KR20090058947A - Apparatus of processing digital image and method for controlling thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A digital image processing device and a controlling method thereof are provided to selectively reproduce a particular image among stored image files, thereby determining reproduction order of the image files in consideration of a user's pattern. The current image file to be reproduced according to accumulated reproduction time when image files are reproduced is selected. The current image file is reproduced(S350). The accumulated reproduction time of the current image file is updated. When the accumulated reproduction time is updated, a start time when the current image file starts to be reproduced is stored. An expiry time when the current image file finishes reproduction is stored(S370). A reproduction time of the current image file is calculated from a difference between the start time and the expiry time.

Description

Apparatus of processing digital image and method for controlling Technical Field

The present invention relates to a digital image processing apparatus and a control method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a digital image processing apparatus and a control method of displaying an image of a stored image file to the outside so that a user can check the image.

Typically, the digital image processing apparatus includes all devices that process images such as a digital camera, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a phone camera, a PC camera, or use an image recognition sensor.

The digital image processing apparatus may display and display an image of an image file received through an imaging device or stored in a storage medium on a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD).

An object of the present invention is to provide a digital image processing apparatus and a method of controlling the same, which determine a reproduction order of image files in consideration of a pattern of a user who selectively reproduces a specific image among stored image files.

The present invention provides a display unit for displaying an image of an image file; A storage unit for storing a plurality of image files together with a cumulative reproduction time of displaying the images on the display unit; And a controller configured to display an image of the image file on the display unit in the order of the cumulative reproduction time.

The playback time of the image file is determined from the difference between the start time at which the image of the image file starts to be displayed and the end time at which the display of the image file is terminated, and the play time is accumulated to generate the accumulated play time. Can be.

The image file list may further include an image buffer in which the cumulative reproduction time is stored in order of increasing, and the controller may cause the image file of the image file to be displayed on the display unit in the order of the list of the image file.

A first button for causing the image of the image file to be displayed on the display section in the order of the longest cumulative reproduction time by the selection, and the display of the image file of the image file It may have a second button to be displayed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising: (a) selecting a current image file to be reproduced according to a cumulative reproduction time at which an image file is reproduced; (b) playing the current image file; And (c) updating the cumulative reproduction time of the current image file.

Step (c) is a step of storing a start time at which playback of the current image file starts; Storing an end time at which playback of the current image file ends; Calculating a reproduction time of the current image file from the difference between the start time and the end time; And updating the cumulative reproduction time by adding the reproduction time.

The method may further include generating a list of the image file according to a play mode entry signal. In the step (a), the current image file may be selected from the list of the image file.

According to the digital image processing apparatus and the control method thereof according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an environment in which a user can easily reproduce and check a desired image.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a rear view of a digital camera 100 which is an embodiment of a digital image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

Referring to the drawings, on the back of the digital camera 100, the direction button 21, the menu-OK button 22, the wide angle (Zoom) button (W), the telephoto (Zoom) ) Button T, the display panel 25 and the like.

The direction button 21 may include four buttons, an up button 21a, a down button 21b, a left button 21c, and a right button 21d. The direction button 21 and the menu-OK button 22 are keys for executing various menus relating to the operation of the digital image processing apparatus such as a digital camera.

The wide-angle zoom button W or the tele-zoom button T has a wider angle of view or a narrower angle of view depending on its input. In particular, it may be used to change the size of the selected exposure area. In this case, when the wide-zoom button W is input, the size of the selected exposure area is reduced, and when the tele-zoom button T is input, the size of the selected exposure area may be increased. As the display panel 25, an image display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) may be used.

Meanwhile, a shutter release button 26, a flash (not shown), a power switch (not shown), and a lens unit (not shown) may be provided on the front or top surface of the digital camera 100. In addition, the front and rear of the digital camera 100 may be provided with an objective lens and an eyepiece of the viewfinder 27.

