JP2005136673A - Image reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display the photographing date and time of image data by a display method in accordance with the desire of a user. <P>SOLUTION: Whether or not photographing date and time information is to be displayed is selected (step S1). As the display method of the photographing date and time information, character display for displaying the information as characters or calendar display displaying the information on a calendar is selected (step S2). When the character display is selected (character display in step S2), the size, the color, the font of the characters, decoration of the characters or a position are set (step S3). When the calendar display is selected (calendar display in step S2), the type of the calendar display, the size and the position of the calendar, and the size, the color, the font of the characters, the decoration of the characters are set (step S4). According to the settings above, a plurality of image data are sequentially and consecutively switched and displayed on a display section together with the photographing date and time information and reproduced as a slide show (step S5). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image reproducing apparatus that sequentially switches and reproduces a plurality of image data.

  In recent years, an image reproducing apparatus having a so-called slide show function in which a plurality of image data photographed and acquired by a digital camera, a scanner, or the like is sequentially switched and reproduced has become widespread. For example, when a slide show is performed, a still image video reproduction apparatus that allows the user to arbitrarily specify the reproduction order of a plurality of images (see Patent Document 1), and related information of an image file is recorded at the time of image recording. For the file recorded under the same condition, the information that can recognize the file recorded under the same condition and the start position information of the image data are described in the control file for reference, and the control file is referenced during playback. An image information recording / reproducing apparatus (see Patent Document 2) that enables high-speed continuous reproduction by reading image data from the start position of the image data without reading the attribute information is proposed.

In addition, when playing back image data as a slide show, some have a function of displaying the shooting date when the image was shot together with each image. In this case, the user can know the shooting date of the displayed image.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-13388 JP-A-5-307593

  However, the above prior art has a problem that the shooting date displayed together with the image is small with respect to the display screen and is difficult to see from a distance.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image reproducing apparatus capable of displaying the shooting date and time of image data by a display method according to a user's request. To do.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a storage medium for storing a plurality of image data and shooting date / time information corresponding to each image data, and the plurality of image data are sequentially switched and displayed together with corresponding shooting date / time information. Display means for inputting, input means for externally inputting information for selecting a display method of shooting date / time information displayed on the display means, and a display method for shooting date / time information is set based on the input information It is characterized by comprising display method setting means and control means for causing the display means to display photographing date / time information based on the set display method.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image reproducing device according to the first aspect, the display method is a character display for displaying shooting date / time information as characters, or a calendar display for displaying shooting date / time information on a calendar. It is characterized by being.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image reproduction device according to the second aspect, when the display method is a character display, the display method setting unit is configured to display the size and color of the character displayed on the display unit. It is characterized by setting the font, character decoration or position.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image reproduction device according to the second aspect, when the display method is a calendar display, the display method setting means is the size or position of the calendar displayed on the display means. Or character size, color, font, or character decoration is set.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the shooting date / time information display method is set based on the information input from the input means, and the shooting date / time information is displayed on the display means based on the set display method. The shooting date and time of the image data can be displayed by a display method according to the user's request.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the shooting date / time information can be displayed using the character display for displaying the shooting date / time information as characters or the calendar display for displaying the shooting date / time information on the calendar.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the display method is character display, the size, color, font, character decoration or position of the character displayed on the display means can be set.

  According to the invention of claim 4, when the display method is calendar display, the size or position of the calendar displayed on the display means, or the size, color, font, or character decoration of the character can be set. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Examples of the image reproducing device include a personal computer (PC), a digital camera, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) player, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) player, a portable terminal device equipped with a photographing means, and the like.

FIG. 1 shows a functional configuration of an image reproduction device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
The image reproduction apparatus 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, an input unit 12, a display unit 13, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 14, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 15, and a storage unit 16.

  In accordance with various instructions input from the input unit 12, the CPU 11 develops a program designated from various programs stored in the ROM 14 in the work area of the RAM 15, and executes various processes in cooperation with the program. The processing result is stored in a predetermined area of the RAM 15, and the processing result is displayed on the display unit 13 as necessary.

  Specifically, the CPU 11 sequentially switches and displays a plurality of image data stored in the storage unit 16 on the display unit 13 together with shooting date / time information (slide show).

  Further, the CPU 11 sets a display method for shooting date / time information in accordance with an instruction input from the input unit 12 by the user, and causes the display unit 13 to display the shooting date / time information based on this display method.

  The input unit 12 includes a cursor key, a numeric key, and various function keys, and outputs a press signal generated by each key operation to the CPU 11.

  The display unit 13 is configured by a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), or the like, and performs screen display according to a display signal from the CPU 11.

  The ROM 14 is configured by a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, and stores various programs executed by the CPU 11.

  The RAM 15 is composed of a rewritable semiconductor element. The RAM 15 is a storage medium in which data is temporarily stored, and a program area for developing a program executed by the CPU 11, a data area for storing various processing results by the CPU 11, and the like are formed.

