Electronic camera, information device and portable information apparatus

• US 7,356,255 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2007
• Issued: 04/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Nonaka, Osamu
• Primary Examiner(s): PERKEY, WILLIAM B
• Application Number:
  US11/655,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20070116455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• Field of Search: 396/287, 396/310
• US Class Current: 396/287
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/24 with means for separately producing marks on the film, e.g. title, time of exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes

Abstract

An electronic camera comprising an LCD panel for image reproduction and an imaging device is disclosed, in which private information attaching a predetermined attribute to a designated photographed image can be input, and in accordance with the private information, the image reproduction on the LCD panel is prohibited by a command from a CPU.

Claims

1. An electronic camera comprising:

a calendar unit which generates date information;

an information generating unit which generates private information when the date information output by the calendar unit is detected to be in a predetermined time zone;

an image pickup unit which generates image data from an output of an image pickup device and records it on a recording unit;

a reproduction unit which displays the image data by reading it out from the recording unit;

an image processing unit which performs a predetermined process treatment on the image data; and

a control unit which, when the information generating unit generates private information, adds the private information to the image data generated by the image pickup unit, and in the case where the private information is added to the image data read out from the recording unit by the reproduction unit, has the reproduction unit display the image data processed by the image processing unit.

2. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit replaces the image data by textual information.

3. The electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit changes resolution of an image, so that the image of image data is unidentifiable.

4. A control method of an electronic camera comprising:

a process of obtaining date information from a calendar unit, and generating private information when the date information is detected to be in a predetermined time zone;

a process of obtaining image data by controlling an image pickup unit and recording the obtained image data on a recording unit, wherein, when private information is generated in the private information generating process, said private information is recorded on the recording unit along with the image data; and

a process of reading out image data from the recording unit and displaying it on a display unit, wherein, when private information is added to the read out image data, the image data is subject to a predetermined process treatment and is displayed on the display unit.

5. The control method of an electronic camera according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined process treatment replaces image data by textual information.

6. The control method of an electronic camera according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined process treatment changes resolution of image so that image data is unidentifiable.