JP2009088578A - Image display device and image display method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image display device that enables a user to easily discriminate whether an image is a desired one during frame-by-frame display and to easily stop the frame-by-frame display at the desired image, and to provide image display method. <P>SOLUTION: The image display device includes a storage means of storing image information indicating an image obtained by photographing a subject and also indicating the photography time, when the subject is photographed; a display means of displaying the image that the image information stored in the storage means indicates; a display control means of controlling the display means to display images that pieces of image information indicate one by one for predetermined display times; and a display time determining means of determining the display time for each of the images, on the basis of image related information, relating to the plurality of pieces of image information and provided for each of the pieces of image information, respectively. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image display device and an image display method, and more particularly to an image display device and an image display method for displaying a still image by frame-by-frame display for a predetermined display time for each image.

  There is a technique in which still images are displayed frame by frame continuously for a display time predetermined for each image. In relation to this technique, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for temporarily displaying a fast-forwarded image for a predetermined time when predetermined information associated with the still image is detected during fast-forwarding of the still image. ing. In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, only an image designated as a noticed image or in a condition is stopped for a set time, and display times for images other than the noticed image including the images before and after that are considered. Not.

  Further, Patent Document 2 has a playback procedure storage means for storing a rewritable procedure for frame-by-frame playback of a plurality of still images, and can perform continuous playback on a predetermined still image among the still images to be played back frame-by-frame. A still image video reproduction device is disclosed. In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, a reproduction procedure is set for all of a plurality of still images to be reproduced, and continuous reproduction is performed according to the set contents.

Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a technique of recording the shooting time of each frame at the time of shooting and reproducing and outputting a still image based on each recorded shooting time interval. In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3, no consideration is given to a case where the reproduction time of one image becomes too long.
JP-A-11-341405 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-13388 JP 2002-218321 A

  In such a technical background, when frame-by-frame display is performed, there is a problem that it is difficult for the user to distinguish whether the image is a desired image or not. Furthermore, even if the user can identify a desired image, there is a problem that it is difficult to stop frame advance display with the image.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention makes it easy for a user to distinguish whether a desired image is displayed during frame advance display, and also makes it easy for the user to stop frame advance display at a desired image. An object is to provide an apparatus and an image display method.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 shows a storage means for storing an image obtained by photographing a subject, and storing image information indicating a photographing time when the subject is photographed, and the storage means. Display means for displaying the image indicated by the image information stored by the display control means for controlling the display means to display the images indicated by the plurality of image information one by one for a predetermined display time; Display time determining means for determining the display time for each image based on image related information provided for each image information related to the plurality of image information.

  Here, in the first aspect of the present invention, the storage means indicates an image obtained by photographing the subject, stores image information indicating the photographing time when the subject is photographed, and the display means includes the storage means. The image indicated by the stored image information is displayed, and the display control means controls the display means to display the images indicated by the plurality of image information one by one for a predetermined display time, thereby determining the display time. The means determines the display time for each image based on the image related information provided for each image information related to the plurality of image information, so whether or not the user is a desired image during frame advance display. It is possible to provide an image display device that makes it easy to distinguish between images and makes it easy for the user to stop frame-by-frame display with a desired image.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the image-related information indicates a time interval between the shooting time of the image displayed by the display unit and the next shooting time of the image displayed by the display unit. In addition, the display time determining means determines the display time to be longer as the time interval is longer.

  According to invention of Claim 2, display time can be determined according to the said time interval.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the image-related information indicates a period during which the plurality of pieces of image information determined by the shooting time are captured, and the display time determination unit is configured to increase the length of the period. The display time is determined to be shortened.

  According to invention of Claim 3, display time can be determined according to the said period.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the image-related information indicates an average time of intervals at which the plurality of pieces of image information determined by the shooting time are shot, and the display time determining means The longer the display time is, the longer the display time is determined.

  According to invention of Claim 4, display time can be determined according to the said average time.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the image-related information indicates the number of image information stored by the storage means, and the display time determination means increases the number of the image information. It is decided to shorten the time.

