JP4492561B2 - Image recording system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image recording system for writing image data to a recording medium.

  As a photo processing service in a photo shop, there is a service for writing image data on a recording medium such as a CD-R. Therefore, in a photo shop, as an apparatus for writing image data, for example, an apparatus as disclosed in Patent Document 1 below is installed. Image data can be acquired at a photo shop by using a recording medium (CompactFlash (registered trademark) or SmartMedia (registered trademark)) used by a digital camera, or a frame image formed on a developed photographic film. There is a method of reading and obtaining the image with a film scanner. In such a media writing service, the customer who is the orderer needs to individually select the image data to be written. For example, the customer inserts a recording medium into a reception terminal installed in a photo shop, and selects a necessary image from images displayed on the monitor screen of the reception terminal. The image data relating to the selected image is a target to be written to a recording medium prepared on the photo shop side.

JP 2002-334552 A

  However, when the customer selects an image as described above, if the number of image data stored in the recording medium is enormous, the selection operation becomes extremely complicated. In particular, the capacity of recent recording media has been increasing, and the number of image data that can be stored has increased considerably, and the operation of selecting a required image from among them has taken a considerable time. is there.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an image recording system capable of easily extracting necessary image data from an image data group.

In order to solve the above problems, an image recording system according to the present invention provides:
Image acquisition means for acquiring an image data group;
Image selection means for selecting specific image data from the image data group;
Date information extracting means for extracting the date information given to the selected image data;
An extraction range setting means for setting a range to be extracted based on the extracted date information;
Image extraction means for extracting image data to be written from the image data group based on the set extraction range;
Bei example an image recording means for writing the extracted image data on a recording medium,
The image selection means is capable of selecting a plurality of image data, and the extraction ranges set by the extraction range setting means can be individually set .

The operation and effect of the image recording system having such a configuration will be described. The image acquisition means acquires an image data group, and acquires image data from a recording medium or a photographic film. The image selection means selects specific image data from the image data group. The date information extraction unit has a function of extracting date information given to the selected image data. For example, when shooting with a digital camera, the shooting date is recorded by a system such as Exif or DPOF, and date information can be extracted based on this date. In the case of an APS film, date information can be extracted from magnetic information. Then, the extraction range setting means sets the extraction range on the basis of the extracted date information. For example, if the shooting date of the selected image data is August 20, 2005, “August 2005” can be set as an example. The image extraction unit extracts image data to be written based on the set extraction range. In the above example, all image data taken in “August 2005” is extracted from the image data group. The extracted image data is recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-R. As described above, it is possible to provide an image recording system that can easily extract necessary image data from an image data group. In addition, the selection of image data by the image selection means can select not only one image but also a plurality of images. For example, image data photographed in summer and image data photographed in winter can be selected. Thereby, the setting of the extraction range according to a customer's request can be further performed.

In the present invention, thumbnail image generation means for generating thumbnail images for individual image data constituting the image data group,
Thumbnail display means for displaying the generated thumbnail image on the monitor screen,
Preferably, the image selection means is configured to select a thumbnail image displayed on the monitor screen.

  A thumbnail image is generated from the image data by the thumbnail image generating means and displayed on the monitor screen. As a method for selecting a specific image, a thumbnail image displayed on the monitor screen may be selected. Thereby, it is possible to select a specific image while confirming the content of the image, and it is possible to select an image by a simple and reliable method.

  It is preferable that the extraction range setting means according to the present invention can set the day, month, and year including date information as a reference.

  For example, if the shooting date is August 20, 2005, the extraction range can be set to “2005”, “August 2005”, “August 20, 2005”, or the like. Thereby, various ranges to be extracted can be set. Also, “one week from August 20, 2005”, “three days before and after August 20, 2005”, “three months before and after August 2005”, and the like can be set. Therefore, the extraction range can be arbitrarily set according to the customer's request.

