JP2000293974A - Electronic album device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic album device which is capable of fetching picture information from a storage medium on which the picture information obtained by an electronic camera or the like are stored with a simple operation and is capable of preserving them and is capable of display them as necessary. SOLUTION: This electronic album device enables a still picture file or a moving picture file which are recorded in a picture database 16 having a still picture recording area and a moving picture recording area recording the sill picture file and the moving picture file respectively to be properly displayed on a display 19. Then, after the device reads out a still picture file and a moving picture file from a memory card 11 on which the still picture file and the moving picture file are made to coexist via a memory card interface 12 and records them respectively in the still picture recording area and the moving picture recording area of the picture database 16, the device erases the still picture file and the moving picture file recorded in the database 16 from the memory card 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic album apparatus for capturing an image from a storage medium storing image information obtained by an electronic camera or the like and displaying the image as necessary.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image of a subject is formed on a solid-state image sensor such as a CCD two-dimensional image sensor by an image pickup optical system and converted into an electric signal. A so-called electronic camera that records data on a storage medium such as a disk has been widely used.

[0003] Furthermore, recently, the image quality of electronic cameras and the enhancement of functions such as continuous shooting function equipment have been rapidly advanced, and although the capacity of the storage medium used is increasing, the capacity of the storage medium is inevitably insufficient. It has become a bit.

In order to cope with such a situation, a large number of storage media are owned, or images in the storage medium are frequently stored in a large-capacity storage medium built in a personal computer or externally connected. There was no other way.

[0005]

However, if the user of the electronic camera owns as many storage media as necessary, it becomes necessary to purchase an enormous number of storage media as the number of images to be stored increases. Given the burden and storage media storage issues, it is not realistic.

On the other hand, the method of storing images on a large-capacity storage medium using a personal computer requires more skill in handling than other general home appliances, although personal computers are becoming more widespread. Because personal computers are still expensive, this is not a method that can be easily used by many users of electronic cameras aside from those who are accustomed to operating personal computers that can edit images.

[0007] The present invention provides an electronic album device capable of taking in image information from a storage medium storing image information obtained by an electronic camera or the like by a simple operation, storing the image information, and displaying it as needed. The purpose is to:

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an electronic album apparatus according to the present invention comprises an image database having a still image recording area for recording a still image file and a moving image recording area for recording a moving image file. Display means for displaying a still image file or a moving image file recorded in the image database, and a storage medium storing a mixture of the still image file and the moving image file are directly mounted, or the storage medium is A reading unit connected to the attached external device for reading the still image file and the moving image file from the storage medium; and a still image file and a moving image file read by the reading unit. Recording means for respectively recording in a moving image recording area, read by the reading means, and Wherein the still image files and moving image files recorded in the image database equipped with an erasing means for erasing from the storage medium by recording means.

With such a configuration, a still image file and a moving image file can be read out from a storage medium storing an image file obtained by an electronic camera or the like without requiring a difficult special operation and stored in an image database. Can be.

In the present invention, the storage medium is, for example, Mo
A video file including a plurality of independent image frames having no correlation between temporally adjacent frames, such as a JPEG file, and having identification information indicating that it should be treated as a still image attached to an arbitrary image frame. You may make it memorize | store. In this case, the recording means records, in the still image recording area of the image database, the image frame attached with the identification information among the moving image files read from the storage medium as a still image file, and stores the entire moving image file in the identification information. Is recorded in the moving image recording area of the image database.

With this configuration, the image file to which the identification information indicating that the image file should be treated as a still image in the moving image file is independent of the moving image file containing the image file without any operation by the user. It becomes possible to record as a still image file.

In this case, in the recording means, the still image file and the moving image file which are the image frames to which the identification information is attached are added with the related information indicating the mutual relation between the two files, and then the still image recording in the image database is performed. The information may be recorded in the area and the moving image recording area.

By adding such related information, a moving image file and a still image file independently created from the moving image file can be displayed in association with each other.

