Memory management in an image capturing device
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An image capturing device, comprising:
- a processor;
at least one interface communicating with said processor and capable of transferring images out of said image capturing device; and
a memory communicating with said processor and capable of storing a plurality of records, with a record including image data and image status data indicating whether a copy of the image has been transferred out of the device;
wherein said processor is configured to determine whether said Memory includes any archived images as indicated by said status data and is configured to replace one or more archived images in said memory with a newly captured image when insufficient free space exists in said memory to store said newly captured image; and
wherein said processor is configured to disable image capture if said memory is full and said memory does not contain any archived images.
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Abstract
An image capturing device includes a processor, at least one interface, and a memory. The memory is capable of storing a plurality of records. A record includes image storage data, date/time data, and status data. The processor determines whether any of the images in the memory have been archived as indicated by the status information in the status storage cell of the records, and replaces one or more archived images with newly captured images as the device is used.
26 Citations
19 Claims
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1. An image capturing device, comprising:
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a processor; at least one interface communicating with said processor and capable of transferring images out of said image capturing device; and a memory communicating with said processor and capable of storing a plurality of records, with a record including image data and image status data indicating whether a copy of the image has been transferred out of the device; wherein said processor is configured to determine whether said Memory includes any archived images as indicated by said status data and is configured to replace one or more archived images in said memory with a newly captured image when insufficient free space exists in said memory to store said newly captured image; and wherein said processor is configured to disable image capture if said memory is full and said memory does not contain any archived images. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A memory management method for a memory of an image capturing device, comprising the steps of:
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transferring a copy of an image out of said memory during an image archiving operation; marking said image in said memory as an archived image; automatically replacing an archived image with a newly captured image if said memory lacks sufficient free space to store said newly captured image; and automatically disabling image capture if said memory is full and said memory does not contain any archived images. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. A memory management method for a memory of an image capturing device, comprising the steps of:
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determining whether said memory is capable of storing an additional image; storing a captured image in said memory if sufficient free space exists in said memory; determining if said memory contains at least one archived image, if said memory is not capable of storing said captured image; and replacing said at least one archived image with said captured image if said memory is not capable of storing said captured image and if said memory contains said at least one archived image, wherein an image capture is disabled if said memory is full and if said memory does not contain at least one archived image. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification