to three times an integer of M which is a number of effective scanning lines of a display screen of a television system;
a driver configured to drive the image sensing device to vertically mix or cull signals accumulated in individual pixels, at intervals of K pixels, in order to produce a plurality of lines of output signals which correspond to the M effective scanning lines, where K is an integer less than or equal to a whole number portion of a quotient of N divided by M;
a zoom operation unit configured to receive a request to continuously change a view angle of a moving image; and
a signal processing unit configured to generate image signals of the moving image by using the output signals of the image sensing device,
wherein the display screen displays the moving image,
wherein, when the request to continuously change a magnification factor to magnify the moving image is received by the zoom operation unit, the driver:
drives the image sensing device to vertically mix or cull signals at intervals of K1 pixels in a first area on the image sensing device corresponding to a first image of the moving image, when the first image is displayed on a display unit, and
drives the image sensing device to vertically mix or cull signals at intervals of K2 pixels in a second area on the image sensing device corresponding to a second image of the moving image, when the second image is displayed on the display unit,
wherein the magnification factor of the first image is smaller than the magnification factor of the second image, and a value of K1 is larger than a value of K2, and
wherein M, K1, and K2 are positive integers greater than 1.
2. The electric camera according to claim 1 ,
wherein the signal processing unit generates the image signals with a same number of lines as the effective scanning lines of the display screen.
3. The electric camera according to claim 1 ,
wherein the zoom operation unit is interlocked with an optical zoom mechanism.
4. An electric camera comprising:
an image sensing device with a light receiving surface having an array of vertically and horizontally arranged pixels including N vertically arranged pixels, where N is an integer greater than or equal to three times an integer of M which is a number of effective scanning lines of a display screen of a television system;
a driver configured to drive the image sensing device to vertically mix or cull signals accumulated in individual pixels, at intervals of K pixels, in order to produce a plurality of lines of output signals which correspond to the M effective scanning lines, where K is an integer less than or equal to a whole number portion of a quotient of N divided by M;
an input unit configured to enable a user to input a request to continuously change a magnification factor to magnify an output image; and
a signal processing unit configured to generate image signals of the output image by using the output signals of the image sensing device,
wherein the display screen displays the output image,
wherein the image sensing device is driven in:
a first state in which intervals of K1 pixels in a first area on the image sensing device are vertically mixed or culled, and
a second state in which intervals of K2 pixels in a second area on the image sensing device are vertically mixed or culled, where a value of K2 is smaller than a value of K1,
wherein the first state switches to the second state in response to the request to continuously change the magnification factor, and
wherein M, K1, and K2 are positive integers greater than 1.
5. The electric camera according to claim 4 ,
wherein the magnification factor of a first image displayed on the display screen corresponding to the first state is smaller than the magnification factor of a second image displayed on the display screen corresponding to the second state.
6. The electric camera according to claim 4 ,
wherein the electric camera has a moving video mode and a static image mode, and the first state is switched to the second state in the moving video mode.
7. The electric camera according to claim 4 ,
wherein the signal processing unit generates the image signals with a same number of lines as the effective scanning lines of the display screen.
8. An image sensing method of an electric camera, comprising:
sensing light with a light receiving surface having an array of vertically and horizontally arranged pixels including N vertically arranged pixels, where N is an integer greater than or equal to three times an integer of M which is a number of effective scanning lines of a display screen of a television system;
driving the image sensing device to vertically mix or cull signals accumulated in individual pixels, at intervals of K pixels, in order to produce a plurality of lines of output signals which correspond to the M effective scanning lines, where K is an integer less than or equal to a whole number portion of a quotient of N divided by M;
receiving a request to continuously change a magnification factor to magnify an output image;
generating image signals of the output image by using the output signals of the image sensing device; and
displaying the output image on the display screen,
wherein the image sensing device is driven in:
a first state in which intervals of K1 pixels in a first area on the image sensing device are vertically mixed or culled, and
a second state in which intervals of K2 pixels in a second area on the image sensing device are vertically mixed or culled, where a value of K2 is smaller than a value of K1,
wherein the first state switches to the second state in response to receiving the request to continuously change the magnification factor, and
wherein M, K1, and K2 are positive integers greater than 1.
9. The image sensing method according to claim 8 ,
wherein the magnification factor of a first image which is displayed corresponding to the first state is smaller than the magnification factor of a second image which is displayed corresponding to the second state.
10. The image sensing method according to claim 8 ,
wherein the electric camera has a moving video mode and a static image mode, and the first state is switched to the second state in the moving video mode.
11. The image sensing method according to claim 8 ,
wherein the image signals are generated to have a same number of lines as the effective scanning lines of the display screen.