Further, in the recording means, for example, Mo
movie files that have no correlation between temporally adjacent frames such as JPEG files
After conversion into a moving image file having a correlation between temporally adjacent frames such as an EG file, the file may be recorded in the moving image recording area of the still image database.

When the moving image file is recorded in the image database after performing such conversion, the moving image file which does not need to cut out the still image file without any key operation is correlated between the frames. Since a moving image file having a small amount of information is recorded in the image database, more image files can be recorded by effectively utilizing the capacity of the image database.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external view of an electronic album device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Various operation units are provided on the apparatus main body 1, and a display screen 2 of a color liquid crystal display is arranged inside a lid that can be opened and closed. A power switch 3, a memory card slot 4 into which a memory card is inserted and mounted, and an eject button 5 for ejecting the mounted memory card are provided on a side surface of the apparatus main body 1. As described above, the present device is capable of mounting a memory card, but other than that, for example, C
A D-ROM drive may be built in so that a photo CD, a CD-R, or the like can be loaded.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the electronic album device according to the present embodiment. The memory card 11 is, for example, a storage medium that stores an image captured by an electronic camera, and stores a mixture of a still image file and a moving image file. Here, the still image file recorded on the memory card 11 is compressed according to, for example, the JPEG system which is an international standard for still image compression. On the other hand, moving image files are, for example, MPEG (for example, MPEG-1) which is an international standard for moving image compression.
Or the Motion JPEG method. The memory card 11 is inserted into the memory card slot 4 described with reference to FIG. 1, and reading and erasing of an image file are performed via the memory card interface 12.

Of the image files read from the memory card 11 via the memory card interface 12,
After the still image file is processed by the still image processing unit 13 and the moving image file is processed by the moving image processing unit 14,
The data is recorded in the still image recording area and the moving image recording area of the image database 16 via the recording / reproducing circuit 15.

When a moving image file read from the memory card 11 includes an image file for which a still image has been designated, as described later, the image file for which the still image has been designated is sent to the still image processing unit 13. Is recorded in the still image recording area of the image database 16 via the recording / reproducing circuit 15.

The image database 16 includes, for example, a hard disk device, a magneto-optical disk device, or a DVD-R
It is composed of a large-capacity storage device such as an AM device, and has a still image recording area for recording a still image file and a moving image recording area for recording a moving image file. In the present embodiment, a personal computer PC can be further connected to the recording / reproducing circuit 15 via an external interface 17. The PC can search for an image file from the image database 16, Information can be appropriately written.

The still image processing unit 13 includes the image database 1
6, a still image file read from the memory card 11 via the recording / reproducing circuit 15 or a still image file read from the memory card 11 via the memory card interface 12 is subjected to decompression processing, and the resulting still image signal is displayed. Part 1
7 is provided.

The moving image processing unit 14 similarly decompresses a moving image file read from the image database 16 via the recording / reproducing circuit 15 or a moving image file read from the memory card 11 via the memory card interface 12. The still image signal thus obtained is displayed on the display unit 1.
7 is provided. In addition, the moving image processing unit 14 is connected to the memory card 11
J in the video file read through
It also has the function of converting PEG files to MPEG files.

The display processing unit 18 converts each of the still image signal and the moving image signal input from the still image processing unit 13 and the moving image processing unit 14 into a signal suitable for display.
For example, a color liquid crystal display (LC
D) Supply to 19. As a result, a still image or a moving image is displayed on the color liquid crystal display 19.

The system controller 20 includes an operation unit 21
Memory card interface 12 based on a command from
Still image processing unit 13, moving image processing unit 14, recording / reproducing circuit 15
And a circuit that controls the display processing unit 18 and is configured using a CPU.

Next, a processing procedure at the time of importing an image stored in a storage medium (memory card 11) in the electronic album apparatus of the present embodiment will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. Note that these processes are performed under the control of the system controller 20, and various determination processes are also executed by the system controller 20.

First, the system controller 20 checks via the memory card interface 12 whether or not the memory card 11 as a storage medium is mounted on the electronic album device (step S1). If the memory card 11 is not inserted, a message to that effect is displayed on the liquid crystal display 19 via the display processing unit 18, and the process is terminated.

