JP3979806B2 - Electronic album device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a relatively small capacity card medium such as a compact flash (Compact Flash (registered trademark); hereinafter referred to as a CF card) and a smart media (Smart Media (registered trademark); hereinafter referred to as an SM card), optical The present invention relates to an electronic album apparatus capable of copying image files between a card medium and a disk medium for a relatively large capacity disk medium such as a magnetic disk.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, in a digital camera, a small memory card having a capacity of about several tens of MB is used to record image data obtained by photographing, and a memory card connector provided in the camera body is connected to the memory card. It is possible to record a plurality of still image and moving image data on the memory card in a state where is inserted.
A memory card on which image data is recorded by a digital camera can print a desired image by sending it to a laboratory print service. In this case, if the number of prints and the print conditions are set by operating the digital camera, an automatic print file including these data is created and recorded on the memory card. In the lab print service, image data is printed based on the automatic print file.
[0003]
However, the number of images that can be recorded on a single memory card by a digital camera is limited, and in order to store a large amount of still images, a large number of memory cards are required. In addition, when searching for a desired still image from a large number of still images, it is necessary to frequently replace the memory card, and the operation is complicated.
[0004]
Therefore, the applicant can load a memory card and read out all the image data recorded on the memory card in accordance with the operation of the save button by the user, and insert it into a CD-R (Compact Disc). -Recordable) has been developed (see JP 2000-311106 [G06F12 / 00]).
In the electronic album device, it is possible to set two types of card media, a CF card and an SM card, in consideration of the case where the recording medium of the digital camera is a CF card and the case of an SM card. Data can be copied between any one of the card media and the CD-R.
According to the electronic album device, for example, still images for about 10 memory cards can be written to a CD-R having a capacity of 640 MB, so that it is possible to collectively manage a large number of still images. Become.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, when one card medium is filled with image data by photographing with a digital camera outdoors, the image data of the card medium is transferred to a large-capacity disk such as a CD-R by the electronic album device as described above. If it can be copied to the media, there is no need to carry around multiple card media, which is convenient. Therefore, it has been studied to reduce the size of the electronic album device so as to be portable.
[0006]
However, in a portable electronic album device, a display for displaying an image may be omitted due to its miniaturization, and in this case, it should be copied when copying an image file from a card medium to a disk medium. Since the image cannot be displayed, the image file cannot be selectively copied.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic album device capable of selectively copying image files between media even when a display for image display is omitted in a portable electronic album device. It is.
[0007]
[Means for solving the problems]
The electronic album apparatus according to the present invention achieves the above object by using an automatic print file created by a digital camera.
That is, the electronic album device according to the present invention is
In response to a command to copy an image file from one medium to the other, access the copy source medium and specify one or more image files stored on the medium and an image file to be printed And a file recognition means for recognizing an automatic print file for setting data necessary for printing,
A list creating means for detecting an image file for which printing of an image is designated based on the content of the recognized automatic print file and creating a list of detected image files;
Based on the created list, copy means for copying image files included in the list to a copy destination medium is provided.
[0008]
In the electronic album device of the present invention, one or a plurality of image files are copied from one medium in which an automatic print file is stored in advance to the other medium. In creating an automatic print file, for example, the same operation as that for specifying an image to be printed by the lab print service while loading the copy source medium in the digital camera and displaying the image on the display of the digital camera is performed. Just do it. As a result, an automatic print file in which an image to be copied is designated as an image to be printed is created.
[0009]
When a user operates the electronic album apparatus to give an instruction to copy an image file from one medium to the other, first, one or a plurality of image files stored in the copy source medium and automatic print The file is recognized. Based on the recognized contents of the automatic print file, an image file designated for image printing is detected, and a list of detected image files is created. Thereafter, based on the created list, the image file included in the list is copied to the copy destination medium.
[0010]
In the specific configuration, further, a file creation means for creating an automatic print file for one or a plurality of image files stored in at least one of the media in accordance with a user operation, and storing the file in the media It has. According to this specific configuration, an automatic print file can be created by an electronic album device without using a digital camera.
[0011]
In a specific configuration, the second copy further copies all the image files of the copy source card medium to the copy destination disk medium when the file recognition means does not recognize the presence of the automatic print file. It has a means.
According to this specific configuration, the user instructs all the image files stored in the card medium by copying the image file from the card medium to the disk medium without creating an automatic print file. Can be copied.
