KR101495539B1 - Portable electronic device with print preview function and method of displaying print preview - Google Patents

Abstract

A portable electronic device according to the present invention includes a print size conversion unit for setting a print resolution of an image in accordance with a print size at which an image is printed, a preview area setting unit for setting at least a part of the image as a preview area A preview image generating unit for generating a preview image corresponding to the preview area so as to have a printing resolution set by the print size conversion unit, and a display unit for displaying a preview image.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a portable electronic device having a print preview function and a method of displaying a print preview,

The present invention relates to a portable electronic device and a method of displaying a print preview, more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for displaying a print preview of an image to be printed, A portable electronic device capable of enlarging and previewing a specific area, and a print preview display method of the portable electronic device.

As the spread of personal computers has become popular, many household peripherals including printers are being used in ordinary households. In addition, photographing devices such as a digital camera and a mobile phone having a camera function are popularized, and general users often print images of the photographing device at home.

Conventionally, in order to print an image of a digital camera or the like, it has been necessary to carry out complicated steps such as transferring an image of a digital camera to a computer and outputting it to a printer. Recently, after connecting a digital camera and a printer, BACKGROUND ART [0002] Cameras having a printing function capable of printing are commercially available.

However, conventional portable electronic devices such as a digital camera, a camcorder, and a mobile phone having a camera function have a problem that the print quality of a photographed image can not be confirmed in advance. Generally, when a document or a photograph is outputted by using a computer, it is possible to use a print preview function that shows an expected print state of a print in accordance with the paper to be used for printing, but the print state can not be confirmed in advance in the portable electronic apparatus.

Generally, photographing apparatuses such as a digital camera have a function of confirming the quality of a photographed image by enlarging a part of the stored image. However, this partial enlargement function does not help to accurately ascertain the print quality when actually printed.

1 is a conceptual diagram for explaining an example of printing an image of a conventional portable electronic device.

For example, when the shot image 3 stored in the portable electronic device 2 is printed at a somewhat larger printing size of 12 x 17 in. And a small printing of 4 x 6 in. (10 x 15.2 cm) The print quality may vary depending on the resolution of the photographed image. That is, the print quality is poor when printing with a large print size 5 as shown in Fig. 1, but good print quality can be obtained when the same print image is printed with a small print size 4. Fig.

However, since the partial enlargement function provided in the conventional portable electronic device only enlarges a part of the image at a specific ratio without considering the print size, the user can not know exactly whether the resolution is suitable for the print size in which the image is printed there was.

Further, when using the partial enlargement function provided in the conventional portable electronic device, the enlarged image must be moved little by little in order to check the image quality of the photographed image. In other words, the user has to move the entire image in order to find a particular part of interest, such as a person or an important scenery part, so that it takes a lot of time for an image having a large resolution and inconvenience in a confirmation operation.

An object of the present invention is to provide a portable electronic apparatus having a print preview function.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable electronic device capable of predicting an accurate printing state of an image in consideration of a print size at which an image is printed.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a portable electronic device capable of enlarging a specific area of interest of a user in an image to be printed and displaying the printing state in advance.

The present invention provides a portable electronic device for converting an image in consideration of print size and displaying a specific area of the image in a print preview, and a print preview display method.

A portable electronic device according to the present invention includes a print size conversion unit for setting a print resolution of an image in accordance with a print size at which an image is printed, a preview area setting unit for setting at least a part of the image as a preview area A preview image generating unit for generating a preview image corresponding to the preview area so as to have a printing resolution set by the print size conversion unit, and a display unit for displaying a preview image.

In the present invention, the portable electronic device may further include a print data processing unit for converting the image into print data.

In the present invention, the preview area setting unit may set the preview area so as to include the face area of the person detected in the image.

In the present invention, the preview area setting unit may set the preview area so as to include the focused area focused on the image.

In the present invention, the preview area setting unit may set a plurality of areas existing between a predetermined range on one side and a predetermined range on the other side in the image as preview areas, and the display unit may sequentially display the plurality of areas .

In the present invention, the preview area setting unit may include a first area including a face area of a person detected in the image, a second area including a focused area focused on the image, and a second area including one side edge And a third area including a plurality of areas existing between the first area and the second area.

