JPH06209443A - Card print system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate carrying of a camera 9 by making the camera compact in size and to allow an opposite party being a pickup object not to notice the presence of the camera. CONSTITUTION:The camera 9 and a printer are formed in separate bodies. The camera 9 is formed in a notebook shape. The camera 9 is used to pick up a face of a person. A name card is set to a card holder. The card holder is set to the printer and a picture of the face is printed out on a space of the name card.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card printing system for printing a portrait of a person on a card such as a business card or a postcard.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an apparatus for printing a face photograph on a card such as a business card, there is an apparatus in which an electronic still camera and a thermal printer are combined and integrated. With this device,
A person's face is photographed with an electronic still camera, a sticker print is created from the image data of this with a thermal printer, and the sticker print is attached to a card such as a business card.

[0003]

However, in the case where such a camera and a printer are integrated, the body size and weight are large, and there is a problem that they cannot be used easily. Moreover, since the thermal printer consumes a large amount of electric power, a large and heavy battery is required, which is an obstacle to downsizing. Further, the battery is consumed so much that the battery needs to be replaced or charged every time several tens of sheets are printed.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a card print system in which the camera is made compact and easy to carry, and the person taking the picture is not aware of the picture taking. With the goal. Another object of the present invention is to provide a card print system capable of easily printing an image on an arbitrary position of a card.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image pickup section for photographing a main subject such as a person and converting it into image data, and a means for recording the image data from the image pickup section. And a camera configured like a notebook,
A card print system is configured by an image printer that is separated from a camera that prints a main subject at a predetermined position on a card based on image data recorded in the camera.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above card printing system, the image printer has a printing opening, and a card holder for holding the card by positioning an arbitrary portion of the card in the printing opening. When,
The card holder has a holder setting section for setting the printing opening of the card holder in the printing section.

[0007]

[Function] Since the camera and the thermal printer are separated,
The camera can be made compact and a notebook type. As a result, it becomes easy to carry and it is possible to take a picture without making the other person aware of the camera. Further, since the card is set in the card holder and the print opening is positioned at the image print position of the card, it becomes easy to print the image at an arbitrary position of the card.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 2, a camera 9 in a card printing system according to the present invention comprises a case body 10, an optical system 11, a solid-state image pickup device 12, a circuit board 13, a memory 14, a battery 15 built in the case body 10. , A liquid crystal display panel 16 and a keyboard section 17. As shown in FIG. 3, the case body 10 is configured in a card type having an appearance similar to a calculator, an electronic notebook, a remote controller of a television or a video deck. The optical system 11 is arranged on one end side like the remote controller, and a gray cover 18 is attached to the surface so that the internal lens cannot be seen.

The solid-state image pickup device 12 is fixed to one end of the circuit board 13. As shown in FIG. 1, the solid-state imaging device 1
2 converts the image formed by the optical system 11 into image data and sends it to the A / D conversion unit 20 of the circuit board 13.
If the number of pixels of the image sensor 12 is about 20,000 in monochrome, it is sufficient for a face photograph of a business card, but in the present embodiment, 8 pixels are used.
The one with 10,000 pixels is used. The number of pixels may be about 100,000 pixels or more.

The circuit board 13 includes an A / D conversion section 20, a frame memory 21, an image data processing section 22, a liquid crystal driver 23, an image data compression section 24, a data writing section 25,
It is composed of a data reading unit 26 and a controller 30 for controlling these.

As shown in FIG. 3, a liquid crystal display panel 16 and a keyboard portion 17 are arranged on the upper surface of the case body 10. The keyboard section 17 includes a photographing button 31, an image display button 32, a write button 33, and an erase button 3.
4, equipped with a numeric keypad 35, etc.
Various commands and characters can be input to the controller 30.

On the liquid crystal display panel 16, a face image of the photographed person is displayed. Since the liquid crystal display panel 16 is for confirming whether or not a face image of a person or the like is included in the photographing frame, only the outline of the face image is displayed in binary and the number of pixels thereof is also set. May be reduced.

The image data processing unit 22 performs gamma correction. The image data compression unit 24 performs image compression on the image data from the solid-state image sensor 12 to a fraction of 1 to tens of minutes.
For example, when an image pickup device having 80,000 pixels is used and the image data of the image pickup device is compressed to 1/16, the data capacity per frame is reduced to 5 kilobits. Memory card 14
I used an LSI card as
You may use OM etc.

The data writing unit 25 writes the image data from the image data processing unit 22 by inputting a write key. The data reading unit 26 is the printer 4
When the read command is input from the 0 side, the image data is read from the memory 14 and transferred to the printer 40 side.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the card printer 40 comprises an image data receiving section 41, a drive data converting section 42, a printing section 43, a controller 44, and a keyboard section 45. . The image data receiving unit 41 receives image data from the camera 9 side via the connection cord 47. The drive data conversion unit 42 includes the reception unit 41.
The image data from is converted into drive data for the thermal head 50, and the thermal head 50 is driven to thermally transfer and record the face image on the business card 51.

