Apparatus and method for combining images in a terminal device

• US 20060114363A1
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Sung-Ho, Kim, Hyung-Jin, Kang, Yong-Sung
• Granted Patent: US 7,843,511 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/838
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4728 for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region

Abstract

An apparatus and method for combining images of a mobile terminal that receives broadcast image signals. A capture module is used for capturing and storing a specific scene of a broadcast image; a first processor is used for selecting a first image of images stored in the terminal, converting the first image into a translucent image, scaling down the first image, or extracting an object image from the first image; and a second processor is used for selecting a second image of the images stored in the terminal and overlapping the scaled-down image or the object image onto the second image.

Claims

1. An apparatus for combining image of a terminal which receives a broadcast image signal, comprising:

a capture module for capturing and storing a specific scene of a broadcast image;

a first processor for selecting a first image among images stored in the terminal and converting it into a translucent image; and

a second processor for selecting a second image among the images stored in the terminal and overlapping the first image on the second image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an input unit for inputting a signal for controlling transparency set in the first processor.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image downloaded through the wireless Internet by the terminal.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image taken according to a camera function of the terminal.

5. An apparatus for combining image of a terminal which receives a broadcast image signal, comprising:

a capture module for capturing and storing a specific scene of a broadcast image;

a first processor for selecting first and second images among images stored in the terminal and converting them into translucent images; and

a second processor for overlapping the first image on the second image.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:

an input unit for inputting a signal for controlling transparency set in the first processor.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image downloaded through the wireless Internet by the terminal.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image taken according to a camera function of the terminal.

9. An apparatus for combining images of a terminal which receives a broadcast image signal comprising:

a capture module for capturing and storing a specific scene of a broadcast image;

a first processor for selecting and scaling down a first image of images stored in the terminal; and

a second processor for selecting a second image of the images stored in the terminal and overlapping the first image on the second image.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

an input unit for inputting a command for interchangeably switching the first and second images to the second processor.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the second processor selects a position where the scaled-down image is to overlap thereon.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image downloaded through the wireless Internet by the terminal.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image taken according to a camera function of the terminal.

14. An apparatus for combining images of a terminal which receives a broadcast image signal comprising:

a capture module for capturing and storing a specific scene of a broadcast image;

a first processor for selecting a first image of images stored in the terminal and extracting an object image from the first image; and

a second processor for selecting a second image of the images stored in the terminal and overlapping the object image on the second image.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

an input unit for inputting a command for controlling the size of the object image to the second processor.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image downloaded through the wireless Internet by the terminal.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image taken according to a camera function of the terminal.

18. An apparatus for combining images of a terminal which receives a broadcast image signal comprising:

a capture module for capturing and storing a specific scene of a broadcast image;

a first processor for selecting a first image of images stored in the terminal, converting the first image into a translucent image, scaling down the first image, or extracting an object image from the first image; and

a second processor for selecting a second image of the images stored in the terminal and overlapping the scaled-down image or the object image on the second image.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the first processor selects a position where the scaled down image is to be overlapped thereon.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:

an input unit for inputting a command for interchangeably switching the first scaled-down image and the second image to the second processor.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the input unit inputs a signal for controlling transparency set in the first processor.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image downloaded through the wireless Internet by the terminal.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image taken according to a camera function of the terminal.

24. A method for combining images of a terminal having a broadcast image reception function, comprising:

capturing and storing a broadcast image;

selecting first and second images from images stored in the terminal;

converting the first image according to an image combining mode set in the terminal; and

overlapping the first image on the second image.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the image combining mode comprises a picture-in-picture (PIP) combining mode in which the first image is scaled down and overlapped on the second image.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the PIP combining mode comprises:

scaling down the first image; and

selecting a position of the second image where the scaled-down first image is to be overlapped thereon.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the image combining mode comprises:

an on-screen-display (OSD) combining mode in which the first image is converted into a translucent image and then overlapped on the second image.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the image combining mode comprises:

an on-screen-display (OSD) combining mode in which the first and second images are converted into translucent images, and the first image is overlapped on the second image.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the image combining mode comprises:

an object extracting mode in which a selected object image is extracted from the first image and overlapped on the second image.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

displaying the overlapped image; and

interchanging the first and second images.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image downloaded through the wireless Internet by the terminal.

32. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the images stored in the terminal comprise an image taken according to a camera function of the terminal.

33. A mobile communication terminal comprising:

a broadcast receiver to receive digital multimedia broadcast signals;

an image capturing module to obtain images from the digital multimedia broadcast signals;

a camera device to capture images of objects;

a memory to store the images from the image capturing module and from the camera device;

a display to display the images;

a processor cooperating with the broadcast receiver, the image capture module, the camera device, the memory, and the display to perform the steps of,

performing image processing on at least one image selected from the memory;

combining the image processed image with a different image stored in the memory or with the digital multimedia broadcast signals being received to form a combined image; and

displaying the combined image on the display.

34. The terminal of claim 33, wherein the processor performs image processing by adjusting a size of the selected image, by adjusting a degree of transparency of the selected image, or by obtaining a portion of the selected image.

35. A method of processing information of digital multimedia data in a mobile communication terminal, comprising the steps of:

receiving digital multimedia broadcast signals;

storing images from the received digital multimedia broadcast signals and from other image capturing means into a memory;

performing image processing on at least one image selected from the memory by adjusting a size of the selected image, by adjusting a degree of transparency of the selected image, or by obtaining a portion of the selected image;

combining the image processed image with a different image stored in the memory or with the digital multimedia broadcast signals being received to form a combined image; and

displaying the combined image.