In the present invention, the portable electronic device may further include a user input unit for receiving a user's operation, and the preview area setting unit may change a position in an image of the preview area according to a user's operation received at the user input unit .

In the present invention, the portable electronic device may further include an imaging unit for imaging an object and converting the image data into image data, and a memory for storing image data, and the preview image generation unit may convert the image data to generate a preview image .

A preview display method for a portable electronic apparatus according to the present invention includes a print size setting step of setting a print size, a resolution setting step of reading image data representing an image and determining a resolution for printing an image in accordance with a print size, A preview image setting step of setting at least a part of an image as a preview area for previewing; a preview image generating step of generating a preview image corresponding to a preview area so as to convert and convert image data into printable images; And a display step of displaying a view image.

According to the portable electronic device and the preview display method for printing as described above, the print preview function can be used without moving the image data of the image by a separate device such as a computer. In addition, the image is converted and displayed as a preview image in consideration of the print size at which the image is printed, thereby confirming the accurate printing status of the image. In addition, since the printing state is displayed by enlarging a specific area that the user is interested in in the image to be printed, the preview function for printing can be conveniently used.

Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the portable electronic device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram of a portable electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The portable electronic device shown in Fig. 2 is implemented with a digital camera. The portable electronic apparatus of the present invention is not limited to such a digital camera, and may include various portable apparatuses having a display unit such as a liquid crystal display apparatus and capable of confirming stored images through the display unit. For example, the portable electronic device can be implemented with devices such as a mobile phone, a multimedia player, a car navigation system, a camcorder, and the like.

The portable electronic apparatus shown in Fig. 2 includes a print size conversion unit 46 for setting a printing resolution of an image, a preview area setting unit 47 for setting a preview area in the image, A view image generating unit 48, and a display unit 30 for displaying a preview image.

Such a portable electronic device may further include an image pickup section 3 for picking up an image of the subject and generating image data representing an image, and a memory 15 for storing image data.

The image pickup section 3 includes an image pickup device 20 for picking up an image of a subject and converting the image into an electric signal, an optical system 10 disposed in front of the image pickup device 20, And an image data conversion section 41 for converting the image data into an image data.

The optical system 10 disposed in front of the image pickup device 20 includes a plurality of lenses 12 and functions to image external image light on the image pickup surface of the image pickup device 20. [ The lenses 12 are arranged such that the distance between them is variable. If the distance between the lenses 12 is changed, the zoom magnification and focus of the optical system 10 can be adjusted.

The lenses 12 are driven by the zoom driving unit 11 and the focus driving unit 13 having driving means such as a zoom motor or a focus motor, so that their positions relative to each other can be varied. The lenses 12 may include a zoom lens for enlarging or reducing a size of a subject and a focus lens for adjusting a focus of the subject. The zoom driving unit 11 and the focus driving unit 13 are activated by receiving a control signal from the driving circuit unit 42 of the control unit 40. [ Therefore, the zoom driving unit 11 can drive the optical system 10 such that the optical system 10 has any one of a plurality of magnifications.

The image pickup device 20 includes a photoelectric conversion element such as a charge coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), and converts the image light incident through the optical system 10 into an electrical signal Signal. The process of converting the image light into an electrical signal includes a step of first converting the analog signal into an analog signal, a step of converting the analog signal into a digital signal, a step of performing a pixel defect correction, a gain correction, a white balance correction, Signal processing, and so on.

The control unit 40 is electrically connected to the image pickup device 20, the zoom driving unit 11, the focus driving unit 13, the display unit 30, and the like, and controls these components and the control signals Send and receive data, and process data. The control unit 40 includes an image data conversion unit 41, a drive circuit unit 42, a memory control unit 43, a display control unit 44, a user interface 45, a print size conversion unit 46, A preview area setting unit 47, a preview image generating unit 48, a print data processing unit 49a, a printer interface 49b, and the like.

The control unit 40 may be implemented as a microchip or a circuit board having a microchip, and each component included in the control unit 40 may be implemented by software or circuits built in the control unit 40 have.

A display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic electroluminescence device (OLED) may be used for the display portion 30. [

The memory control section 43 controls the writing of image data to the memory 15 and the reading of image data and setting information recorded in the memory 15. [ The memory 15 is made of, for example, a semiconductor memory device such as a flash memory or an SDRAM (synchronous DRAM), and can store data of an image captured.