The shutter release button 26 is opened and closed to expose the film or an image pickup device such as a charge coupled device (CCD) for a predetermined time. In addition, the shutter release button records an image on the image pickup device by properly exposing a subject in association with an aperture (not shown).

The display panel 25 may display an image of an image file under a playback mode. Each image file may be assigned a file name according to the order in which the image files are photographed and stored. The image files can be played back in alphabetical order of the names of the image files.

On the other hand, a user often wants to replay an image file that has been checked for a long or long time. In this case, in order to reproduce the desired picture by the method of reproducing the image files in the name order, a lot of operations and time may be required to find the image.

Therefore, in the present invention, the image playback time stored by the user to play back the image file is stored, to generate a file list in which the image file name is arranged in the order of the image playback time, the image file in the order of increasing the cumulative playback time Can be played.

To this end, the digital image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a display unit; Storage unit; Control unit; And a user operation unit.

The display unit may display an image of an image file. The storage unit may store a plurality of image files together with a cumulative reproduction time when the image is displayed on the display unit. The controller may control the image file of the image file to be displayed on the display unit in the order of the cumulative reproduction time.

The cumulative reproduction time may be generated by determining the reproduction time of the image file based on a difference between a start time at which the image of the image file starts to be displayed and an end time when the display of the image file is terminated.

The display unit may include a display panel 25 in which an image of the image file is displayed to reproduce the image file.

The controller may be the digital signal processor 207 and / or the microcontroller 212 of FIG. 2.

The direction button 21 and the menu-OK button 22 may be included in a user operation unit that selects a playback mode and selects an image file to be played back according to a user input. By the user's input, a playback mode entry signal for displaying the image file on the display unit by a separate mode dial or menu operation may be generated, and the playback mode entry signal may be input to the controller.

The controller may generate a list of image files according to the input of the play mode entry signal. In this case, the image files may be arranged in the list of the image files in the order of the cumulative reproduction time of the images.

By selecting the first button, for example, the right button 21d, it is possible to display the images of the image files in the display unit in the order of the longest cumulative reproduction time in the list of the image files.

By selecting the second button, for example, the left button 21c, it is possible to display the image of the image file in the list of the image files in the display unit in the order of the shortest accumulated reproduction time.

In this case, image files that have never been reproduced have the same cumulative reproduction time, and thus may be reproduced in the order in which the image files are stored or in the order of the name of the image file.

The play mode entry signal may be generated by selecting a play mode by a user's operation and input to the controller. When the play mode is selected and the player enters the play mode and starts playing the image, the timer for the image that the user starts to view is operated. In this case, the timer may be the real time clock 203 of FIG. 2.

When one image file is played back, an image buffer for that image file can be created. The image buffer may be included in the controller. Image buffers can be represented in many ways, including arrays and binary trees.

The cumulative reproduction time of the current image file to be reproduced may be stored in the image buffer.

A start time at which one image file starts reproduction can be stored, and an end time at which reproduction of the current image file ends. The reproduction time of the current image file can be obtained by the difference of the start time from the end time. The image buffer may store a new cumulative reproduction time obtained by adding a reproduction time to a cumulative reproduction time of a current image file to be reproduced.

This cumulative reproduction time can be stored and read in the memory card, which is a nonvolatile memory device, through the memory card interface 206 of FIG. 2 together with the corresponding image file.

Meanwhile, when the difference between the start time and the end time is longer than the set reference time, the set limit time may be determined as the reproduction time. Even when a single image is not of high interest, the image may be left in a state displayed on the display unit for a long time. In consideration of such a case, when one image is displayed for a specific time or more at a time, the limit time may be a reproduction time.

For example, if the time value minus the start time from the end time fixed at one time exceeds the reference time of 1 minute, the maximum value is limited to the limit time of 1 minute so that the image is Can be added to the cumulative reproduction time.