  The storage unit 16 is a storage medium including a magnetic or optical recording medium or a semiconductor memory, and stores a plurality of image data. The image data may be still image data or moving image data.

  In the image data file, shooting date / time information corresponding to each image data is recorded as supplementary information. The shooting date / time information refers to the shooting year, shooting month, shooting date, and shooting time (hour, minute, second) when the image was shot. Examples of the incidental information held in the same file as the image data include, for example, information recorded in an Exif (Exchangeable image file format) or TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) tag. Among the Exif tags, standard information defined by TIFF is used as it is for basic information on image data. Note that the image data is not limited to that created using Exif or TIFF. For example, in the case of image data using a format having a tag or a box capable of recording a comment or the like and shooting date / time information is recorded there, it may be used.

Next, the operation of the image reproduction device 1 will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining image reproduction processing executed in the image reproduction apparatus 1. As a premise for explaining the operation, a program for realizing each process described in the flowchart is stored in the ROM 14 in the form of a program that can be read by the CPU 11 of the image reproducing apparatus 1, and the CPU 11 The operation according to is executed sequentially.

  First, a setting screen for selecting whether or not to display shooting date / time information is displayed on the display unit 13, and whether or not to display shooting date / time information is selected by an instruction input from the input unit 12. (Step S1). For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the presence or absence of display of shooting date / time information may be selected with a button or the like. When the user desires to display the shooting date / time information, the button is checked.

  Next, the display unit 13 displays a setting screen for selecting a character display for displaying the shooting date / time information as characters or a calendar display for displaying the shooting date / time information on the calendar as a display method of the shooting date / time information. Character display or calendar display is selected according to an instruction input from the input unit 12 (step S2).

  When the character display is selected (step S2; character display), a setting screen for causing the display unit 13 to select the character size, color, font, character decoration or position when displaying the shooting date / time information is displayed. These settings are displayed based on instructions from the input unit 12 (step S3). What is necessary is just to change the size of the character at the time of displaying imaging | photography date information according to the distance of the display part 13 which displays a slide show, and a user, and a user's visual acuity. The font can be selected from Gothic, Mincho, and the like. The character decoration is used to add an effect such as bold or italic to the font, and can be selected from bold (bold), italic (italic), shadowed character (shadow), underlined character, underline (underbar), and the like. The character position is set by a numerical value or the like indicating coordinates on the display screen of the display unit 13. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, each item of font, size, character decoration, and color is a pop-up menu, and can be selected from a plurality of options.

  Also, the display format for displaying the shooting date / time information may be selectable by the user. For example, when shooting date / time information of “August 13, 2003” is obtained, display examples include “August 13, 2003”, “2003.08.13”, “03.08.13”, “ Display formats such as “2003/08/13” and “Aug.13, 2003” are listed.

  Further, the display format of the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second when the image is taken may be arbitrarily set by the user. When shooting date / time information of “August 13, 2003 15:39:20” is obtained, all information that can be acquired as shooting date / time information, such as “2003.08.13 15:39:20”, is obtained. Only the information desired by the user may be displayed, such as up to the date, up to the month, up to the year. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that check boxes corresponding to the shooting year, month, day, hour, minute, and second are displayed and selected by the user. If the obtained shooting date / time information has a range, such as “July-August 2003”, it may be displayed as “2003.07-08”, or only the starting month may be displayed. It may be displayed.

  When the calendar display is selected (step S2; calendar display), a setting screen for selecting the type of calendar display is displayed on the display unit 13, and the setting is performed based on an instruction from the input unit 12. . Then, a setting screen for selecting a calendar size and position, a character size, a color, a font, and a character decoration when displaying shooting date / time information is displayed on the display unit 13, and based on an instruction from the input unit 12. Is set (step S4).

Examples of calendar display are shown in FIGS.
FIG. 6 is an example of a general calendar display. A calendar for one month is displayed, and the number corresponding to the shooting date acquired as shooting date / time information is highlighted. The color of the highlighted part may be selected on the setting screen. FIG. 6 shows that the displayed image was taken on September 17, 2003. When the calendar portion is displayed on the image, it is preferable to display the calendar portion semi-transparently so as not to disturb the image. Multiple calendar designs may be prepared for selection. Although not shown, the shooting time may be displayed on a calendar.

  FIG. 7 shows an example in which the scale of the month is displayed. The month for one year is displayed, and the number corresponding to the shooting month acquired as shooting date / time information is highlighted. FIG. 7 shows that the displayed image was taken in July 2003. Although FIG. 7 shows an example in which numbers are arranged in the vertical direction, it may be in the horizontal direction. Also, instead of numerical notation, Jan. Feb. English notation such as. Further, when there is a range in the obtained shooting date / time information as in “July-August 2003”, both July and August may be highlighted. In the example of FIG. 7, the shooting month is displayed in a different area from the image, but may be displayed so as to overlap the image.

