FAST AND LOW-POWER DIGITAL CAMERA WITH GPS

• US 20090251558A1
• Filed: 04/03/2009
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Techwin Corporation (Hanwha Corporation)
• Inventors: PARK, Sung-ha
• Granted Patent: US 8,305,479 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• 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

Provided are a digital camera having a global positioning system (GPS) and a method of controlling the same. The digital camera comprises a camera body, a digital signal processor, and a GPS receiving module. In the digital camera and method, GPS information regarding a photographing location is stored so as to be attached to a captured image, and particularly, power supplied to the GPS is adaptively controlled for lower power consumption.

Claims

1. A digital camera comprising:

a camera body capturing an image of a subject;

a GPS (global positioning system) receiving module calculating GPS information regarding a photographing location in response to a photographing signal from the camera body; and

a digital signal processor performing multi-stage power control operations on the GPS receiving module according to a minimum number of manipulation necessary for entering a shooting mode from a current operating mode.

2. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein a 0^th power control operation is performed on the GPS receiving module in the shooting mode,

a 1^st power control operation is performed on the GPS receiving module in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

1’

, and

a 2^nd power control operation is performed on the GPS receiving module in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

2’

.

3. The digital camera of claim 2, wherein the GPS receiving module is maintained in a power-on state in the 0^th power control operation, and

the GPS receiving module is alternately powered on and off in the 1^st and 2^nd power control operations, where the relationship between time intervals T1 and T2 at which power supply is respectively resumed in the 1^st and 2^nd power control operations satisfies T1<

T2.

4. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein on the GPS receiving module, a 0^th power control operation is performed in the shooting mode,

a 1^st power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

1’

,

a 2^nd power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

2’

, and

a 3rd power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

3’

.

5. The digital camera of claim 4, wherein the GPS receiving module is maintained in a power-on state in the 0^th power control operation, and

the GPS receiving module is alternately powered on and off in the 1^st through 3^rd power control operations, where the relationship between time intervals T1, T2 and T3 at which power supply is respectively resumed in the 1^st through 3^rd power control operations satisfies T1<

T2<

T3.

6. The digital camera of claim 5, wherein the GPS receiving module comprises a memory storing received navigation data, and reduces a standby period of time to receive navigation data by loading last received navigation data when power supply is resumed.

7. The digital camera of claim 6, wherein the GPS receiving module is booting by one of hot booting, warm booting, and cold booting according to the amount of time that lapses after navigation data is last received.

8. The digital camera of claim 7, wherein in the power control operations, time intervals at which power supply to the GPS receiving module resumes are set to be short enough to perform the hot booting.

9. The digital camera of claim 6, wherein, if the memory is a volatile memory in which recorded information is lost when power supply is discontinued, power supply is maintained regardless of GPS power control.

10. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the number of manipulation is obtained by referring to a data table recording the relationships between an individual operating mode and the number of manipulation.

11. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein a manipulation necessary to change the state of the camera is counted as the number of manipulation, and manipulation of directional buttons is not counted.

12. A method of controlling a digital camera including a camera body capturing an image of a subject and a GPS (global positioning system) receiving unit calculating GPS information regarding a photographing location in response to a photographing signal from the camera body, the method comprising:

checking a current operating mode executed in the camera body;

detecting a minimum number of manipulation necessary for entering a shooting mode from the current operating mode; and

performing multi-stage power control operations on the GPS receiving module according to the number of manipulation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein on the GPS receiving module, a 0^th power control operation is performed in the shooting mode,

a 1^st power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

1’

, and

a 2^nd power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

2’

.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein on the GPS receiving module, a 0^th power control operation is performed in the shooting mode,

a 1^st power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

1’

,

a 2^nd power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

2’

, and

a 3^rd power control operation is performed in an operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

3’

.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

1’

comprises an MP3 playback mode and a mode change mode,

the operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

2’

comprises an MP3 power-saving mode, and

the operating mode requiring that the number of manipulation be ‘

3’

comprises a PMP (personal multimedia player) playback mode and power-off state of the camera body.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the GPS receiving module is maintained in a power-on state in the 0^th power control operation, and

the GPS receiving module is alternately powered on and off in the 1^st through 3^rd power control operations, where the relationship between time intervals T1, T2 and T3 at which power supply is respectively resumed in the 1^st through 3^rd power control operations satisfies T1<

T2<

T3.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the GPS receiving module comprises a memory storing received navigation data, and reduces a standby period of time to receive navigation data by loading last received navigation data when power supply is resumed.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the GPS receiving module is booting by one of hot booting, warm booting, and cold booting according to the amount of time that lapses after navigation data is lastly received.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein in the power control operations, time intervals at which power supply to the GPS receiving module resumes are set to be short enough to perform the hot booting.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the detecting of a minimum number of manipulation necessary comprises referring to a data table recording the relationships between an individual operating mode and the number of manipulation.