Each image file and its cumulative reproduction time can be stored in the nonvolatile memory device so that the value can be maintained even when the power is turned off. To this end, the storage unit may include a nonvolatile memory device.

The image buffer may store an image file list including the name of the image file and a cumulative reproduction time. In this case, the image file list may be stored in a sorted order in which the cumulative reproduction time is large.

When the control unit reproduces the image file in the reproduction mode, the control unit can reproduce the image file in the order arranged in the image file list.

In the image file list, all stored image files may be sorted according to the order of the cumulative playback time. However, only the image files whose images are updated at least once and whose cumulative playback time is updated may be sorted. In this case, image files that have never been played back can be played back in the order of file names.

The image file list may be rearranged in ascending order of cumulative reproduction time only when entering the reproduction mode. That is, when entering the playback mode, the image file list is rearranged according to the cumulative playback time, and when the image file is searched forward or backward when the playback mode is entered, the image file list is entered in the order of the current playback mode. Therefore, the image file can be played back.

Meanwhile, according to the present embodiment, the function of determining the image reproduction order according to the cumulative reproduction time may be selected for a menu or the like by the operation of the user manipulation unit. That is, the user may select an option for the image arrangement at the time of reproduction, and in the case of the basic option, the pictures may be taken and stored in the order of being stored, and in the case of the time order option, the cumulative reproduction time may be played in the order of longest time.

In addition, the present invention has been described mainly with respect to an image file, but may be equally applied to a video file or an audio file.

Therefore, the digital image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment can provide an environment in which a user can easily reproduce and check a desired image. In addition, the user can easily manage the stored image files. That is, the plurality of photos can be easily managed according to the degree of interest of the user.

Meanwhile, as an embodiment of a digital image processing apparatus to which the present invention can be applied, a digital camera, a control apparatus, and a control method thereof are disclosed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0130650 (name: secondary function of the camera). Method of automatically focusing using a quadratic function in camera.

Matters relating to the digital camera, the control apparatus, and the control method disclosed in the above-mentioned US application will be included in the present specification, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

2 is a block diagram of a control device 200 of a digital image processing apparatus, which is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The control device 200 of the digital image processing apparatus may be mounted in the digital camera 100 of FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawing, an optical system OPS including a lens unit and a filter unit optically processes light from a subject. The lens unit of the optical system OPS includes a zoom lens, a focus lens, and a compensation lens. When the user presses the wide-angle zoom button W or the tele-zoom button T included in the user input unit INP, a signal corresponding thereto is input to the microcontroller 212.

Accordingly, as the microcontroller 212 controls the lens driver 210, the zoom motor M _Z is driven to move the zoom lens. That is, when the wide-zoom button W is pressed, the focal length of the zoom lens is shortened to widen the angle of view, and when the tele-zoom button T is pressed, the focal length of the zoom lens becomes long and the angle of view is narrowed.

Meanwhile, in the auto focusing mode, the main controller embedded in the digital signal processor 207 controls the lens driver 210 through the microcontroller 212, and accordingly the focus motor M _F is driven. do. That is, the focus lens is moved to a position where the sharpest picture is obtained by driving the focus motor M _F.

The compensation lens compensates for the overall refractive index and is not driven separately. Reference numeral M _A denotes a motor for driving an aperture (not shown).

In the filter section of the optical system OPS, an optical low pass filter removes optical noise of high frequency components. Infra-Red cut filter cuts the infrared component of the incident light.

The photoelectric conversion unit OEC may include an imaging device such as a charge coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS). The photoelectric conversion unit OEC converts light from the optical system OPS into an electrical analog signal.

The analog-to-digital converter may include a CDS-ADC (Correlation Double Sampler and Analog-to-Digital Converter) device 201. The analog-to-digital converter processes the analog signal from the photoelectric converter (OEC), removes the high frequency noise, adjusts the amplitude, and converts the analog signal into a digital signal. Here, the digital signal processor 207 controls the timing circuit 202 to control the operation of the photoelectric converter OEC and the analog-to-digital converter 201.