  A preferred embodiment of an image recording system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of an image recording system. This system includes a photographic processing apparatus A and image recording means B connected thereto. The photo processing apparatus A has a function of acquiring image data and creating a photo print and a function of causing the image recording means B to record the image data on a recording medium. In the following description, functions relating to photo print creation will be omitted, and the description will focus on the function of writing image data to a recording medium.

  The image acquisition unit 1 acquires an image data group composed of a large number of image data. The image data group is acquired mainly from two routes. One is a method of acquiring a group of image data stored in a recording medium used for a digital camera. It is possible to read the image data stored in the recording medium by mounting the recording medium brought into the photo shop by the customer. The recording medium is not limited to the above-described CompactFlash (registered trademark) and smart media (registered trademark), and image data can be acquired from various other recording media.

  The image acquisition means 1 may be provided in the photo processing apparatus main body, but may be provided in a reception terminal connected to the photo processing apparatus by a communication means (a network such as a LAN). It may also be obtained via the Internet.

  Another route through which the image acquisition means 1 acquires the image data group is a method of acquiring from the developed photographic film. Therefore, the photographic processing apparatus A includes a film scanner and can acquire image data of each frame image by scanning the photographic film.

  The image storage unit 2 temporarily stores the image data group acquired via the image acquisition unit 1, and is configured by, for example, a hard disk. The writing processing unit 3 performs various preprocessing for writing the image data group acquired via the image acquiring unit 1 to the recording medium, and each function can be preferably provided by software.

  The image selection means 3a provides a function for selecting a specific image from the image data group. There are various methods for selecting a specific image. In this embodiment, the thumbnail image generated from the image data is displayed on the monitor 4 and a specific image can be selected from the thumbnail image. As a method for selecting an image, a list of file names may be displayed and one of them may be selected.

  The thumbnail image generating means 3b has a function of generating thumbnail images for individual image data constituting the acquired image data group. The generated thumbnail image is displayed on the monitor 4 by the function of the thumbnail display means 3c. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display configuration example of the monitor screen. The number of images that can be displayed on the screen at a time can be set as appropriate, and is six in the illustrated example. By operating the cursor 40, the thick frame C can be moved to a desired image position. When viewing an image on another page, the page button 41 may be clicked. When the image to be selected is decided, it is decided by clicking the OK button 42.

  The date information extraction unit 3d extracts date information attached to the image selected by the image selection unit 3a. This date information is given to the image data by various methods. In the case of a recording medium, this date information is given as information in the Exif information and DPOF information. Specifically, date information taken by a digital camera corresponds to date information. Further, not only the shooting date but also the date and time when the file was updated may be extracted. In the case of an APS photographic film, the date information recorded in the magnetic recording tank of the film can be extracted. As described above, various modifications can be considered for the method of acquiring date information.

  The extraction range setting unit 3e has a function of setting a range for extracting image data from the image data group, and the range is set based on the date information extracted by the date information extraction unit 3d. This range can be set in advance, and preferably the setting can be changed in response to individual customer requests. The image extracting means 3f has a function tail for extracting all image data included in the set extraction range. For example, assuming that the date information of the selected image is “August 20, 2005” (shooting date), an image can be extracted by setting the following extraction range.

  A year including date information can be set. In the above case, for example, “2005”, “2 years from 2005”, “3 years before and after 2005”, etc. can be set. All of the data is extracted. The month including date information can be set. In the above case, for example, “August 2005”, “From August 2005 to October”, “4 months including August 2005”, etc. can be set. All of the image data photographed in the range is extracted. Dates including date information can be set. In the above case, for example, “August 20, 2005”, “one week from August 20, 2005”, “five days before and after August 20, 2005”, etc. It is possible, and all of the image data photographed in this range is extracted. Various other setting modes are conceivable. The image extracting unit 3f extracts the image data included in the extraction range set by the extraction range setting unit 3e and transfers it to the image recording unit.