  FIG. 8 shows an example in which a year scale is displayed. The number corresponding to the shooting year acquired as shooting date / time information is highlighted. FIG. 8 shows that the displayed image was taken in 2000. Although FIG. 8 shows an example in which numbers are arranged in the vertical direction, it may be in the horizontal direction. The range of the year to be displayed may be a range from the oldest year to the newest year among a plurality of images to be subjected to the slide show. Moreover, you may designate the range of the year which a user displays.

Based on the settings as described above, a plurality of image data stored in the storage unit 16 is sequentially switched and displayed on the display unit 13 together with the shooting date / time information, and is reproduced as a slide show (step S5). In the case of still image data, the images are sequentially switched and displayed at predetermined time intervals. In the case of moving image data, when the reproduction of one file is completed, the next file is sequentially reproduced. One cycle of the slide show may include both still image data and moving image data. It is assumed that the files to be subjected to the slide show and the reproduction order thereof are set in advance according to the user's desire. Further, the plurality of image data may be displayed in a random order, or may be repeatedly displayed in a predetermined order.
This completes the image reproduction process.

  According to the image reproducing apparatus 1, the shooting date / time information display method is set based on the information input from the input unit 12, and the shooting date / time information is displayed on the display unit 13 based on the set display method. The shooting date and time corresponding to each image data can be displayed by a display method according to the user's request.

  Note that the description in the above embodiment is an example of a suitable image reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this. The detailed configuration and detailed operation of each part constituting the image reproducing apparatus can be changed as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the shooting date / time information is recorded as supplementary information in the image data file, but the shooting date / time information is included in the file name of the image data file or the directory name to which the image data file belongs. May be. When the file name or the directory name is related to the shooting date / time, the shooting date / time information can be acquired therefrom. For example, if the file name is “20030813.jpg”, “20030813_xxxx.jpg (xxxx is the photographer, shooting location, etc.)”, the year, month, and date when the image was taken are added to all or part of the file name. If there is information to be shown, the shooting date / time information can be acquired by analyzing the information. In this example, August 13, 2003 is shown.

  Even when the shooting date / time information is included in each file name, if the shooting date / time information is also included in the directory name including the file, the information of the directory name may be used. . As shown in FIG. 9, as a method for acquiring the shooting date / time information, “from file name” and “from directory name” can be displayed on the display unit 13 so as to be selectable by the user. For example, when each image data taken in July 2003 is stored in a directory “2003_07”, information “July 2003” can be acquired from the directory name. If each image data taken from July to August 2003 is stored in the directory “2003_07-08”, information “July 2003 to August 2003” is acquired from the directory name. can do.

  If the shooting date / time information is stored in a file separate from the image data, the shooting date / time information may be obtained by analyzing the contents of the file. In this case, the file including the shooting date / time information may exist in the same directory as the image data, or may exist in a different directory. The file including the shooting date / time information may be recorded in an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format.

  Information other than the shooting date / time information may be recorded in the file including the shooting date / time information. As an example, information for grouping images (for example, an image file name to be subjected to one cycle of reproduction in a slide show) may be recorded, and shooting date / time information may be recorded together with the information.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the image reproduction apparatus 1 was set as the structure provided with the display part 13, it is good also as connecting with an external display apparatus and displaying an image on the display apparatus.

It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the image reproduction apparatus 1 in embodiment of this invention. 4 is a flowchart for explaining image reproduction processing executed in the image reproduction apparatus 1. It is an example of the setting screen for selecting the presence or absence of the display of imaging | photography date information. It is an example of a setting screen for selecting a character size, color, font, and character decoration when displaying shooting date and time information. It is an example of a setting screen for selecting a display range of shooting year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. It is an example of a general calendar display. It is an example of the scale of the moon. An example of a year scale. It is a display example at the time of selecting the acquisition method of imaging | photography date information.

Explanation of symbols

1 Image playback device 11 CPU
12 Input unit 13 Display unit 14 ROM
15 RAM
16 Memory unit

Claims (4)

A storage medium for storing a plurality of image data and shooting date and time information corresponding to each image data;
Display means for sequentially switching and displaying the plurality of image data together with corresponding shooting date and time information;
Input means for externally inputting information for selecting a display method of shooting date and time information displayed on the display means;
Display method setting means for setting a display method of shooting date and time information based on the input information;
Control means for displaying shooting date and time information on the display means based on the set display method;
An image reproducing apparatus comprising: The image reproduction apparatus according to claim 1,
The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display method is character display for displaying shooting date / time information as characters, or calendar display for displaying shooting date / time information on a calendar. The image reproduction apparatus according to claim 2,
When the display method is character display, the display method setting means sets the size, color, font, character decoration or position of the character displayed on the display means. The image reproduction apparatus according to claim 2,
When the display method is calendar display, the display method setting means sets a size or position of a calendar displayed on the display means, or a character size, color, font, or character decoration. An image playback device.

Images