TELEPHONE APPARATUS, IMAGE DISPLAY METHOD AND IMAGE DISPLAY PROCESSING PROGRAM

• US 20100226485A1
• Filed: 03/08/2010
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Inventors: MATSUSHIMA, Mika
• Granted Patent: US 8,548,128 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/142.40
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27475 using interactive graphical means or pictorial representations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/576 associated with a pictorial or graphical representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/14 including a card reading device

Abstract

A telephone apparatus includes a storage unit, a display unit, a retrieving unit and a display control unit. The storage unit is configured to store a plurality of images therein. The display unit is configured to display at least one of the plurality of images. The retrieving unit is configured to retrieve a relating image from the images stored in the storage unit when an outgoing call is made to or an incoming call is received from other telephone apparatus through a telephone line. The relating image relates to a corresponding image associated with the other party of the outgoing or incoming call. The display control unit configured to perform control to display at least one of the corresponding image and the retrieved relating image on the display unit.

Claims

1. A telephone apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to store a plurality of images therein;

a display unit configured to display at least one of the plurality of images;

a retrieving unit configured to retrieve a relating image from the images stored in the storage unit when an outgoing call is made to or an incoming call is received from other telephone apparatus through a telephone line, the relating image which relates to a corresponding image associated with the other party of the outgoing or incoming call; and

a display control unit configured to perform control to display at least one of the corresponding image and the retrieved relating image on the display unit.

2. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the retrieving unit extracts a target image which is an image of a target object from the corresponding image, and retrieves the relating image which includes at least one of an image of a same object as the target object and an image of a same kind of object as that of the target object, based on the target image.

3. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the retrieving unit obtains attribute information of the images stored in the storage unit, and compares attribute information of the corresponding image with the attribute information of the images stored in the storage unit so as to retrieve the relating image.

4. The telephone apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the attribute information includes at least one of camera identification information indicating a camera used for photographing the image, photographing time information indicating a time at which the image is photographed, and photographing location information indicating a photographing location of the image, and

wherein the retrieving unit retrieves the relating image in which it is determined that content of the attribute information is within a predetermined range with respect to content of the attribute information of the corresponding image.

5. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an extracting unit configured to obtain month/date information indicating month and date when the corresponding image and the relating image are respectively photographed, and extracts, from the corresponding image and the relating image, image in which the month and date indicated by the month/date information are within a predetermined range which includes month and date at a current point of time,

wherein the display control unit performs control to display the extracted image.

6. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein when the display control unit displays the plurality of images of at least one of the corresponding image and one or more relating images, the display control unit performs control to sequentially display the plurality of images per a predetermined number of image groups or to simultaneously display the plurality of images.

7. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a registering unit configured to register a telephone number of a registrant registered in advance as the party in association with the corresponding image,

wherein when the telephone number of the other call party is not registered in the registering unit, the display control unit performs control to display a predetermined image.

8. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the display control unit performs control to display the corresponding image before the telephone apparatus and the other telephone apparatus are connected to each other, and to display the retrieved relating image after the telephone apparatus and the other telephone apparatus are connected to each other.

9. The telephone apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the display control unit performs control to display at least one of the corresponding image and the retrieved relating image until a telephone call with the other party terminates.

10. An image display method for a telephone apparatus that comprises a storage unit configured to store a plurality of images and a display unit configured to display the images, said method comprising:

retrieving a relating image from the images stored in the storage unit when an outgoing call is made to or an incoming call is received from other telephone apparatus through a telephone line, the relating image which relates to a corresponding image associated with the other party of the outgoing or incoming call; and

performing control to display at least one of the corresponding image and the retrieved relating image on the display unit.

11. A computer readable medium having an image display processing program readable by a computer and enabling, when executed by the computer, the computer to perform operations of the telephone apparatus that comprises a storage unit configured to store a plurality of images and a display unit configured to display the images, said operation comprising:

retrieving a relating image from the images stored in the storage unit when an outgoing call is made to or an incoming call is received from other telephone apparatus through a telephone line, the relating image which relates to a corresponding image associated with the other party of the outgoing or incoming call; and

performing control to display at least one of the corresponding image and the retrieved relating image on the display unit.