DISPLAY CONTROL APPARATUS, DISPLAY CONTROL METHOD AND PROGRAM

• US 20090217204A1
• Filed: 02/12/2009
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yamashita, Tomoya
• Granted Patent: US 8,468,467 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/838
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

A display control apparatus for displaying images of a plurality of files as a list on a display unit, comprises: a setup unit which sets a specific file type among a plurality of file types as a reference file type; a reference file retrieval unit which retrieves a file of the type set among the plurality of files as the reference file; an associated file retrieval unit which retrieves an associated file from among the plurality of files; and a control unit which controls the display unit such that a list of the images of a plurality of reference files arranged in a first direction and the images of the associated files arranged in a second direction intersecting with the first direction at the location of the image of each reference file.

Claims

1. A display control apparatus for displaying images of a plurality of files as a list on a display unit, the apparatus comprising:

a setup unit adapted to set a specific file type among a plurality of file types as a reference file type;

a reference file retrieval unit adapted to retrieve a file of the type set by the setup unit from among the plurality of files as the reference file;

an associated file retrieval unit adapted to retrieve, from among the plurality of files, an associated file having a predetermined association with the reference file retrieved by the reference file retrieval unit; and

a control unit adapted to control the display unit such that, along with displaying a list of the images of a plurality of reference files retrieved by the reference file retrieval unit arranged in a first direction, the images of the associated files associated with the reference files indicated by the images displayed as a list, are displayed as a list arranged in a second direction intersecting with the arrangement oriented in the first direction at the location of the image of each reference file.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setup unit sets, as the specific file type, at least one type among still image file, movie file, audio file, and settings file used during capture of the still image of a still image file.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the associated file retrieval unit retrieves, as the associated file, another file recorded simultaneously with recording the reference file.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the associated file retrieval unit retrieves another file recorded simultaneously with recording the reference file based on information on the time of recording of said reference file.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the associated file retrieval unit retrieves another file recorded simultaneously with recording the reference file based on association information that is contained as attribute information in the reference file and describes the association between said reference file and another file.

6. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, if the reference file is a still image file, the associated file retrieval unit retrieves, as an associated file, a movie file that was in the process of being recorded when said still image was captured.

7. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, if the reference file is a movie file, the associated file retrieval unit retrieves, as an associated file, a still image file that was captured when said movie was in the process of being recorded.

8. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, if the reference file is an audio file, the associated file retrieval unit retrieves, as an associated file, a still image file or a movie file that was in the process of being captured or recorded when said audio was recorded.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first direction and second direction are mutually orthogonal directions.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the first direction is the horizontal direction of the display unit and the second direction is the vertical direction of the display unit.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the first direction is the vertical direction of the display unit and the second direction is the horizontal direction of the display unit.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, if the setting of the reference file type is changed by the setup unit, the reference file retrieval unit and the associated file retrieval unit retrieve a reference file based on the type changed by the setup unit and an associated file associated with said reference file again, and

the control unit controls the display unit so as to update the list view of the image of the reference file and an image of the associated file associated with said reference file.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in case of presence, among the displayed images of the associated files, of an image of a file identical to the image of another displayed associated file, the control unit controls the display unit so as to display, in a discernible manner, the fact that the image of said associated file and the image of said another associated file are images of identical files.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising operation units arranged in a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction,

wherein the control unit, in response to manipulation of the operation unit arranged in the first direction, determines which reference file is to be put in a selected state among the plurality of reference files.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the control unit, in response to manipulation of the operation unit arranged in the second direction, determines which associated file is to be put in a selected state among the plurality of associated files.

16. An imaging apparatus having an image sensing unit and displaying images of a plurality of files containing at least image files of images captured by the image sensing unit as a list on a display unit, the apparatus comprising:

a setup unit adapted to set a specific file type among a plurality of file types as a reference file type;

a reference file retrieval unit adapted to retrieve a file of the type set by the setup unit from among the plurality of files as the reference file;

an associated file retrieval unit adapted to retrieve, from among the plurality of files, an associated file having a predetermined association with the reference file retrieved by the retrieval unit; and

a control unit adapted to control the display unit such that, along with displaying a list of the images of a plurality of reference files retrieved by the reference file retrieval unit arranged in a first direction, the images of the associated files associated with the reference files indicated by the images displayed as a list, are displayed as a list arranged in a second direction intersecting with the arrangement oriented in the first direction at the location of the image of each reference file.

17. A display control method for displaying images of a plurality of files as a list on a display unit, the method comprising the steps of:

setting a specific file type among a plurality of file types as a reference file type;

retrieving a file of the type set in the setup step from among the plurality of files as the reference file;

retrieving, from among the plurality of files, an associated file having a predetermined association with the reference file retrieved in the reference file retrieval step; and

controlling the display unit such that, along with displaying a list of the images of a plurality of reference files retrieved in the reference file retrieval step arranged in a first direction, the images of the associated files associated with the reference files indicated by the images displayed as a list, are displayed as a list arranged in a second direction intersecting with the arrangement oriented in the first direction at the location of the image of each reference file.

18. A computer-readable storage medium, which stores a software program that causes a computer execute the display control method according to claim 17.