  According to invention of Claim 5, display time can be determined according to the number of the said image information.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the image related information indicates importance of each image information, and the display time determining means increases the importance indicated in the image related information. It is determined to increase the time.

  According to the invention of claim 6, the display time can be determined according to the importance.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the plurality of pieces of image information are grouped, and the image related information is information determined for each group.

  According to the invention of claim 7, since the user often groups the image information for each event, it is effective to define the image related information for each group.

  Further, the invention according to claim 8 is directed to execute a skip process for performing control to stop the display of the image and display the next image to be displayed by the display unit while the image is displayed by the display unit. Receiving means for receiving an input from the user, and the display control means executes the skip processing when an instruction to execute the skip processing is received by the receiving means.

  According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to skip the image by the user, so that convenience can be improved.

  According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the display control means clearly indicates the presence of the skip processing to the user by the display means.

  According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, it can be clearly shown to the user that skip processing is possible.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 10 shows an image obtained by photographing an object, and an image stored by a storage means in which image information indicating a photographing time when the object is photographed is stored. A display control step for controlling the display of the image indicated by the information to display the image indicated by the plurality of pieces of image information one by one for a display time; and for each piece of image information related to the plurality of pieces of image information A display time determining step of determining the display time for each image based on the image related information provided in the display.

  Since the invention of claim 10 operates in the same manner as the invention of claim 1, the same effect as that of the invention of claim 1 can be obtained.

  According to the present invention, an image display device that makes it easy for a user to distinguish whether a desired image is displayed during frame advance display, and makes it easy for the user to stop frame advance display at a desired image, and An effect that an image display method can be provided is obtained.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, an example in which the image display device is a digital camera and an example showing an image display method in the digital camera will be described.

  First, an external configuration of the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. A front surface of the digital camera 10 includes a lens 21 that is an optical member for forming a subject image, a viewfinder 20 that is used to determine the composition of the subject to be photographed, and a strobe 44. Further, on the upper surface of the digital camera 10, a release button (so-called shutter button) 56A that is pressed when shooting is performed, and a power switch 56B are provided.

  Note that the release button 56A of the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment is pressed down to an intermediate position (hereinafter referred to as “half-pressed state”) and to a final pressed position beyond the intermediate position. A two-stage pressing operation of a state (hereinafter referred to as a “fully pressed state”) can be detected.

  In the digital camera 10, the brightness of the subject is measured by pressing the release button 56 </ b> A halfway, and an AE (Automatic Exposure) function is activated based on the measured brightness of the subject. After the shutter speed and the aperture state) are set, the AF (Auto Focus) function is activated to control the focus, and then exposure (photographing) is performed when the shutter button is fully pressed.

  On the other hand, on the back of the digital camera 10, the eyepiece of the finder 20 described above, the LCD 38 for displaying a photographed subject image, a menu screen, and the like, a photographing mode as a photographing mode, and a photographing mode are obtained. And a mode changeover switch 56C that is slid to be set to any one of the reproduction modes, which is a mode for reproducing and displaying the subject image displayed on the LCD 38.

  Further, on the back surface of the digital camera 10, a cross cursor button 56D and a forced light emission switch 56E that is pressed when setting the forced light emission mode, which is a mode for forcibly causing the flash 44 to emit light during photographing, are further provided. It has been.

  The cross-cursor button 56D includes four arrow keys that indicate four moving directions of up, down, left, and right in the display area of the LCD 38, and a determination key that exists in the center of the arrow keys. ing.

  Next, the configuration of the electrical system of the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The digital camera 10 includes an optical unit 22 that includes the lens 21 described above, a charge coupled device (hereinafter referred to as “CCD”) 24 that is an imaging device disposed behind the optical axis of the lens 21, and And an analog signal processing unit 26 that performs various analog signal processing on the input analog signal.

  The digital camera 10 also performs an analog / digital converter (hereinafter referred to as “ADC”) 28 that converts an input analog signal into digital data, and performs various digital signal processing on the input digital data. And a digital signal processing unit 30.

