KR20050116090A - A usb storage device with digital camera - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a portable data storage device having a built-in digital camera, and to describe in more detail, as well as a function of backing up and storing data after encrypting and compressing data of an information terminal by embedding the digital camera in the portable data storage device, The present invention relates to a portable data storage device having a digital camera provided to a user to take an image of a subject and to backup and store the image.

Conventional portable data storage devices have only been focused on the backup and storage of data, and have performed various functions by some additional software or applications. Therefore, it was inconvenient to implement additional functions such as adding a password function, recording an e-mail address, or searching a dictionary. However, data storage devices with built-in digital cameras can be used more conveniently by adding hardware functions while being small.

For example, images shot with a small lens are stored directly in the flash memory, allowing users to view and modify image files directly by connecting directly to a personal computer's Universal Serial Bus (USB) or serial, parallel or IEEE1394 ports. Can provide a variety of time savings and convenience.

In addition, by configuring an expansion slot in a portable data storage device incorporating a digital camera, it is possible to extend the use of a commercially available memory card to an external storage medium and to backup a large amount of video images and data.

Description

 Portable data storage device with built-in digital camera {a USB Storage Device with digital camera}

The present invention relates to a portable data storage device incorporating a digital camera, and to describe in more detail, a function of backing up and storing data after encrypting and compressing data of an information terminal by embedding a digital camera in the portable data storage device, The present invention relates to a portable data storage device having a digital camera provided to a user to take an image of a subject and to backup and store the image.

Portable storage devices, which are widely used in general, merely perform backup and storage by compressing data of an external terminal into an image.In the case of a general portable terminal having a digital camera function, a separate operation means and a complex There was an inconvenience in going through the procedure.

In addition, conventional portable data storage devices have only been focused on the backup and storage of data, and have performed various functions by some additional software or application program. Therefore, it was inconvenient to implement additional functions such as adding a password function, recording an e-mail address, or searching a dictionary.

In such a portable storage device, a built-in digital camera can be stored immediately in a single operation without a complicated procedure and a procedure for capturing a subject image, thereby eliminating portability and ease of use. Portable data storage devices with built-in digital cameras can be used more conveniently by adding small but useful hardware functions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to mount a display display unit, a lens unit, an operation unit, and a digital camera unit in a portable storage device to compress data and image images according to a user's request, and then compress the data. The present invention provides a portable storage device with a built-in digital camera that can store data and video images at low cost by improving the mobility and convenience by backing up or storing the data in a flash memory unit. In addition, another object of the present invention, by encrypting the data stored in the portable storage device so that others can not use arbitrarily, it is possible to maintain the security of the data backed up or stored in the portable data storage device.

Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to add an expansion slot unit to a portable data storage device having a digital camera, thereby making it possible to expand and use a commercially available memory card as an external storage medium. And to enable backup of the data.

Features of the present invention for solving the above object,

An input / output terminal unit supporting serial, parallel and USB interfaces for data transmission and reception with various external information terminals;

An EPROM which stores driving related software and driver information of an apparatus used to recognize an external information terminal connected to the input / output terminal unit and transmit and receive data;

A flash memory unit comprising a plurality of flash memories and storing data and video images of the external information terminal compressed in an image form;

An operating system function unit having an operating system used for compressing data and video images from the external information terminal to be backed up and stored in the flash memory unit;

Compresses data from an external information terminal connected to the input / output terminal unit by an image compression method in conjunction with the operating system function unit and the EPROM, and backs up and stores the image image and the compressed data in the flash memory unit. A central processing unit performing a function;

A power supply unit for supplying power;

A lens unit for photographing an image of a subject;

A digital camera unit for storing or transmitting an image photographed by the lens unit;

A display display unit for displaying a current operation state so that the user can check the current operating state;

An operation unit operable to capture and store a desired image of a subject;

A transmission control unit for transmitting and receiving data to and from an external information terminal connected to the input / output terminal unit according to driving related software and driver information loaded by the central processing unit and loaded from the EPROM, and controlling information transmission of the display display unit and the expansion slot unit; ;

The present invention provides a portable data storage device incorporating a digital camera, comprising an expansion slot unit for inserting all types of removable memory cards.

In addition, the device further includes a CMOS which includes driving basic information of the device and maintains security of data stored in the device by performing encryption according to the control of the central processing unit when the device is driven.

The digital camera unit performs a function of receiving images captured by the lens unit. The digital camera unit stores the images stored in the flash memory unit through the transmission control unit and is stored in a folder already created or a general folder. The information stored in this way can be controlled and recorded or deleted in the personal computer according to the transmission / reception method determined by the USB or the input / output terminal unit. It can also be operated in reverse order and can be sent and received in the same way with the expansion slot. By adding a digital camera unit to the basic functions of the portable storage device, user convenience can be further added. The above functions can be controlled by the central processing unit, and the controlled data can also be transmitted or controlled through each function unit through a temporary storage medium or a direct storage medium.