The print size conversion unit 46, the preview area setting unit 47, the preview image generation unit 48, the print data processing unit 49a, and the like are used to store image data stored in the memory 15, Reads the image data converted by the image data conversion section 41 to obtain information, and performs processing such as processing the image data.

The print size conversion unit 46 functions to set the print resolution of the image in accordance with the print size at which the image is printed. The print size may be the size of the paper on which the image is printed, but the present invention is not limited thereto since a plurality of images can be printed so as to have a print size smaller than that of the paper on one sheet of paper. Therefore, the print size in the following refers to the size at which the image is actually printed in the printer (printing apparatus) 60.

The portable electronic device may further include a user input unit 50 for receiving a user's operation. The user input unit 50 may be implemented by a menu operation button, a jog dial, or a receiver for touch recognition installed in the display unit 30. The portable electronic device may be implemented through a user interface 45 It is possible to receive the signal of the user input unit 50. The user can specify in advance the print size when printing an image through the user input unit 50. [ Therefore, the print size conversion unit 46 can set the print resolution for the image in consideration of the print size previously designated by the user.

The user can also select an image for executing print preview from the images stored in the memory 15 by operating the user input unit 50. [

The preview area setting unit 47 sets at least a part of the image as a preview area for print preview in the image represented by the image data. For example, the preview area setting unit 47 may set the preview area to include the face area of the person detected from the image, or may set the preview area to include the focused area in the image. The preview area setting unit 47 may set a plurality of areas existing between a predetermined range on one side of the image and a predetermined range on the other side as a preview area. In this case, the display unit 30 may sequentially display the plurality of areas As shown in FIG.

The face of the person in the image may be detected by a face detection circuit provided in the control unit 40. Also, it is also possible to detect the focus area in order to automatically adjust the focus by an auto focusing (AF) detection circuit provided in the control part 40. [

A known focusing technique may be used when the focus detection circuit detects the focus position in the focus area. The detection of the focus position can be performed, for example, by a method of driving a focus lens to obtain a focus evaluation value (AF evaluation value). That is, the focus point is calculated by moving the focus lens to extract high frequency components from the image signal and integrating the extracted signal. The AF evaluation value is made up of a curve having one maximum value, and the position of the focus lens at which the AF evaluation value becomes the maximum can be regarded as the focus position.

The preview image generating unit 48 generates a preview image to be displayed on the display unit 30 for a print preview function. The preview image generation unit 48 generates a preview image having a printable resolution in the print size conversion unit 46. [ The generated preview image corresponds to the preview area in the preview area setting unit 47 in the image represented by the image data.

When the preview image generating unit 48 generates the preview image, the entire image represented by the image data is converted into the image having the printing resolution described above, and then the portion corresponding to the preview area is cut off . Alternatively, it is possible to convert only the portion corresponding to the preview area into the preview image having the printing resolution without converting the whole image by modifying it.

When the preview image is generated in this manner, the image data representing the preview image is sent to the display unit 30 by the display control unit 44, so that the print preview can be displayed.

The portable electronic device may have a function of executing printing by directly transmitting a print command to the printer 60 in addition to the print preview function as described above. To this end, the portable electronic device may further include a printer interface 49b for performing data transmission to the printer 60 and a print data processing unit 49b for converting the image data representing the image into print data suitable for printing.

According to the portable electronic apparatus as described above, since the preview image is converted and displayed so as to have the printing resolution considering the printing size at which the image is printed, the user can precisely confirm the printing state in which the image is actually printed in advance.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing a method for executing print preview in the portable electronic device of Fig. 2; Fig.

3 includes a print size setting step S100 for determining a print size for printing an image, a resolution setting step S121 for determining a print resolution for the image, (S170), a preview image generation step (S161), and a display step (S170, S180, S190) for displaying a preview image.

First, in the print size setting step (SlOO), a print size at which an image is printed on the portable electronic device can be determined. The print size may be preset in the portable electronic device to the user's most preferred basic size or may be selected as one of the predetermined print sizes through the user's input.