  The digital signal processing unit 30 has a built-in line buffer having a predetermined capacity, and also performs control to directly store the input digital data in a predetermined area of the memory 48 described later.

  The output terminal of the CCD 24 is connected to the input terminal of the analog signal processing unit 26, the output terminal of the analog signal processing unit 26 is connected to the input terminal of the ADC 28, and the output terminal of the ADC 28 is connected to the input terminal of the digital signal processing unit 30. . Accordingly, the analog signal indicating the subject image output from the CCD 24 is subjected to predetermined analog signal processing by the analog signal processing unit 26, converted into digital image data by the ADC 28, and then input to the digital signal processing unit 30.

  On the other hand, the digital camera 10 is obtained by photographing, an LCD interface 36 that generates a signal for displaying an object image, a menu screen, and the like on the LCD 38 and supplies the signal to the LCD 38, a CPU 40 that controls the operation of the entire digital camera 10. A memory 48 that stores digital image data and the like, and a memory interface 46 that controls access to the memory 48 are included. In this embodiment, the analog signal and digital image data are used as image information.

  Further, the digital camera 10 includes an external memory interface 50 for enabling the portable memory card 52 to be accessed by the digital camera 10, and a compression / decompression processing circuit 54 for performing compression processing and decompression processing on the digital image data. It is configured to include.

  In the digital camera 10 of the present embodiment, any one or more of VRAM (Video RAM), SRAM or DRAM, and flash memory is used as the memory 48, and smart media (Smart Media (registered) is used as the memory card 52. Trademark)).

  The digital signal processing unit 30, the LCD interface 36, the CPU 40, the memory interface 46, the external memory interface 50, and the compression / decompression processing circuit 54 are connected to each other via a system bus BUS. Therefore, the CPU 40 controls the operation of the digital signal processing unit 30, controls the operation of the compression / decompression processing circuit 54, displays various information via the LCD interface 36 to the LCD 38, and the memory interface 46 to the memory 48 and the memory card 52. And access via the external memory interface 50.

  On the other hand, the digital camera 10 includes a timing generator 32 that mainly generates a timing signal for driving the CCD 24 and supplies the timing signal to the CCD 24, and the driving of the CCD 24 is controlled by the CPU 40 via the timing generator 32. Further, direct control of the electronic shutter described later is performed by the timing generator 32.

  Further, the digital camera 10 is provided with a motor drive unit 34, and driving of a focus adjustment motor, a zoom motor, and an aperture drive motor (not shown) provided in the optical unit 22 is also controlled by the CPU 40 via the motor drive unit 34. The

  In other words, the lens 21 according to the present embodiment has a plurality of lenses, is configured as a zoom lens that can change (magnify) the focal length, and includes a lens driving mechanism (not shown). The lens drive mechanism includes the focus adjustment motor, the zoom motor, and the aperture drive motor. These motors are each driven by a drive signal supplied from the motor drive unit 34 under the control of the CPU 40.

  Further, the release button 56A, the power switch 56B, the mode changeover switch 56C, the cross cursor button 56D, and the forced light emission switch 56E (generally referred to as “operation unit 56” in the figure) are connected to the CPU 40, and the CPU 40. Can always grasp the operation state of the operation unit 56.

  In addition, the digital camera 10 includes a charging unit 42 that is interposed between the strobe 44 and the CPU 40 and charges power for causing the strobe 44 to emit light under the control of the CPU 40. Further, the strobe 44 is also connected to the CPU 40, and the light emission of the strobe 44 is controlled by the CPU 40.

  Next, an overall operation at the time of shooting of the digital camera 10 according to the present embodiment will be briefly described.

  First, the CCD 24 performs photographing through the optical unit 22 and sequentially outputs analog signals for R (red), G (green), and B (blue) indicating the subject image to the analog signal processing unit 26. The analog signal processing unit 26 performs analog signal processing such as correlated double sampling processing on the analog signal input from the CCD 24 and sequentially outputs the analog signal to the ADC 28.