The operation principle and function of the digital camera unit are well known in the art to which the present invention pertains and can be easily understood by those skilled in the art, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The central processor is configured to control and process the overall operation by mounting a Rambus DRAM or a controller. When connected to an external information terminal, the central processing unit loads driving-related software and driver information stored in the EPROM to a transmission control unit of the external information terminal. After receiving data through the input / output terminal unit and the transmission control unit, the data of the received external information terminal is compressed in the form of an image according to the operating system installed in the operating system function unit, and then backed up and stored in the flash memory unit. The video image processed by the digital camera unit is compressed to an image form, characterized in that the backup and storage in the flash memory unit.

The central processing unit may further include a CMOS which performs encryption on data received from an external information terminal to maintain security of data stored in the device.

Meanwhile, the present invention uses a portable data storage device disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0356897, filed and registered by the applicant on March 30, 2000, with reference to the accompanying drawings of an embodiment of the present invention. This will be described in detail.

As shown in FIG. 1, a portable data storage device having a digital camera according to the present invention includes an operating system function unit 110, an EPROM (Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory) 120, and a display display unit ( 130, expansion slot 140, central processing unit 150, power supply unit 160, flash memory unit 170, lens unit 180, operation unit 190, digital camera unit ( 200, an input / output terminal unit 210, a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) 220, and a transmission control unit 230.

The operating system function unit 110 includes an operating system used to compress data from an external information terminal and a video image processed by a digital camera unit to backup and store the data in a flash memory unit 170. Operations such as input / output management, interrupt processing, memory allocation, work time planning, message exchange and communication during backup and storage are controlled in conjunction with the central processing unit 150.

The central processing unit 150 is an image compression scheme such as Norton Ghost for data of the external information terminal transmitted through the input / output terminal 210 and the transmission control unit 230 in conjunction with the operating system function unit 110 and EPROM 120. Compresses the image data from the digital camera unit, compresses the image data from the digital camera unit, and backs up and stores the compressed data and image image in the flash memory unit 170. And processing.

On the other hand, as another configuration of the present invention, as disclosed in the Republic of Korea Patent Application No. 10-2001-0004257 filed by the applicant of January 30, 2001, the center of the portable data storage device containing the digital camera It is configured as a control unit equipped with a control chipset instead of the processing unit 150 and the operating system function unit 110, and thus the data of the information terminal can be compressed and backed up and stored in the flash memory unit 170 according to a user's request.

The flash memory unit 170 is composed of a plurality of flash memory, the external information terminal and the digital camera unit connected to the input / output terminal unit 210 according to the driving-related software and driver information accessed and loaded by the central processing unit 150. Transmits and receives various data processed by the I / O terminal unit 210 supports serial, parallel and USB interfaces for data transmission and reception with various external information terminals. The portable data storage device incorporating the digital camera according to the present invention configured as described above is equipped with a plurality of flash memories to easily compact and store the device, which compresses the data received from an external information terminal into an image form in the flash memory. Because it can be backed up and saved.

By configuring the expansion slot unit 140, it is possible to expand and use all types of external storage media such as SD, MMC, MEMORY STICK, SMC, CF card, etc., which are readily available on the market.

The CMOS 220 includes driving basic information of a device, and performs encryption while driving to maintain security of data stored in the device. The transmission control unit 230 supports an input / output terminal unit supporting serial, parallel or USB interfaces. Operation data is transmitted and received with an external information terminal and various types of memory cards connected through the expansion unit 210 and 210.

Data compressed and stored in the form of an image in the flash memory unit 170 may be automatically decompressed, that is, data recovered using a computer system having an image compression program.

2 is a flowchart of an encryption performance processing operation of a portable data storage device incorporating a digital camera of the present invention.

When the portable data storage device is connected to a predetermined external information terminal supporting a USB interface through an input / output terminal 210 provided for mobile use (step S21), the central processing unit 150 accesses the EPROM 120. Then, the drive software and the drive driver of the device stored in the EPROM 120 is executed by the transmission control unit 230, and at the same time, it is checked whether to encrypt the device itself (step S22).

At this time, if the device user wants to perform encryption on the device itself, the corresponding password is received and the encryption setting of the CMOS 220 is enabled (Enable) to allow only the access through the password input to the corresponding device (step). S23-1) After that, only the user who inputs a normal password can use the device, which makes it possible to maintain the security of the data because others cannot use the portable data storage device arbitrarily.

When the encryption of the device itself is not to be performed, the encryption setting of the CMOS 220 is disabled (step S23-2), whereby the portable data storage device can be used without any restrictions.

Thereafter, the user of the portable data storage device encrypts the data separately from whether the encryption of the device itself is performed. The backup or backup information from the information terminal or the digital camera connected to the USB interface through the corresponding input / output terminal 210 is used. When the data and the image to be stored are transmitted, the transmission control unit 230 receives the data and the image is transferred to the central processing unit 150 (step S24).

Then, the central processing unit 150 compresses the transferred data and images and backs up or stores them in the flash memory. At this time, the received data and images are compressed, but the compression of the data and images is performed when the encryption setting is enabled. After receiving a predetermined password before or after compression, 128-bit encryption and compression are separately performed on the data (step S25), and the encrypted and compressed data and images are backed up or stored in a predetermined flash memory of the flash memory unit 170. .