[0012]
【The invention's effect】
According to the electronic album device of the present invention, an image file to be copied from one medium to the other medium is specified using an automatic print file created by a digital camera or the like to print a desired image. Therefore, even when the display for displaying images is omitted, it is possible to selectively copy image files between media.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic album apparatus according to the present invention has a small portable case (1), and a CF card insertion slot (12) and an SM card are inserted in the front of the case (1). A mouth (13) is opened, and a CF card (2) and an SM card (3) can be inserted respectively. When the CF card (2) is inserted into the CF card insertion slot (12), the entire card is accommodated in the housing (1) and set at a predetermined data write / read position (not shown). When the SM card (3) is inserted into the SM card insertion slot (13), a part of the SM card (3) protrudes from the housing (1) to the outside, and is set at a predetermined data write / read position (not shown). Is done.
[0014]
In addition, the housing (1) is provided with a kangaroo pocket type lid (11) which is opened as shown by a chain line by operating the disk take-out lever (20) shown in FIG. 1, and the lid (11) is opened. After the magneto-optical disk (4) is loaded into a holder (not shown) provided on the back side of the lid (11), the magneto-optical disk (4) is moved to a predetermined recording / reproducing position by closing the lid (11). Can be set.
[0015]
At the center of the surface of the housing (1) is a display (14) for displaying various information, and a save button (15) to be operated when copying data between the card media and the disk media. The set button (16) to be operated when setting one operation from a plurality of operations displayed on the display (14), and to be operated when selecting one operation from the plurality of operations A selection button (19) and a cancel button (17) to be operated when canceling the selected operation are provided.
On both sides of the save button (15), data is copied from the CF card (2) or SM card (3) to the magneto-optical disk (4), or from the magneto-optical disk (4). A first LED (8) and a second LED (81) of a pair of arrow marks are provided to indicate whether data copying to the CF card (2) or the SM card (3) is executed.
Furthermore, a power switch (18) is provided on the side surface of the housing (1).
[0016]
In the electronic album apparatus, still image data and moving image image data previously captured by a digital camera are written in the CF card (2) and SM card (3). These image data are stored in the magneto-optical disk (4). Can be copied and stored.
It is also possible to write back the image data recorded on the magneto-optical disk (4) to the CF card (2) or the SM card (3).
[0017]
FIG. 2 shows a device configuration of the electronic album apparatus. As a main circuit, a microcomputer (5) that executes a predetermined control operation and a predetermined signal while communicating between the microcomputer (5). It is equipped with an ASIC (51) that executes processing.
The ASIC (51) includes a disk drive device (62) for driving the magneto-optical disk (4), a CF card connector (6) into which the CF card (2) is inserted, and an SM card into which the SM card (3) is inserted. A connector (61) is connected, and a USB connector (63) and an IEEE1394 connector (64) for connecting an external device such as a personal computer are connected.
The ASIC (51) is connected to a memory (52) used for various data processing.
[0018]
The microcomputer (5) is connected to a card detector (7) for detecting the CF card (2) and a card detector (71) for detecting the SM card (3). A key input device (10) including various operation buttons, the display (14), the first LED (8), and the second LED (81) are connected.
Further, a power supply circuit (53) for supplying the power of the battery (54) as a power supply to each circuit block is provided, and the power supply operation is controlled by the microcomputer (5).
[0019]
In the electronic album device, the user inserts the CF card (2) in which image data is written into the housing (1) while the magneto-optical disk (4) is set in the housing (1). When the card is inserted into the CF card slot (12) and the save button (15) is operated, image data is copied from the CF card (2) to the magneto-optical disk (4). When the SM card (3) in which the image data is written is inserted into the SM card insertion slot (13) of the housing (1) and the save button (15) is operated, the magneto-optical disk is removed from the SM card (3). The image data is copied to (4).
When image data is copied from the magneto-optical disk (4) to the CF card (2) or SM card (3), the setting is switched by mode selection.
[0020]
In the case of copying image data from the CF card (2) or SM card (3) to the magneto-optical disk (4), if an automatic print file is stored in the card, it is designated by the automatic print file. Only image data is copied.
FIG. 3 shows a directory structure of image files and automatic print files stored on the card. A plurality of image files (SANY0001.JPG, SANY0002.JPG, SANY0003.JPG, SANY0004.) Are stored under the folder “100SANYO”. TIF,...) Are stored, and an automatic print file “AUTPRINT.mrk” is stored with a file path different from the folder.
[0021]
The automatic print file “AUTPRINT.mrk” is created by a digital camera. As shown in FIG. 4, a header including a model name of the digital camera, an identification number, a print type, the number of copies, a format, a file When there are a plurality of images to be printed, one job description portion is created for each image. Therefore, a job description part is not created for an image for which printing is not designated.