  The ADC 28 converts the R, G, and B analog signals input from the analog signal processing unit 26 into 12-bit R, G, and B signals (digital image data) and sequentially outputs them to the digital signal processing unit 30. To do. The digital signal processing unit 30 accumulates digital image data sequentially input from the ADC 28 in a built-in line buffer and temporarily stores the digital image data directly in a predetermined area of the memory 48.

  Digital image data stored in a predetermined area of the memory 48 is read out by the digital signal processing unit 30 under the control of the CPU 40, and a white balance is adjusted by applying a digital gain according to a predetermined physical quantity. Processing and sharpness processing are performed to generate digital image data of predetermined bits, for example, 8 bits.

  The digital signal processing unit 30 performs YC signal processing on the generated digital image data of predetermined bits to generate a luminance signal Y and chroma signals Cr and Cb (hereinafter referred to as “YC signal”), and a YC signal. Are stored in an area different from the predetermined area of the memory 48.

  The LCD 38 is configured to display a moving image (through image) obtained by continuous photographing by the CCD 24 and can be used as a finder. When the LCD 38 is used as a finder, the LCD 38 is generated. The YC signals thus output are sequentially output to the LCD 38 via the LCD interface 36. As a result, a through image is displayed on the LCD 38.

  Here, when the release button 56A is half-pressed by the user, after the AE function is activated and the exposure state is set as described above, the AF function is activated and focus control is performed, and then the fully-pressed state is continued. In this case, the YC signal stored in the memory 48 at this time is compressed in a predetermined compression format (in this embodiment, JPEG format) by the compression / decompression processing circuit 54 and then passed through the external memory interface 50. And recorded as image information in the memory card 52. The image information in the present embodiment indicates a photographing time indicating a photographing time when the subject is photographed.

  Next, image related information provided for each piece of image information related to a plurality of image information will be described. In the present embodiment, the image-related information indicates a shooting interval, importance, the number of images, a shooting period, and an average shooting time.

  Among these, the shooting interval is determined by the shooting time, and indicates the time interval between the shooting time of the image displayed on the LCD 38 and the shooting time of the image displayed on the LCD 38 next. The importance is indicated by a value set in advance by the user, and the greater the value, the higher the importance.

  The number of images indicates the number of image information stored in the memory card 52. The shooting period is determined by the shooting time of the image. For example, among the shooting times indicated by the image information stored in the memory card 52, the oldest shooting time is 00:00 on September 3, If the new shooting time is 12:00 on September 4, the shooting period is 36 hours. The average shooting time indicates an average time of intervals at which a plurality of pieces of image information determined by the shooting time are shot.

  As shown in FIG. 3, when a plurality of pieces of image information are grouped by folders, the image related information is information determined for each group of folders. That is, the shooting interval, importance, number of images, shooting period, and average shooting time are determined only by image information belonging to the same folder. Usually, a user often groups captured images into folders for each event, so it is very effective that image related information is determined for each folder. In the figure, the importance is expressed as “high”, “low”, etc. Of course, these are processed as numerical values inside the digital camera 10.

  Hereinafter, image display processing for frame advance according to the present embodiment will be described using a flowchart with reference to FIG. The image displayed by this image display processing indicates an image obtained by photographing the subject and image information indicating a photographing time when the subject is photographed. The image information is, for example, the memory card. 52 is image information stored in 52. The frame advance process is executed when a predetermined operation is performed by the user using the operation unit 56 described above. Furthermore, a skip button and a stop button to be described later correspond to predetermined buttons of the operation unit 56. The skip button accepts an input from a user instructing execution of a skip process for performing control to display an image to be displayed next on the LCD 38 while the image is displayed on the LCD 38. Is.

  The LCD 38 displays an image indicated by the image information stored in the memory card 52. Further, the following flowchart shows processing executed by the CPU 40.

  Based on the above, the image display process shown in FIG. 3 will be described. First, in step 101, an initialization process described later is performed. In the frame advance processing according to the present embodiment, the display time to be displayed for each image is determined based on the image related information related to the image information. In this initialization process, processing according to the image related information is performed.