When the memory card 11 is mounted on the electronic album device, the memory card interface 12
, All image files in the memory card 11 are searched (step S2). As a result of this search, it is checked whether or not there is a moving image file in the memory card 11 (step S3). If there is no moving image file, that is, if all the image files stored in the memory card 11 are still image files, All the still image files read from the memory card 11 via the memory card interface 12 are copied to the still image recording area of the image database 16 via the still image processing unit 13 and the recording / reproducing circuit 15 (step S4).

When the copying of the still image file is completed, the system controller 20 displays a message to the effect that reading of the image file from the memory card 11 has been completed and a message to delete the image file in the memory card 11. The user is displayed on the liquid crystal display 19 via the display (step S5). When the user performs an input indicating that the display can be deleted (YES in step S6), the system controller 20 deletes all image files in the memory card 11 via the memory card interface 12 (step S7). ). Step S
When an input indicating that erasure is impossible is made in step 6, the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S 3 that there is a moving image file in the memory card 11, the system controller 20 sends an image frame including a still image designation in the moving image file, It is checked whether there is an image frame to which identification information (still image flag) indicating that the image frame should be treated as an image is attached (step S8). Here, the still image flag is, for example, when the user of the electronic camera is shooting in the moving image mode,
This flag is attached to an image frame of a scene by performing a still image release operation when a scene to be recorded as a still image is found. If there is no image frame to which the still image flag is attached, the process proceeds from step S to step S12.

On the other hand, if the still image flag is attached to the moving image file in the memory card 11, that is, if there is an image frame including a still image designation, the system controller 20 sends the memory card 11 via the memory card interface 12. Information related to the moving image file is added to the image frame read out from the storage unit (step S9), and the image frame is converted into an independent still image file via the still image processing unit 13 in the still image recording area of the image database 16. (Step S10). Here, the information related to the moving image file is information for specifying the existence of the moving image file including the still image file (the image frame for which the still image is specified) and the moving image file.

Thereafter, the system controller 20 removes the still image flag from the moving image file read from the memory card 11, and adds information related to the moving image file to the still image file (image file to which the still image flag is attached). Is added (step S11). After this, step S
Move to 12. Here, the information related to the still image file is information indicating that an image frame for which a still image is designated is included in the moving image file, or information specifying the image frame.

In step S12, the system controller 20 determines that the moving image file read from the memory card 11 is a Motion JPEG file, ie, a Motion JPEG file.
It is determined whether the file is a file compressed by the nJPEG method. The moving image file is basically an MPE in this embodiment.
Although it is a G file, that is, a file compressed by the MPEG method, a Motion JPEG file may be used in some cases.

In step S12, if the moving image file is M
If it is determined that the file is an motion JPEG file, the still image processing unit 13 converts the motion JPEG file into an MPEG file under the control of the system controller 20.
Is converted into a file (step S13) and step S14
Move on to If it is determined that the moving image file is not a Motion JPEG file, in other words, if it is determined that the moving image file is an MPEG file, step S
Move to 14.

In step S14, the moving image file, which is an MPEG file, is copied to the moving image recording area of the image database 16. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S4 described above, and the still image file is continuously stored in the image database 16.
Copy to the still image recording area inside.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the still image file or the moving image file recorded in the image database 16 having the still image recording area for recording the still image file and the moving image recording area for recording the moving image file is displayed on the liquid crystal display 19. And read out the still image file and the moving image file from the memory card 11 in which the still image file and the moving image file are mixed and stored in the still image recording area and the moving image recording area of the image database 16, respectively. And image database 1
6, the still image file and the moving image file are erased from the memory card 11 so that the still image file and the moving image file can be easily read from the memory card 11 storing the image file obtained by the electronic camera or the like. The image data can be recorded in the image database 16 and made into a database.

