DISPLAY DEVICE, PHOTOGRAPHING APPARATUS, AND DISPLAY METHOD

• US 20090160995A1
• Filed: 12/18/2008
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: KOHAMA, Masaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,149,317 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/333.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/633 for displaying additional information relating to control or operation of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera

Abstract

A feature area having a visual feature is analyzed for each of at least three of similar images in a memory card, and the analyzed feature areas are displayed on a display screen while overlapped with a reference image. The visual feature is used to distinguish an image from other images in the plural images. In the case where the images of the feature areas are displayed on the display screen while visually overlapped, when a user touches a touch panel on the display screen, the image corresponding to the feature area to which the touched point belongs is read from the memory card and displayed on the display screen.

Claims

1. A display device comprising:

a display screen;

a multiple display section which obtains a plurality of images and displays the plurality of images on the display screen while the plurality of images are visually overlapped;

a point specifying acceptance section which accepts specifying manipulation for specifying a point on the display screen;

an area analysis section which analyzes a feature area having a visual feature for each of the plurality of images, the visual feature being used to distinguish an image from other images in the plurality of images; and

an image display section which displays an image on the display screen, the image corresponding to a feature area to which the point specified by the specifying manipulation belongs in the feature areas analyzed by the area analysis section when the multiple display section displays the plurality of images while the plurality of images are overlapped.

2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the multiple display section obtains and displays at least three images, and

the area analysis section further includes:

a differential production section which uses one of images displayed by the multiple display section as a reference and produces a differential image based on the reference for the images except for the reference; and

a differential place comparison section which computes as the feature area, an area in a large differential place which have a difference exceeding a predetermined degree in the differential image produced by the differential production section, a position of the area in the differential image being not common to that of other large differential place in other differential image.

3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the point specifying acceptance section accepts manipulation on the display screen as the specifying manipulation.

4. The display device according to claim 2, wherein the point specifying acceptance section accepts manipulation on the display screen as the specifying manipulation.

5. A photographing apparatus comprising:

an imaging section which photographs a subject to obtain an image of the subject in a form of image data;

a display screen on which the image is displayed;

a multiple display section which obtains a plurality of images obtained by the photographing of the imaging section and displays the plurality of images on the display screen while the plurality of images are visually overlapped;

a point specifying acceptance section which accepts specifying manipulation for specifying a point on the display screen;

an area analysis section which analyzes a feature area having a visual feature for each of the plurality of images displayed by the multiple display section, the visual feature being used to distinguish an image from other images in the plurality of images; and

an image display section which displays an image on the display screen, the image corresponding to a feature area to which the point specified by the specifying manipulation belongs in the feature areas analyzed by the area analysis section when the multiple display section displays the plurality of images while the plurality of images are overlapped.

6. The photographing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the imaging section has a continuous photographing function of performing continuous photographing to continuously obtain a plurality of images, and

the multiple display section obtains and displays the plurality of images obtained by the continuous photographing function.

7. The photographing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a photographing interval of the continuous photographing is set in the continuous photographing function,

the imaging section continuously performs the photographing at the set photographing intervals, and

the multiple display section thins out images obtained by the continuous photographing function according to the photographing interval to display the remaining plurality of images.

8. The photographing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a shutter speed of the photographing is set in the continuous photographing function,

the imaging section continuously performs the photographing at the set shutter speed, and

the multiple display section thins out images obtained by the continuous photographing function according to the shutter speed to display the remaining plurality of images.

9. The photographing apparatus according to claim 7, comprising a switching acceptance section which accepts switching manipulation for switching the image displayed by the multiple display section,

wherein the multiple display section displays a plurality of images while the plurality of images are visually overlapped instead of currently-displayed images when the switching acceptance section accepts the switching manipulation, the plurality of images being obtained by thinning out the images obtained by the continuous photographing function.

10. The photographing apparatus according to claim 8, comprising a switching acceptance section which accepts switching manipulation for switching the image displayed by the multiple display section,

wherein the multiple display section displays a plurality of images while the plurality of images are visually overlapped instead of currently-displayed images when the switching acceptance section accepts the switching manipulation, the plurality of images being obtained by thinning out the images obtained by the continuous photographing function.

11. A display method comprising:

a multiple display step of obtaining a plurality of images and displaying the plurality of images on a display screen while the plurality of images are visually overlapped;

an area analysis step of analyzing a feature area having a visual feature for each of the plurality of images, the visual feature being used to distinguish an image from other images in the plurality of images;

a point specifying acceptance step of accepting specifying manipulation for specifying a point on the display screen when the plurality of images are displayed on the display screen while visually overlapped; and

an image display step of displaying an image on the display screen, the image corresponding to a feature area to which the point specified by the specifying manipulation belongs in the feature areas analyzed by the area analysis step.