When the print size is set, the preview mode can be set by the user's choice (S110). If there is no selection by the user, the preview mode may be automatically set to the automatic mode in which the first area to the third area are sequentially displayed. The user can select the automatic mode and manual mode that appear in the menu. When the user selects the manual mode, the user can operate the user input unit to move the position of the preview image for printing in the entire image. Specific functions of the manual mode and the automatic mode will be described later.

Thereafter, the print image may be selected (S120). In this step, among the many images stored in the memory, an image to be printed preview function is selected. The selection of the image may be performed by reading the image data stored in the memory into, for example, a buffer. The print size setting S100, the preview mode setting S110, and the print image selection S120 are not necessarily performed in the above-described order, and the order of execution may be changed.

When a print image is selected (S120), a resolution setting step S121 is executed in which image data representing an image is read and a resolution for printing an image is adjusted to a predetermined print size. If the determined print size is large, a process of enlarging the image may be performed, and if the print size is small, a process of reducing the image accordingly may be performed.

When the resolution for printing is determined, an image conversion step (S130) for processing the image data and converting the image to the resolution for printing may be executed.

After the image is converted, the execution steps are changed according to the case determined in the preview mode setting step S110 (S140). That is, when the automatic mode is set, steps S160 to S190 are executed, and when set to the manual mode, steps S150 to S154 are executed.

A preview area setting step (S160) of setting at least a part of an image as a preview area for previewing for automatic printing when the portable electronic device is set to an automatic mode for automatically executing a preview for a selected image, Is executed. The preview area corresponds to the portion to be displayed on the display for the middle print preview on the image.

The preview area may be set to include, for example, a face area of a person detected from the image, or may be set to include a focused area in the image. Also, the preview area may be set to include a plurality of areas existing between a predetermined range of one side of the image and a predetermined range of the other side, and in this case, a plurality of areas may be sequentially displayed on the display unit.

Fig. 4 is an operational state diagram showing a first operation example in which a print preview for the first area is executed by the method shown in Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a print preview for the second area Fig. 6 is an operational state diagram showing a third operational example in which the print preview for the first area is executed by the method shown in Fig. 4; Fig.

In Fig. 4, the preview area for print preview is set to the first area 81c so as to include the face detection area 81b detected in the selected image 81a. In Fig. 5, the preview area is set to the second area 82c including the focus area indicated by the dotted line in the image 82a. 6, the preview area is set as a third area including a plurality of areas 83b, 83c, and 83d that are disposed in the center of the image 83a toward the right upper edge.

A preview image generating step (S161) of converting the image data and generating a preview image corresponding to the preview area so as to have the print resolution described above when the preview area is set through the steps as described above; (S170, S180, and S190) are displayed on the display unit.

Referring to Fig. 4, a preview image 81f in which the first area 81c is converted is displayed on the display unit of the portable electronic device 1. 5, the preview image 82f in which the second area 82c is converted is displayed on the display unit of the portable electronic device 1. [ In FIG. 6, the preview images 83f, 83g, and 83h, in which the respective areas 83b, 83c, and 83d of the third area are converted, may be sequentially displayed on the display unit of the portable electronic device at predetermined time intervals .

The first area 81c, the second area 82c, and the third area may be converted into a preview image and sequentially displayed in sequence on the display unit, as described with reference to steps S170, S180, and S190 in Fig. 3 . This provides users with the most important parts for checking the print quality in the image, so the print preview function is convenient.

Referring again to step S40, when the portable electronic device is set to the manual mode for manually executing the print preview on the selected image, steps S150 to S154 are executed.

The step of displaying the whole image (S150) may be executed to manually specify the position of the preview image. The user can designate a part of the entire image displayed on the display unit by operating the user input unit of the portable electronic device (S151).

After the user input step S151, a preview area setting step S152 is performed in which a part of the image is set as a preview area for printing preview. The preview area corresponds to the portion of the image to be displayed on the display for print preview.

If the preview area is set, a step S153 of cutting out a corresponding portion of the image that has been converted in the image conversion step S130 and a step S154 of displaying a preview image may be executed.