  In the next step 102, an image is displayed. In step 103, a display time acquisition process to be described later is performed. In step 103, a display time Td, which is a time for displaying the image displayed in step 102, is acquired.

  In the next step 104, it is determined whether or not the display time Td has elapsed. If an affirmative determination is made, a next image determination process described later is performed in step 107, and whether or not there is a next image in step 108. Determine whether. If there is no next image, the frame advance processing is terminated. On the other hand, if an affirmative determination is made in step 108, the next image is displayed in the process of step 102.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 104, it is determined in step 105 whether or not the skip button has been pressed.

  If an affirmative determination is made in step 105, the process proceeds to step 107. If a negative determination is made in step 105, it is determined in step 106 whether or not a stop button has been pressed.

  If an affirmative determination is made in step 106, the frame advance processing is stopped, and if a negative determination is made in step 106, the process returns to step 104 again.

  When the frame advance process is stopped, the LCD 38 is in a state where an image at the time of the stop is displayed.

  Next, the initialization process (FIG. 4: step 101) will be described using the flowchart of FIG. The “shooting interval”, “importance”, “number of images”, “shooting period”, and “average shooting time” described in this flowchart are used to determine the display time of the image related information. This indicates which is used as the image-related information, and is preset by the user.

  First, in step 201, it is determined whether or not the shooting interval is used as the image related information for determining the display time. If an affirmative determination is made in step 201, the display time is determined every time an image is displayed, so the process ends without doing anything in this flowchart.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 201, it is determined in step 202 whether or not the importance is used as the image related information for determining the display time. If an affirmative determination is made in step 202, importance processing is performed in step 206, and the processing ends.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 202, it is determined in step 203 whether or not the number of images is to be used as the image related information for determining the display time. If the determination in step 203 is affirmative, the number of images is processed in step 207, and the processing is terminated.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 203, it is determined in step 204 whether or not the shooting period is used as image-related information for determining the display time. If an affirmative determination is made in step 204, a shooting period process is performed in step 208, and the process ends.

  On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 204, it is determined in step 205 whether or not the average photographing time is used as the image related information for determining the display time. If an affirmative determination is made in step 205, an average photographing process is performed in step 209, and the process ends. On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 205, the processing is terminated as it is. However, in this embodiment using only the shooting interval, importance, number of images, shooting period, and average shooting time, the negative in step 205 Judgment is not made substantially.

  Prior to the description of each process shown in FIG. 5, the graph used in these processes will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6A is a graph showing the relationship between importance and display time. FIG. 5B is a graph showing the relationship between the number of images and the display time. FIG. 3C is a graph showing the relationship between the shooting period and the display time. FIG. 4D is a graph showing the relationship between the average shooting period and the display time.

  Among the graphs shown in the figure, the graphs of FIGS. (A) and (D) are monotonically increasing, and the graphs of (B) and (C) are monotonically decreasing. Therefore, FIG. 3A shows that in the importance level processing, the higher the importance level, the longer the display time is determined.

  Further, FIG. 5B shows that in the image number processing, the display time is determined to be shortened as the number of image information increases. Thereby, it is possible to suppress the endless display for a long time.

  FIG. 6C shows that in the shooting period process, the longer the shooting period is, the shorter the display time is determined. FIG. 4D shows that the display time is determined to be longer as the average photographing time (average time) is longer.

  These graphs are stored in the memory 48 as functions or tables. The CPU 40 performs importance processing, image count processing, shooting period processing, and average shooting processing using them.

  Hereafter, each said process is demonstrated. First, importance processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step 301, the importance X of the image to be displayed is acquired. This can be acquired from information indicating the importance included in the image information. In the next step 302, the display time Td is acquired from the importance level X. This can be obtained by the function or table described above.

  Next, the image number processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step 401, the number of images X is acquired. The number of images is the number of images existing in the route in which the image information to be displayed is stored, and particularly when the images are grouped by folder, the number of images in the folder. In the next step 402, the display time Td is acquired from the number X of images. This can be obtained by the function or table described above.