The printing section 43 is provided with a thermal head 50.
A thermal head driving unit 52, a thermal head scanning unit 53, an ink ribbon feeding unit 54, and a card holder 5.
5 and a holder setting section 56. The thermal head drive unit 52 drives the thermal head 50 based on the thermal head drive data from the drive data conversion unit 42 and records a face image line by line. After recording one line, the thermal head scanning unit 53 shifts by one line and moves the thermal head 50 to the next line position. The ink ribbon feeding unit 54 also supplies the unused portion of the ink ribbon 58 to the thermal head 50 in conjunction with this shift. The holder setting section 56 has an insertion opening 56 a on the upper surface of the print case 57, and has a card holder 55.
Removably hold.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the card holder 55 is composed of a mount 60 and a transparent cover sheet 61. An adhesive layer 62 is formed on the mount 60 in a grid pattern. The adhesive layer 62 is made of an adhesive having a weak adhesive force so that the business card 51 can be easily attached and detached. The mount 60 is composed of a rectangular plate having a length that is at least twice the long side of the business card 51. A print opening 63 is formed in the center of the cover sheet 61. This print opening 63
Set the desired print position of the business card 51 on the mount 60
Stick the business card 51 on.

A thermal head 50 is provided inside the printer 40 so as to face the printing opening 63 of the card holder 55. As is well known, the thermal head 50 is provided with a large number of heating elements arranged in a line in the main scanning direction. The thermal head 50 is configured to move intermittently in the sub-scanning direction by the head scanning unit 53. The card holder 55 may be moved instead of moving the thermal head 50.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be briefly described.
At the time of exchanging business cards or the like, a notebook-type camera 9 takes a face picture of a person. In this case, since the external appearance is similar to that of a remote controller such as a television or a VCR, it is possible to easily shoot without being perceived by the other party as a camera. By inputting the person's name from the keyboard unit 17 after shooting, the face and the name can be surely stored without being confused.

When the face image is printed on the business card, the business card 51 is first set in the card holder 55 as shown in FIG. At this time, the printing opening 6 of the card holder 55
The face image print position of the business card 51 is set to 3. Next, the card holder 55 is set in the holder insertion opening 56a. By this setting, the thermal head 50 is set at the print start position of the print opening 63 of the card holder 55. After that, when printing is started by operating the print start key of the keyboard unit 45, the face image is thermally recorded on the business card 51 set in the print opening 63. During thermal recording of the face image, by displaying the image of the thermal recording target on the liquid crystal display panel 16 of the camera 9 on the monitor, it is possible to prevent the face image from being accidentally printed on another business card.

In the above embodiment, the image data is transferred from the camera 9 to the printer 40 by the connection cord 47. However, in addition to this, a memory card loading port is provided on the printer 40 side, and the memory card 14 is directly connected. Image data may be read.

Further, in the above embodiment, a thermal fusion type thermal printer was used as the printer 40, but in addition to this,
An inkjet printer or a thermal printer may be used. When a thermal printer is used, the thermal recording layer is transferred to the business card side before printing.

Further, although the monochrome printing system is used in the above embodiment, it may be a color printing system. Also, characters and the like may be printed in addition to the photograph. Further, although the above embodiment has been described by taking a business card as an example, other than this, various cards such as a postcard and a telephone card can be printed in the same manner.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the camera and the printer are separated, it is possible to configure the camera into a thin notebook type. As a result, the camera can be made compact and easy to carry.
Moreover, since the printer is separated from the printer that consumes a large amount of power, it is not necessary to use a large-capacity battery, and the camera can be made smaller and lighter.

Since the card is attached to the card holder and set in the printer by this,
By changing the mounting position of the card to the holder, an image can be printed at any position on the card. Thereby, the face image of the person can be easily recorded in the margin position of the business card. Therefore, it is possible to record a face image in a blank portion avoiding the printing position even for various business cards having different printing positions.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a card print system embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a camera used in the card printing system.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a camera.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a printer used in the card print system.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing a card holder.

6 is a sectional view taken along line VI-VI in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 camera 10 case 12 solid-state image sensor 13 circuit board 14 memory card 15 battery 16 liquid crystal display panel 16 keyboard part 40 printer 50 thermal head 51 business card 55 card holder 56 holder set part 63 opening for printing

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 15, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Explanation of code

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Explanation of reference numerals] 9 camera 10 case 12 solid-state image sensor 13 circuit board 14 memory 15 battery 16 liquid crystal display panel 16 keyboard section 40 printer 50 thermal head 51 business card 55 card holder 56 holder setting section 63 opening for printing

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A notebook-type camera, comprising: an image pickup unit for photographing a main subject such as a person and converting it into image data; and a unit for recording the image data from the image pickup unit,
A card printing system comprising: a camera for printing a main subject at a predetermined position on a card based on image data recorded in the camera; and an image printer separated from the camera. 2. The card printing system according to claim 1, wherein the image printer has a printing opening, and a card holder for holding the card by positioning an arbitrary portion of the card in the printing opening, and the card holder. And a holder setting section for setting the printing opening of the holder in the printing section.