Steps S150 to S154 corresponding to the manual mode may be implemented by various modifications. For example, a preview image displayed on the display unit in the manual mode can be generated by generating a partial image in which a partial area of the entire image is converted to a printable resolution, and reducing the entire image to be merged into the partial image. In this case, the entire image is displayed in the form of a small thumbnail image on one side of the display unit, and the area where the current cursor is located in the thumbnail image is enlarged and displayed as a preview image. Therefore, the print preview display method of the present invention is not limited by the execution steps of the automatic mode as described above.

The user can confirm the expected print quality accurately and conveniently when the image is printed at the currently set print size by confirming the displayed preview image.

After the user confirms the preview image, it is possible to select whether to execute printing (S200). If it is selected to execute printing, step S210 of processing the image data of the image into print data for printing may be executed. If printing is not to be performed, the process may be branched to a print image selection step (S120) for selecting a new image.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the appended claims.

1 is a conceptual diagram for explaining an example of printing an image of a conventional portable electronic device.

2 is a block diagram of a portable electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing a method for executing print preview in the portable electronic device of Fig. 2; Fig.

4 is an operational state diagram showing a first operation example in which a print preview for the first area is executed by the method shown in Fig.

5 is an operational state diagram showing a second operation example in which a print preview for the second area is executed by the method shown in Fig.

6 is an operational state diagram showing a third operational example in which a print preview for the first area is executed by the method shown in Fig.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS

1: portable electronic device 44: display control unit

3: imaging section 45: user interface

10: Optical system 46: Print size conversion section

11: zoom driving unit 47: preview area setting unit

12: Lenses 48: Preview image generating unit

13: Focus driver 49a: Print data processor

15: memory 49b: printer interface

20: image pickup device 50: user input part

30: Display section 60: Printer

40: Control section 81b: Face detection area

41: image data conversion section 81c: first area

42: driving circuit portion 82c: second region

43: memory controller 81a, 82a, 83a: image

83b, 83c and 83d:

81f, 82f, 83f, 83g, 83h: Thumbnail image

Claims (14)

A print size conversion unit for setting a print resolution of the image in accordance with a print size at which the image is printed; A preview area setting unit for setting at least a part of the image as a preview area for printing preview; A preview image generation unit for generating a preview image corresponding to the preview area from the image so as to have the printing resolution set by the print size conversion unit; And And a display unit for displaying the preview image. The method according to claim 1, And a print data processing unit for converting the image into print data. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the preview area setting unit sets the preview area to include a face area of the person detected in the image. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the preview area setting unit sets the preview area to include a focused area in the image. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the preview area setting unit sets a plurality of areas existing between a predetermined range on one side and a predetermined range on the other side in the image as the preview area and the display unit sequentially displays the plurality of areas, Device. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the preview area setting unit includes a first area including a face area of a person detected in the image, a second area including a focused area focused on the image, and a second area including a side edge part And the display unit sequentially displays the first area, the second area, and the third area, wherein the third area includes a plurality of areas existing between the first area and the second area, . The method according to claim 1, Wherein the preview area setting unit changes the position in the image of the preview area according to a user's operation received at the user input unit. 8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, An image pickup section for picking up an image of a subject and converting the image data into image data; Further comprising a memory for storing the image data, And the preview image generating unit converts the image data to generate the preview image. A print size setting step of setting a print size; A resolution setting step of reading image data representing an image and determining a print resolution of the image according to the print size; A preview area setting step of setting at least a part of the image as a preview area for print preview; A preview image generating step of converting the image data and generating a preview image corresponding to the preview area so as to have resolution for printing; And And a display step of displaying the preview image. 10. The method of claim 9, Further comprising a print data processing step of converting the image data into print data. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the preview area setting step sets the preview area to include a face area of a person detected in the image. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the preview area setting step sets the preview area to include a focused area focused on the image. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the preview area setting step sets a plurality of areas existing between a predetermined range on one side and a predetermined range on the other side in the image as the preview area and the displaying step sequentially displays the plurality of areas, A method of displaying a preview for printing of a portable electronic device. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the preview region setting step includes a first region including a face region of a person detected in the image, a second region including a focus region focused on the image, and a second region including a side edge Wherein the displaying step displays the first area, the second area, and the third area in sequence, wherein the third area includes a plurality of areas existing between the first area and the second area, A method for displaying a preview of an electronic device for printing.

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