[0022]
6 and 7 show a control procedure for copying image data from the CF card (2) or SM card (3) to the magneto-optical disk (4).
First, in step S1, the output of one of the card detectors becomes Lo, and it is determined whether or not the card is detected. If one of the cards is installed, it is determined yes. Then, the process proceeds to step S2 to determine whether or not the save button has been pressed.
[0023]
If the save button is pressed and it is determined as YES in step S2, whether or not the remaining capacity of the disk exceeds the data amount of the card and whether the card data conforms to a predetermined data format in step S3. It is checked whether or not a predetermined storage condition is satisfied.
If it is determined in step S4 that the result of the check is abnormal (no), the process proceeds to step S5 to display an error, and then returns to step S1. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S4 that the result of the check is normal (yes), the process proceeds to step S6 to determine whether an automatic print file exists.
[0024]
If an automatic print file exists on the card and it is determined YES in step S6, image files designated to be printed by the automatic print file are detected in step S7. Create a list. Here, it is assumed that the total number of files in the list is X, and the file count for counting the number of files is Y (initial value is 0).
[0025]
In creating the file list, first, after recognizing a plurality of image files (for example, SANY0001.JPG, SANY0002.JPG, SANY0003.JPG, SANY0004.TIF,...) Included in the directory structure shown in FIG. Based on the presence / absence of the job description portion of the automatic print file, the file name of the image file for which printing is designated among the plurality of image files is detected. Thereafter, a file list as shown in FIG. 5 is created by attaching a file path to each of the file names (for example, SANY0001.JPG, SANY0003.JPG, SANY0008.JPG,...).
[0026]
After creating the file list in this way, the process proceeds to step S9 in FIG. 7, and the Yth image file in the file list is copied to the disk. Subsequently, after counting up Y, it is determined whether or not the file count is smaller than the total number of files X in step S11. If YES is determined here, the process returns to step S9 to repeat copying of the image file.
[0027]
Thereafter, when all the designated image files have been copied and it is determined NO in step S11, the process proceeds to step S12 to execute a copy end process.
On the other hand, if NO in step S6 of FIG. 6, after copying all image files stored on the card to the disk in step S8, the process proceeds to step S12 in FIG. Perform termination processing.
Thereafter, in step S13, it is determined whether or not card output has been detected because the output of the card detector has changed from Lo to Hi. If the card is removed here and the answer is yes, the procedure ends.
[0028]
In the electronic album apparatus of the present invention, if an automatic print file is created in advance by a digital camera, an image file to be copied from the card to the disk can be specified using the automatic print file. Even when the display for display is omitted, the image file can be selectively copied. When an automatic print file is created by a digital camera, an image can be displayed on a display provided in the digital camera to confirm whether the image is to be copied.
[0029]
Each part configuration of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the technical scope described in the claims. For example, in the case of copying an image file from a disk to a card, the same selective copy using an automatic print file can be performed. It is also possible to give an automatic print file creation function to the electronic album device.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of an electronic album apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a device configuration of the electronic album apparatus.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a directory structure created on a card.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of an automatic print file.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a file list to be referred to when copying an image file.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the first half of a procedure for copying an image file from a card to a disk.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the second half of the procedure.
[Explanation of symbols]
(1) Case
(11) Lid
(12) CF card insertion slot
(13) SM card slot
(14) Display
(15) Save button
(4) Magneto-optical disk
(2) CF card
(3) SM card
(5) Microcomputer
(51) ASIC
(7) Card detector
(71) Card detector

Claims (3)

In an electronic album device in which card media and disc media can be loaded and image files can be copied between both media,
In response to a command to copy an image file from one medium to the other, access the copy source medium and specify one or more image files stored on the medium and an image file to be printed And a file recognition means for recognizing an automatic print file for setting data necessary for printing,
A list creating means for detecting an image file for which printing of an image is designated based on the content of the recognized automatic print file and creating a list of detected image files;
An electronic album apparatus comprising copy means for copying an image file included in the list to a copy destination medium based on the created list. Furthermore, it comprises file creation means for creating an automatic print file for one or a plurality of image files stored in at least one of the media in response to a user operation, and storing the file in the media. The electronic album apparatus according to 1. Furthermore, when the existence of the automatic print file is not recognized by the file recognition means, a second copy means is provided for copying all image files of the card medium as a copy source to a disk medium as a copy destination. Item 3. The electronic album device according to Item 1 or Item 2.

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