  Next, the photographing period process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, at step 501, the shooting period X is acquired. The method for acquiring the shooting period is as described above. In the next step 502, the display time Td is acquired from the shooting period X. This can be obtained by the function or table described above.

  Next, the average photographing process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step 601, the average photographing time X is acquired. The method for obtaining the average photographing time is as described above. In the next step 602, the display time Td is acquired from the average photographing time X. This can be obtained by the function or table described above.

  The above is each process performed in the initialization process (FIG. 5). Next, the display time acquisition process (FIG. 4: step 103) will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step 701, it is determined whether a shooting interval is used as image-related information for determining the display time. When image related information other than the shooting interval is used, the display time has already been acquired by the initialization process. Therefore, if a negative determination is made in step 701, the process ends. On the other hand, if an affirmative determination is made in step 701, a shooting interval process is performed in step 702, and the process ends.

  Prior to the description of the shooting interval process, a graph used in the shooting interval process will be described with reference to FIG.

  (A), (B), and (C) of the same figure show graphs used in the shooting interval processing. As shown in these drawings, in the shooting interval process, the longer the shooting interval (time interval), the longer the display time.

  In addition, although the same figure (A) is a graph which shows a standard display time, as shown to the same figure (B) and (C), you may make it make display time long or short. . FIG. 5B is suitable, for example, when the period during which a plurality of images to be displayed are taken is long, such as 100 hours. In the case of a long period such as 100 hours, there is a high possibility that many images have been taken. Therefore, by displaying the image in a short time, the user can advance the image without taking too much time.

  On the other hand, FIG. 5C is suitable when, for example, the period during which a plurality of images to be displayed are taken is as short as 50 hours. In the case of a short period such as 50 hours, there is a high possibility that the captured image is not so many, and by displaying it longer, the user can advance the image while browsing carefully.

  Regardless of which graph is used, it is easy for the user to distinguish whether or not the image is a desired image during frame advance display, and it is easy for the user to stop the frame advance display at the desired image. it can.

  In addition, the graph shown in the figure is stored in the memory 48 as a function or a table. The CPU 40 performs photographing interval processing using these.

  Based on these, the shooting interval process will be described using the flowchart of FIG. First, in step 801, the shooting time of the displayed image is acquired. This shooting time is information included in the image information and is also image-related information.

  In the next step 802, the photographing time of the image to be displayed next is acquired, and in step 803, T2-T1 (time interval) is substituted for the time interval T.

  As a result, the time interval T is obtained. In step 804, the display time Td is acquired from the time interval T, and the process is terminated. The display time Td can be acquired by the function or table described above.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of an actual display time. In the figure, an image number, a file name, a time interval, and a display time are shown. The image number indicates the order of images that are frame-advanced. The file name indicates the name of the image information. The time interval indicates the interval between the shooting time of the displayed image and the shooting time of the next displayed image. The display time indicates the display time obtained from the graph shown in FIG.

  The figure shows that the display time is determined to be longer as the time interval is longer. Note that the image with the image number 13, which is the last image, has no time interval since there is no image to be displayed next, and the display time in that case is a predetermined constant.

  Next, the next image determination process (step 107) will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step 901, it is determined whether there is a next image on the route. This route indicates a place where the image information displayed so far is stored.

  If a negative determination is made in step 901, it is determined in step 905 whether there is image information in another folder. If there is image information in another folder, the process proceeds to step 902. On the other hand, if a negative determination is made in step 905, no next image is returned in step 906, and the process ends.

  Returning to step 901, if an affirmative determination is made in step 901, it is determined in step 902 whether importance is used as image-related information for determining the display time.

  If an affirmative determination is made in step 902, importance level processing (FIG. 7) is performed in step 903, the next image is returned in step 904, and the processing ends. If a negative determination is made in step 902, the next image is returned in step 904, and the process ends.

  Each flowchart described above is the description of the display process described with reference to FIG. Note that most of the graphs shown in FIGS. 6 and 12 described above are non-linear graphs. However, if the graphs have the same properties (monotonic decrease or monotonic increase) as those graphs, they are linear. It may be a graph. Examples of linear graphs include display time Td (seconds) = shooting interval (seconds) / 100.