In this case, when the encryption setting is disabled, the central processing unit 150 performs only compression without encrypting individual data, and then backs up or stores the compressed data in a predetermined flash memory.

Furthermore, the central processing unit 150 may backup or store the compressed data to an external storage medium when the expansion slot 140 of the multi-layer structure is equipped with an external storage medium such as a smart card or a compact flash. After confirming whether or not to backup or store in the unit 170, the compressed data is backed up or stored in the external storage medium or the internal flash memory unit 170 (step S26), and is also compressed and stored in the flash memory unit 170. Since the data can be stored in the external storage medium through the expansion slot unit 140 at any time, the extended use of the portable data storage device becomes possible.

The data compressed and stored in the flash memory unit 170 is automatically decompressed, that is, data recovery is possible using a computer system having a predetermined compression program that is compatible with the compression program of the portable data storage device. Alternatively, when the password function is set for the data, after inputting and requesting a preset password, data recovery is performed only when the received password is the same as the preset password.

Meanwhile, in another embodiment of the present invention, when the input / output terminal unit 210 of the portable data storage device having the digital camera described above supports a serial or parallel interface other than a USB interface, driving power is not supplied from an external information terminal. Accordingly, the device itself is provided with a power supply unit to supply driving power or receive a separate driving power from the outside, and other encryption and compression functions or data storage functions are the same.

As described above, in the present invention, when a user wants to backup or store data from a predetermined information terminal, the central data processing unit and the operating system function unit are mounted on the portable data storage device to compress the data of the corresponding information terminal into an image. Afterwards, as the compressed data and the video image are backed up or stored in the flash memory unit 170, a large amount of data can be stored with only a small amount of flash memory, and thus the device can be miniaturized so that the user can carry and use it. In addition, it is possible to manufacture portable data storage devices at low cost.

In addition, by adding an encryption function to the portable data storage device, security of compressed and stored data can be maintained, and an expansion slot 140 can be added to extend the use of external storage media such as a smart card and a compact flash. .

Thus, a portable data storage device with a built-in digital camera according to the present invention can easily backup and store a large amount of data, and a built-in digital camera makes it easy to encrypt and compress a video image by backing up or storing a desired image. If necessary, the data can be decompressed according to a user command to provide recovered data to the user, and at the same time, the mobility, convenience and security of the data storage device can be improved.

The configuration and operation as described above are not limited to the claims of the present invention as an embodiment, and various changes and modifications are possible within the scope of not changing the technical spirit of the present invention. It is obvious to those who are engaged.

As described above, a large data can be easily backed up and stored using a portable data storage device with a built-in digital camera according to the present invention, and a built-in digital camera makes it easy to encrypt and compress a video image by taking a desired video. Or, it can be stored, but its use is small and more convenient by adding hardware functions. In other words, images taken with a small lens are stored directly in the flash memory unit, allowing users to view and immediately modify image files by directly connecting to a personal computer's Universal Serial Bus (USB), serial or parallel port, or IEEE1394 port. It can provide various time savings, convenience and security.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may make various changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be appreciated that modifications or variations may be made. Therefore, changes of the embodiments of the present invention will not be able to escape the technology of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram of a portable data storage device incorporating a digital camera according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart of a data processing operation of a portable data storage device having a digital camera according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

110: operating system function

120: EPROM

130: display display unit

140: expansion slot

150: central processing unit

160: power supply

170: flash memory unit

180: lens unit

190: control panel

200: digital camera

210: input and output terminal

220: CMOS

230: transmission control unit

Claims (2)

An input / output terminal unit supporting serial, parallel and USB interfaces for data transmission and reception with various external information terminals; An EPROM which stores driving related software and driver information of an apparatus used to recognize an external information terminal connected to the input / output terminal unit and transmit and receive data; A flash memory unit comprising a plurality of flash memories and storing data and video images of the external information terminal compressed in an image form; An operating system function unit having an operating system used for compressing data and video images from the external information terminal to be backed up and stored in the flash memory unit; Compresses data from an external information terminal connected to the input / output terminal unit by an image compression method in conjunction with the operating system function unit and the EPROM, and backs up and stores the image image and the compressed data in the flash memory unit. A central processing unit performing a function; A power supply unit for supplying power; A lens unit for photographing an image of a subject; A digital camera unit for storing or transmitting an image photographed by the lens unit; A display display unit for displaying a current operation state so that the user can check the current operating state; An operation unit operable to capture and store a desired image of a subject; A transmission control unit for transmitting and receiving data to and from an external information terminal connected to the input / output terminal unit according to driving related software and driver information loaded by the central processing unit and loaded from the EPROM, and controlling information transmission of the display display unit and the expansion slot unit; ; A portable data storage device incorporating a digital camera, comprising an expansion slot section for inserting all types of removable memory cards. The method of claim 1, Portable data storage including a digital camera, including the driving basic information of the device, the CMOS for maintaining the security of the data stored in the device by performing encryption under the control of the central processing unit when the device is driven Device.