The real time clock 203 provides time information to the digital signal processor 207. The digital signal processor 207 processes digital signals from the CDS-ADC element 201 to generate digital image signals classified into luminance (Y value) and chromaticity (R, G, B) signals.

The light emitting unit LAMP driven by the microcontroller 212 under the control of the main controller built in the digital signal processor 207 includes a self-timer lamp, an auto-focus lamp, a mode indicating lamp, a flash standby lamp, and the like. May be included. The user input unit INP may include a direction button 21, a wide-angle zoom button W, a telephoto-zoom button T, and the like.

The digital image signal from the digital signal processor 207 is temporarily stored in the DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) 204. The EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory) 205 stores algorithms and setting data such as a boot program and a key input program required for the operation of the digital signal processor 207. In the memory card interface 206, a user's memory card may be attached or detached.

The digital image signal from the digital signal processor 207 is input to the display panel driver 214, whereby the image is displayed on the display panel 25.

On the other hand, the digital image signal from the digital signal processor 207 can be transmitted by serial communication via a universal serial bus (USB) connection portion 31a or an RS232C interface 208 and the connection portion 31b thereof, and a video filter ( 209 and through the video output unit 31c. Here, the digital signal processor 207 may incorporate a microcontroller therein.

The audio processor 213 outputs the audio signal from the microphone MIC to the digital signal processor 207 or the speaker SP, and outputs the audio signal from the digital signal processor 207 to the speaker SP. .

In the present invention, the display units 214 and 215 may include a display panel driver 214 and a display panel 215. The user manipulation unit may include a user input unit INP.

3 is a flowchart of a control method (S300) of a digital image processing apparatus as a preferred embodiment according to the present invention. The control method (S300) of the digital image processing apparatus is implemented in the control apparatus 200 of the digital image processing apparatus of FIG. 2. To this end, the control method S300 of the digital image processing apparatus according to the present invention may be a program or algorithm stored in the storage means of FIG. 2 or implemented in the form of a semiconductor chip such as firmware.

Therefore, for the same matters as those described for the digital image processing apparatus in the control method (S300) of the digital image processing apparatus, the description thereof will be omitted.

The control method (S300) of the digital image processing apparatus includes image file list generation steps (S305 and S310); Image file selection step (S320, S330); Playing an image file (S350); And cumulative playback time updating steps (S340, S360 to S390).

In the image file list generating step (S305, S310), a list of image files is generated according to the reproduction mode entry signal. That is, it is determined whether to enter the playback mode according to whether the playback mode entry signal is input (S305), and generates an image file list of the stored image files when entering the playback mode. In this case, the image file list refers to the image file list in the digital image processing apparatus of FIG. 1.

In the image file selection steps S320 and S330, the current image file to be reproduced is selected according to the cumulative reproduction time at which the image file is reproduced. That is, it is determined whether to play back according to whether the playback signal is input (S320), and when the playback signal is input, the current image file to be played back is selected according to the accumulated playback time.

At this time, the input of the reproduction signal may be made by inputting a reproduction signal of a new file according to a signal for changing a file to be reproduced. Also, the current image file to be reproduced may be selected in the order of the cumulative reproduction time in the image file list.

In the image file playback step S350, the selected current image file may be played.

In the cumulative reproduction time updating steps S340, S360 to S390, the cumulative reproduction time of the current image file may be updated by reflecting the reproduction time of the current image file. Cumulative reproduction time update step (S340, S360 to S390) is a start time storage step (S340), end time storage step (S360, S370), playback time storage step (S380), and the current image cumulative playback time update step (S390) It may be provided.

In the start time storing step (S340), a start time at which playback of the current image file is started may be stored. In the end time storing step (S360, S370), the end time when the reproduction of the current image file can be stored.