  Furthermore, each graph is drawn from the origin, but it does not necessarily have to be a graph passing through the origin.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 16, the presence of the skip process may be clearly indicated to the user by the LCD 38 as related to the pressing of the skip button in step 105 in FIG. 4.

  As described above, the image display device and the image display method according to the present embodiment can prevent oversight while making it easy to find a desired image. Furthermore, by changing the display time for each image, it is possible to reproduce the realistic sensation at the time of frame-by-frame advance and to remind the user of the event at the time of shooting more clearly. In addition, since the user can skip the image, convenience can be improved. In addition, since the display time varies depending on image-related information such as importance, the usability is further improved. Since the photographer often remembers the approximate time interval at the time of shooting, the user can predict when the desired image is displayed by changing the display time according to the time interval. .

  The processing flow of each flowchart described above is an example, and the processing order may be changed, new steps may be added, or unnecessary steps may be deleted without departing from the scope of the present invention. Needless to say, you can.

It is a figure which shows the structure on the external appearance of a digital camera. It is a figure which shows the structure of the electric system of a digital camera. It is a figure which shows the folder in which several image information was grouped. It is a flowchart which shows a display process. It is a flowchart which shows the initialization process. It is a figure which shows the relationship between display time and image relevant information. It is a flowchart which shows importance processing. It is a flowchart which shows an image number process. It is a flowchart which shows an imaging | photography period process. It is a flowchart which shows an average imaging | photography process. It is a flowchart which shows a display time acquisition process. It is a figure which shows the relationship between display time and imaging | photography space | interval. It is a flowchart which shows an imaging | photography period process. It is a figure which shows the example of display time. It is a flowchart which shows a next image judgment process. It is a figure which shows LCD which specified presence of the skip process.

Explanation of symbols

10 Digital Camera 26 Analog Signal Processing Unit 30 Digital Signal Processing Unit 32 Timing Generator 36 LCD Interface 38 LCD
40 CPU
46 Memory interface 48 Memory 50 External memory interface 52 Memory card 56 Operation unit

Claims (10)

Storage means for storing an image obtained by photographing a subject and storing image information indicating a photographing time when the subject is photographed;
Display means for displaying an image indicated by the image information stored by the storage means;
Display control means for controlling the display means to display the images indicated by the plurality of image information one by one for a predetermined display time;
Display time determining means for determining the display time for each image based on image related information provided for each image information related to the plurality of image information;
An image display apparatus. The image-related information indicates a time interval between the shooting time of the image displayed by the display unit and the shooting time of the image displayed by the display unit next.
The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the display time determination unit determines the display time to be longer as the time interval is longer. The image-related information indicates a period during which the plurality of pieces of image information determined by the shooting time are shot,
The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the display time determination unit determines the display time to be shorter as the period is longer. The image-related information indicates an average time of the interval at which the plurality of image information determined by the shooting time is shot,
The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the display time determination unit determines to increase the display time as the average time is longer. The image related information indicates the number of image information stored by the storage means,
The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the display time determination unit determines the display time to be shorter as the number of the image information is larger. The image-related information indicates the importance of each image information,
The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the display time determination unit determines to increase the display time as the importance level indicated in the image-related information increases.   The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of pieces of image information are grouped, and the image related information is information determined for each of the groups. An accepting means for accepting an input from a user instructing execution of a skip process for performing a control to display the image to be displayed next by the display means while displaying the image by the display means. Further comprising
The image display device according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit executes the skip process when an instruction to execute the skip process is received by the reception unit.   The image display device according to claim 8, wherein the display control unit clearly indicates the presence of the skip processing to the user by the display unit. A plurality of the images are displayed by a display means for displaying an image obtained by photographing the subject and displaying an image indicated by the image information stored by the storage means for storing the image information indicating the photographing time when the subject is photographed. A display control stage for controlling the images indicated by the information to be displayed one display time at a time,
A display time determining step of determining the display time for each image based on image related information provided for each image information related to the plurality of image information;
An image display method comprising:

Images