  For example, a large amount of image data (image file) may be stored in a recording medium of a digital camera, and there is a demand for separately writing only image data selected from the image data to the recording medium. . For example, there are cases where it is desired to write only photos taken when traveling on summer vacation, or only photos taken when going to a ski resort during winter holidays. In this way, specific image data can be classified by designating a specific date, so the extraction range is set as described above, and image data is extracted based on this. Thus, the image data desired by the customer can be easily extracted.

  The image processing unit 5 provides a function of performing various image processing on the acquired image data. For example, when the operator looks at the color / density of the image displayed on the monitor screen and determines that the image quality is not preferable, the operator inputs a correction value for the color / density. For example, if an image taken with a digital camera is underexposed, it is corrected so that it is bright overall. In addition, red-eye correction and backlight correction can be performed to improve the image quality. Further, when there is a scratch on the image due to a scratch on the photographic film, it is possible to perform correction so as to remove the scratch on the software. By using the function of the image processing unit 5 as described above, when image data is written, it can be written with improved image quality, and the added value of services at a photo shop can be increased.

  The image transfer unit 6 transfers the image data extracted by the image extraction unit 3f to the image recording unit B. As the image recording means B, for example, a recording medium writing device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-075976 can be used, and image data can be written on a CD-R which is one of the recording media. The image recording means B is described as an independent device different from the photo processing apparatus A, but may be an apparatus incorporated in the photo processing apparatus A.

  Next, a processing procedure from acquisition of image data to writing of the image data will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, an image data group is acquired from a recording medium or the like (# 1). The acquired image data group is stored in the image storage unit 2 (# 2). Next, the acquired image data is displayed on the monitor screen as a thumbnail image (# 3). The operator selects one of the displayed thumbnail images (# 4). Date information associated with the selected image data is extracted (# 5). An extraction range is set based on the date information, and image data included in the extraction range is extracted (# 6). The extraction range is set in advance according to the customer's request. Image data extracted from the image data group is transferred to the image recording means B, and image data writing processing is performed (# 7, 8). Writing is performed in order of date.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example when image data is actually extracted. Here, it is assumed that ten image data are stored in the image storage unit 2. The shooting date of each image data is as shown in the figure. Here, it is assumed that the image 5 is selected as a specific image, and the extraction range set by the extraction range setting unit 3e is August 20, 2005. In this case, three images 4, 5, and 6 having the same shooting date are extracted. If the extraction range is one week from August 2005, five images 4 to 8 are extracted.

<Another embodiment>
In the present embodiment, only one image is selected on the monitor screen, but a plurality of images may be selected. In this case, date information is extracted for each selected image, and an extraction range is set. For example, when images 1 and 4 are selected in the example of FIG. 3, “March 20, 2005” and “August 20, 2005” are set as the extraction range. In this case, the extracted images are images 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.

Schematic diagram showing the configuration of the image recording system The figure which shows the example of a display composition of a monitor screen Flow chart showing processing procedure until image data is written The figure which shows the specific example in the case of extracting image data

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image acquisition means 2 Image storage part 3 Write processing part 3a Image selection means 3b Thumbnail image generation means 3c Thumbnail display means 3d Date information extraction means 3e Extraction condition setting means 3f Image extraction means 4 Monitor 5 Image processing part 6 Image transfer part A Photo processing device B Image recording means

Claims (3)

Image acquisition means for acquiring an image data group;
Image selection means for selecting specific image data from the image data group;
Date information extracting means for extracting the date information given to the selected image data;
An extraction range setting means for setting a range to be extracted based on the extracted date information;
Image extraction means for extracting image data to be written from the image data group based on the set extraction range;
Bei example an image recording means for writing the extracted image data on a recording medium,
The image selection unit can select a plurality of image data, and can individually set the extraction range set by the extraction range setting unit . Thumbnail image generating means for generating thumbnail images for individual image data constituting the image data group;
Thumbnail display means for displaying the generated thumbnail image on the monitor screen,
The image recording system according to claim 1, wherein the image selection unit is configured to select a thumbnail image displayed on a monitor screen. 3. The image recording system according to claim 1, wherein the extraction range setting unit can set a day, a month, and a year including date information serving as a reference.

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