In the playback time storing step (S380), the playback time of the current image file may be calculated and stored from the difference between the start time and the end time. The cumulative reproduction time can be updated by adding a reproduction time to the current image accumulation reproduction time updating step (S390).

The start time, end time, and playback time may be temporarily stored in a temporary storage space including a volatile memory element. The cumulative reproduction time may be stored in a memory card or the like including a nonvolatile memory device.

In the end time storing step (S360, S370) it is determined whether or not the playback of the current image is finished (S360), and when the playback of the current image is finished, the time at that time can be read and stored as the end time. In this case, it may be determined that the reproduction of the current image file is terminated when the reproduction of the next image or the reproduction mode is terminated.

In the current image cumulative reproduction time updating step (S390), a new cumulative reproduction time obtained by adding the current reproduction time to the cumulative reproduction time before the current reproduction of the current image file may be stored.

On the other hand, when the difference between the start time and the end time is longer than the set reference time, the set limit time may be the playback time.

In the digital image processing method according to the present embodiment, image files can be reproduced in the order of the cumulative reproduction time. Therefore, the digital image processing method according to the present embodiment can provide an environment in which a user can easily reproduce and check a desired image.

In addition, the user can easily manage the stored image files. That is, the plurality of photos can be easily managed according to the degree of interest of the user.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, this is merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art may realize various modifications and other equivalent embodiments therefrom. I can understand. Accordingly, the true scope of protection of the invention should be defined only by the appended claims.

1 is a diagram illustrating a rear surface of a digital camera as an embodiment of a digital image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a control device included in the digital image processing apparatus of FIG. 1.

3 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a control method of a digital image processing apparatus as a preferred embodiment according to the present invention.

Claims (14)

A display unit displaying an image of an image file; A storage unit for storing a plurality of image files together with a cumulative reproduction time of displaying the images on the display unit; And And a controller configured to display an image of the image file on the display unit in the order of the cumulative reproduction time. The method of claim 1, The playback time of the image file is determined from the difference between the start time at which the image of the image file starts to be displayed and the end time at which the display of the image file is terminated, and the play time is accumulated to generate the accumulated play time. Digital video processing device. The method of claim 2, And the set limit time is determined as the reproduction time when the difference between the start time and the end time is longer than a set reference time. The method of claim 2, And the storage unit comprises a nonvolatile memory device in which the image file and the accumulated reproduction time are stored. The method of claim 1, And an image buffer in which the list of the image files is stored in order of increasing cumulative reproduction time, and wherein the control unit causes the image of the image file to be displayed on the display unit in the order of the list of the image files. Device. The method of claim 5, And a name and the cumulative reproduction time of the image file in the list of the image files. The method of claim 5, Wherein the list of image files is generated in the order of the cumulative playback time of the image files in which images have been displayed on the display portion, and the image files in which the image has never been displayed on the display portion are generated in order of file name. Digital image processing device. The method of claim 5, And a list of the image file is generated according to the input of the image reproduction mode entry signal of the image file. The method of claim 8, A first button for causing the image of the image file to be displayed on the display section in the order of the longest cumulative reproduction time by the selection, and the display of the image file of the image file And a second button to be displayed. (a) selecting a current image file to be played back according to the accumulated playback time at which the image file is played; (b) playing the current image file; And and (c) updating the cumulative reproduction time of the current image file. The method of claim 10, In step (c), Storing a start time at which playback of the current image file starts; Storing an end time at which playback of the current image file ends; Calculating a reproduction time of the current image file from the difference between the start time and the end time; And And updating the cumulative reproduction time by adding the reproduction time. The method of claim 10, And the set limit time is determined as the reproduction time when the difference between the start time and the end time is longer than a set reference time. The method of claim 10, And the cumulative playback time is included in the image file. The method of claim 10, And generating a list of the image file according to a play mode entry signal, wherein in step (a), the current image file is selected from the list of the image file.

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