Also, the motion card is stored in the memory card 11.
A still image flag, which is composed of a plurality of independent image frames having no correlation between temporally adjacent frames like a JPEG file and is identification information indicating that the image should be treated as a still image, is attached to an arbitrary image frame. The moving image file to which the still image flag is attached is recorded as a still image file in the still image recording area of the image database 16 among the moving image files read from the memory card 11, and After removing the still image flag from the entire file, the image database 16
By recording in the moving image recording area of the moving image file, the image file to which the still image flag in the moving image file is attached can be used as a still image file independent of the moving image file containing the image file without any special operation by the user. It can be recorded in the database 16.

In this case, the still image file and the moving image file, which are image frames to which the still image flag is attached, are added to the still image recording area and the moving image recording area of the image database 16 after adding related information indicating the relation between the two files. By recording, a moving image file and a still image file independently created from the moving image file can be displayed in association with each other based on the relevant information. Thus, for example, during display of a moving image file, a related still image file included in the moving image file is searched for and displayed, or conversely, during display of a still image file, a moving image file including the searched still image file is searched and displayed. Such a usage becomes possible.

Further, Motion JP as a moving image file having no correlation between temporally adjacent frames.
The EG file is converted into an MPEG file as a moving image file having a correlation between temporally adjacent frames, and is recorded in the moving image recording area of the still image database 16 so that a still image can be stored without a special key operation. A video file that does not need to be cut out is converted into an MPEG file with a small amount of information, and is stored in the image database 16.
Therefore, the capacity of the image database 16 can be effectively used, and more image files can be recorded.

In the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which a storage medium such as a memory card in which a still image file and a moving image file are mixedly stored is directly mounted on the electronic album apparatus. When an external device such as an electronic camera is mounted and mounted on an electronic album device and electrically connected, or when both are juxtaposed and electrically connected, an image file can be read from a storage medium. The image file stored in the storage medium may be deleted.

[0040]

As described above, by using the electronic album apparatus of the present invention, even a person who is not proficient in the operation of a personal computer can use a storage medium storing image files obtained by an electronic camera or the like. It is possible to capture an image file with a simple operation, save the image file in an image database, and display it as needed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an electronic album device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary block diagram showing a configuration of the electronic album apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart showing a processing procedure at the time of capturing an image from a memory card in the electronic album device according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Memory card (storage medium) 12 ... Memory card interface 13 ... Still image processing part 14 ... Movie processing part 15 ... Recording / reproduction circuit 16 ... Image database 17 ... External interface 18 ... Display processing part 19 ... Color liquid crystal display 20 ... System Controller 21: Operation unit

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) CA24 CD20

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image database having a still image recording area for recording a still image file and a moving image recording area for recording a moving image file, and display means for displaying a still image file or a moving image file recorded in the image database. A storage medium storing a mixture of a still image file and a moving image file is directly mounted, or connected to an external device equipped with the storage medium to read the still image file and the moving image file from the storage medium. Reading means for outputting, a recording means for recording the still image file and the moving image file read by the reading means in a still image recording area and a moving image recording area of the image database, respectively, and the recording means read by the reading means and the recording Means for storing a still image file and a moving image file recorded in the image database. And an erasing means for erasing a file from the storage medium. 2. The storage medium comprises a plurality of independent image frames having no correlation between temporally adjacent frames, and identification information indicating that the image should be treated as a still image is attached to an arbitrary image frame. The recording unit records the image frame to which the identification information is attached, as a still image file, in a still image recording area of the image database, among the moving image files read by the reading unit, 2. The electronic album apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the entire moving image file is recorded in a moving image recording area of the image database after removing the identification information. 3. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording unit adds a still image file and a moving image file, which are image frames to which the identification information is attached, to the image database after adding related information indicating a relation between the still image file and the moving image file. 3. The electronic album apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information is recorded in a still image recording area and a moving image recording area. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the recording means converts the moving image file having no correlation between temporally adjacent frames into a moving image file having a small amount of information having a correlation between temporally adjacent frames, and then converts the still image 3. The electronic album device according to claim 2, wherein the electronic album device records the moving image in a moving image recording area of a database.